Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission vital for the country: Dr APJ Kalam

Bangalore: India's first lunar orbital mission - Chandrayaan-1 – is a significant programme for the country, according to former president, APJ Abdul Kalam. ''In future, we have to consider earth, moon and Mars as a single complex for the benefit of humankind. Mars may have water. We need a new habitat. Moon has got Helium (He3), an important material for generating power in enormous quantity,'' Kalam said.

He was speaking on the sidelines of an international conference on aerospace science and technologies being conducted here.

The 525kg Chandrayaan-1 will be launched on an advanced version of the indigenous polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) from the Satish Dhawan space centre at Sriharikota sometime in September this year. ''The launch date for lunar mission will be decided in a month though September is the earliest. It will be a unique mission for the total mapping of the moon, which does not exist till date,'' Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G.Madhavan Nair said.

The satellite is currently being assembled and integrated with 11 experimental payloads from different countries.

Chandrayaan will also look for rare elements on the surface of the moon. ''The high resolution images of the lunar surface will provide a three-dimensional atlas of the near and far side of the moon, chemical and mineralogical data to study their distribution,'' Nair told reporters on the sidelines of the event.

The Rs511-crore ($120 million) orbital mission will explore the lunar surface from an altitude of 100km and map the topography and the mineralogical content of the moon for over two years.

Chandrayaan will also carry a moon impact probe payload that will seek to validate technologies needed for accurate landing on the surface in a subsequent mission. ''In the second lunar probe (Chandrayaan-2), planned for launch in 2012, we will have a rover and lander deployed on the moon's surface to pick up samples, analyse them and send back the data to our deep space network for further studies,'' Nair said.

The Russian space agency will collaborate with ISRO on the second lunar probe and jointly develop the rover and the lander.

Kalam said missions to the moon, and Mars subsequently, would result in tremendous spin-offs for the country and its people.