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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Mars _ First Indian mission to Mars

Posted by: Pradeep Jan 2 2009, 03:54 AM

A day before Christmas India announced it's first mission to Mars along with the years of its first manned spaceflight missions, asteroid landing and comet flyby missions (years of the last two missions have not been mentioned).

Today, the Director of VSSC (India's rocketry hub) announced that this mission would probably be on a regular Geosynchronus Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), the current PSLV's successor. The rocket is capable of sending a 500 kg payload to Mars. If the GSLV Mk III is used, India can also send a heavier mission to Mars.

I really hope they use the Mk III and do a full scale Mars missions. Also, since the year has been announced, you could infer that the design process would be close to completion. Not a 100% sure. Will know more when they submit a proposal to the Indian cabinet.

Will post more information on this thread as it becomes available.

Posted by: Pradeep Jan 2 2009, 03:55 AM

Forgot to mention the year of the Mars mission launch. That's 2013.

Posted by: Zvezdichko Jan 2 2009, 10:56 AM

It's just great!

Maybe this mission will be a simple orbiter, just like Nozomi.

Posted by: sci44 Jan 3 2009, 03:39 PM

Maybe they can go for the larger launch vehicle and add Beagle-3 to the package..

Posted by: Zvezdichko Jan 3 2009, 03:56 PM

I won't be very happy if they do that. This will make the mission risky, just like Mars Express before the detachment of Beagle 2

Posted by: sci44 Jan 3 2009, 04:40 PM

I am sure you are right to say there is extra risk and complexity in adding a lander to a mission like this. That risk can always be balanced against the possible large scientific gain in a successful lander mission. After all, the ISRO have already tackled something like this with the MIP probe.
Anyway, this is just speculation on my part, and just another Mars orbiter for 2013 would still be a very welcome thing..

Posted by: Zvezdichko Jan 3 2009, 04:58 PM

Yeah, but comparing MIP and Beagle 2 is very irrelevant. Beagle 2 was reviewed extensively before launch. Some people even said it shouldn't fly at all. According to NASA - JPL, the mission was very risky thought that the design "may work"...

After Beagle 2 failed, many people said the lander "should never have been sent":

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20050204/ai_n9499238
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/beagle2-04e.html

Posted by: sci44 Jan 3 2009, 05:24 PM

Ok, I am sure the mods here dont want to repeat the discussion which is still on-going on the Beagle-2 thread here anyway - yes there would be more to review before a B3 was ever sent, but I still am not convinced the concept is flawed beyond correction, and neither are the scientists who made B2.
My point is more narrow - would the addition of a probe make an unacceptable risk, weighed against possible benefit, to the *main* orbiter mission? I think the answer is no, and the ISRO have demonstrated their ability to tackle such issues with the MIP. There is also the not-small issue of the additional political/national prestige that would be attached to a Mars Lander mission - only NASA have done this fully successfully before. Such prestige can translate into extra funding.

By the way the Chandrayaan-1 Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer (CIXS) came from Rutherford Appleton Laboratory UK, so there is already some history for collaboration here.

Posted by: Zvezdichko Jan 3 2009, 05:40 PM

I also think that a simple lander doesn't make an unacceptable risk. But Beagle 2 just has no chance. Look what happened to MetNet - it's delayed to 2011. There are many concpets waiting to be funded and many landers waiting to fly.

I was thinking today... Is there any possibility to attach a MetNet lander to the Indian mission? India is collaborating with Russia to send a Lunar rover and to send a modified Soyuz capsule in LEO.

Posted by: sci44 Jan 3 2009, 06:15 PM

Heck, maybe they could send them both!
I think we can both agree that we need more diversity in these missions - the big missions like MSL and ExoMars are great, but as Alan Stern pointed out, sometimes they are at the expense of smaller missions. And I still think you are wrong about B2, but there we go..

Posted by: MouseOnMars Feb 1 2009, 06:57 PM

I did not know about this announcement.http://djbarney.wordpress.com/2008/12/24/space-under-the-christmas-tree/ around Christmas about all the huge announcements happening around then. Guess I'll have to add this one as well ! I wonder how the Science aims will dovetail with the other missions ?