"As we have been successful in our first satellite mission, we are planning for the second one, which would conduct research on the Moon" said Dr. T. R Parivendhar, Founder-chancellor SRM University.

The Chennai based SRM University would be the first university in India to launch a satellite to the moon by 2018 to do research on the rocks on the Moon’s surface and their chemical composition. Earlier, the university had put in space a satellite that is still orbiting the Earth.

Speaking on the sidelines of the counseling sessions for admission to the University at its Kattankulathur campus on the outskirts of the city, Dr T. R. Parivendhar said that their first satellite launched in 2011 turned out to be a success and still continues to be in orbit even after crossing its lifetime of two years.

"As we have been successful in our first satellite mission, we are planning for the second one, which would conduct research on the Moon," he said.

Elaborating more about the 20-kgs Moon satellite, Dr D.Narayana Rao, director (Research) at SRM University said the preliminary works for the development of the satellite started with selection of faculty for the project.

"The satellite will be ready for launch by 2018 and will first be launched in polar orbit and after three months it will be taken to lunar orbit through the on-board ignition system. We are in dialogue with ISRO for the development of the satellite. This will be a small satellite weighing about 10 to 20 kilograms," Prof Rao, the former director of ISRO’s National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), said.