Article Posted on : - Sep 01, 2009

PANAJI (BNS): India's mission to Mars will take place sometime between 2013- 2015, said Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief G Madhavan Nair.

Addressing the media after the inaugural of the Eight International Conference on Low Cost Planetary Missions here, Monday, Isro chairperson G Madhavan Nair said that international space agencies have also been invited to join in conducting experiments in outer space.

“We have given a call to international agencies to submit their proposals. We will be able to plan our mission depending on the type of experiments they propose to conduct,” he told PTI.

“This mission is still at the conceptual stage. We get an opportunity to conduct a Mars mission only once in two years and we have scheduled ours between 2013 and 2015,” Nair said.

Media reports said, the Mars Orbiter will explore the red planet with regard to the effect of solar wind, studies of its surface magnetic field and a search for palaeowater (groundwater that has remained in an aquifer for millennia).