India Ramps Up Space Effort: Target Mars

India is ramping up its space program efforts with plans for mission to Mars and the development of a third space launch pad at the Sriharikota spaceport to launch as many as 60-missions over the next five years, including a second mission to the moon and human-rated missions to low earth orbit. India's government is in the final stages of approving a mission to Mars by placing a remote sensing spacecraft in orbit around?the red planet?to study climate, geology, origin, evolution and possible biology of the Red Planet. The Mars spaceprobe could launch as soon as November 2013, reports The Hindu and The Times of India. The Mars spacecraft launch could precede the Luna-Resurs, the joint Russian-Indian lunar mission?with a tentative timetable now pushed to 2015. There is media speculation that the Indian Mars effort may result in a delay of the joint lunar rover mission with the Russians.

Source: http://www.portaltotheuniverse.org/rview/208308/

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