Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Mar 18: Government has set up an Indo-US Working Group on Mars with the objective of potential cooperation between the two countries.
Announcing this in reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh stated that after the taking over of the Narendra Modi Government, a charter establishing “ISRO-NASA (National Aeronautics Space Administration) Mars Working Group” was signed on September 3, 2014 and very recently a meeting of the Working Group was also held from 29 to 31 January this year. The scope of this Working Group will include potential ISRO-NASA cooperation in space missions to Mars, he added.
Referring to enormous benefits likely to accrue as a result of possible cooperation in inter-planetary missions, Dr Jitendra Singh said, such complex missions involve heavy cost and a possible collaboration between the two countries would help minimize the budget in addition to enhancing technological capabilities and onboard resources.
Describing the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) as the most striking example of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” concept , Dr Jitendra Singh said, the entire mission was developed through 100 per cent indigenous technology and 100 per cent indigenous human resource which has proved before the world, India’s supremacy in the field of space technology.
Dr Jitendra Singh further informed that over 350 pictures of planet Mars have been received so far ever since the Mangalyan entered into the Mars Orbit on September 24, 2014 and several more explorations are in the process.
Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is India’s first inter-planetary mission, said Dr Jitendra Singh and went on to explain that for any inter-planetary mission, the main objectives are to gain an understanding of the evolution on the planets and study space as well as placement of the two planets. However, he added, the most ambitious human goal for such missions has always been to look for extra terrestrial habitable environments, that is, the possibility of survival of human life on the other planet.
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