Mangalyaan-2: ISRO Prepares For India's Second Mars Mission
Nine years after its successful first attempt at placing a rocket in orbit around the red planet, the Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO ) is gearing up to dispatch another spacecraft to Mars .
According to documents obtained by Hindustan Times, the Mars Orbiter Mission-2, affectionately referred to as Mangalyaan-2, is slated to carry a total of four payloads.
Throughout this mission, the team will conduct comprehensive studies of Mars, encompassing interplanetary dust, as well as delving into the Martian atmosphere and environment.
“All of these payloads are in different stages of development,” as per an official cited by HT.
According to the mission document, the second mission will include the following payloads: a Mars Orbit Dust Experiment (MODEX), a Radio Occultation (RO) experiment, an Energetic Ion Spectrometer (EIS), and a Langmuir Probe and Electric Field Experiment (LPEX).
MODEX is designed to aid in comprehending the origin, abundance, distribution, and high-altitude flux of particles on Mars.
“There are no measurements of Interplanetary Dust Particles (IDPs) at Mars. The instrument can detect particles of size from a few hundred nm to few µm, travelling at hypervelocity (> 1 km/s). The outcomes can help explain the dust flux at Mars, whether there is any ring (as hypothesized) around Mars and also confirm whether the dust is interplanetary or coming from Phobos or Deimos (the two moons of Mars). The study of dust can help explain the RO experiment results,” it said.
The RO experiment is currently under development to measure neutral and electron density profiles. Additionally, the space agency is working on the development of an EIS to characterize solar energy particles and supra-thermal solar wind particles within the Martian environment.
LPEX will play a crucial role in measuring electron number density, electron temperature, and electric field waves, providing valuable insights into the plasma environment on Mars and enhancing our understanding of it.
“LPEX experiment consists of one Langmuir probe (LP) and two electric field (EF) sensors each mounted on a long boom,” the document said.
India 's First Mars Mission
On September 24, 2014, India made history by successfully entering Mars' orbit on its inaugural attempt. This remarkable achievement marked a milestone that no other space agency had accomplished at the time. The mission included five scientific payloads dedicated to studying the planet's surface features, morphology, mineralogy, and atmosphere.
The inaugural Mars orbiter mission was launched aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C25 on November 5, 2013. This successful mission catapulted the space agency into the ranks of the world's space exploration elite, becoming the fourth entity globally to successfully insert a spacecraft into Mars' orbit and achieving this feat on its very first attempt.