India’s proposed Mars exploration mission may get launched by October this year, J N Goswami, Director, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, said here on Friday.
Goswami is actively involved in the mission to explore life-sustaining elements on the red planet.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of 100th Indian Science Congress, he said, “We are trying very hard and by mid-October we expect to launch the Mars mission.”
As part of the Rs 470-crore space project, India will launch a spacecraft in search of life-sustaining elements from 500 km over the surface of Mars. According to Goswami, the exploration mission has a very a specific objective in terms of studying the atmosphere in Mars. “This mission will explore things which have not been done previously by other countries,” he said.
The country has planned to use standardised launch vehicle (PSLV-XL) for the 1.4 tonne spacecraft in Mars.
If the proposed Mars exploration mission gets launched as per the plan, India will be the sixth country after US, Russia, Europe, China and Japan to undertake such a space mission.