- The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has plans to launch this mission in 2024.
- The mission will include a hyperspectralcamera , a highresolution panchromatic camera and a radarto understand early Martian crust , recent basalts and boulder falls.
- The mission is being proposed to be followed by another, including soft landing on Mars in 2030.
- ISRO was the fourth national space agency to send a mission to Mars, it was actually the first to do it successfully and on the first attempt.
- Also, the cost of the Mangalyaan mission was just $73 million. Compared with other Mars missions — such as the billion-dollar rovers NASA sends to the red planet — the Mangalyaan mission was extremely cheap. In fact, so far Mangalyaan is the least expensive Mars mission ever.
- Mangalyaan Mission Sought to Show that India’s Space Research Was Reliable and Effective
Bangalore, June 3. Following the successful insertion of the Mars Orbiter Mission (also called Mangalyaan) into Martian orbit, ISRO had announced its intent to launch a second mission to Mars at the Engineers Conclave conference held in Bengaluru way back on 28 October 2014.
Now, India is setting its sights on a sequel to its first Mars mission with the Mars Orbiter Mission 2 (MOM2), or Mangalyaan-2. Many of the details of Mangalyaan-2 are still uncertain, as the mission is not slated to launch until 2024 at the earliest. But we know that it will consist of an orbiter similar to its predecessor. And it’s probably safe to assume that the orbiter will host a number of scientific instruments just as the original Mangalyaan did.
However, the key difference with this second mission is that the Indian government is apparently considering adding lander and rover components.
The proposed launch vehicle for this campaign is the LVM3 , which flew for the first time on 5 June 2017, which might be powerful enough to place MOM on a direct-to-Mars trajectory alongside carrying much more heavier satellite, unlike the lighter Mars Orbiter Mission, which used a less powerful PSLVXL rocket.
The second mission to Mars is in the study phase as the Indian space agency is looking at various options available to make the mission happen, a senior ISRO scientist has said.
The Mars mission has to be bigger with more scientific outcome, M Sankaran, Director, UR Rao Satellite Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has said.
“If you are talking about a new mission to Mars, then that is still in the study phase. We are looking at various options available to us for making a mission happen. It has to be significantly bigger or with more scientific outcome with respect to Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM). We are still in the study phase and we are configuring it,” Sankaran said.
However, landing on Mars requires addressing significant obstacles that have ended countless missions. Russia, China, Europe, and even the United States have all lost spacecraft, either during entry and landing on Mars, or shortly thereafter. So if India is to be successful with a lander and/or rover aboard Manglyaaan-2, it will need to address the major challenges of entry, descent, and landing (EDL) on the Martian surface.
One of the biggest problems with landing on Mars is the atmosphere or lack thereof. Mars’s atmosphere is only about one percent of the density of Earth’s; this presents a double-edged sword of obstacles for spacecraft.
India had successfully launched its first Mars Orbiter Mission called Mangalyaan on November 5, 2013, which started orbiting the red planet from September 24, 2014. The orbiter lost contact in October 2022 and thus the Mangalyaan-1 mission came to an end.
Regarding Chandrayaan-3, he said the lunar spacecraft had already reached the launch port.
“The preparation is going on in Sriharikota. We do expect that sometime in July the launch will take place,” he said.
According to the space scientist, every aspect of the mission has been checked, especially those experiences that ISRO gleaned from its Chandrayaan-2 mission.
“All possible precautions have been taken. The mood at ISRO is upbeat,” he added.
Regarding India’s space mission Gaganyaan, Sankaran said it was an intense project with a lot of new development activities taking place. “Many developments and many tests are happening, which is not visible to the public. Lots of works are going on. We do expect that there will be something which will be visible to people.
