MOM may have longer life than planned
The mission may extend beyond the planned six months up to even one year
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-09-27 04:03 GMT
Thiruvananthapuram: The life of Mars Orbiter Mission may extend beyond the planned six months up to even one year, according to Mr K. Sivan, director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) at Valiamala.
Mr Sivan was speaking at a felicitation function organised by the Press Club here on Friday to honour 25 scientists of the LPSC, which played a significant role in the Mars mission.
“Mangalyaan put India on top of the world space science map. The accuracy we achieved was very high,” Mr Sivan said. The contribution of LPSC, which built the crucial liquid propeller motor for Mangalyaan, was more significant in the mission than that of other ISRO centres,” he said.
The mission was not just for taking photographs of the Red Planet, but had many other scientific objectives, he said.
LPSC associate director N.R. Vishnu Kartha said that the space agency was also working on a technology that can send man to space. This could be achieved after developing a higher capacity payload vehicle. “The priority is not on sending someone to moon, but developing a higher capacity payload vehicle,” Mr Kartha said.