‘With each mission, ISRO sets a higher target’

LUCKNOW:The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to launch another Mars Mission by 2022 and put a rover on the moon’s surface through its Chandrayaan-2 Mission, scheduled to kick off later this year, said Dr Anil Bharadwaj, director, Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), department of space.

Addressing a function at the Birbal Science Institute of Palaeobotany on Wednesday, he said, “The Chandrayaan-1 Mission was for remote sensing of the moon’s surface, but with Chandrayaan-2, we plan to put a rover on the moon’s surface. ISRO scientists are also working on Mars Mission ‘Mangalyaan-2’. Besides, we plan to send a manned mission to space -- Gaganyaan -- by 2021.”

Bharadwaj is the principal investigator (PI) of several space missions of the ISRO, including Chandrayaan-1 and Mars Orbiter Mission(MOM).

The latter made a big break through by putting a space probe -- Mangalyaan -- in the orbit of Mars in the very first attempt.

That landmark success put India on the map of global space research. MOM was launched on November 9, 2013 and reached the Mars orbit 10 months later on September 24, 2014.

“Developed countries, including Japan and America, have failed several times in their attempt to put a space probe in the Mars orbit. We at ISRO changed this by doing so in the first attempt,” Bharadwaj said, adding, “Our will to go beyond the average made us achieve this feat. At Indian Space Research Organisation, we try to perform beyond average. With each mission, we set a higher target and work harder to make it a reality.”

Answering a question about the scale of these space projects and the larger aim behind them, Bharadwaj said, “These projects resemble the human will to look beyond the purview of Earth. This curiosity has always helped mankind and, who knows, one day it may lead us to a planet that we can make our home.”