Mission to Mars to be between 2013-2015

India's mission to Mars will take place between 2013-2015, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief G Madhavan Nair said on Monday.

"We have given a call for proposal to different scientific communities. Depending on the type of experiments they propose, we will be able to plan the mission," he told a news agency.

The mission is at conceptual stage and will be taken up after Chandrayaan-2, Nair said.

"Once in two years you get an opportunity for the mission," Nair said.

ISRO Chairman is in Goa to host the eighth international conference on low cost planetary missions.

He said that like Chandrayaan-1, which had cost less than 100 million dollars, the mission on Mars will also be low cost space odyssey.

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ISRO terminates Chandrayaan-1 moon mission

India's maiden Rs 400 crore moon mission Chandrayaan-1 was terminated on Sunday, about one year before the odyssey's expected end, after ISRO failed to restore the snapped communication link with the unmanned spacecraft.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) while announcing that the planned two-year lunar mission, launched amid a national euphoria on 22nd October last year, has been formally called off said it would set up a high level committee to probe the abrupt end.

The mission was abandoned early on Saturday shortly after radio contact with the craft was abruptly lost at 0130 HRS.

ISRO tried to send the commands but the space vehicle was not able to respond. The power signals which go to the computer systems failed.

ISRO scientists said the spacecraft is 200 kms away from the moon and it will take 1,000 days to hit the lunar surface.

Nair said ISRO is constantly in touch with the international partners of Chandrayaan-I and are very much happy with the data collected during the mission.

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India may abandon moon mission after radio link snaps

India may have to abort its first moon mission after attempts Saturday to restore radio contact with its lunarcraft Chandrayaan-1 proved futile.

The spacecraft, orbiting the moon at a distance of 200 km, last transmitted data to the space agency’s Deep Space Network (DSN), 40 km from Bangalore, at 00:25 IST Saturday.

The 514 kg Chandrayaan orbits the moon every 100 minutes.

Its antenna stopped working due to a sudden failure of the communication systems in the spacecraft. There is no spare antenna to restore the contact.

Scientists are analysing the data at the DSN to check the health of the spacecraft subsystems.

The $80 million (Rs.380 crore) Chandrayaan was launched amid much fanfare Oct 22, 2008 from ISRO’s spaceport Sriharikota, about 90 km northeast of Chennai, on board the 316-tonne polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV-CII), with 11 scientific payloads, including the moon impact probe that was landed on the lunar surface Nov 14.

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