ISRO's Decision to Abandon Mega Rockets for Its Lunar Mission Receives Backing from U.S. Experts; 'NASA Didn't Want to Learn'
NASA is investing billions in the SLS rocket.
The Indian space agency, ISRO, has opted for an innovative approach to sending astronauts to the Moon, different from the strategy used by NASA. V Narayanan, president of ISRO, explained that his team plans to conduct multiple launches and use docking technology instead of relying on a massive rocket. In a recent conversation, Narayanan mentioned that building a large rocket to transport a single module would not be economically viable in the long term, indicating that such a rocket would be rendered useless after a major mission.
India aims to send an astronaut to the Moon by 2040 and develop its own space station by 2035. The docking technology will not only be crucial for the lunar mission but will also facilitate the assembly of five modules intended for the space station.
Recently, this technology was successfully tested during the SPADEX mission, which launched on December 30 and successfully docked two satellites in low Earth orbit on January 16. These satellites, Chaser and Target, now operate as a single spacecraft, and a power transfer between them will soon take place.
Moreover, this technology will be employed in the Chandrayaan-4 mission, which is scheduled for launch in 2027 and aims to collect samples. American experts have praised ISRO's decision to avoid reliance on giant rockets, highlighting how this strategy could reduce costs while still achieving the proposed objectives.
Eric Berger, a journalist specializing in spaceflight, pointed out on social media how ISRO's decision contrasts with NASA's approach, which has spent huge sums of money developing the Space Launch System (SLS) for its Artemis missions. Berger emphasized that a sustainable mode of space exploration lies in distributed launches and in-space refueling.
For his part, Scott Manley, an astronomer and rocket scientist, also expressed his support for India's decision, stating that the country has all the necessary capabilities to carry out its lunar landing plan.
