The scheduled launch of Mars Orbiter mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in October-November this year is unlikely to be affected by a comet approaching the red planet.
Delivering the National Technology Day lecture at the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) on Friday, M. Annadurai, Director, IRS & SSS, ISRO Satellite Centre, said the implications would be studied as the comet approached Mars but there would not be any problem with the orbiter’s launch.
Ready for first mission
He said the spacecraft for ISRO’s first interplanetary mission was getting ready and it would be injected by a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle .
It would reach Mars after a nine-month journey and keep going around it in an elliptical orbit.
