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Important Details you should know about India's

Mars Orbiter Mission / Mangalyaan

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The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is Indias history making first mission to
the Red Planet and she arrives today, Sept. 23/24 !! ISRO's MOM is also the cheapest
such mission till now. European, US and Russian probes have managed to orbit or
land on the planet, but after several attempts.

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After a journey of over 10 months, Indias Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)

arrived at Mars on Wednesday, 24 September 2014 following an insertion burn that
was confirmed at 7:30 am India Standard Time (02:00 UTC; 20:00 EDT in the U.S.
on Tuesday, 23 Sept.) to continue what has so far been a successful technology
demonstration mission to showcase Indias entry in the realm of interplanetary
research.

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India has created space history by successfully placing its low-cost Mangalyan
spacecraft in orbit around the Red Planet. With this, India became the first nation to
reach Mars on its maiden attempt. Our Mangalyaan spacecraft successfully entered
orbit around the Red Planet after a 10-month journey. The success of the mission,
which is designed to search for evidence of life on the Red Planet, is a huge source of
national pride for India as it leaves its Asian rivals, including China, in the shade. It is
a significant achievement after Chandrayaan.

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Mars Orbiter Mission history:

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MOMs goal is to study Mars surface features, morphology, mineralogy, and

the Martian atmosphere with five indigenous scientific instruments. Among other
goals it will sniff for methane.

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Beginning as a feasibility study in 2010, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)

was green lit by the Indian government on 3 August 2012 following completion of a
$21 million series of studies surrounding the mission.
With approval and appropriations in hand, the Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO) undertook an expedited 15 month construction process on the spacecraft,
aiming for a target launch date of 28 October 2013.

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The launch date was calculated to meet the trans-Mars injection requirements
needed to place MOM into the correct heliocentric Mars transfer orbit.
These calculations included the location of the launch facility in India, the
desired orbital insertion parameters at Mars, and the orbital positions of Earth and
Mars vs. the location where Mars would be at the time of MOMs arrival.

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Construction on MOM was successfully completed on schedule on 2 October

2013, and the spacecraft was shipped to its launch site in Sriharikota.
There, MOM was integrated on top of its PSLV-XL (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle)
rocket which had been under assembly since 5 August.
The use of the PSLV-XL rocket was a change from the original mission
proposal which called for the use of the more-powerful Geosynchronous Satellite
Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

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However, the GSLV had failed twice in 2010, and a fix to the root cause of the
issue was not available by the time MOM needed to launch in October 2013.

The switch in launch vehicle, however, meant that MOM could no longer be
launched directly into a Mars transfer orbit.

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Not wanting to delay the mission until 2016 (when the next Mars launch
window would open), the ISRO decided to put MOM atop the less-powerful PSLV
rocket in its XL variant six stretched solid rocket motors using 12 tons of solid
propellant instead of the 9 tons used in the standard PSLV variant.

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Rather, the craft would have to launch into Earth orbit and then perform a series
of orbit raising maneuvers designed to increasingly raise the its apogee while using
Earths gravity to sling-shot it into the correct Mars transfer orbit.

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As launch preparations continued, MOMs launch date was realigned from 28

October to 5 November 2013 because of the delayed arrival of a necessary telemetry
ship at the Fiji Islands.
On 5 November 2013, the MOM mission lifted off right on time at 09:08 UTC
from First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. Over the next 42 minutes,
the PSLV-XL inserted MOM into Earth orbit, a process completed at 09:50 UTC.

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With MOMs successful launch, India began its first interplanetary mission.

The day following launch, a series of four planned orbit raising maneuvers
began, controlled by spacecraft engineers from the Spacecraft Control Center at
ISROs telemetry, tracking and command network in Peenya, Bangalore.
Of the four planned maneuvers, the first was a 416 second firing of the spacecrafts
liquid engine, the second a 570.6 second burn, and the third a 707 seconds burn.

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At this point, MOMs apogee was 71,636 km.

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During the fourth burn, an under burn prevented the spacecrafts apogee from
reaching the planned 100,000 km. Instead, MOM was in a 78,276 km apogee orbit.
The resulting under burn mandated the addition of a fifth and sixth orbit raising
maneuver to boost the spacecraft to an apogee of 192,874 km.

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With the needed apogee achieved, spaceflight controllers initiated a 23 minute

engine firing maneuver on 30 November 2013 at 19:19 UTC to place MOM into a
heliocentric transfer orbit to the red planet.

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Cruise to Mars:

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Since leaving Earth orbit, a total of three trajectory course maneuvers have been
performed to ensure that MOM is aligned into the proper trajectory for Martian
arrival.
On 22 September at 09:00 UTC, spacecraft controllers successfully fired the 440N
liquid apogee motor for 3.9 seconds.
The test firing confirmed the engines viability for planned orbital insertion operations
41 hours later.
Mars Orbital Insertion:

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As MOM approached Mars for orbital insertion, the spacecraft reoriented itself to
align its thrust vector with the crafts line of travel.
Once in the proper orientation, MOM, already under the influence of Mars gravity,
passed into the shadow of Mars.

This entry into the Martian shadow occurred five minutes before the start of the Mars
Orbit Insertion (MOI) burn.
As the MOI burn began, MOMs main liquid engine and eight smaller thrusters fired
to begin reducing the vehicles velocity by 1,098.7 m/s.

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As this burn began, the spacecraft moved behind Mars as viewed from the telemetry
and tracking stations on Earth, thereby severing the radio communications link
between the spacecraft and ground controllers.

After the MOI burn:

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The duration of the mission-critical MOI burn occured while communications with
the spacecraft were blocked.

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Once the MOI burn was completed, the spacecraft began reorienting itself to point its
main communications antenna toward the location where Earth will be when the
spacecraft emerged from the communications blackout period.
With MOI burn successfully accomplished, MOM, at 07:30 IST (02:00 UTC; and
20:00 EDT on 23 Sept.), entered a highly elliptical orbit around the red planet.

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This elliptical orbit will give MOM an orbital characteristic of 80,000 x 423 km and
an orbital period of 75.8 Earth hours.

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Once a stable orbit is achieved, the bulk of the missions primary objectives will be
realized.

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Stemming from the notion that this is a technology demonstration flight, the core
concepts of the Mars Orbiter Mission are, according to ISRO: the design and
realization of a Mars orbiter with a capability to perform Earth-bound maneuvers,
cruise phase of 300 days, Mars orbit insertion/capture, and on-orbit phase operations
at Mars.

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Furthermore, the mission is designed to demonstrate Indias capability to perform

deep space communication, navigation, mission planning, and management; and
incorporate autonomous features to categorize and handle contingency situations.
In fact, so much is this mission one of technical demonstration that actual scientific
observation of Mars is listed as a secondary objective.

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Nonetheless, if all goes according to plan, once MOM enters orbit of Mars, the
secondary mission objectives will be realized, too, with MOM exploring the Martian
morphology, surface features, mineralogy, and atmosphere.
In fact, there is even the added benefit of working, after the fact, with NASAs newly
arrived MAVEN spacecraft in a post-data collection sharing of the information
recorded by both spacecraft over the same period of time.

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After successful launch PM Modi said, "India has become the first country to enter
Mars orbit on a maiden mission." "History has been created today with India reaching
Mars. ISRO has joined an elite group of just three countries to reach Mars," he said. "
It was built indigenously, in a pan-Indian effort, stretching from Bangalore to
Bhubhaneshwar, and Faridabad to Rajkot."

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We have achieved the near impossible: PM Modi

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"Our budget is even lesser than a Hollywood blockbuster. These will go down as
landmarks in history," Modi added.

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In all, the mission has already demonstrated Indias ability to perform in deep space;
even more so, with orbital insertion of MOM achieved, India became only the fourth
nation/space program to reach Mars (behind the former Soviet Union, NASA, and the
European Space Agency).

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India now joins an elite club of the United States, Russia and Europe who can boast
of reaching Mars. The United States had its first success with a 1964 flyby by a
spacecraft called Mariner 4, returning 21 images of the surface of the planet.
The former Soviet Union reached the planet in 1971, and the European Space
Agency in 2003. More than half of all missions to the planet (23 out of 41 missions)
have ended in failure, including China's in 2011 and Japan's in 2003. No single nation
had previously succeeded at its first go, although the European Space Agency, which
represents a consortium of countries, did also pull it off at its first attempt.

Now Mangalyaan has reached Mars, it is expected to study the planet's surface and
scan its atmosphere for methane, which could provide evidence of some sort of life
form.
Here are some Important points you shoulkd know about MOM / Mangalyan

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The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called as Mangalyaan (Mangalyan

is an unofficial name)
This program is run by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization)
Manufactured by Indian Space Research Organisation Satellite Centre
(ISAC)
Launched into Earth orbit on 5th November 2013
It was launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

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This project is aimed as a "technology demonstrator". It will showcase and

prove the capability for inter-planetary missions
The launch was made using PSLV-XL C25 rocket
The orbiter will have a life of 6 to 10 months in the orbit
While orbiting Mars the orbiter will study surface features, minerals and
atmosphere on Mars
There are 5 main instruments on the orbiter
1. Lyman-Alpha Photometer (LAP)
2. Methane Sensor For Mars (MSM)
3. Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA)
4. Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS)
5. Mars Colour Camera (MCC)
It was successfully inserted into orbit of Mars on 24 September 2014
India the first Asian nation to reach Mars orbit.
The Mars Orbiter Mission was achieved on a budget of $74 million, nearly a
tenth of the amount the US space agency Nasa spent on sending the Maven
spacecraft to Mars.

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Team Members worked on Mangalyaan Mission

K Radhakrishnan
o Chairman of ISRO, secretary in department of space.
o Responsible for leading the mission and overall activities of Isro.
M Annadurai

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Programme director, Mars Orbiter Mission

o Responsible for budget management, direction for spacecraft
configuration, schedule and resources.
S Ramakrishnan
o Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and Member Launch
Authorisation Board.
o Responsible for realising the rocket (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) that
would ferry the Mars orbiter.
SK Shivakumar
o Director, Isro Satellite Centre.
o Responsible for developing satellite technology and implementing
satellite systems for scientific, technological and application missions.
P Kunhikrishnan
o Project director, PSLV programme; ninth time as mission director.
o Responsible for seeing the rocket completes its mission successfully and
that the satellite is correctly injected in the designated orbit.
Chandradathan
o Director, Liquid Propulsion system.
o Made rich contribution to the realisation of solid motors for sounding
rockets
AS Kiran Kumar
o Director, Satellite Application Centre
o Responsible for designing and building three of the orbiter payloads Mars Colour Camera, Methane Sensor and Thermal Infrared Imaging
Spectrometer.
MYS Prasad
o Director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Chairman, Launch Authorisation
Board
o Responsible for range safety and schedules, overall in-charge at rocket
port.
S Arunan
o Project director, Mars Orbiter Mission.
o Responsible for leading a team to build the spacecraft.
B Jayakumar
o Associate project director, PSLV project
o Responsible for the rocket systems, testing till the final lift-off.
MS Pannirselvam
o Chief general manager, range operation director at Sriharikota Rocket
port.
o Responsible for maintaining launch schedules without any slippages

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