The second Indian Mars orbiter mission, MOM-2, will focus on new ways to look at Mars from a closer orbit than MOM-1, which was designed more for reaching and orbiting the red planet, according to Indian Space Research Organisation’s spokesman.

Nine scientific proposals have been made for riding on MOM-2 that is being aimed for around mid-2020.

These are apart from the main official experiments or payloads that the ISRO will send on the spacecraft. The nine concepts are from academic and research institutions, most of them public agencies, according to the spokesman.

The space agency had invited proposals from academic and research institutions for these additional experiments in August.

The proposals will be screened by the Advisory Committee for Space Science (ADCOS) chaired by the former ISRO chairman, U.R. Rao.

The best ones will be finalised on the basis of their weight.

For now, ISRO plans to keep all experiments within a 100-kg limit, according to the Announcement for Opportunity.

Finalised experiments will be included in the final MOM-2 blueprint that will be presented to the government for approval.