India's mission will seek to reveal if life exists on Mars: ISRO - Indian Express

PTI : Bangalore, Wed Sep 11 2013, 17:59 hrs India's upcoming Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) seeks to reveal whether there is methane, considered a "precursor chemical" for life, on the Red Planet. India's upcoming Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) seeks to reveal whether there is methane, considered a "precursor chemical" for life, on the Red Planet, key officials behind the ambitious venture said on Wednesday. ISRO gears up for ambitious Mars mission A Methane Sensor, one of the five payloads (scientific instruments) onboard the spacecraft, would look to detect the presence of the gas, MOM Project Director Arunan S said. He said the sensor was aimed at understanding whether life existed on Mars or if it would have life in future. "Methane is fundamentally base for life on any planet," he said. Mars mission useless, says ex-ISRO boss Nair M Annadurai, Programme Director, IRS & SSS (Indian Remote Sensing & Small, Science and Student Satellites), said: "Most probably we will be able to answer whether there is presence of Methane. If it's there, yes; if it's not, not there. If it's available, where it's available". After a media preview of the Mars orbiter at ISRO Satellite Centre here, where it is being given final shape, officials of the space agency indicated that the aim is to launch the mission on October 21, weather permitting. The launch window is from October 21 to November 19. Next Mars mission may search for past microbial life MOM is a Rs 450 crore mission -- Rs 110 crore for building PSLV-C25 that would launch the Rs 150 crore spacecraft, with the remaining amount spent on augmenting ground segment, including those required for deep space communication. Once launched from the spaceport of Sriharikota, the spacecraft would go around the earth for 20-25 days before embarking on a 9-month voyage to Mars. The minimum life of the spacecraft around Mars is six months but it would certainly outlive it, as similar satellites orbited by other countries have sometimes lasted six-seven years, Arunan said. ALSO READ NASA launches drones to study storms Nokia targets Apple Inc's iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C, after taking Samsung Galaxy S4 for a ride Review: Slick iOS 7 shines on Apple's new iPhones iPhone 5S and Samsung Galaxy Note 3: Price, features and who's better Please read our terms of use before posting comments TERMS OF USE: The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s). via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNH76GUqNIDjqB18_2GKgMy64Ho8Yg&url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/india-s-mission-will-seek-to-reveal-if-life-exists-on-mars-isro/1167742/

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