Riding on the
recent success of its Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), India
plans to revisit the planet in 2018, possibly with a lander and rover to
conduct more experiments, a space official said Wednesday.
"We plan
to launch a second mission to Mars in 2018, probably with a lander and
rover, to conduct more experiments for which we have to develop new
technologies," Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) satellite
centre director S. Shiva Kumar told reporters in Bangalore.
The
state-run space agency successfully inserted its spacecraft (MOM) September 24
in the Martian orbit with five scientific instruments to search for
life-sustaining elements on the planet over nine months after it was
launched November 5, 2013 from its spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh
and about 90 km northeast of Chennai.
"We will be able to take
the Mars-2 mission after launching the second mission to the moon
(Chandrayaan-2) in 2016 with our own lander and rover, which will help
us develop a separate lander and rover for the red planet," Kumar said,
ahead of a three-day 'Engineers Conclave-2014' by the space agency with
the Indian National Academy of Engineering in Bangalore.
As
missions to Mars can be launched only at an interval of two years, the
space agency is looking for a slot in 2018 and by which it hopes to have
a heavy rocket fully operational to carry a lander and rover with
scientific experiments as additional payloads.
"We hope to have
fully operational heavy rockets over the next two-three years for
carrying communication satellites weighting two-three tonnes into the
geo-stationary orbits around the earth," Kumar said.
The space
agency has developed the geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle
(GSLV-Mark I-III) with indigenous cryogenic engine to launch heavier
satellites weighing more than two tonnes and three tonnes into the
geo-orbit at 36,000 km above Earth.
"GSLV-Mark I-III will be used
for Chandrayaan-2, which will have heavier payload than its predecessor
(Chandrayaan-1) and later for Mars-2 mission, as both will have a lander
and rover in addition to scientific experiments," he said.
The
space agency launched January 5 a GSLV rocket with an indigenous cryogenic
engine from the spaceport and placed a communication satellite (Gsat-14)
in the geo-stationary orbit.
Chandrayaan-1 was launched October 22, 2008, using a polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV-C11), a four-stage rocket.
The 475 kg Mars Orbiter was also launched onboard a polar rocket.
The GSLV-Mark III's maiden launch is likely to be in December.
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