The Mars mission should not havebeen a priority at this stage for India which, instead, oughtto have devoted time and energy on getting its rocketoperational again and give momentum to the human space flightprogramme, former ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair said.
"My personal opinion is: this (Mars mission) is not a bigpriority project for us. We should have concentrated more onqualifying the cryogenic engine (for GSLV-GeosynchronousSatellite Launch Vehicle) and make our manned missioninitiative move forward," Nair told PTI here.
The Union Cabinet last night gave go-ahead to the Marsmission, clearing the proposal of Department of Space to put asatellite in an orbit around Mars to study the Red Planet.
Nair, who has accomplished 25 successful missions duringhis tenure of six years as Chairman of Indian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO) and Secretary in the Department of Space,argued that for India, the manned mission (human space flightprogramme) is the "immediate priority".
"That's where the big gap is. The United States spaceshuttle has failed and they don't have a launch vehicle. OnlyRussians have an operating system. China went to the extent ofcreating a mini (space) station," he said.
"So, in that race India is lagging behind and unless wegive a major thrust to Indian manned mission, I think we willbe left behind."
Nair said India's proposed Mars mission is "only a verysmall payload with not very big scientific objective".
"We cannot say we can make an impact even nationally orinternationally in that (Rs 450 crore Mars mission).
Terming the Mars mission as a "peripheral thing", he saidISRO should, instead, spend its time and energy on qualifyingthe indigenous cryogenic engine and stage for GSLV (rocket) asalso for GSLV-Mk III, which is being developed to carryfour-tonne class of satellites.
Nair expressed the view that Mars mission is not a "big challenge". India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLVrocket) has proven a number of times it can put satellitesinto highly elliptical orbit and "if you (Mars satellite) arein the right direction, it will go around Mars".
"It's not even as complex as Chandrayaan-1 mission. Byincreasing velocity, you will reach Mars. There is not muchsophistication involved (in Mars mission) whereas moon mission(Chandrayaan-1) was complex."
Nair also noted that announcement by China that it wouldland an exploratory craft on the moon next year, and pointedout that India's own similar programme (Chandrayaan-2) hasbeen put on a "low key" compared to the Mars mission, whichISRO plans to undertake in November next year with a 25 kgscientific payload.
"It shows that the priorities are not in the rightdirection," he said.
In an orbit of 500 x 80,000 km around Mars, the Indianorbiter can get only "very sketchy picture" of the Red Planet.
"With highly elliptical orbit, it's not good for imaging".
This orbit might be good for "atmospheric sounding" butNASA has published enough data on Martian atmosphere and "Idon't think we can add much value", he said.
But he acknowledged that the Indian orbiter will have apayload to detect the presence of methane. "If that's asuccess, then that could be a unique point.
GSLV flight with indigenous cryogenic engine and stageconducted by ISRO in April 2010 and the one with Russianengine and stage in December that year had failed.
ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan had said last month thespace agency had done a lot of studies to find out the reasonfor the failure and taken corrective actions, and thecryogenic engine and flight stage should be ready by November.
The space agency needs to conduct two more ground teststhereafter before carrying out the flight, which is expectedby the year-end or January next year.
When the Chandrayaan-I mission was launched in 2008, ISROsaid Chandrayaan-2 venture would happen four years later(2012). The ISRO now says Chandrayaan-II mission is slated for2014, after successfully conducting two GSLV flights.
On human space flight programme, ISRO conducted initialstudies for four years from 2002 to examine the technologicalchallenges.
In 2006, about 80 senior scientists from across thecountry who attended a meeting convened by ISRO, were highlyappreciative of the study conducted by the space agency andunanimous in suggesting that the time is appropriate for Indiato undertake such a mission.
By the year 2008, ISRO officials had indicated that theyare eyeing the 2015-2016 time-frame for the mission but theback-to-back failure of GSLV has put the clock back by atleast a couple of years.