Hyderabad: The Mars Orbiter on Thursday sent the first pictures of the Red Planet, which were received by an antenna built by Hyderabad-based Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL).
ECIL officials said that the pictures received were of good quality and there were no glitches in data reception. ECIL had built a mammoth 32 metre-diameter antenna system weighing about 300 tonnes in 2008. The antenna system was also crucial in the operation of the earlier launched Chandrayaan mission. The antenna installed near Bengaluru as part of the Indian Deep Space Network was operated by ECIL personnel stationed there for the entire 11 months of the mission period.
On Thursday, the Mars Orbiter sent the first pictures of the Red Planet taken with the onboard camera.
“The first pictures received from MoM through this antenna were of good quality. The 32-meter IDSN Antenna will continue to play a vital role during acquisition of data and photographs from Mars using the five scientific instruments which form part of MOM’s payload,” ECIL officials said on Thursday.
The antenna system works by precisely pointing towards the direction of the Mars Orbiter. “It precisely points to the MoM orbiting round Mars, almost 65 crore km away from Earth,” ECIL officials said.
The antenna was installed at Bylalu village, about 40 km away from Bengaluru. It was jointly built by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Isro Satellite Centre (ISAC) and Isro Telemetry Tracking and Command Network.
