In what is touted to become the country’s biggest space programme in the coming years, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has planned to build igloos on the moon. Known as “lunar habitats”, these igloos will be built with the help of robots and 3D printers and materials found on the moon.
The project is already in progress with a work model of an igloo being created at the ISRO’s lunar terrain test facility. Scientists at ISRO are also soon going to send robots and 3D printers to the moon and have already created designs of the lunar habitats with the hope that these design plans would be used to create outposts on the moon.
Above: The ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) in Bengaluru/Image Credit: ISRO/ISAC
Speaking about the program to The Times of India, Dr. M Annadurai, Director of the ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) said, “We are seriously planning to use the Moon as an outpost – like missions in Antarctica. In the long run, the space station is likely to be scrapped. Many countries, including the US, are considering building more permanent structures on the Moon and working out of there. When it happens, we want India to have contributed.”
The aim of the entire project of the ISRO is to offer astronauts with an option to spend more than a few hours on the moon. The Indian space agency is also working on building some smart materials such as the lunar stimulant or soil to help astronauts work from there and to keep them safe during their entire odyssey.
“It may sound crazy today. But you’ll see that one day men will be working out of there, and the goal is to launch interplanetary satellites from the Moon,” I Venugopal, Senior Scientist and Project Lead concluded.
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