NASA manned mission to Mars expected by 2020

Soon man will be able to land on Mars, as Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), a research and development centre of the US space agency NASA, is working hard on a manned mission to the Mars by 2020, said a top JPL official today. It is also working on how to deflect an asteroid in a path of collision with the Earth, Larry James, Deputy Director, Jet Propulsion Lab, further added.

Dr James delivered a lecture on ‘JPL: Exploring Our World, The Solar System And The Universe’, organised by the US Consulate here. Speaking about asteroids and near earth objects which can crash into the Earth, James said NASA was exploring how the orbit of an asteroid can be altered by sending a spacecraft.

Search for water on the Mars will continue, but the biggest challenge before the scientists will be to put an astronaut on the red planet, he said.

US space scientists were collaborating with Indian space agency ISRO for some of these projects, he said. Later, James inaugurated a 3D Universe facility at the B M Birla Science Centre here.