ISRO Targets Venus, Exo-Planets for Future Space Missions

New Delhi: ISRO is now aiming to unravel the mysteries of dying stars, Venus and exo-planets.

Delivering a lecture organised by the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) on Tuesday, the ISRO chairman S Somanath said some exo-planets have atmosphere and are considered habitable.

ISRO is also planning a mission to study the planet Venus, two satellites to study space climate and its impact on the earth, and conceptualising a project to land a spacecraft on Mars, the ISRO chairman added.

He said the XPoSat or the X-Ray Polarimeter Satellite, meant to study bright X-ray pulsars or stars that are in the process of death, was ready for launch in December this year.

ISRO is also planning a mission for studying exo-solar planets or planets that are outside our solar system and orbiting other stars, Somanath said.

He said there were more than 5,000 known exo-planets of which at least 100 were considered to have atmospheres.