India, Russia in talks on moon exploration

India and Russia are cooperating vis-a-vis the Chandrayaan-2 satellite for joint moon cooperation.

Stating this in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office V Narayanasamy said India and Russia were collaborating ‘in a few areas of space research’.

But there was no transfer of space technology, he said.

For the moon programme, several rounds of discussions and exchange of technical data have taken place between the two countries ‘primarily to finalise the various interfaces and mission related operations’, he said.

The minister said that as India will be undertaking a moon lander-rover mission for the first time, ‘it is likely to provide insight into the development of moon lander and its operations’.

The mission will also generate ‘tremendous amount of data for the scientific community. The mission will enthuse the younger generation in taking up space science as their future career.’