At Rs 600 cr Chandrayaan-3 costs less than some Hollywood films: Minister

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Union Science and Technology Minister Dr Jitendra Singh on Friday said the estimated cost of the Chandrayaan-3 project at Rs 600 crore was lower than the budget of some Hollywood films made on the themes of space and moon.

He also said scientific research connected with the project to check availability of hydrogen and oxygen on the surface of the moon is what makes the country's initiative "quite different" from lunar missions of other nations.

"The cost of Chandrayaan-3 is merely Rs 600 crore, whereas a Hollywood film on space and moon costs more than Rs 600 crore. I don't see movies often nowadays but I was told by someone that one or two big actors now charge Rs 100 crore per film (in Bollywood), much above the Rs 5-6 lakh a star like Dilip Kumar charged for Devdas," he said.

Experiments of Chandrayaan-3 started on Thursday on the surface of the moon and will last for 14 days, the Union minister added.

"These experiments would pave way for new scientific research about the moon. Scientific research about the availability of oxygen and hydrogen on the surface of the moon can give us a direct or indirect answer whether there was life on the moon. And this aspect will be quite different from other countries' moon missions," he asserted.

The success of Chandrayaan-3 proved that India was at par with a select nations in the field, and even ahead of them in some spheres, Singh added.

"Though the US landed the first astronaut, Neil Armstrong, on the moon in 1969, India's Chandrayaan-1 brought forth proof of water on its surface," the Union minister pointed out.

ISRO on Friday released a breathtaking video of the Chandrayaan-3 mission's rover 'Pragyan' rolling down from the lander 'Vikram' to the lunar surface as observed by the lander imager camera.

India on Wednesday scripted history as its third unmanned Moon mission's lander module made a flawless soft-landing, making it only the fourth country to achieve this feat, and first to reach the uncharted south pole of Earth's only natural satellite.

On Thursday evening, ISRO said all activities were on schedule and all systems were normal.

Singh was talking on a session on Chandrayaan-3 organised by Indore Lok Sabha MP Shankar Lalwani after taking part in the 26th National E-Governance Conference here.