India’s Mars mission gets Rs.125 crore

India’s mission to Mars got Rs.125 crore (over $24 million) in the budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in parliament Friday.

The allocation was a part of the total plan outlay of Rs.5,615 crore for the department of space.

The mission envisages launching an orbiter around Mars using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket during November 2013, as per the budget papers.

The Mars orbiter will have a provision for carrying nearly 25 kg of scientific payloads on-board.

The space department got a sizeable increase in its annual plan outlay. It was allocated Rs.5,615 crore as against a revised estimate of Rs.3,432 crore for 2011-12.

The total plan expenditure towards rocket technology is Rs.1,969.52 crore and towards satellite technology is Rs.1,038.56 crore.

The department of atomic energy (DAE) too got an increased plan outlay for the next fiscal.

For the DAE, the budget estimate for next fiscal is Rs.11,673 crore as against the revised estimate of Rs.9,895 crore for 2011-12.