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India will launch its first mission to Mars this year, President Pranab Mukherjee said yesterday, as the nation looks to play catch up in the global space race alongside the US, Russia and its giant neighbour China. |
“Several space missions are planned for 2013, including India’s first mission to Mars and the launch of our first navigational satellite,” Mukherjee told parliament.
India will send a satellite in October via an unmanned spacecraft to orbit the red planet, blasting off from the southeastern coast in a mission expected to cost about $83mn, scientists who are part of the mission say.
“The space programme epitomises India’s scientific achievements and benefits the country in a number of areas,” Mukherjee told lawmakers in a speech opening a new session of parliament.
The spacecraft, which will be made in India, will take nine months to reach Mars and then launch itself in an elliptical orbit about 500km from the planet.
“The mission is ready to roll,” Deviprasad Karnik, a scientist from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said by phone from Bangalore.
“The launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle on September 9 marked our 100th space mission. India’s first remote sensing satellite RISAT-1, with all-weather imaging capability, was also launched in 2012,” the president said.
India’s mission to Mars has drawn criticism in a country suffering from high levels of malnutrition and power shortages, and currently experiencing its worst slowdown in growth in ten years. But India has long argued that technology developed in its space programme has practical applications to everyday life.
India’s space exploration programme began in 1962. Five years ago, its Chandrayaan satellite found evidence of water on the moon. India is now looking at landing a wheeled rover on the moon in 2014.
Mukherjee also said the country had made progress in nuclear energy.