ISRO prepares plan for 2047; Read to know more

By: Pune Pulse

November 30. 2023

Pune: ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organisation, has set its eyes on bringing minerals from the moon to Earth by the year 2047, coinciding with the century of India’s independence.

To achieve this ambitious goal, ISRO is actively working towards establishing a permanent station on the moon, as well as developing advanced spacecraft, a space station, and powerful rockets. These advancements will pave the way for Indians to eventually inhabit space through a human-moon mission.

During the 32nd Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Lecture, S. Somnath, the Chairman of ISRO, delivered a presentation on the ‘Plan for Indian Space Research in the AMRUT period’. This event took place at Symbiosis International University, where the National Conference of the Indian Society of Geometrics and the Indian Society of Remote Sensing was being held.

As per the directives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ISRO has recently unveiled its plans to land on the moon by 2040. According to Somnath, ISRO has chalked out a comprehensive plan for the next decade, which involves the development of the Indian space programme at three different levels during the Amrut Kaal of the country. The plan includes the construction of India’s permanent space station on the moon after the successful completion of ‘Chandrayaan 3’ and ‘Chandrayaan 7’ missions. By 2047, the aim is to extract useful minerals from the moon and bring them back to Earth, promote lunar tourism, and enable space missions from the moon to other planets.

The Gaganyaan mission is set to enter its second phase, which involves the construction of an Indian space station in orbit around the Earth by 2035 as well as the development of a manned spacecraft on the moon. To achieve these goals, the Indian rockets will need to be significantly improved at the third level. To accomplish this, the Human-Rated Launch Vehicle Mark III (HLVM 3) of the Gaganyaan mission will be upgraded with a semi-cryogenic engine, and a next-generation launch vehicle (NGLV) will be developed in stages.

ISRO’s roadmap for the future:

• 2025: Gaganyaan’s mission
• 2026: Chandrayaan 4: Retrieving lunar stones and soil samples to Earth
• 2028: ‘Chandrayaan 5’: A long-term mission aiming to deploy a lunar robot
• 2030: The NGLV rocket
• 2032: The Moon Station, Chandrayaan 6.
• 2033: The NGLV HR rocket is developed for a manned mission.
• 2035: India proudly introduces its station in space.
• 2037: Chandrayaan 7 marks the establishment of an infrastructure and energy generation station on the moon.

In 2037, the NGLV launched an augmented rocket for a human lunar mission.

By 2040, India had launched its human space mission to the moon.