After India's successful unmanned Chandrayaan mission to the Moon in 2008 that brought back the first clinching evidence of the presence of water there, the Mars mission, according to K Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), is a "natural progression."
The last updates from ISRO informed – All subsystems of ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft have been Powered ON in orbit. Health of the spacecraft is confirmed normal. Solar Panel and Reflector deployments have been completed successfully. Spacecraft has achieved the first orbit of 246.9 by 23,566.69 km around Earth.
India's 1,350kg (2,976lb) robotic satellite which is undertaking the 10-month-long, over 200-million-kilometre journey to Mars is equipped with five instruments.
They include a sensor to track methane or marsh gas - a possible sign of life - on Mars, a colour camera for taking pictures, and a thermal imaging spectrometer to map the surface and mineral wealth of the planet. The mission will also analyse the thin Martian atmosphere.
Is this about a sense of achievement?
China has beaten India in space in almost every aspect so far: it has rockets that can lift four times more weight than India's, and in 2003, successfully launched its first human space flight which India has not yet embarked on. China launched its maiden mission to the Moon in 2007, ahead of India, as reported in BBC.
BBC further reports - India sees the MOM as an opportunity to beat its regional rival China in reaching the planet, especially after a Russian mission carrying the first Chinese satellite to Mars failed in November 2011. Japan also failed in a similar effort in 1998.
Space Odyssey is long way home!
The Hindu reported -
The successful launch of the country’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) on Tuesday, is only part of the country’s first inter-planetary venture story. The space odyssey is long and complex.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is now looking forward to two key dates — December 1, 2013 when the MOM spacecraft leaves the earth’s sphere of influence and September 24 next year, when it’s captured by Martian orbit.
The spacecraft launched on Tuesday would go around the earth for 25 days before the ISRO plans to do trans-Mars injection at 0.42 hours on December 1 enabling it to undertake the long voyage towards the Red planet.
“This injection has to be precise as it will estimate where the satellite would be on September 24, 2014 — plus or minus 50 kms from the designated orbit around Mars (366 kms X 80,000 kms),” an ISRO official told PTI.
As the spacecraft approaches the Martian orbit, ISRO would reduce the velocity so that it’s captured by Martian orbit; otherwise if it continues with the same velocity, it would fly past Mars.
“Being a complex mission of this nature, any day you advance (of the 300-day journey from earth to Mars), it’s a progress,” ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said.
ISRO has incorporated autonomous features in MOM spacecraft to handle contingencies.
“As it moves towards Mars, given the distance between Mars and earth, you will encounter communication delay 20 minutes one way. It means when signals are sent from ground stations, it will take 20 minutes to reach the spacecraft. For about 40 minutes (including time for return communication), there will be a occasion when you do not know what’s happening,” an ISRO official said.
Autonomous features would ensure that the craft takes its own decisions until commands are sent from the ground — in case of malfunction, it would switch over to redundant systems and on occasions, goes into the safe mode, turning its antenna towards earth and solar panels toward sun to build up optimum power, the official explained.
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