The human quest to learn more beyond earth has taken them to moon in the mid-70s; presently there is rush to catch up with the closest planet – MARS, in un raveling secrets of any trace of life on our nearest neighbor. The Indian space craft, Mars Orbiter Mission, MOM reached Mars after travelling a grueling distance of around 60-crore kms from Earth. While reaching the Mars itself had been very tricky with many failed attempts on part of NASA, erstwhile USSR, ESA; with a success rate of around 36% to-date, India became the FIRST country ever, to reach Mars in its first attempt. In the capacity of core science team member of Chandrayaan-I project, the author had first-hand experience in developing an indigenous science payload, CHACE a quadrupole mass spectrometer, as a part of Moon Impact Probe (MIP) mission. The discussion would revolve around the unique features of planet Mars, the challenges faced by the space craft in reaching to its target, quest for measuring the trace gas methane and details of a set 5-instrumntes it carries.
Dr. S. M. Ahmed is heading the Central Instruments Laboratory as Principal Scientific Officer at the University of Hyderabad. Dr. Ahmed obtained his Ph.D. from the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad. He has worked at IPR, JPL, EPFL, and VSSC. He joined ISRO s most ambitious Chandrayaan project in 2004 and developed a quadrupole based mass spectrometer, CHACE, which worked successfully in the Moon Impact Probe mission.