Nair is also talking about manned lunar missions, and probes to Mars.
The ISRO chairman said the Indian space agency is not shying away from manned mission to the moon.
“It’s not a question of shying away. Whether we need it (manned mission to moon) immediately or not; that debate is going on. Opinion is truly divided. Some people believe the instruments themselves are more than adequate. Robots can do the job and so on. A few others believe it (manned mission) is a national pride and we should do it. We are also subjecting this for an internal review as well as in various professional bodies. Maybe in the course of a year, we will have better clarity on that (whether or not India should go for a manned mission),” he said.
“If we decide to do such a job, yes, we will gear up for facing such a challenge,” he said.
And also, apparently, dealing with the same sort of robots über alles arguments heard from some quarters in the US.