 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mission profile
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
| CHENNAI/BANGALORE:
India created history on Wednesday, becoming the first country to
successfully get a spacecraft into the Martian orbit on its maiden
attempt. Indian Space Research Organisation's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft started orbiting the red planet at 7.47am, but it was only 12 minutes later —because of a time delay in radio signals travelling the 680 million km -- that scientists at Isro Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bangalore, could erupt in joy as Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood a happy witness.As it happened: Mangalyaan's Mars odyssey For most of the time the main engine was firing — 20 of the 24 crucial minutes — MOM was hiding behind Mars, adding to the suspense. The scientists had waited for more than 300 days as MOM journeyed on through space, but the last 54 minutes were virtually unbearable. For, it was during this period that the orbiter first reoriented itself and then fired its engine and thrusters for about 24 minutes to get into the Mars orbit. HistoryThe MOM mission concept began with a feasibility study in 2010, after the launch of lunar satellite Chandrayaan-1 in 2008. The government of India approved the project on 3 August 2012,[23] after the Indian Space Research Organisation completed 1.25 billion (US$21 million) of required studies for the orbiter.[24] The total project cost may be up to 4.54 billion (US$74 million).[10][25] The satellite costs 1.53 billion
(US$25 million) and the rest of the budget has been attributed to
ground stations and relay upgrades that will be used for other ISRO
projects.[26]The space agency had initially planned the launch on 28 October 2013 but was postponed to 5 November 2013 following the delay in ISRO's spacecraft tracking ships to take up pre-determined positions due to poor weather in the Pacific Ocean.[4] Launch opportunities for a fuel-saving Hohmann transfer orbit occur about every 26 months, in this case, 2016 and 2018.[27] The Mars Orbiter's on-orbit mission life will be between six and ten months. Assembly of the PSLV-XL launch vehicle, designated C25, started on 5 August 2013.[28] The mounting of the five scientific instruments was completed at ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, and the finished spacecraft was shipped to Sriharikota on 2 October 2013 for integration to the PSLV-XL launch vehicle.[28] The satellite's development was fast-tracked and completed in a record 15 months.[29] Despite the US federal government shutdown, NASA reaffirmed on 5 October 2013 it would provide communications and navigation support to the mission.[30] ISRO chairman stated in November 2013 that if the MOM and NASA's orbiter MAVEN were successful, they would complement each other in findings and help understand Mars better.[31] The ISRO plans to send a follow-up mission with a greater scientific payload to Mars in the 2017-2020 timeframe; it would include an orbiter and a stationary lander.[32] TeamSome of the leading scientists working on the Mars Orbiter Mission project are:[33][34]
ObjectivesThe primary objective of the Mars Orbiter Mission is to showcase India's rocket launch systems, spacecraft-building and operations capabilities.[37] Specifically, the primary objective is to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission, comprising the following major tasks:[17]
Spacecraft
|
No comments:
Post a Comment