ISRO plans for space tourism

ISRO plans for space tourismThe Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is looking into ways of make available space tourism at a cheaper price, according to the agency director Dr K Radhakrishnan.

The agency is exploring new technologies for its plans of human space flights and setting up base on the moon and mars. The space tourism is highly expensive and limited. The Russian Space Agency offers space tourism at a price of $20-35 million.

US, Russia and Japan have started preparations for setting up a base on Mars in about two decades and are devising means of transporting humans to the planet. Experts believe that India can play an important role in these plans as it offers space technologies which are far cheaper than most other countries.

Virgin Galactic, a unit of London-based Virgin Group has initiated a space tourism programme. Its suborbital spaceship called VSS Enterprise is under going test flights in the US. The company has collected about $45 million from aspiring space tourists.

ISRO has also began work on its human space flight programme with a starting budget of Rs 5,000 crore. The agency started working to reach Mars by putting an instrument on its orbit. "There are various strategies to reach Mars. It is a 250-day journey and there will be opportunities in 2030, 2060 and 2080," said Dr Radhakrishnan.

After the success of Chandrayaan-I, ISRO plans to send robots to the surface of the moon by 2012 and a spacecraft to Mars in the following year. It also plans to have Indian astronaut in space by 2013.

ISRO has also raised the number of launches in a year to 6-8 launches. The agency has recently announced that it will deploy indigenously developed cryogenic engine in the GSLV-D3 to be launched this month.