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India, France Holding Discussions For Inter-Planetary Missions To Mars, Venus
Space agencies of India and France have been holding discussions to work on inter-planetary missions to Mars and Venus, a French source said.
This comes almost a month after the two sides agreed on a joint statement for an enhanced space cooperation.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and French National Space Agency (CNES) had agreed to work together on autonomous navigation of rovers on Moon, Mars and other planets, and aero braking technologies for planetary exploration.
Venus is under-explored compared to Mars. This is why we want to concentrate on Venus. ISRO has confirmed this priority for them. Discussions are also going on for the future Indian Mars mission, said a CNES official.
India has already undertaken two successful inter-planetary missions, 'Chandrayaan-I' to Moon and 'Mangalyaan' to Mars. It is likely to send Chandrayaan-II this month, another mission for exploring the Moon, through which a rover would be landed on Earth's only natural satellite. ISRO also has plans to send another mission to Mars and Venus.
In particular, CNES could provide support to ISRO for the navigation of future moon rovers while the two will jointly work on the models to study Mars and Venus atmospheres, the CNES official said.
