ISRO announces to land Mangalyaan-2 on Mars by the year 2030

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has officially announced that the Mangalyaan-2 mission is set to launch in the year 2030. The objective of Mangalyaan-2 will be to land on the surface of Mars with the help of an orbiter and a lander.

Twelve years after India made history by launching Mangalyaan, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has officially announced that the country will attempt to land on Mars for the first time.

The ambitious Mangalyaan-2 mission is set to be launched in 2030, confirmed by ISRO Chairman Dr. V. Narayanan during an address.

It is part of India’s growing participation in deep-space missions worldwide following the successes of Chandrayaan-3, Aditya-L1, and NISAR.

The Mangalyaan-2 mission is ready to explore Mars and will carry four payloads to study various aspects of the Red Planet.

Payloads in the Mangalyaan-2 mission -

Mars Orbital Dust Experiment (MODEX),

Radio Occultation (RO) Experiment,

Energetic Ion Spectrometer (EIS), and

Langmuir Probe and Electric Field Experiment (LPEX).

The study will focus on the atmosphere, environment, and interplanetary dust of Mars.

Mangalyaan-2 mission with an orbiter and a lander

The upcoming Mangalyaan-2 will be a major technological leap. Unlike its predecessor, which was entirely an orbiter, the new mission aims to deploy both an orbiter and a lander, with the possibility of adding a small rover as well.

ISRO is focusing on developing advanced propulsion, navigation, and landing systems capable of surviving Mars’ thin atmosphere and ensuring a precise landing on the planet’s surface.

Initial mission studies and design work have already begun at ISRO’s Space Applications Centre and Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. The agency is also seeking potential international collaborations for scientific payloads and data sharing, as it did with missions like Chandrayaan-3 and NISAR.

If successful, Mangalyaan-2 will place India among the select group of nations that have landed on Mars — alongside the United States, China, and the former Soviet Union.

Scientists expect this mission to advance India’s capabilities in autonomous navigation, surface imaging, and geochemical analysis in deep space.

Mangalyaan

Launched on November 5, 2013, the original Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) made India the first Asian nation to reach Martian orbit and the first country to do so on its maiden attempt.

The spacecraft operated for more than seven years, providing invaluable data on Mars’ atmosphere, mineral composition, and surface imagery before communication was lost in 2022.

Mangalyaan was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C25) rocket. The spacecraft travelled through deep space for over 300 days before entering Martian orbit on September 24, 2014.

After entering orbit, the scientific phase of Mangalyaan began, collecting data through five onboard payloads to study Mars’ surface, atmosphere, and mineralogy.

Global Mars Missions

Since the first successful flight in 1965, many space agencies have successfully reached Mars, such as:

Mars Express - European Space Agency (2003) - First European mission to Mars; found evidence of methane and ammonia.

Curiosity - NASA (2011) - Rover analyzed geology and climate; found evidence of life in ancient lakes.

MAVEN - NASA (2013) - Orbits Mars, studying the atmosphere and climate history.

ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter - European Space Agency/Russia (2016) - Studies atmospheric gases like methane.

InSight Lander - NASA (2018) - Geology mission assessing seismic activity on Mars; recorded over 500 marsquakes.

Hope Mars Mission - United Arab Emirates (2020) - The first interplanetary mission by an Arab nation; focused on atmospheric study — successfully entered Martian orbit in 2021.

Tianwen-1 - China (2020) - China’s first independent Mars mission with an orbiter, lander, and rover — rover Zhurong operational after landing in 2021.

Mars 2020 - Perseverance Rover - NASA (2020) - Searching for ancient signs of life; carrying the Ingenuity helicopter drone — operational on Mars; recorded archaeological sites, Ingenuity completed multiple flights.