Scientists in Ahmedabad are giving finishing touches to four of the five experimental payloads,that will form the core of Mangalyaan Indian Space Research Organisations (ISRO) first interplanetary mission to the planet Mars. These payloads have been made by the city-based Space Application Centre (SAC) and Physical Research Laboratory (PRL),and are passing through the final testing procedures. After the examinations,the payloads will be sent to Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh for being assembled for the Mars Orbiter Mission. India will be the sixth nation including US,Russia,Europe,China and Japan which have launched similar missions. The main objective of the mission,scheduled to be launched in November this year,is to study the form of terrain and the minerals found on the Mars. Of the five payloads that would seek to determine the possibility of life on Mars,four have been developed in Ahmedabad. They are in the final stages, said H B Pandya,scientist at SAC,a major arm of ISRO that also specialises in development of payloads. SAC had developed two of the five payloads for the Chandrayaan Mission. A team of 60 engineers and scientists have been working at SAC under director A S Kiran Kumar, the scientist told The Indian Express on the sidelines of a day-long exhibition of Mars Mission organised at SAC,recently. SAC has developed three devices that would go as payload with the Mangalyaan. The Mars Colour Camera (MCC) and TIR Spectrometer (TIS) will click pictures of the Martian surface and will help scientists determine and analyse the morphology and topography of the Mars. The third device is the Methane Sensor For Mars (MSM) which aims to measure the levels of Methane on the planet. The fourth equipment is called Lyman-Alpha Photometer (LAP) which will measure the levels of hydrogen in the atmosphere and test the possibility of presence of water. This mission will help scientist to understand the Martian conditions better than before. The prospects of life on Mars will become more clear through these equipments, said S S Manjul,another scientist at SAC. The fifth payload for the Mangalyaan mission - Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer (MENCA) - is being developed at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thiruvananthapuram.
