Bengaluru: Indian space scientists successfully catapulted the Mars Orbiter deep into outer space towards the Red Planet in the early hours on Sunday.
The space scientists munched on laddus (sweet) and flashed their trademark thumbs-up sign to mark the “MOM of all slingshots” as one of them described the 23-minute operation which was carried out from the Mission Operations Complex at ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network, ISTRAC, located on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
After travelling a distance of 680 million km for 280 days, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is expected to reach the Martian trajectory in September 2014.
When the spacecraft arrives at the Mars’ sphere of influence, it will reach a point in the orbit closest to Mars. When the spacecraft comes closest to Mars, it will be captured into a planned orbit around Mars by implementing the Mars orbit insertion (MOI) manoeuvre. The liquid engine will be restarted after 10 months for this manoeuvre.
“The spacecraft is behaving well after one of the most crucial operations after it was launched by the PSLV on November 5th. Tomorrow, it will cross the lunar distance (distance to the Moon) of 3,84, 490 km. Early on Wednesday (December 4), it will move out of the Earth’s sphere of influence at 9.5 lakh km. We will carry out corrections in orbit on December 11, in April, August and the early half of September 2014 before the spacecraft reaches the precise orbit around Mars on September 24,” Dr K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, ISRO, told Deccan Chronicle.
The commands for today’s operation were beamed 16 hours ahead of the crucial manoeuvre so that the orbiter commenced its voyage towards Mars at the designated hour.
“For us, today was the real launch day as this operation makes the orbiter to head towards Mars,” said Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, Programme Director, MOM, adding that the spacecraft was cruising between earth stations at Hartebeesthoek in South Africa and Mauritius when the trans-Mars injection was carried out early on Sunday.
Before being hurled towards Mars, the orbiter survived the threat of lethal radiation belts which shroud the earth due to swift solar winds and harmful cosmic rays. It is being monitored from ISTRAC and Deep Space Network Station at Byalalu on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
Mars is presently being probed by operational rovers — Opportunity and Curiosity of NASA, and three satellites: Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance orbiter of NASA and Mars Express of ESA.
Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) launched by NASA this month is en route to the Red Planet and would reach its designated orbit a week ahead of the Indian spacecraft. If the Mars Orbiter Mission reaches the Red Planet without any glitches, India would be catapulted to the exclusive four-nation club with similar feats.
Indian space scientists successfully catapulted the Mars Orbiter deep into outer space towards the Red Planet in the wee hours on Sunday.
The space scientists munched on Ladoos (sweet) and flashed their trademark thumbs-up sign to mark the MOM of all slingshots as one of them described the 23-minute operation which was carried out from the Mission Operations Complex at Isro's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network, ISTRAC, located on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
After travelling a distance of 680 million km for 280 days, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is expected to reach the Martian trajectory in September 2014.
When the spacecraft arrives at the Mars sphere of influence, it will reach a point in the orbit closest to Mars. When the spacecraft comes closest to Mars, it will be captured into a planned orbit around Mars by implementing the Mars orbit insertion (MOI) manoeuvre. The liquid engine will be restarted after 10 months for this manoeuvre.
“The spacecraft is behaving well after one of the most crucial operations after it was launched by the PSLV on November 5th. Tomorrow, it will cross the lunar distance (distance to the Moon) of 3,84, 490 km. Early on Wednesday (December 4), it will move out of the Earth’s sphere of influence at 9.5 lakh KM. We will carry out corrections in orbit on December 11, in April, August and the early half of September 2014 before the spacecraft reaches the precise orbit around Mars on September 24,” Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, ISRO, told Deccan Chronicle.
