India Government has   given a green signal for the manned mission to moon called Chandrayan mission.

India plans to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon by 2008 and has begun to study technologies needed to send an astronaut to space.

 We have the capabilities and discussions will be held on how to harness resources to accomplish the mission,” an Indian Space Research Organisation official said.

The United States has revived a programme to send a man to the moon by 2020, while China has announced plans to land on the moon around the same time.

Scientists from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Indian Institute of Science, National Aerospace Laboratories, Defence Research and Development Organisation and Institute of Aerospace Medicine are creating a consensus to go in for a manned mission.

 Manned mission to space would cost about Rs10,000 crore, while sending a man to the moon would be costlier.

“ISRO has completed all design activities for the mission. We are in the process of building special instruments required for the mission. ISRO had also designed a special three stage-tracking network to monitor the mission, when the spacecraft will be in orbit. A special ground station had been designed and would come up near Bangalore.

The spacecraft would keep on circling the moon and would send data, adding small equipment in the spacecraft would detach itself and descend to the moon surface. This would also send data. “Global players have declared that by 2020, they will have their bases on the moon. I don’t think India can afford to be lagging behind in that,” Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman said.