U.S., India To Collaborate On Mars, Earth Missions
WASHINGTON: U.S. and India have agreed to enhance cooperation in Mars exploration and establish a pathway for future joint missions to explore the red planet besides launching a NASA-ISRO satellite mission to observe Earth.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), signed two documents for this purpose in a meeting in Toronto, according to media release from the NASA headquarters here.
While attending the International Astronautical Congress, the two space agency leaders met to discuss and sign a charter that establishes a NASA-ISRO Mars Working Group to investigate enhanced cooperation between the two countries in Mars exploration.
They also signed an international agreement that defines how the two agencies will work together on the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, targeted to launch in 2020.
NASA's contribution to NISAR is being managed and implemented by the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
"The signing of these two documents reflects the strong commitment NASA and ISRO have to advancing science and improving life on Earth," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
"This partnership will yield tangible benefits to both our countries and the world."
The joint Mars Working Group will seek to identify and implement scientific, programmatic and technological goals that NASA and ISRO have in common regarding Mars exploration.
The group will meet once a year to plan cooperative activities, including potential NASA-ISRO cooperation on future missions to Mars.
NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft arrived at Mars Sep 21 for exploring the tenuous upper atmosphere of Mars.
ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), India's first spacecraft launched to Mars, arrived Sep 23 to study the Martian surface and atmosphere and demonstrate technologies needed for interplanetary missions.
READ MORE: Two Indian Little Masters Won The Google Science Fair 2014
