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India to launch Mars orbiter in 2013
Topic Started: 16 Aug 2012, 12:45 AM (53 Views)
skibboy
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India to launch Mars orbiter in 2013

By the CNN Wire Staff

August 15, 2012

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India announces Mars mission

(CNN) -- With New Delhi's iconic Red Fort as a backdrop, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced Wednesday his country has set its sights on the Red Planet.

In a Wednesday speech marking India's independence day, Singh said his government has approved plans to put an unmanned probe in orbit around Mars.

The mission "will be a huge step for us in the area of science and technology," he said.

It's an ambitious goal, with a planned launch in November 2013 for a 10-month flight, said Kiran Karnik, a former official with the Indian Space Research Organization.

"By the time the mission gets there, Mars will be comparatively the closest," Karnik told CNN's sister network CNN-IBN. "So there's a small window in which we need to make a launch and that's the reason the mission has to go up next year."

The goal of the mission is to search for clues to the "geology, origin, evolution and sustainability of life" on Mars, according to an ISRO report published earlier this year.

India's space program launched its first Earth satellite in 1975 and put an unmanned probe into orbit around the moon in 2008.

It plans to launch its first manned spaceflight in 2016, though an Indian cosmonaut, Rakesh Sharma, flew aboard a Soviet space mission in 1984.

The announcement comes as the U.S. space agency NASA is basking in the successful landing of its Curiosity rover August 6.

If the 2013 mission is successful, India would become the first Asian country to reach Mars: A 1998 attempt by Japan failed to insert itself into martian orbit, while a Chinese probe was lost along with the Russian Phobos-Grunt mission in January.

But Karnik said India shouldn't be concerned with stunts.
"My only concern, if anything, is not the risk of failure," he said. "It's the risk that the program should not get diverted to these high-visibility, somewhat prestige-related events."

CNN's Ram Ramgopal and Christian DuChateau contributed to this report

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skibboy
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India to send spacecraft to Mars

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Manmohan Singh

15/08/2012

India plans to send a spacecraft to Mars next year in a giant leap forward for science and technology in the country.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the unmanned probe will enter orbit around the planet and collect scientific information.

He announced the 4.5 billion rupee (€65.5m) mission during a speech marking the 65th anniversary of India’s independence from British rule.

“This spaceship to Mars will be a huge step for us in the area of science and technology,” he said.

The spacecraft is to be launched in November next year on a frequently used rocket developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation.

India has had an active space programme since the 1960s.

Since the 1970s it has launched scores of satellites for itself and for nearly two dozen other countries.

In 2008, India successfully sent a probe to the moon that detected evidence of water on the lunar surface for the first time.

India is also planning a rover mission to the moon and is awaiting budgetary approval for a manned space mission.

Critics of Mr Singh’s Congress party say the government’s priorities are wrong and it should concentrate instead on providing the basic needs of people such as electricity and safe drinking water.

Last week, more than 600 million people lost power for hours when the country’s electricity grid collapsed.

Indian scientists dismiss the criticism, saying that technology developed as part of the space programme has resulted in spin-offs in other areas.

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