A picture posted on the X handle of Indian Space Research Organiastion (ISRO) shows India's first analog space mission in Ladakh, India, 1 November 2024. EFE/ISRO X HANDLE EDITORIAL USE ONLY (MANDATORY CREDIT)

India launches first analog space mission to simulate life beyond Earth

New Delhi, Nov 1 (EFE).- The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced on Friday the start of its first analog space mission – which simulates what life would be like on another planet – to discover the challenges that future Indian astronauts would face in their space missions.

“India’s first analog space mission kicks off in Leh! (…) this mission will simulate life in an interplanetary habitat to tackle the challenges of a base station beyond Earth,” ISRO posted on social media platform X.

The analog research station, traditionally used to simulate missions to the Moon and Mars, was installed in the vicinity of the city of Leh, located in the north of the country, and where a desert ecosystem predominates that can resemble the Martian and lunar landscapes.

This mission comes at a time when the Indian space industry is growing, with a defined roadmap for the coming decades, in which it hopes to have its own space station and put an astronaut on the Moon.

In August 2023, the unmanned Chandrayaan-3 mission made India the first country to successfully land on the south pole of the Moon, a previously unexplored area of the Earth’s natural satellite.

Moreover, the South Asian country launched its first mission to study the Sun in September last year, Aditya-L1; and plans to build a space station by 2035, send its first astronaut to the Moon by 2040, as well as undertake missions to Venus and Mars. EFE

rlc/sc