According to Dr. M Sankaran, Director of the UR Rao Satellite Center in Bengaluru, India’s space research agency (ISRO) expects to establish India’s presence on Mars and Venus within five years.
ISRO has set its sights on Venus with the scheduled Venus Mission in the year 2024. In May 2022, ISRO chairman S. Somanath stated that the mission is planned for launch in December 2024, with an alternate launch window in 2031.
ISRO’s first interplanetary mission to planet Mars was the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), which was launched on November 05, 2013. The travel time for MOM to reach Mars orbit was around 300 days. The mission was designed to only have a 6-month lifespan, but it ended after 8 years.
India’s space agency, ISRO, has plans for future missions to Mars and Venus:
- Mars Orbiter Mission-2: Expected around 2024 or 2025, this will be India’s second Mars mission.
- Shukrayaan-1: This tentative name is for the Venus mission, which is expected to launch sometime around 2025. The mission’s objective is to study the atmosphere of Venus. The craft will launch at the end of 2024.
The Venus mission’s science payload would consist of instruments from India and other countries. As of December 2019, 16 Indian and 7 international payloads had been shortlisted. The primary focus of the mission is to study the surface and atmosphere of Venus, which is notoriously thick and filled with acids. The atmospheric pressure on Venus is about 100 times that of Earth, making it a challenging environment for exploration.
ISRO has also undertaken missions to the Sun.
India’s space research agency – ISRO – has set its sights on Earth’s planetary neighbours and expects to mark the country’s presence on Mars and Venus within five years, Dr M Sankaran, Director of the UR Rao Satellite Center in Bengaluru told NDTV
The Shukrayaan-1 mission was originally scheduled for launch in mid-2023, but the pandemic delayed the date. In May 2022, ISRO chairman S. Somanath stated that the mission is planned for launch in December 2024, with an alternate launch window in 2031.
The next similar launch window will be available in 2031. In 2031, NASA and European Space Agency would also be landing their missions on Venus, whereas China could attempt their mission sometime in 2026-27.
The concept was conceived in 2012, and after the Department of Space got a 23% increase in funding for the 2017–2018 budget, ISRO started preliminary research five years later
India’s space agency, ISRO, plans to launch a follow-up mission to Mars called Mars Orbiter Mission 2 (MOM-2 or Mangalyaan-2) in 2024. The orbiter will carry four payloads to inspect Mars’ atmosphere, environment, and interplanetary dust. The orbiter will use aerobraking to reduce its initial orbit’s apoapsis and reach an altitude more suitable for scientific observation.
The orbiter will have an upgraded orbiter and 100 kilograms (about 220 pounds) of scientific instruments. ISRO has also begun working on Mars landing technologies.
ISRO’s first Mars mission, Mangalyaan, succeeded in placing a rocket on the Mars orbit. It was accomplished at a cost of 450 crores, which is less than the budget of the movie Gravity
Other future missions to Mars include:
- Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) Japan plans to send a probe to Mars’ largest moon Phobos in 2025. The probe will land on Phobos, collect samples, and observe the smaller moon Deimos and Mars’ climate. The samples are expected to arrive on Earth in July 2029.
- Impulse Space The first commercial mission to Mars will launch in 2026. The integrated Cruise Vehicle, Entry Capsule, and Mars Lander will travel through interplanetary space for over half a year.
Other active and future missions to Mars include:
- Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover
- Curiosity Rover
- MAVEN
- Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
- 2001 Mars Odyssey
- Mars Sample Return
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