India
pti-Madhuri Adnal
New Delhi, Feb 19: As NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars in the early hours of Friday to look for signs of past life, ISRO’s next mission to the Red Planet is likely to be an orbiter. Perseverance, the biggest and the most advanced rover ever sent by NASA, made its landing at Jezero Crater.
After its successful Mars Orbiter Mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) called for ‘Announcement of Opportunities’ on Mars Orbiter Mission-2.
“It is now planned to have the next orbiter mission around Mars for a future launch opportunity,” according to the Announcement of Opportunities. But there are other major projects that are lined up.
After the Mars Orbiter Mission’s success, ISRO also decided to explore Venus. However, the immediate priorities of ISRO remain to be Chandrayaan-3 and Gaganyaan — both projects have been delayed due to the coronavirus-induced…