Mangalyaan : Indian Mission to Mars

24^th September 2014 is a proud moment for every Indian, the first Indian Inter Planetary mission to Mars - Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) also called Mangalyaan (word from Sanskrit, मंगल Mangala meaning Mars and यान yana meaning Craft) reaches Mars orbit after approximately 298days journey of 670 million kilometers. Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO)'s Mangalyaan was launched from the First Launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Andhra Pradesh, India at 09:08 UTC(14:38 IST) on 5^th November 2013 using PSLV(Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) with a launch window of approximately 20 days long starting from 28^th October, 2013.

India is the world’s first country to reach Mars in the first attempt with a very less budget of US$74 millions. Since 1960, there have been only 51 global Mars mission and the overall success rate is just 42 percent. Russia and United states failed in their first attempt, the Chinese first mission to Mars called Yinghuo-1 failed in 2011 along with the Russian Phobos-Grunt Mission, and finally the Japanese Mars mission ran out of fuel and was lost in the outer space.

Mangalyaan Mission came to live after the successfully Moon Mission with the Lunar satellite Chandrayaan-1 in 2008. On 3^rd August 2013 the Government of India approved this Mars Mission and thereby releasing Rs 125 cores (US$25 million) to Indian Space research Organization (ISRO) for required studies for the mission. As a result the budget of Rs 454crore (US$74 million) was estimated for the Mar Mission with approximately Rs 153crore (US$25 million) for the satellite and rest was left for ground station maintenance.

ISRO initially planned to launch on 28^th October 2013 but it was delay, because of the poor weather condition in the Pacific Ocean since the spacecraft tracking ships were unable to place in predetermined positions.

5^th August 2013 ISRO started building PSLV C35, a Polar Satellite which is meant to put Mangalyann on Mars orbit within a timefarme. On 2^nd October 2013 PSLV was shipping to Sriharikota after integration of 15kg(33lb) scientific payload of five scientific instruments on it namely Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP 1.97kg/4.3lb) for precise measurement of the Deuterium to Hydrogen abundance ratio, Martian Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer (MENCA 3.56kg/7.8lb) to study the exospheric neutral density an composition at altitude as low as 372km above the Martian surface, Mars Color Camera (MCC 1.27kg/2.8bl) to capture color images of planet Mars, Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM 2.94kg/6.5lb) to measure concentration of methane in the Martain atmosphere and Thermail Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS 3.20kg/7.1lb) to measure thermal emissions for the Martian surface to deduce surface composition and mineralogy.

        

The ISRO Telemetry Tracking Command network was used for tracking and navigating from the lunch from ground stations at Sriharikota, Port Blair, Brunei and Biak, Indonesia. After spacecraft travelled above 1,00,000km control was handover to Indian Deep Space Network. NASA’s Deep Space Network also helped providing data until April 2014 from three stations located at Canberra, Madrid and Goldstone. SANSA (South African National Space Agency) also help ISRO in satellite tracking.

Indian time early morning on 24^th September ISRO faced critical problem, if not handle precisely could destroy the dream of the whole nation. Entering the Mars gravity at ideal time, slowing down the spacecraft by firing its on-board rocket was the only solution. If it falls too slow it wouldn't be caught by the mars gravity and if it’s too fast it could risk by crashing the satellite on the red planet forever. The ISRO heroes did it perfected by firing the on-board rocket for about 24 minutes and Mangalyaan was on the mars orbit. Mangalyaan would spend about 6 to 10 months orbiting the Red planet and sending significant date to Earth.

It cost India only Rs 4 per Indian citizen (makes Rs 450crores) to achieve this glory. ISRO plans to lift another mission to Mars with a greater scientific payload within the timeframe of 2017-2020. ISRO is also signed with NASA in future Mars missions.

DATE	EVENT
05/11/2013	PSLV-C25, in its twenty fifth flight, successfully launches Mars Orbiter Mission Spacecraft from SDSC SHAR Sriharikota
07/11/2013	The first orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 01:17 hrs(IST) on Nov 07, 2013 has been successfully completed
08/11/2013	The second orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 02:18:51 hrs(IST) on Nov 08, 2013, with a burn time of 570.6 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in Apogee is from 28814 km to 40186 km.
09/11/2013	The third orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 02:10:43 hrs(IST) on Nov 09, 2013, with a burn time of 707 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in Apogee is from 40186km to 71636km.
11/11/2013	In the fourth orbit-raising operation conducted this morning (Nov 11, 2013), the apogee (farthest point to Earth) of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft was raised from 71,623 km to 78,276 km by imparting an incremental velocity of 35 metres/second (as against 130 metres/second originally planned to raise apogee to about 100,000 [1 lakh] km). The spacecraft is in normal health.
12/11/2013	Fourth supplementary orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 05:03:50 hrs(IST) on Nov 12, 2013, with a burn Time of 303.8 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in Apogee is from 78276km to 118642km.
16/11/2013	The fifth orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 01:27 hrs(IST) on Nov 16, 2013, with a burn Time of 243.5 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in Apogee is from 118642km to 192874km.
01/12/2013	Medium Gain Antenna of the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft is powered for long distance communication, subsequent to successful Trans Mars Injection (TMI) manoeuvre Trans Mars Injection (TMI) operations completed successfully. The liquid engine burn time was 1328.89 sec and the imparted incremental velocity was 647.96 m/sec. Trans Mars Injection (TMI) operations in progress. Trans Mars Injection (TMI) operation began at 00:49 hrs (IST) on Sunday Dec 01, 2013.  Forward rotation of spacecraft, to put it into the right orientation to perform Trans Mars Injection (TMI) operation has been completed successfully at 00:30 hrs IST on Dec 1, 2013
02/12/2013	Spacecraft has travelled a distance of 5,36,000 km by 17:00 hrs (IST) of Dec 2, 2013. It has crossed the distance to Moon's orbit around Earth (mean distance 3,85,000 km) this morning.
04/12/2013	Spacecraft has traversed beyond the Sphere of Influence (SOI) of Earth extending about 9,25,000 km at around 1:14 hrs (IST) on Dec 4, 2013.
11/12/2013	The first Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM) of Spacecraft was carried out successfully at 06:30 hrs (IST) by firing the 22 Newton Thrusters for a duration of 40.5 seconds. The spacecraft is travelling at a distance of about 29 lakh (2.9 million) km away from Earth.
11/02/2014	100 Days Of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft.
09/04/2014	Mars Orbiter Spacecraft Crosses Half Way Mark of its Journey.
12/06/2014	The second Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM-2) of India's Mars Orbiter Spacecraft was successfully performed on June 11, 2014 at 1630 hrs IST. TCM-2 was performed by firing the spacecraft’s 22 Newton thrusters for a duration of 16 seconds. At present, the radio distance between the Spacecraft and the Earth is 102 million km. A radio signal from the Earth to the Spacecraft now takes about 340 seconds. The spacecraft so far has traveled a distance of 466 million km as part of its total Journey of 680 million km. ISRO is continuously monitoring Mars Orbiter Spacecraft using Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN). The spacecraft and its five scientific instruments are in good health.
15/09/2014	Time-tagged commands to execute Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) uploading and verification in progress. Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) is scheduled on Sep 24, 2014 early morning.
16/09/2014	Time-tagged commands to execute Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) uploaded.
17/09/2014	Uploading of commands for Fourth Trajectory Correction Manoeuver and test-firing of Main Liquid Engine (scheduled for Sep 22, 2014) is in progress.
22/09/2014	Test Firing of Main Liquid Engine of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft is Successful.
24/09/2014	Spacecraft Successfully enters Martian Orbit Burn Start of Main Liquid Engine Confirmed The radio link between the Spacecraft and Earth is now blocked by Mars. Eclipse starts - The Spacecraft is in shadow of Mars Forward rotation starts Changed Over to Medium Gain Antenna

Image captured by MOM :

Regional dust storm activities over Northern Hemisphere of Mars - captured by Mars Color Camera on-board Mars Orbiter Spacecraft from altitude of 74500 km on Sept 28, 2014

Taken using the Mars Color Camera from an altitude of 8449 km, this image has a spatial resolution of 439 m and is centered around Lat: 20.01N, Lon:31.54E

Mars Orbiter Spacecraft captures its first image of Mars. Taken from a height of 7300 km; with 376 m spatial resolution.

First image of the Earth by Mars Color Camera (MCC) of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft taken on
Nov 19, 2013 at 13:50 hrs (IST) from 67975 km altitude with a resolution of 3.53 km

Source : ISRO