Former ISRO chairman and renowned space scientist K Kasturirangan has said that India's moon mission might be ready by 2008.
"The 21st century is going to be an era of planetary explorations" and the country's moon mission may be ready by 2008, the Director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies at Bangalore and Rajya Sabha MP said.
He said that preparations for the unmanned mission were in full flow. He also stated that ISRO currently had no plans for a manned mission.
Referring to a scientific meet that he attended in Seattle in the US last year, he said that it was underlined that "if there is international space cooperation among nations, we should be able to have colonies on moon by the second or third quarter of this century."
"There could be lunar bases or settlements. India should play an important role in this," he said, adding that the human spirit has been one of adventure and exploration.
Kasturirangan underlined that India should demonstrate its capability to work in cooperation with other countries on such missions.
Asked about President APJ Abdul Kalam's call for making India a developed nation by 2020, he said while a robust economic growth of around 8.5 per cent would help take this vision forward, a holistic approach on various other fronts too would have to be adopted.
{{/usCountry}}Asked about President APJ Abdul Kalam's call for making India a developed nation by 2020, he said while a robust economic growth of around 8.5 per cent would help take this vision forward, a holistic approach on various other fronts too would have to be adopted.
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