[RahulNagaraj]

According to reports, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently unveiled an ambitious roadmap to establish its long-term presence in space. As part of these plans, ISRO wants to build a space station around the moon by 2040.



The moon-orbiting space station by ISRO, as per reports, will support crewed missions to the moon's surface and serve as a hub for scientific research. The lunar space station will reportedly be completed around the same time ISRO lands an astronaut on the moon. The Indian space agency is also looking to construct a permanent base on the moon's surface by 2050.

The moon-orbiting space station by ISRO seems to be the third and final phase of India's space explorations. The first phase involves conducting robotic missions using homegrown technology. This includes the Chandrayaan-4 sample-return mission scheduled for 2028, with the aim to bring back around 3 kg of samples from the moon's south pole.

The second phase will be achieving a crewed moon landing by 2040, following the construction of the lunar space station. The lunar space station could be similar to ISRO's own earth-orbiting station being built - called the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS), which will be operational by 2035.

Source: Space.com

Link to Team-BHP news

[V.Narayan]

Realistic timelines + an organization, ISRO, with a proven track record + direct reporting only to the Prime Minister thus being free from bureaucratic entanglements all indicate we have a clear line of sight to success. Power to ISRO.

When the Atomic Energy Commission/Dept of Atomic Energy was established by the redoubtable Dr Homi Bhabha in the early 1950s he insisted it must report to the PM {then Nehru} alone if success was to be achieved. ISRO emerged from one of the divisions of Dept of Atomic Energy. We can thank Dr Bhabha for his foresight. Tragically he was killed in a Air India crash believed to have been engineered by the CIA.

Jai Hind.

Dr Homi Bhabha {1909 - 1966}

[PreludeSH]

Just checked that 0.3 to 0.4% of GDP is the budget of ISRO. It is one dept that has achieved what it was meant to. We need to pump more money so that they can try/fail/succeed at rapid pace.
We have some good private sector companies now and collaboration should bring more success and speed in space area. Proud moments coming up.

[Red_Phantom]

According to S Somanath Sir,

(…) Going to moon and coming back is very costly when Americans did it in 1960s it took away almost 30% of their GDP to do that today people hesitate to go to Moon because it is very costly Affair even for us to send a man to Moon it will cost you 1.5 lakh crores it's not a small cost but then today India can even think about it because we are not a poor country today we can spend 1.5 lakh CR in 20 years nothing no issue some 20,000 crores per year is not a huge thing for us to spend.

I agree. This amount is spend along a few years, not at once. For a fast growing economy like us, this shouldn't be too much to ask, especially if we stop spending a lot on unnecessary ventures from time to time. This is an amount which will ensure we won't fall behind in the upcoming and inevitable new race to the moon, this time to settle.

This is their roadmap from a presentation by the Hon. A S Kiran Kumar (Former Chairman VSSC).

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Red_Phantom

According to S Somanath Sir,...

Any source for this info? The '30% of GDP' is also not accurate.

They seem to have spent 25 billion dollars between 1960-1973. From the NASA website, it seems the peak spending was 0.8 percentage of the GDP in 1965. (https://www.nasa.gov/history/alsj/apollo.epilog.html) (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/apollo-...h-did-it-cost/)

Of course it doesn't change the fact that it's very, very expensive, and that the merits certainly should be debated.

[PRATAYA]

A moon-orbiting space station would be a huge step for ISRO and space exploration overall. If they pull it off by 2040, it’ll really put India at the forefront of space tech. I can imagine it’d be a game-changer for future lunar missions, and it’ll be cool to see how they manage the challenges of something that ambitious.