India signs deal with US for lunar exploration

India, along with seven other countries, has signed a landmark agreement with the US to carry out lunar exploration.

The agreement was signed at American space agency Nasa’s Ames Research Centre here this week and it would be formally announced on Tuesday. Apart from India, the countries which signed the pact with the US are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and South Korea.

The agreement, which lays the groundwork for a new generation of lunar exploration, will see a multinational fleet of robot spacecraft returning to the moon in coming years, with countries like India, Germany and South Korea playing key roles, the San Jose Mercury News has reported. It also allows Nasa to share costs.

While the US has budgeted money for four lunar spacecrafts, scientists want it up to eight landers on the surface. “It’s sort of like the beginning of a beautiful friendship, like at the end of ‘Casablanca’,” Nasa’s Planetary Science Division Director James Green said at Moffett Field this week.

“Many of these countries are quite interested in the manned programme. They want to provide astronauts to be the first Canadian or the first Italian or the first French man or French woman on the Moon,” Green said.