BENGALURU: Mangalyaan will not be one-off effort by Indian space scientis-ts to explore Mars. Another mission to the Red Planet is likely to be launched in 2018, said to Prof. U. R. Rao, former chairman of Isro, and head of the space agency’s Advisory Committee on Space Sciences (ADCOS). “People in Isro are already talking about the next shot at Mars. I think 2016 (another year when earth and Mars would be closer to one another) is too early. So, 2018 will be the earliest possible year. Next time, it will certainly be a heavier probe.”
Prof. Rao said that Isro didn’t attempt landing a land-rover as they had to restrict the weight of the instruments to 15 kg, and it involves extr-emely complex maneuvers. He added that Isro his would atte-mpt to land a probe on Mars during the next mission depending on the success of a lander rover planned on Chandrayaan-II which would be launched in 2016. He, however, was miffed that scientists were not stepping forward with ideas for the next probe to Mars. “We have the capability to launch inter-planetary probes, but scientists are not coming forward with new ideas. I don’t know why universities are not coming forward with ideas on inter-planetary explorations,” he added.
He said his colleagues at Isro would be able to reducethe cost inter-planetary probes launch further. On possible collaboration with the Nasa, Prof. Rao said the details of such joint efforts would be worked out during the forthcoming visit of a team of scientists led by Isro’s chairman Dr. K. Radhakrishnan to the United States.
Meanwhile Plan B ready if ISRO’s monday manoeuvre fails
In case of any problem in Monday’s manoeuvre, Isro said it is ready with Plan B where in eight thrusters alone will be firing for a longer duration, probably consuming more fuel, and try to get in orbit around Mars. In a critical act in the final moments on September 24, the orbiter has to be slowed down from 22.1 km per second to 4.4 km per second in relation to the red planet to be captured by the Martian orbit for the mission to be declared a success.
The engine would be fired for 24 minutes on that day to reduce its velocity and ins-ert it into the Martian orbit. If the Rs 450 crore mission turns out to be a success, Isro would be the fourth space agency in the world to have sent a mission to Mars.
