Chandrayaan: What's in it for common man?

Even as India's first unmanned moon spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 successfully lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Wednesday morning, one wondered what significance will such a mission have for the common man?

Roddam Narasimha, space scientist, says that one of the most important assignments during this mission, which cost over Rs 300 crore, would be to tap and see how useful the helium found on the moon would be.

Helium is found in abundance on the moon, he said, adding that if the ISRO is able to tap even two tons of helium from the moon then it could be considered a major achievement as it could be used to generate power supply to the entire country for a year.

According to Narasimha, the mission will also explore minerals available on the earth's only satellite.

He added that this mission will also pave the way for the manned mission, which ISRO has scheduled for sometime during the year 2015.