Media reports that India planning an unmanned mission to Mars

Media reports that India planning an unmanned mission to Mars

Media group Hindustan Times has said in a report that the Indian space agency is planning to launch an unmanned mission to Mars by 2013.

The mission would try to hunt for life on the red planet. This mission is expected to last for around six-to-eight-months and the scientists would try to study the chemical attributes of the Martian atmosphere and the planet’s terrain.

The mission is expected to cost the government close to 3 billion rupees. G Madhavan Nair, the chairman of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) was quoted as saying: “Mars is emerging on our horizon. The geo-stationary launch vehicle can take a payload to Mars and our Deep Space Network can track it all the way.”

He further added: “There is a lot of interest in Mars. The missions of United States and the European Space Agency have given us some interesting data. Let us see what value addition our mission can bring.”

ISRO programme director, S C Chakravarthy further said: “Our mission will look at a gamut of questions not only of the terrain but sub-soil features with high resolution remote sensing instruments.”

The ISRO is already working on a plan to send an unmanned mission to the moon in the next two to three years.