Mylswamy Annadurai is the former director of Chandrayaan-1 and -2, as well as the Mangalyaan and Mars Orbiter missions, and is also known as the ‘Moon Man of India’.
Annadurai played a pivotal role in developing the spacecraft for Chandrayaan-1, India’s first lunar mission.
A Padma Shri awardee, he was with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for 36 years and was also the director of the U.R. Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru.
In an exclusive interview, he tells THE WEEK about the challenges associated with lunar missions and why the world is still obsessed with the Moon, despite numerous past missions. He also talks about the Artemis II mission that NASA is launching.
Q: Why is the world obsessed with the moon again despite past missions?
A: The Moon is nearer to the Earth, and still eludes mankind's understanding and control. In fact, 23 years back, while writing the project report for Chandrayaan-1, we did address this, when many in space science asked: “Why to the Moon now even when others stopped to look at it?”
Our science community felt that there are some unanswered questions from the past lunar missions. The requirement now is to map the entire surface of the Moon with much better spatial and spectral resolutions. The advent of better technologies and international collaborations enabled Chandrayaan-1 to provide a better mineral and chemical map along with identifying the presence of water—especially near the polar regions of the moon.
Nations are now returning to the Moon because it has shifted from being a symbolic destination to becoming a strategic, scientific, and economic asset—especially with new evidence of water ice, valuable resources, and its role as a gateway to Mars and deep‑space missions. The renewed activity is also driven by global competition, technological advances, and the rise of commercial space players. Then there is this human need to find an alternate to Earth to preserve life forms. Beyond all these, Moon missions still inspire space lovers across the globe.
Q: What do these new missions aim to achieve which the earlier missions could not?
A: New lunar missions from India, USA, China, Japan, Russia and others are designed to stay, study, and use the Moon in ways the early Apollo‑era missions never attempted—shifting from brief visits to building long‑term infrastructure, extracting resources like water ice, and preparing for Mars. Modern missions focus on sustainability, science, technology testing, and global collaboration, far beyond the short-term goals of earlier national missions.
Q: How can lunar missions benefit life on Earth, and why does lunar exploration remain crucial?
A: Lunar exploration isn’t just about reaching a distant world. It is also about improving life on Earth, strengthening scientific understanding, and preparing humanity for a future where space is likely to be part of our economic and technological ecosystem.
The Moon is becoming a serene laboratory, a resource hub, and a strategic vantage point all at once.
Lunar missions accelerate advances in robotics (used in surgery, agriculture, disaster response), AI-driven autonomy, miniaturised sensors, advanced materials, energy storage, and solar power systems.
These technologies often begin as solutions to extreme lunar conditions and later become mainstream. The South Pole contains water ice (for fuel and life support), Helium‑3 (potential fusion fuel) and rare metals. Using lunar resources reduces dependence on Earth and enables sustainable space operations too.
Q: How will repeated lunar missions help in more research on our planet?
A: Repeated lunar missions strengthen research about Earth in ways that a single mission never could. The Moon also acts like a mirror; a memory chip; a laboratory, for understanding our own planet. Each new mission adds layers of data, precision, and long‑term monitoring that earlier missions couldn’t provide.
Q: What makes NASA’s Artemis missions fundamentally different from the Apollo Moon missions, both technologically and scientifically?
A: The difference between Apollo and Artemis missions is so dramatic that they almost feel like missions to two different Moons. Apollo was a bold, brilliant sprint; Artemis is a long‑distance, sustainable expedition.
The goals, technologies, scientific priorities, and even the philosophy of exploration have fundamentally changed. If we just look at the purpose and plans in short, Apollo was to beat the Soviet Union to the Moon, each mission was for short durations. Artemis, on the other hand, is for long-term lunar presence, scientific research, and preparation for Mars. Astronauts will stay weeks to months, not days.
Q: What are the biggest physical and psychological challenges astronauts face during long-duration lunar missions? Does this apply to Moon missions alone?
A: Long‑duration lunar missions push human beings into an environment that is far harsher, more isolated, and more psychologically demanding than anything experienced during Apollo.
The Moon is close in distance, but extreme in every other sense. When astronauts stay for weeks or months, the challenges multiply—physically, mentally, and emotionally.
The Moon has no magnetic field, no atmosphere, and constant bombardment by solar radiation and cosmic rays. So, long stays increase risks of cancer, radiation sickness, neurological damage, and cardiovascular issues. Protective habitats and shielding become essential.
Even though lunar gravity is 1/6th of Earth, it still causes muscle atrophy, bone density loss, and reduced cardiovascular fitness. Astronauts must exercise intensely every day to maintain health.
The Moon has 14 days of sunlight and 14 days of darkness. This may disrupt circadian rhythms, leading to insomnia, fatigue, reduced cognitive performance. Artificial lighting cycles may be called to stabilise sleep. Temperatures swing from 120°C in sunlight and -170°C in shadow.
Lunar dust is sharp, electrostatically charged, clingy, and potentially harmful if inhaled. It can cause respiratory irritation, eye damage, equipment failure. Habitats, suits, and rovers must withstand these extreme environments.
Q: Why is the Moon a critical stepping stone for future human missions to Mars?
A: In a lighter sense, it is akin to having a stopover in Dubai before travelling to US cities from India, until we have reliable non-stop flights. Technically speaking, the Moon—with 1/6th of the Earth’s gravity—will make a transit mission to Mars a simpler option.
This reason gets strengthened by the presence of water as discovered by Chandrayaan-1 and cooler sub-surface temperatures of the moon as found out by Chandrayaan-3 for a possible cryogenic fuel production and storage for space missions from the Moon to the Mars.
Q: How has the discovery of water ice on the Moon changed the long-term goals of human lunar exploration?
A: It was an eye opener to lunar scientists that what was known about the Moon was not limited to the Apollo and Luna missions alone.
Areas of interest on the Moon have shifted from low latitude to polar regions. The technical possibility of long-duration experiments is further improved, considering advancements in technology, and the proximity of eternal sunlit points in the polar regions.
Q: Radiation exposure is a major concern beyond Earth’s orbit. How is Artemis addressing astronaut safety?
A: By the use of better instruments to measure radiation activity. Learnings from the Apollo era and long-duration stays of astronauts in the ISS's Skylab are part of additional radiation shielding.
Strict monitoring and control of total dose exposure for each and every astronaut. Every astronaut will wear a radiation dose monitor belt. Moving the astronauts to the chambers that are radiation-protected to a higher level during the times of high radiation activity.
Orienting the module away from the direction of radiation. In fact, we have been following this methodology even for our communication missions over the last two decades, with better success.
Avoiding missions during solar flares. Gradually increasing mission durations accommodating the data obtained and lessons learnt from previous missions. In short, it will not be wrong to say that this is the major science study of Artemis for future long-duration deep space manned missions.
Q: What role will the lunar gateway play in enabling sustained human presence on the Moon?
A: Lunar gateways could function as a communication relay for future lunar landers, rovers, and habitats/lunar bases. They can also function as an Earth-Moon-Earth transit facility, thereby enabling the reusability of lunar landers and rovers to make them something like the cargo modules of the present ISS.
Q: In the future, Artemis aims to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon. Why is this milestone important for global space exploration?
A: As of now, more than 100 women have travelled to space but none to the Moon, so it is logical to give an opportunity to a woman to travel to the Moon.
Additionally, it should be noted that as of now, one of the objectives of human missions to the moon is to study the changes it makes to the physiology and psychology of human beings. So women would be able to offer a different perspective when they travel to the moon.
Q: What new scientific discoveries can one expect from human exploration of the Moon that robotic missions cannot achieve alone?
A: The data pertaining to how human systems respond and react during long-term stays at lunar bases can be produced only by the physical presence of humans there. This data is essential to design lunar habitats and make them more conducive and affordable for humans.
How will Artemis contribute to the growth of the global space economy and international collaboration?
If all goes well, space travel and journeys to the Moon may increase in volume, making it a small percentage of global air travel. Areas like space tourism, space mining, and space lodging will no longer be fancy words. If so, the direct beneficiaries will be space commerce, space economy, and international collaboration.
Q: What lessons from the Artemis programme should inspire students and young professionals who dream of working in space science and exploration?
A: With the emergence of startups, a lot of innovative ideas are being implemented by youngsters in agriculture, mobility, education, logistic management, supply chain management, extending 3D printing to civil construction, green energy solutions, innovative entertainment, and more.
Now, if the lessons from Artemis lead to a possible human lunar colony, then lunar environments will provide new challenges and opportunities for all these innovations on the Moon.
