India’s Chandrayan-II mission will see the country sending a rover and a lander on the moon surface. This was revealed by AS Kiran Kumar, director of Space Application Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, at a press interaction organised at Isro. Kiran Kumar, who has been conferred Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, was speaking on the sidelines of a felicitation function organised by Isro for his achievement.
“In Chandrayan-I we dropped a Moon Impact Probe on the surface while in the second mission we will send a lander and a rover on the surface which will then collect data for us. What sets the phase-II apart is that earlier we had to depend on Russia for a rover and a lander but this time around we will be making it on our own,” said Kiran Kumar.
According to him, the mission is likely to be ready by 2016. To a question on the possibility of a manned mission to moon, he said they were working only on critical technology development. As to where India stands globally as far as space technology is concerned, he said the space technology programme in India was aimed at addressing specific problems of the country and not to be in a race with other nations.
“India is the only country other than the US to have a satellite like INSAT-3D that gives it an edge in weather predictions,” said Kiran Kumar. He pointed out that this was the reason why the country could correctly predict landfall and location of cyclone Phailin and minimise the loss of life. He talked of Isro’s work in helping agencies identify prospective fishing zone, crop yield forecast, etc.
When quizzed about his feeling at being awarded the Padma Shri, he said the honour belonged to the entire team of SAC, not one individual. “The only difference it makes is that it puts on you greater responsibility and you carry high expectations of people and the government. After the award, I carry with me the aspirations of a huge number of people,” said Kiran Kumar.
