The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has plenty of space ambitions and a successful Mars mission will be crucial in moving towards them, both in terms of confidence and funds.
ISRO wants to study the Sun from close quarters. After Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan, it will be Aditya. The idea is to study the Sun’s corona, the outer atmosphere and also the hottest part of the Sun.
We know that between Mars and Jupiter lies what is called the ‘asteroid belt’, consisting of millions of small and big rocks (which, as is presumed, could not fuse themselves into a planet.) One of them is an asteroid called ‘Vesta’. ISRO wants to study this asteroid with a view to finding out more about how the Sun’s family of planets originated. And then, ISRO wants to take another shy at the Moon. Chandrayaan-2 will be a more advanced version of Chandrayaan-1 – it will gently land a box on the moon out of which will roll out a small, remote controlled vehicle.