New Delhi [India], September 19 (HBTV): Responding to the Union cabinet's nod to India's fourth lunar mission, the Indian scientific community said that the country is not far from sending a 'cosmonaut' to the moon. 

Speaking to ANI, the former director of the Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad Center, Tapan Misra, said, "We should be able to land a lander there and collect stones and lunar soil and bring it back to the orbiter, and with this orbiter, we should come back and land safely and retribute. This is the very first step towards sending an Indian cosmonaut to the Moon. We will not be far from sending a cosmonaut to the moon." 

He further said, "The Govt of India has approved 3 programmes and one of them is Chandrayaan 4. We are happy that Chandrayaan 3 landed there...we demonstrated 2 critical technologies, we can send something to the moon and bring it back, and we can fire a rocket after landing and waiting for 14 days, it's a major development." 

Describing the Chandrayaan 4 mission, RC Kapoor, Astronomer & Professor, said that the Chandrayaan 4 is a lunar sample return mission and will be completed using 2 rockets.

"Chandrayaan 4 is a lunar sample return mission, this mission will be completed using 2 rockets. Its launching will be in 2027...first rocket will be like GSLV MkIII, that will take ascender module and descender module the second rocket will go later," Professor RC Kapoor told ANI. 

He further said that there is a robotic arm in the descender module that will collect lunar samples, and then the samples will be transferred to the ascender module. 

(ANI)