The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently announced on its official social media platform that the upcoming Mangalyaan-2, also known as Mars Lander Mission, will showcase an impressive array of advanced technologies including a state-of-the-art rover, a relay Mars orbiter, a cutting-edge helicopter, a .

India aims to become the third country on Earth to land a spacecraft on another planet and join the elite club

The Indian space agency, which is already working to develop the second mission to Mars, has revealed how it plans to land its mission on the Red Planet. The feat has only been achieved by the United States and China until now

What is Isro planning for Mars? 

Isro is already working on the second Mars mission, which will feature a rover and helicopter combination the same as Nasa’s Perseverance rover. The presentation showed that the Indian space agency is working on developing a supersonic parachute, and a sky-crane for deploying the rover on the Red Planet

Launched in 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), Mangalyaan was India’s first interplanetary mission. It made Isro the fourth space agency to achieve Mars orbit, following Roscosmos, Nasa, and the European Space Agency. The mission was designed to test key technologies for interplanetary exploration and to study the Martian surface and atmosphere using its five science instruments

The sky crane won’t be the first to be used to deploy the rover, Nasa developed the sky-crane system to land its highly precise and successful Perseverance rover on Mars. This system allows for a controlled and precise landing, avoiding the need for airbags or ramps. The Sky Crane ensures that the rover lands upright and ready to begin its mission, even in challenging terrain. Isro will be developing the technology catered to the Indian rover

Indian engineers are also working on the design and development of a fully functioning helicopter to fly in the thin Martian air. The rotorcraft is in the conceptual stage and will carry several instruments

ISRO’s Mars mission will feature a rover and helicopter combination akin to NASA’s Perseverance rover, highlighting India’s commitment to advancing space exploration technologies. This innovative approach underscores ISRO’s dedication to pushing the boundaries of scientific exploration

Like NASA, Indian space agency ISRO is also going to send helicopters in its next Mangalyaan mission. This mission will probably happen around 2030. This helicopter will be almost like NASA’s Ingenuity. Which was sent to Mars with the Perseverance

Scientist Jaidev Pradeep of the Space Physics Laboratory of Vikram Sarabhai Space Center recently told in a webinar that ISRO is preparing to send a helicopter to Mars. This time ISRO will make a landing on the surface of Mars. So that the payloads can stay on the surface and conduct scientific investigations. Aerial survey can be done by helicopter

ISRO’s helicopter will do so many tasks

ISRO’s drone helicopter will have temperature sensor, humidity sensor, pressure sensor, wind speed sensor, electric field sensor, trace species sensor and dust sensor. Besides, it will also check aerosols while flying in the air. It will be able to fly at a height of 328 feet. Whereas NASA’s helicopter could go up to a maximum of 79 feet

NASA’s Ingenuity flew a total of 17 km

NASA’s helicopter Ingenuity flew a total of two hours during its entire mission. Overall covered distance of 17 kilometers. The Ingenuity helicopter landed on Mars with the Perseverance rover in Jezero Crater in February 2021. Till then it was not known whether flight was possible in the light atmosphere of Mars or not.

China is also preparing to send Mars drone

But Ingenuity, weighing 1.8 kg, flew to Mars 72 times. In January 2024, its rotor blades stopped working. Now this helicopter has landed on the surface of Mars. It is not that only India is inspired by engineering. In fact, China is also preparing to send drones to Mars. So that samples can be brought from Mars.

The helicopter that the Indian Space Agency is planning to send to Mars will be similar to NASA’s Ingenuity quadcopter. Ingenuity traveled 18 kilometers across Mars, making 72 flights over three years. This helicopter of ISRO is still in the conceptual stage. In this, how many devices like temperature sensor, humidity sensor, pressure sensor, wind speed sensor, electric field sensor, trace and dust sensor will work are being considered

What is the expectation from this helicopter?
The helicopter is expected to fly as high as 100 meters across Mars to profile the Martian environment. The drone is equipped with an instrument suite named Martian Boundary Layer Explorer (MARBLE), which is designed for aerial exploration of Mars. The drone will perform vertical profiling of atmospheric factors and make in-situ measurements of Mars’ near-surface boundary layers

The Marble mission will provide important data to enhance our understanding of Mars’ weather patterns and the planet’s historical climate. This information is essential for forecasting future conditions and potential threats, as well as aiding strategic planning of upcoming exploration missions. Earlier in 2013, ISRO became the fourth space agency to successfully send a spacecraft into Mars orbit with its Mars Orbiter Mission. This was India’s first interplanetary mission to Mars. It was launched on 05 November 2013 from PSLV-C25.

As part of Mangalyaan -2 mission, orbiter will be deployed to closely orbit around Mars. Among these orbiters, the Communication Relay Orbiter (CRO) will be specifically designed to establish communication with Landrishi Jodel, the Indian spacecraft set to land on Mars.

The orbiter will be equipped with visible and near-infrared (VNIR) and infrared (IR) cameras to record the dynamics of the Martian atmosphere

Isro mars mission team

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) team includes:

• K. Radhakrishnan: ISRO chairman from 2009–2014 when MOM entered Mars’ orbit in 2014 
• V Kesava Raju: MOM director 
• Subbiah Arunan: MOM project director and spacecraft builder 
• BS Kiran: Associate project director of flight dynamics 
• V Koteswara Rao: ISRO scientific secretary 
• P. Kunhikrishnan: Former director of ISRO’s PSLV rocket program and responsible for the 2013 MOM 
• Mylswamy Annadurai: MOM program director and project director for Chandrayaan I, Chandrayaan II, ASTROSTAT, and Aditya-I 
• Ritu Karidhal: Prominent scientist who calculated the spacecraft’s trajectory and designed an autonomous software system 
• Nandini Harinath: Mission operations at the UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) in Bengaluru 

ISRO’s next mission to Mars, Mangalyaan-2, is expected to launch in 2024. The mission will study the Martian atmosphere, environment, and interplanetary dust, and will carry four payloads: Mars Orbit Dust Experiment (MODEX), Radio Occultation (RO) experiment, Energetic Ion Spectrometer (EIS), and Langmuir Probe and Electric Field Experiment (LPEX). 

If successful, Mangalyaan-2 could make India the third country to land a spacecraft on Mars, after the US and China.

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