Best photos I've ever seen of a PSLV (or even any Indian) launch! I nearly thought that's a Cape Canaveral Delta II launch at first glance!
There is a carefully planned and quite complex series of (6?) orbit raising maneuvers, ending with the spacecraft at a very specific location relative to Earth in a few weeks, for the final trans-Mars insertion. If they use any left-over performance here, the initial orbit will be longer, and all subsequent events will be thrown off. (If there was enough over-performance, in theory they could switch to an entirely different sequence with one less phasing orbit. But that much over-performance is unlikely, and the flight software surely could not make that switch anyway, no matter how much margin it thought it had...)
Any higher resolution versions available?
Quote from: Star One on 11/05/2013 11:47 amThere is already over a 1000 comments on the BBC article on this mission, unfortunately it has partly degenerated into that old debate of why are they being sent aid when they are launching craft to Mars. The sheer level ignorance of some postings about this project is pretty depressing.Whenever I start reading message board/YouTube/Facebook comments I try to console myself that surely most of this represents one of the bottom layers of humanity. At the other end of the spectrum we have just witnessed one of the largest segments of Earth's population reach across space to another planet. It represents a wonderful achievement for India and the rest of us. Somehow I expect the mission to perform as well as the launching. A year from now I hope a billion people with a long history share the pride of knowing this was done with their own efforts. That should inspire them to even greater things.
There is already over a 1000 comments on the BBC article on this mission, unfortunately it has partly degenerated into that old debate of why are they being sent aid when they are launching craft to Mars. The sheer level ignorance of some postings about this project is pretty depressing.
There are higher resolution versions on the Mars Orbiter Mission Facebook page (and, via that, on my blog post )
Very unlikely that this will launch in 2013. I'm going to say 2016 at the earliest.
Quote from: ugordan on 11/05/2013 03:19 pmAny higher resolution versions available?There are higher resolution versions on the Mars Orbiter Mission Facebook page (and, via that, on my blog post )
First signals from the spacecraft showed it to be in good health, M.Annadurai, Programme Director of the Mars Orbiter Mission, told The Hindu in Bangalore.“We started getting spacecraft telemetry from T+500 (T meaning the launch event) and took over after the satellite was separated” from the rocket, he said.The satellite was going round Earth once in 6 hours 50 minutes in an elliptical orbit of 247 km x 23,564 km.Between November 7 and December 1, ISTRAC would progressively stretch one end of the ellipse (at the apogee or farthest point from Earth) in six moves, called orbit raising manoeuvres.
Mr. Annadurai said scientists on the tracking mission were bracing themselves for the first and crucial post-launch manoeuvre at 1:15 a.m. on November 7. Prior to that, they had a rehearsal of the manoeuvre between midnight and 5 a.m. on Wednesday.By December 1, the spacecraft must be put on the path to Mars.