Indian Mars exploration missions

The Indian Mars exploration missions are an ongoing series of outer space missions by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the exploration of Mars. The exploration is currently in the primary phase with Orbiter missions.

There has been a single mission so far that deployed an orbiter around the planet which later lost its contact with the earth in 2022. A second mission planned for 2024 when the launch window opens.

Programme structure
The early phase consists of Mars orbiter missions while the next phase could be aimed at soft landing on the Martian surface and deploying a rover for sample study.

Phase I: Orbiters
Mars Orbiter Mission

The first mission, which is also known as Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was launched in 2013 which carried Mars Orbiter Mission orbiter. The original mission was expected to operate for 6 months, but it lived well past its expected lifetime and lost its contact with the earth in 2022, lasting for over seven years.

Mars Orbiter Mission 2

Mars Orbiter Mission-2 is a proposed second Indian orbiter mission to Mars. Unlike the previous orbiter, it will operate in a lower orbit with Periareon and Apoareon altitude closer to the Martian surface. It will also carry greater scientific payload that includes a hyperspectral camera, a very high resolution panchromatic camera and a radar to better understand the early stages of Mars, its early crust, recent basalts, and ongoing activities such as boulder falls.

Phase 2: Micro landers and drones
Furthermore ISRO has also conceptualized a Mars UAV Marble (Martian Boundary Layer Explorer), that will have a suite of payloads for aerial exploration of Mars. The aerial vehicle will be designed to be capable of flying up to 100 meters in the thin Martian air to profile the Martian atmosphere. It is planned to be a part of Mangalyaan 2 mission.

It will conduct a high-resolution vertical profiling of critical atmospheric parameters and perform first-of-its-kind in-situ measurements in the near-surface boundary layers of Mars. The payloads will include temperature sensor, humidity sensor, pressure sensor, wind speed sensor, electric field sensor, and the trace species and dust sensor to measure vertical distribution of dust aerosols. The information was shared by Jayadev Pradeep, a scientist with the Space Physics Laboratory at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, during a webinar. The mission will also have a small rover.

List of Missions

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Gallery
See more on ISRO's website