Isro planning another inter-planetary expedition

 After India's much hailed successful missions to the Moon and Mars that boosted its global standing in space, the next inter-planetary expedition to be launched is under discussion, according to Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).

Prof U R Rao, who is the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Space Sciences, will be deciding which inter-planetary mission would be most suitable for India.

“Currently, discussions are going on about Venus, Mars, any planetary system,” Isro Chairman A S Kiran Kumar told reporters, adding, that the advisory committee headed by Rao was looking into the issue.

Speaking to reporters here, he said, “Once they (the committee) come up with a finalised plan, we have to approve that.” World Metrology Day was organised on Thursday here by Metrology Society of India, Southern Region, in association with Central Manufacturing Technology Institute.

M Annadurai was the project director for the Moon mission and programme director for the Mars mission. “We have an advisory committee on Science with Professor U R Rao as the Chairman, so that committee will decide what should be our priority, what planets we should be doing, what science studies we should be doing,” Kumar said.

GSAT6 launch
Dr Kumar also said a communication satellite GSAT6 will be launched this August. “The satellite will give you the capability with a very small hand-held device to communicate. As with a small mobile (phone), you can communicate directly through the satellite. Because the antenna size is very large, it has got a signal grasping power that is much larger,” he said.