'ISRO's Mangalyan And NASA's Maven Will Complement Each Other In Mars Findings'

Chennai: ISRO and NASA will coordinate functions of their Mars Orbiters -- Mangalyaan and Maven once both get into orbit of the red planet in September next year.

"If NASA's orbiter Maven and ISRO's Mars Orbiter are successful, they will complement each other in findings and help understand the red planet better. We will coordinate with NASA once both our missions get there. Right now our focus is to get the Orbiter there," ISRO sources said.

Explaining the differences between both missions, they said that unlike the American NASA orbiter, MOM is a "small and modest" attempt by India.

While NASA's Maven mission is worth $671 million, India's Mars Orbiter mission cost only Rs 450 crore, they said, adding Maven carried eight scientific instruments, while the ISRO mission carried five.

"We are more application-specific in our approach. So we don't spend much on research. But this is one of our efforts in exploratory science... India's modest contribution to the understanding of science," they said.

ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan had earlier told reporters that the findings of ISRO' Mars Orbiter mission and NASA's Maven would complement each other.