Honey goes out of moon mission

The Planning Commission has slashed funding for the programme to send a manned mission to the moon by 2015. The Human Space Flight Programme (HSFP), earlier allocated Rs 238 crores, will now get only Rs 30 crores because the commission wants to allocate the rest for a rural job scheme.

When the parliamentary standing committee on science and technology asked why, the commission’s explanation was since the HSFP would be taken up in phases it did not need this consolidated amount.

The committee chief, Mr T. Subbarami Reddy, said he and other MPs were of the view that once the department of space approved such a vital programme, the Planning Commission had no business putting up stumbling blocks. The committee strongly recommended that the final say in such scientific projects should rest with the department of space, and financial constraints should not be allowed to come in the way.

Space scientists stress on the importance of manned missions particularly as the US, Russia, China and Japan are looking at the habitat on Mars, which is full of water, land bearing clouds, atmosphere, and plan to make regular excursions there by 2030-35.