India's ISRO plans to build space station around moon by 2040: Report

The Indian space agency, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is planning to build a moon-orbiting space station by 2040, as per various online reports. This is part of ISRO’s ambitious objective to establish a long-term presence beyond Earth orbit.

The space station will serve crewed missions to the surface of the moon and will be an outpost for scientific research, according to local media reports. 

The lunar space station is expected to be completed around the same time India’s astronauts will land on the moon, with the construction of a permanent base on the surface before 2050. 

This space station will be the third and final phase of India’s moon exploration efforts, as mentioned in various reports online. The first phase involved conducting robotic missions to the moon using ISRO’s technology, including the upcoming Chandrayaan 4 sample-return mission.

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The Chandrayaan 4 is scheduled to launch in 2028, which will aim to collect roughly 3 kilograms of samples from a water-ice-rich surface near the lunar south pole and deliver them back to Earth.

"We are looking at how we can do a mission to the moon and back in a low-cost manner," said S. Somanath, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The second phase seeks to achieve a crewed moon landing by 2040, followed by construction of the moon-orbiting station, India Today reported. In addition to hosting astronauts, the station will serve as a hub for scientific research and as a base for future space missions.

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Last year in August, India became the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the moon and the only country to soft-land a spacecraft on the lunar south pole, with its Chandrayaan 3 mission. 

After this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country should aim for "new and ambitious goals," including a crewed moon flyby in 2035, followed by a human landing mission five years later.

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Meanwhile, the four astronauts chosen for the crewed space missions are undergoing training in one of ISRO's facilities in Bengaluru after finishing similar work in Russia. 

One astronaut, Indian Air Force test pilot Shubhanshu Shukla, is scheduled to fly next spring to the International Space Station on a two-week mission.

(With inputs from agencies)