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Human Lunar Landing

India should build on the success of its space initiatives by aiming for “new and ambitious goals,” including setting up a space station by 2035 and sending the first Indian to the Moon by 2040, the country’s prime minister Narendra Modi told officials on 17 October 2023 at a high-level meeting to review Gaganyaan progress.

To realize the premier’s vision, the Department of Space will develop a roadmap for Moon exploration, which will “encompass a series of Chandrayaan missions, the development of a Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV), construction of a new launch pad, setting up human-centric laboratories and associated technologies,” prime minister's office said in a statement.

Modi set ambitious new targets while chairing a high-level meeting to assess the progress of India’s first human spacelift mission ‘Gaganyaan,’ which is expected to take off in 2025. The mission has been delayed multiple times, first due to the Covid-19 pandemic and then over safety concerns. Likewise, the deadline for India’s own space station has also been postponed – it was earlier expected to be completed by 2030.

The Gaganyaan mission aims to demonstrate the human spaceflight capability by launching a human crew to an orbit of 400 kilometers and bringing them back safely to Earth in Indian sea waters. India’s Department of Space on Tuesday presented to Modi a comprehensive overview of the mission, including “various technologies developed for the mission, such as human-rated launch vehicles and system qualification.”

According to the government, the space agency is planning 20 major tests ahead of the mission, including three uncrewed missions of the Human Rated Launch Vehicle (HLVM3). The maiden Test Vehicle Abort mission-1 (TV-D1) test is scheduled for October 21.

The Indian Space Research Organisation said the test vehicle is a single-stage liquid rocket carrying several major payloads, including the Crew Module (CM)and Crew Escape Systems (CES). During the first test flight, these modules will be separated from the test vehicle at an altitude of about 17 kilometers. “Subsequently, the abort sequence will be executed autonomously commencing with the separation of CES and deployment of the series of parachutes, finally culminating in the safe touchdown of CM in the sea, about ten kilometers from the coast of Sriharikotam,” the agency said.

In June 2019, India signed a memorandum of understanding with Glavkosmos, a subsidiary of Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos, for the training of four astronauts who were shortlisted for the Gaganyaan mission. The training was conducted at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center at Star City, about 30 kilometers north of Moscow, from February 2020 to March 2021. Indian media reported that the US has also offered to train the astronauts selected for the first manned space mission of India.

Meanwhile, the head of Russia’s space agency had proposed to create a dedicated specialized module for BRICS countries at the Russian Orbital Station (ROS), which is expected to be launched in 2027. This could enable BRICS countries to carry out their respective national space programs using the station’s near-Earth orbit.

India, for its part, called for the establishment of a multinational space-exploration consortium. “We are already working on the BRICS satellite constellation. Taking it a step further, we can consider creating a BRICS space-exploration consortium. Under this, we can work for global good in areas like space research [and] weather monitoring,” Modi said at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg. The BRICS countries last year established a joint committee on space-cooperation to enable the five countries’ remote sensing satellite constellation to share data. That initiative was initially promoted by China in 2015.

A manned mission to the moon was the pet project of former ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair who had repeatedly said ISRO would attempt putting an Indian on the moon by 2020. A manned mission to the moon was first announced by ISRO in 1999. In 2004, Madhavan Nair revived interest in the project and said ISRO would ‘rethink’ its plans. In December 2013 the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) clarified that there are no such plans in the near future. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that was signed by ISRO with the Institute of Aerospace Medicine was widely reported as the precursor to the selection of astronauts for a manned moon mission. ISRO ruled this out and said that the MoU did not ‘envisage recruitment of crew for ISRO’.

India has already successfully started its unmanned lunar exploration effort with the launch of the Chandrayaan-1 mission on October 22, 2008 and the planned Chandrayaan-2 un-crewed landing mission. Although some have characterized it as a 21 st. Century version of an Asian lunar race between China (PRC) verses Japan , India , and Russia similar to the US/USSR efforts of the 1960’s. It in fact would seem to be a global trend leading to something much more important in the long term. All the World Powers that have the resources, economic capability must get the experience of doing a human lunar landing and base programs before the required global combined effort to transfer human civilization to another planet in our solar system will become practical and achievable. It would appear that this trend is gradually developing in that general direction whether intentionally or not. Indeed India has stated it looks to the world combined consortium effort for the future human crewed Mars missions. Yes the potential and real threat perceived from its neighbors and especially China the PRC are drivers enough to push this S&T effort. India’s ISRO even envisioned manned lunar flight by 2020 as a possibility.

According to the head of Indian Space Program G Madhavan Nair, Chairman of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in Feb. 19, 2005 , India has no plan to send human beings to moon. This is in direct contradiction to what ISRO and Government of India officials have been saying so far. Up till this time, media reports were very clear that for the sake of India’s pride and prestige, lunar mission was a must and India was looking forward to an accelerated schedule to land human beings on the moon.

In November 2006 a discussion on India's proposed manned Lunar missions was unanimous insuggesting the time was appropriate for India to undertake such a mission. Whiie some of the facilities required are available in the country, a few had yet to be established. ISRO already had the systems in place for sending a capsule to orbit the moon. ut a manned lunar orbiting mission will be more complicated as life support systems come into the picture. Even more complicated will be a manned lunar landing mission as that will involve a lunar module separating from the main command module and landing on the moon. Subsequently, that lunar module has to lift off and dock with the command module to make its trip back safely to earth. These are technologies which ISRO has not touched upon yet.

The preliminary estimated cost for the manned space mission is Rs 10,000 crore spread Over eight years. A manned lunar mission is estimated to cost upwards of Rs 20,000 crore. ISRO has conducted some studies over the previous four years on the lunar mission, which were presented by B N Suresh, Director, V Sarabhai Space Centre. These examined the technological challenges of a manned space mission and the Indian capability to undertake such a mission.

Ruling out manned lunar mission in near future, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said January 10, 2007 "it is a long way to go. A lot of technology is involved in it." Addressing a press conference after the successful launch of PSLV-C7 from SHAR range, he said that the ISRO had made preliminary assessments (on manned lunar mission. "It will be followed by a detailed study which will be out in one year," he said. He said it would take at least eight to ten years for the take-off of the proposal after getting the Government's approval. When referring to reports on a manned Lunar mission quoting ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair, the Spokesperson said June 2, 2007 that currently there was no proposal before ISRO for such a mission. First task would be to send a Indian astronaut to space.

As 2014 kicked in, ISRO and the Indian Air Force were caught in a row over the Moon. An ISRO statement firmly denied IAF top medical brass' claims about a joint manned-Moon mission, raised many eyebrows. The move comes after top officials of IAF's Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) announced on 27 December 2014 in New Delhi that ndia was planning a manned mission to Moon, and that an MoU was recently signed between the IAF and ISRO for the joint project. ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan told Times of India [TOI] that there was absolutely no truth in the statements made by two top IAF officials. "We have no plans of launching a manned mission to the Moon," he said.

Earlier, in an interview to a TV channel, DG of medical services Air Marshal D P Joshi had categorically said that the project was on the cards and the IAF will be selecting five Indians to undertake a mission to land on the Moon. Joshi had said that ISRO, in fact, had tasked the IAF to prepare what is known as the air staff requirements for manned lunar landing. He said that prior to this landing, there will be an unmanned mission to the Moon with a rover between 2015 and 2016. The Air Marshal added that the right type of equipment for choosing people for this ambitious mission had also been prepared at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine at Bangalore. Joshi's colleague Air Marshal A K Behl, DGMS (Air), had told the channel: "The effort and work relating to the manned lunar mission has started and we are obtaining information from countries such as Russia and the US." He said the MoU between ISRO and the IAF regarding the manned lunar mission was signed recently.

However, the space agency's statement, said, "ISRO currently does not have any project on 'Man to Moon'. The scope of the MOU between ISRO and IAM does not envisage recruitment of crew for ISRO." Speculation was rife that if this MoU was signed recently, then it could have been after Chang'e 3, China's first landing on the Moon on December 14, which has been described as a precursor to its manned lunar mission. However, ISRO officials said that a manned mission to the Moon would call for huge arrangements. "The government has not even cleared our human spaceflight programme to the low Earth orbit. So, on what basis can the IAF even suggest a mammoth project like a manned landing on the Moon?" asked a space scientist. But, his remarks have to be seen in the context of a statement made by Mylswamy Annadurai in 2009, who was then project director of Chandrayaan-1, that by 2020 India will be launching a manned mission to the Moon.