Bangalore: India should start working on a programme to set up a base on the moon so that the country is not left behind in this race, the space agency chief has said.

"Global players have declared that by 2020, they will have their bases on the moon. I don't think India can afford to be lagging behind in that," Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair told a book release function here last night. "Given an opportunity, ISRO would be able to do it in due course. ISRO as an organisation, with the help of many other institutions, will be able to take up these challenges."

Nair, also secretary in the Department of Space, said ISRO is currently defining technologies needed for India's first manned mission to space scheduled for 2015. "We have to do the work ourselves and develop very sophisticated technologies for making the capsule which can withstand the space environment and provide living conditions for human beings in space," he said. "If everything goes well, by 2015, Indian astronauts will be in an Indian capsule around the planet earth. "From the earth to the moon is again a long journey. We may go to 500-600 km now. But to travel to three-and-half lakh km and come back safely is a herculean task."

The function marked the release of "Touching Lives: The Little Known Triumphs of the Indian Space Programme", a book authored by retired IAS officer S K Das. The book chronicles ISRO's community outreach programmes and journeys to far corners of India to meet people whose lives have been transformed by technology.