Hyderabad: India’s Mars Orbiter Mission will be reaching the red planet in 55 days. The ISRO’s Mars orbiter is zipping through space at 22 km per second, which equals covering the distance between Mumbai and Delhi in a minute.
The mission, dubbed Mangalyan, was launched in November 2013 from the Shar centre at Sriharikota. ISRO officials said the orbiter is set to orbit Mars on September 24.
ISRO on Thursday said, "The mission officials have just ruled out the need for a trajectory correction manoeuvre, originally planned for August. This means MOM needs only three out of four TCMs originally planned for the entire heliocentric journey."
Officials said the mission and the payloads are in good health.
On July 21, the orbiter completed more than 540 million kilometres from earth on its heliocentric journey to Mars.
Mars Orbiter Mission is India's first interplanetary mission to planet Mars. "It has been configured to carry out observation of physical features of Mars and carry out limited study of Martian atmosphere with five payloads."
Mars Colour Camera, Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer, Methane Sensor for Mars, Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser and Lyman Alpha Photometer are the five payloads. It had a lift mass of 1337 Kgs.
