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Indian scientists successfully tested the main engine of a spacecraft bound for Mars on Monday and performed a course correction that puts the low-cost project on track to enter the red planet’s orbit. The Orbiter will attempt to enter orbit around Mars early on Wednesday. If successful, it will be the first time a mission has entered Mars’ orbit on its first attempt, enhancing India’s position in the global space race…
. Here’s all you needed to know about India’s mission to Mars :The orbit insertion will take place when the spacecraft will be 423 km from the Martian surface and 215 million km away (radio distance) from the earth.
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Just 21 out of the 51 missions launched to Mars by different countries have been successful and that too by only three space agencies — NASA, European Space Agency and the Russian Federal Space Agency. The launch gives India an entry into an exclusive club of nations with interplanetary travel capabilities.
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The Rs 450-crore Mars Orbiter Mission is India’s first interplanetary mission to planet Mars with an orbiter craft designed to orbit Mars in an elliptical orbit. The project, built over a remarkably short period of two years, is primarily a technological mission considering the critical operations and stringent requirements on propulsion and other systems of the spacecraft.
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Launched last November, the Mars Orbiter Mission, called Mangalyaan, aims to study the planet’s surface and mineral composition, and scan its atmosphere for methane, a chemical strongly tied to life on Earth.
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If the spacecraft does manage to enter orbit around Mars on September 24, India would become the first country to succeed on its first try. European, U.S. and Russian probes have managed to orbit or land on the planet, but only after several attempts.
The Rs 450-crore ($70 million) ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission was launched Nov 5, 2013, on board a polar rocket from spaceport Sriharikota off Bay of Bengal, about 80 km northeast of Chennai
The pay loads include Lyman Lpha Photometer to measure the relative abundance of deuterium and hydrogen from Lyman- alpha emission; Methane Sensor for Mars to measure methane in the Martian atmosphere, and thus determine past existence of life; Mars Colour Camera to capture images and information about the surface of Mars and its composition; Mars Exopheric Neutral Composition Analyser, which is a spectrometer; and Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer to map surface composition and mineralogy of Mars
The Mangalyaan has been configured to carry out observations of the physical features of the Mars and also to carry out a limited study of the Martian atmosphere.
The criticism of the Mars mission being ‘a waste of money’ appears to be misplaced too. If one monetises the worth of national services that ISRO satellites are providing — communications, broadcasting, broadband, weather forecasting, disaster warning, ocean monitoring, education, navigation — it would be several times the budget of the space agency. ISRO’s annual budget is about one billion dollars, compared to $ 17.7 billion for NASA, $7.9 billion for Russian agency, $5.6 billion for the European Space Agency and $ 2.5 billion for China. Unlike the Chinese programme which is completely focused on national pride and superpower dreams, India’s space programme is linked to broader national theme of national development.
Source:::: Yahoo india .com
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