Tuesday, 23 September 2014

India's maiden Mars mission successful, Mangalyaan enters red planet's orbit

Mission profile

Timeline of operations
Phase Date Event Detail Result Reference(s)
Geocentric phase 5 November 2013 09:08 UTC Launch Burn time: 15:35 min in 5 stages Apogee: 23,550 km [46]
6 November 2013 19:47 UTC Orbit raising manoeuvre Burn time: 416 sec Apogee: 23,550 km to 28,825 km [47]
7 November 2013 20:48 UTC Orbit raising manoeuvre Burn time: 570.6 sec Apogee: 28,825 km to 40,186 km [48][49]
8 November 2013 20:40 UTC Orbit raising manoeuvre Burn time: 707 sec Apogee: 40,186 km to 71,636 km [48][50]
10 November 2013 20:36 UTC Orbit raising manoeuvre Incomplete burn Apogee: 71,636 km to 78,276 km [51]
11 November 2013 23:33 UTC Orbit raising manoeuvre
(supplementary)
Burn time: 303.8 sec Apogee: 78,276 km to 118,642 km [48]
15 November 2013 19:57 UTC Orbit raising manoeuvre Burn time: 243.5 sec Apogee: 118,642 km to 192,874 km [48][52]
30 November 2013, 19:19 UTC Trans-Mars injection Burn time: 1328.89 sec Successful heliocentric insertion [53]
Heliocentric phase December 2013 – September 2014 En route to Mars – The probe was travelling a distance of 780 million kilometres (484 million miles) in a parabolic trajectory around the Sun[43] to reach Mars. As of 9 June 2014, the probe has travelled 460 million km in its path to Mars, and was about 100 million km away from Earth.[54] This phase plan includes up to four trajectory corrections if needed. [55][56][57][58][59]
11 December 2013 01:00 UTC 1st Trajectory correction Burn time: 40.5 sec Success [48][57][58][59]
9 April 2014 2nd Trajectory correction (planned) Not required Rescheduled for 11 June 2014 [54][56][59][60][61]
11 June 2014 11:00 UTC 2nd Trajectory correction Burn time: 16 sec Success [54][62]
August 2014 3rd Trajectory correction (planned) Not required[54][63]
[56][59]
22 September 2014 3rd Trajectory correction Burn time: 3.968 sec Success [56][59][64]
Areocentric phase 24 September 2014 Mars orbit insertion Firing of reverse thruster for Mars orbit insertion successful. Per live webcast on ISRO website. Thrusters started firing at 7:17:35 AM IST. Success
  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.

History

The 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 INR1.25 billion (US$21 million) of required studies for the orbiter.[24] The total project cost may be up to INR4.54 billion (US$74 million).[10][25] The satellite costs INR1.53 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]

Team

Some of the leading scientists working on the Mars Orbiter Mission project are:[33][34]

Objectives

The 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]
  • design and realisation of a Mars orbiter with a capability to perform Earth-bound manoeuvres, cruise phase of 300 days, Mars orbit insertion / capture, and on-orbit phase around Mars;
  • deep-space communication, navigation, mission planning and management;
  • incorporate autonomous features to handle contingency situations.
The secondary objective is to explore Mars' surface features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere using indigenous scientific instruments.[37]

Spacecraft

Mass
The lift-off mass was 1,350 kg (2,980 lb), including 852 kg (1,878 lb) of propellant.
Dimensions
Cuboid in shape of approximately 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in)
Bus
The spacecraft's bus is a modified I-1 K structure and propulsion hardware configurations similar to Chandrayaan 1, India's lunar orbiter that operated from 2008 to 2009, with specific improvements and upgrades needed for a Mars mission.[37] The satellite structure is of aluminium and composite fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) sandwich construction.
Power
Electric power is generated by three solar array panels of 1.8 m × 1.4 m (5 ft 11 in × 4 ft 7 in) each (7.56 m2 (81.4 sq ft) total), for a maximum of 840 W generation in Martian orbit. Electricity is stored in a 36 Ah Li-ion battery.[1]
Propulsion
Liquid fuel engine of 440 N thrust is used for orbit raising and insertion in Martian orbit. The orbiter also has eight 22 N thrusters for attitude control or orientation.[38]
Communications
Two 230 W TWTAs and two coherent transponders. The antenna array consists of a low-gain antenna, a medium-gain antenna and a high-gain antenna. The High-gain antenna system is based on a single 2.2-metre reflector illuminated by a feed at S-band. It is used to transmit and receive the telemetry, tracking, commanding and data to and from the Indian Deep Space Network.[1]

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