After a successful moon mission,the Union Cabinet tonight gave the go-ahead to the launch of satellite next year to the Mars. The Cabinet,at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,cleared the proposal of Department of Space to put a satellite in an orbit around Mars to study the Red Planet,sources said. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is expected to launch a Mars Orbiter as early as November next year with a 25kg scientific payload. The Mars mission,which will study its atmosphere,will be launched by an extended version of ISRO's warhorse rocket -the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). If the ISRO fails to launch the Mars Mission next year,other opportunites are available in 2016 and 2018. The orbiter will be placed in an orbit of 500 x 80,000 km around Mars and has a tentative scientific objective for studying the climate,geology,origin,evolution and sustainability of life on the planet. Scientific payloads have been short-listed by ISRO's Advisory Committee for Space Sciences (ADCOS) review committee. Baseline,solar array and reflector configuration of the satellite have been finalised.
