NEW DELHI:The United Arab Emirates has approached the Indian Space Research Organisation to launch its Mars mission in 2020, the government said on Monday. The discussion in this regard is on.
This comes as the ISRO basks in the glory of the country’s successful Mars Orbiter Mission at a budget of Rs 450 crore.
“India has entered into space marketing and we will be launching commercial satellites for many other countries,” said Union Minister of State for Department of Space Jitendra Singh here.
He said the images sent by Mars Orbiter Mission were being taken by other countries as well.
Department of Space Secretary and ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar said the agency is in the process of validating and analysing the discoveries made by the mission.
“We have a working arrangement with NASA. We are also in discussion with CNES (French space agency). Recently, we had a discussion with the UAE. It wants to have a Mars Mission for 2020. So they are interested in making use of the expertise available here,” he said.
The launch date for the UAE’s Mars mission, dubbed the Hope Probe, is sometime around July 2020. It is expected to arrive on Mars just in time to coincide with the UAE’s 50th anniversary of independence.
The government also announced that it would do the first test of the reusable rocket launch vehicle technology for low cost access to space in September. The winged vehicle would take off like a rocket and land like an aircraft.
“This is in its initial stages. Multiple experiments need to be completed. The first launch is in September and this will help improve cost effectiveness. It will reduce the cost by one-tenth. The launch vehicle will be landing first time in the ocean and the ultimate attempt is to make it land at an air-strip at Sriharikota,” said Kumar.
The ISRO would also launch Astrosat, the country’s first dedicated satellite for astronomy, by September.
It would complete the launch of two satellites of Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) series next year and three satellites in the subsequent year.
On the manned mission to moon, Kumar said it is yet to get a formal approval from the government.
The Indian space agency , meanwhile, is working on key technologies for the moon mission.
Reuse, CUT COST
India will test its Reusable Launch Vehicle tech demonstrator (RLV-TD) in September. An RLV takes off on the back of a rocket and lands like an aircraft
Step 1:
Hypersonic Flight Experiment will see RLV-TD launch by a solid booster rocket. The rocket will fall into sea after the launch, while the RLV will move forth and make a splashdown in the ocean in a controlled op
Step 2:
Landing Experiment test for RLV’s turbofan engine. After the launch, the RLV-TD re-enters the atmosphere at hypersonic speed. Aerodynamic breaking decelerates the entire process. The engine then makes a turn towards launch site and land horizontally on a runway.
Step 3:
Return Flight Experiment involves the RLV-TD launch into orbit and then its de-orbiting back to the runway
Step 4:
Scramjet Propulsion Experiment tests the performance of an RLV-TD fitted with airbreathing scramjet engine.