A host of countries have previously launched missions to Mars, including the United States, Russia, Japan and China. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
The unmanned Mars orbiter mission, to be launched in October by the Indian Space Research Organisation, will undertake a 300-day journey to the planet to collect data about its climate and geology.
"The space programme epitomises India's scientific achievements and benefits the country in a number of areas," President Pranab Mukherjee told lawmakers in a speech opening a new session of parliament in New Delhi.
"Several space missions are planned for 2013, including India's first mission to Mars" and the launch of its first navigational satellite, he said.
India says the Mars mission will mark a significant step in its space programme, which has already placed a probe on the moon and envisages its first manned mission in 2016.
A host of countries have previously launched missions to Mars, including the United States, Russia, Japan and China.
India has a well-established space programme, which began in 1963, that is a source of national pride. But the programme has also attracted criticism as the government struggles to tackle widespread poverty and massive infrastructure problems.
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@Adnan: 3700 and 2800 .... lol....#nevermind :)
@harish: Its not 2 times brother.. India $3600 (ranked 134) and Pakistan $2880 (ranked 144)
The Indian space agency on February 25 will put into orbit, seven foreign satellites including an Indo- French collaborative satellite SARAL and thus earn the revenue. "The launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle- (PSLV-C20) is currently fixed for the mission. The payloads include BRITE and UniBRITE (both Austria), STRAND (Britain) AAUSAT (Denmark) and two Canadian satellite NEOSSat (Near Earth Object Space Surveillance Satellite), the world's first space telescope designed by Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and Sapphire satellite built by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA).
@ khan : name any jet engine indegenously made by your all weather friend china. All the chinese made J-10 and JF-17 using russian made Mikoyan(MIG) engines.
@1984. Thank you my friend for not going hard on me.Yes you are right in many perspective but i would rather draw your attention towards one core issue that i did highlight.India is working on Tejas since 1983.Though the aircraft is ambitious but till date neither a single squadron has been made (Though IAF plan to go for one in 2013 only becasue of pressure of Govt) and neither the Indigenous Kaveri Engine made its way to the LCA. Am confused that india claims to be well ahead in rocket science but lags it in case of much simpler aero engine side.And what you mentioned as history is that In the early stages of designing the GSLV booster for communications satellites, India struck a deal with Russia to provide hydrogen-fueled rocket engines and technical know-how.The agreement was quashed in 1992 after U.S. authorities imposed sanctions on Glavkosmos, the Russian company providing technology to India. The United States feared the transfer of missile technology from the fractured Soviet Union to developing states.India responded by purchasing seven readymade cryogenic engines from Russia and starting the design of an indigenous upper stage from scratch.Out of them four are a failure.
@Khan: Its simple,dude....The DRDO is very under-funded and full of bureaucracy......and then India always have to buy weapons from other countries....
You know why??? Because these politicians and army officers receive huge kickbacks for each deal and noone would want to kill the golden goose by developing them indigeneously
Space research is a different ball game....besides,the rockets lent by Russia are part of history and now India use their indigenous engines....Besides,Russia hardly contributed anything to Space after the end of Cold War,we are continuing where they left....
I hope,you do know that Pakistan actually started the Space mission before India,but you didnt continue it,unlike India who have now made it to a profiteering venture......
You should also know that Pakistan also was the first country in Asia which tried to arm themselves with nuclear weapons and India just beat you in the race.....Or else,no country could have tested nuclear weapons just a few weeks after their enemy tested....
Besides,whats the use of education,if your goals are limited???.....Atleast in India,a child can dream to become a scientist or an astronaut,but if there is no opportunity for that in your country,who would study them??
According to UN, poverty is scheduled to come down to 22% by 2015. I am sure most Pakistanis newspapers have skipped out on the news..
They also have skipped out the part about Pakistani poverty rising to 43%.
Don't you think a growing country needs such things?
I am talking on basis of facts and figures.India is planning a mission to mars but cant make its TEJAS being propelled by indigenous Kaveri engine.In this part of world i am forced to think that rocket science is easier than the normal jobs.And again the fact is that india has been using the Russian built rockets for sending probes etc....Give me a rocket and i would sail to Venus......Communication and data links etc are simply peanuts.I am not biased but worried.India is fuelling an arms race in this part of the world.Because of India other neighbouring countries are forced to take counter measures.Though indian govt really does not care about its poor people (so is ours) but what would be achieved by sending a probe there when already NASA had done it?Rather spend the money on education and uplift schemes and let your neighbours also do that.Think.....
Pakistan should also promote research in Science and Technology. Pakistani Muslims being of Aryan origin (not arab) can also do this. They have got brain and their IQ level is also high. But for this you have to come out of the narrow circle you have drawn around you i.e. religion. Ancient Indians were the first to make discoveries in astronomy. Without any instruments, we had knowledge of planets and their orbits. One such mathematician, Brahmagupta, lived in a place which is now in Pakistan. Yes, India is spending lot of money on this, but it has benefited us. Our nuclear programmes and missile technology are 100 % indigenous. We are not dependent on others like Korea and China.
@Umar Sharif: "We Pakistanis already living on Mars with no water and electricity." Good sense of humor man !!
@X: We did have few problems with your "so called rocket blowing up in launchpad"....you know why it happened??? Because we actually tried to launch a rocket in space...We tried,we failed a few times and now we have succeeded......
You cannot go to space by making empty promises on a TV channel....which makes me wonder,how come a country which boasts of having developed more advanced missiles than India never could launch a rocket to Space???
@Yasin, you are entertaining! And you got Internet in that cave. wow!!!
@Yasin: So @Yasin, can you explain what the right way is to read and understand the book? You have determined that people are not reading it right, so obviously you must know what the right way to read and understand it is.
@Maher: @Aneel: @numbersnumbers: @Umar Sharif: Congrate for providing some humor.
@X: ahem - that has never happened , although there were other failures which were overcome. There will be other failures in the future as well, which will also be overcome. This is how godd scientifica advancement happens. In contrast, the two most famous science articles coming out of Pakistan has been a) DJINN energy - funded by government of pakistan to interact with and get energy from Djinns(fiery creatures) to solve all of Pakistan's energy problems b) vehicle which can run only on water - challenging all knows established laws of thermodynamics.
@Yasin- hahahha! This is what i like about pakistanis!! no matter how bad the situation gets in your country, you guys still retain your sense of Humour!
@Karthika: " ... So there is nothing humanity can gain from India spending this 70 million on a mission like this. ... "
They said similar things when computers were introduced in India.
We Pakistanis already living on Mars with no water and electricity.
India planning mission to Mars, Pakistan planing mission to North Wazitistan! Guess which is harder?
So I'm guessing they finally managed to overcome the problem of their rockets blowing up on the launchpads?
@Khan: Same things were said before India launched its craft for the moon. That craft carried payloads from 5 different countries, from Europe as well as from universities in the USA. Each payload performed their own set of experiments successfully, and it was using the experiments results that it was confirmed that there was water on the moon. Scientists knew about it before, but this was the first confirmation for the whole world. Now, India is just setting its sights higher. Your comment smacks of awe and jealousy with an awkward attempt to cover to up with humor.
@John B
The Profet(PBUH) travelled all the way to the creator and came back.That was travelling by time machine, long before Einstein came with his theory of relativity. If anyone can catch an astroid, he will be one of us.We have all the knowledge in the book, if only people read and understand the right way.
@SaneVoice: "Good ambition bad executors. " As compared to you?
Alright, get a grip guys. MM Singh already let this cat out of the bag in Repulic day address in any case, after launching and placing satellites in precision orbit since 1970s, moon and mars are natural profession.
All space faring nations are now focused on extraterrestrial mining.
Here is an open challenge. Who will go to outer space, capture an astroid and bring it back to earth.
Anyone up for the challenge? The winner will get a $.
@I-umaid: "Is India in position to do such things? 70% of population are below the poverty line,Poor infrastructure, poor sanitation, poor government functioning, poor health standards, etc. are a few in the list to be addressed before getting into space ambitions. "
No sane Indian would deny there is poverty in India. Not sure how you got the 70% number when World Bank says it is 29%. Anyway - health standards in India are not optimal but have been improving with significant investments in public health and education infrastructure in the last 8-9 years. India's Infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, literacy rate, out of school children rate, youth literacy rate - ALL are much better than Pakistan and you must be aware that India has eradicated polio. More needs to happen but that does not mean science and technology can be put at hold. The country has to progress in every direction simultaneously. Investments in science cannot wait until poverty is completely eliminated.
@Khan: You've recycled an old Indian sms joke circulated when Chandrayaan reported presence of water...Original joke goes like
Indian News :Indian satelitte finds presence of water in moon Pakistan News :What if Indian satelite found water,our Pakistani satelitte found presence of whales and sharks in Moon BBC News :Pakistani Satelitte fell in Arabian Sea
To all those who say Indians are wasting money on space rather than on poor people.. This money is literally peanuts to our budgets,if the money spent on Mars is split equally among everyone.They would be able to buy just a peanut packet each...Not enough to eradicate poverty
Indian space is already a profitable industry...It has helped many countries launch their satelites at a price and they have a good success ratio too...Besides the Indian satelites have already improved the agriculture,weather monitoring,locating presence of minerals,telecommunications....
Anything spent on science will never go to waste,if you look in the longer term....When poverty ridden UK was spending money on public libraries,the Mughals in India were destroying libraries and building tombs for their queens....We all know what happened a few centuries later and how British ruled for 200 years ...
Last,but not the least,you distinguished illustrious personality,Zaid Hamid said in 2008 that within 5 years,there will be a Pakistani in moon....Now its 2013,let me look up the sky tonight if I can spot a Lal topi on the moon
@Khan:
this coming from a guy whose country that has no clue what an indigenous satellite launch is!
Some of the comments are a bit odd above :)
BUT
We all should be striving to develop our nations and peoples and learn from each other, going to the moon or further is within the nature of all humans, good luck India!
@Khan: I can feel your anger.
Karthika, a good and valid debate. That is what democracy is all about - people discussing and debating the values of different options in a civilized manner.
@SaneVoice: The moon mission was executed well and helped find water on moon..... so ISRO can execute this program better and at a lower cost.... remember we are not new to Space Research...
Mission-Mars is certainly an ambition that makes every Indian swell with pride. No doubt about it . On the other hand , the human in me will be more appreciative of systems to detect the proximity of asteroids , comets and the other possible threats which earth may face from the outer space. At present we need strong focus on projects that will fetch us something in the near future. For example genetically modified crops that can help us meet food demand, alternate fuel which can give India self-sufficiency, medicine for incurable diseases and so on. As far as Mars is concerned , other countries have already lauched bigger and better systems to explore this possibility. So there is nothing humanity can gain from India spending this 70 million on a mission like this. Let us be more practical and find better value for the money spent.
@I-umaid: so jealous that u state ur facts wrong...?? awwwwwwwwwww ...poor u ... i can only c u crumbling in jealousy...lol :*
.To discover natur's secret is the collecive responsibilty of all nation.Why not India. Good luck India.
@umaid. chill buddy. the mission is only costing 70 million USD, ie 350 crores. And india has 2 times the per capita income of pakistan.
haha, Mars will welcome Indians if they go in their traditional clothes, like Gandhi used to wear
Good ambition bad executors.
Is India in position to do such things? 70 million dollars of expenditure... India's population is a 1200 million population. Means approx 0.06 dollars per head = 3 rupees/head = something that could not even buy a toffee...
@Maher India has its own list of people for this . We would like to leave them on Mars and never bring them back. @I-umaid Yes India is in a position do this sweety. 70% are not below the poverty line. Thats an exageration.For that matter even Pak is in a position to do this. Life goes on irrespective of people or poverty lines.
@Maher:
"Can you please take Rehman Malik and Zardari on Mars? Pakistani people will pay the expenses.. "
Sure! Why not?! Will be happy to do it for free!!! Only if Hafiz Saeed, Mullah Omar, Haqqani (not Hussain), Dawood Ibrahim join them in this eternal journey.
plz find the water & power in new Delhi first
@Khan: " Indian mission reporting presence of water and fish at the mars…….Exactly at the same time BBC would be reporting the crash of indian unmanned Mars orbiter mission in the indian ocean.Hope i am proved wrong"
There is no rule to stop wishful thinking.….
@Khan: We shall see. We may fail, again fail, but will try again. If we fail again, we will try again. Till we succeed. There are millions of Indians like me who would happily contribute till we know everything in science that west knows. It may take generations but I will tell my children to continue and they will tell their children the same. And none of this will be to demean any other people on this planet, but just for us, the poor Indians in this world, because that is the path to prosperity and none else.
@Khan:
"Indian mission reporting presence of water and fish at the mars…….Exactly at the same time BBC would be reporting the crash of indian unmanned Mars orbiter mission in the indian ocean.Hope i am proved wrong…."
Hehehe
On a serious note, I really hope this mission is successful and helps Indian science community to take their next step and helps the world community with some insight about Mars.
@Khan - not sure but I hope as well. However, I remember Mr Zaid Hamid once claimed that Pakistan will send a man on moon in 5 years. That was in 2007 I think. What happened about? How many (forget outer space) but low earth orbitals rockets has SUPARCO has launched?
Is India in position to do such things? 70% of population are below the poverty line,Poor infrastructure, poor sanitation, poor government functioning, poor health standards, etc. are a few in the list to be addressed before getting into space ambitions.
Khan : You will definitely be proved wrong. This is not some kind of Nudong korean missiles repainted in Pak. Read the article. We have been working on space missions from 1963. Read about ISRO and its achievements. Failures are part of life and will be turned into stepping stones of success. We are not unduly perturbed about that. Our space mission is in safe hands Repainting shops cannot do that. Read about the Indian Institutes of space technology and you will know what we are aiming for.
Can you please take Rehman Malik and Zardari on Mars? Pakistani people will pay the expenses..
Indian mission reporting presence of water and fish at the mars.......Exactly at the same time BBC would be reporting the crash of indian unmanned Mars orbiter mission in the indian ocean.Hope i am proved wrong....