ISRO eyes mission to Mars; Govt sanctions Rs 10 cr

New Delhi, Aug 12 (PTI) After the challenging mission
to moon, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Wednesday
said it has begun preparations for sending a spacecraft to
Mars within the next six years.

Government of India has sanctioned seed money of Rs 10
crore to carry out various studies on experiments to be
conducted, route of the mission and other related details
necessary to scale the new frontier, said ISRO Chairman G
Madhavan Nair.

"Already mission studies have been completed. Now we
are trying to collect scientific proposals and scientific
objectives," he told reporters on the sidelines of a day-long
workshop of the Astronautical Society of India here.

He said the space agency was looking at launch
opportunities between 2013 and 2015.

Chandrayaan-I, the country's maiden unmanned moon
mission, appears to have fired the imagination of young
scientists who have taken to space sciences and ISRO plans to
tap this talent for its mission to Mars.

"A lot of young scientists are being brought into the
mission, particularly from the Indian Institute of Space
Technology, the Physical Research Laboratory, Tata Institute
of Fundamental Research and other research laboratories," K
Radhakrishnan, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, said.

He said the space agency would use its Geosynchronous
Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) to put the satellite in orbit
and was considering using ion-thrusters, liquid engines or
nuclear power to propel it further towards Mars.

According to preliminary plans, ISRO is likely to send
a 500 kg spacecraft to Mars and has identified three launch
windows one each in 2013, 2016 and 2018.

Though most of ISRO spacecraft, including
Chandrayaan-I, are powered by solar panels, space scientists
feel that energy from sunlight may not be sufficient and are
exploring alternative propulsion systems.

"Solar energy may not be sufficient or viable. So we
may have to go for nuclear," T A Alex, Director of ISRO
Satellite Centre told PTI.

ISRO plans to put the spacecraft in an orbit around
Mars and is yet to decide the altitude, details about the
experiments it intends to carry out and the duration of the
mission.

"We are still discussing whether to launch it as our
exclusive mission or to invite international experiments,"
Alex said adding that these details and would be worked out
soon.

India plans to land a robot on moon in 2012 during
the Chandrayaan-II mission and is aiming to put humans in
space by 2015.

An astronaut training centre is likely to be set up
near Bangalore to select a crew of four persons from around
200 to undertake the seven-day human space flight. PTI SKU
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