Chennai:
The Indian Space Research Organisation has decided to to set up a telescope on moon. “As a follow-on mission to Astrosat, discussions are in progress with an international body regarding setting up of a telescope on moon,” said ISRO chairman AS Kiran Kumar.
Speaking on the main points of the second Dr APJ Abdul Kalam memorial lecture at IIT Madras, he told that the telescope can have many benefits as there are no harms to atmosphere with its use.
Currently the organisation is trying to explore possibilities of performing the scientific observation capability akin to the one in Handley in West Virginia, US. It is remotely controlled at Bengaluru. In the end of September, ISRO launched Astrosat. It is country’s first astronomical satellite with two telescopes.
In his answer to certain questions raised by students related to Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) and cost associated with it, he said the technology was definitely needed irrespective of the cost efficiency, as it has the potential to carry objects to space and it also allows itself to complete its orbital action and then bring it back. “We are currently working on the developing this capability.”
Addressing to the audience, he told that private operators like SpaceX were a great threat to government space agencies globally, and ISRO has envisioned that it can't survive even though it has made significant achievements unless it continued to innovate.
