This Article is From Aug 31, 2009

After Moon, India sets its sights on Mars

New Delhi:

India's space scientists have now set their sights on a mission to Mars, despite the early end to its maiden moon mission.

ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair on Monday said that India would have its mission on the Red Planet by 2015.  But this is only an ISRO plan and is yet to get government sanction.

On Saturday, ISRO's scientists and engineers, who had strived hard to build and maintain the country's first moon mission Chandrayaan-1 had lost radio contact with the spacecraft orbiting about 200 km above the moon's surface.

Data from Chandrayaan-1's last orbit was transmitted until 12.25am on Saturday to the Indian Deep Space Network at Byalalu near Bangalore.

Though Chandrayaan-1 was slated to be a two-year mission, ISRO had said that nearly 95 per cent of Chandrayaan's scientific objectives had already been accomplished in less than a year.

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