Mumbai: Nobel laureate Prof Jean-Marie Lehn
on Thursday welcomed the recent decision of the US President Barack
Obama to halt 'Constellation', the project that aims to send
astronauts back to the Moon by 2020.
"I support Obama's decision to cancel 'Constellation'
which would have returned humans to Moon," said Lehn, a strong
critic of manned moon missions on the sidelines of an
interactive session organised by the Observer Research
Foundation.
"An automatic and robotic mission to moon may be more
useful and scientifically more exciting," he said.
Talking about the Rs 386 crore India's Chandrayyan
Mission which had discovered water on moon, he said "India
could have diverted its funds for more useful projects rather
that lunar mission."
According to the Nobel laureate, moon did not offer
anything and is a drab place.
Meanwhile, ISRO will have its two-day scientific
committee meeting on Chandrayaan I at Ahmedabad from Monday.
The Nobel laureate was in the city to interact with
scientists.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, February 04, 2010, 21:15