The Indian space community has proposed 10 experiments related mainly to the Martian
atmosphere during an Indian mission to Mars
A group of IIT Bombay students have embarked on a different
type of stellar mission to launch Indian students and others to Mars.
Towards this end, they have formed The Mars Society, dedicated to the study of the
red planet.
This comes at a time when the Indian space community has proposed 10 experiments
related mainly to the Martian atmosphere during an Indian mission to Mars. This
much awaited expedition is now awaiting the formal go from Isro, the space commission
and the Union cabinet. Dhruv Joshi, a final-year chemistry student at IIT-B who
initiated the move to set up the society, said that when he was in Switzerland last
year, he saw a presentation about the local chapter of The Mars Society. I then
decided to form a similar society in India as well, he told TOI.
As a first step, a conference will be held at IIT-B about Mars. Whomever I have
spoken to about this society at IIT seems extremely excited and thrilled, especially
the freshers, Joshi added. The primary aim of the society is to encourage human
exploration and colonization of Mars. We hope to recruit university students from
technical and scientific disciplines, making use of their passion and creativity
to develop a strong team of pioneers, he said.
Jhonny Santosh Jha, a key player in IIT-Bs Pratham satellite project, explained
that the India chapter of the society is now in the process of getting affiliated
to the international chapter. We just have a few members now, but are expanding,
he said, adding that the society will be organizing several Mars-related programmes
in the days to come. Many scientists at Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad,
an affiliate of Isro, are of the view that an Indian mission to Mars should be accorded
precedence over the second lunar mission as India has already launched a successful
mission to the moon.
Courtesy: Times of India
