ISRO Examining How To Build Habitations On Moon A Month Ahead Of Landing A Rover On Its Surface

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is examining how to build habitations on the moon, Bloomberg has reported.

“ISRO, along with academic institutions, is doing experimentation on potential structures for lunar habitation,” said Minister of State for Space, Jitendra Singh, in a written response to a question on whether ISRO has started working on building “igloo-like habitats” on the lunar surface.

“Various options are being studied about the requirements and complexities of habitats,” the minister said in his response in the Lok Sabha.

This comes just weeks ahead of the planned launch of Chandrayaan-2, an indigenous mission comprising of an orbiter, a lander and a rover. India plans to land a probe on the lunar surface for the first time during this mission. The probe will study lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, lunar exosphere and signatures of hydroxyl and water-ice.

“The mission will carry a six-wheeled Rover which will move around the landing site in a semi-autonomous mode as decided by the ground commands. The instruments on the rover will observe the lunar surface and send back data, which will be useful for analysis of the lunar soil,” ISRO has said on the mission.

Chandrayaan-2, weighing around 3290 kg, will likely be launched in April 2018.

The Modi government has intensified the pace of space exploration as the world shifts its focus back to the Moon. US President Donald Trump requested almost $900 million in funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s moon missions. The agency is planning to build a space station in lunar orbit by the mid-2020s. China, like India, is planning to land a probe on the moon. It will land a rover on the unexplored dark side, where radio signals from Earth can’t be received.