Isro charts plan for Mars landing, Moon base and deep-space missions

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India plans to set up 3D-printed dwellings on Mars and launch precursor missions to land humans on the Red Planet in the next four decades, according to a roadmap for the future drawn up by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).

The roadmap is an outcome of nationwide consultations carried out by the space agency, which culminated at the National Space Day celebrations here last weekend.

According to the roadmap, India plans to build a crew station on the Moon by 2047, mine for minerals and other resources, operate crewed lunar terrain vehicles and also have propellant depots that could fuel inter-planetary missions and support the stay of astronauts on the Earth's only natural satellite.

Isro has also drawn up plans to upgrade its launch vehicles significantly that would aim to carry 150-tonne payloads to orbit in a single mission. At present, Isro's launch vehicle GSLV Mark-III can haul up payloads up to 4 tonnes to the geosynchronous transfer orbit and 8 tonnes payload to low earth orbit (LEO).

The space agency is currently developing the Lunar Module Launch Vehicle (LMLV) with a capacity to haul 80-tonne payloads to LEO and 27 tonnes to trans-lunar orbit.

The LMLV is designed to be 119 metres in height, as tall as a 40-storey building, and is expected to be ready by 2035. Isro plans to use the LMLV for the lunar missions, including the first human mission to the Moon, planned for 2040, chairman V Narayanan said last week.

In 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set targets for Isro to build the Bhartiya Antariksha Station by 2035 and land an Indian astronaut on the Moon by 2040, signalling the government's long-term plans for the space sector.

Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla's recent sojourn to the International Space Station as part of a commercial mission and the planned Gaganyaan missions also signal the government's intent to support human spaceflights in a sustained manner.

The prime minister has also asked Isro scientists to plan deep space exploration to unravel the secrets of the universe for the benefit of humanity.