ISRO is optimistic after the successful Mars Orbiter mission and is now planning for even bigger Mars mission. The Mangalyaan has completed 25 months in orbit and now ISRO is seeking permission for a second Mars Orbiter mission.
India is seeking to expand its space exploration and is now focusing its attention on the study of the red planet. Though the Union Minister of State under the PMO has clarified that there is no scientific experiment in mind, still the mission will be a big step in the coverage and activities of the ISRO with regards to space exploration.
The government has asked for proposals through its Announcement of opportunity for scientific experiments as a part of Mars Orbiter Mission-2. The earlier MOM-1 has far outlived its expected life and is still orbiting the planet. The orbiter is still relevant and a part of the ISRO space research instruments inventory.
As already stated MOM-1 was launched from Sriharikota aboard the ISRO workhorse PSLV on September 24, 2014. MOM-1 was initiated by ISRO at a shoestring budget. ISRO made clever use of the gravity to push the craft into a transfer orbit slowly and after a long six-month journey reached the red planet.
Since the orbiter carried a large amount of fuel to push it into the transfer orbit, it could not hold many scientific instruments. However, the next mission will be sent using a much more powerful rocket from the GSLV category, and this will enable the next Mars orbiter to be much heavier and carry far more instruments than its predecessor.
The Mars one year is equivalent to two Earth years, and this means that the orbiter has completed one revolution. A significant amount of data has been beamed back by the orbiter and it is being studied by ISRO to understand the atmosphere of the red planet.
