Author Topic: ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission - Nov 2013 launch to September 2014 arrival - UPDATES  (Read 786909 times)

Offline Artyom.

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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!  8)
I totally agree! Wonderful photo 8)!

Offline AJA

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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...)

6 burns yeah.

I'm still not convinced about the flight-software being the show-stopper to over-performance exploitation. If the fourth stage was able to autonomously calculate a new burn time (and perhaps a new attitude of a primary thrust vector for its engine) - why can't the S/C do the same? In fact, the S/C doesn't even need to do it. All it needs to do is to be able to downlink telemetry, and undergo a GNC software update with new TIGs, and burn times?

I'm going to venture that it's the orbital mechanics that's responsible. i.e. if they didn't compensate for over-performance, the S/C would have to burn MORE propellant to get onto an appropriate Mars-transfer tranjectory.

Offline Chris Bergin

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!  8)

Thanks! That allows me to put the article top (previous lead photos were too low in resolution).

As far as the big global reaction being a negative one, a lot of it seems very uninformed. Certainly not seeing many British - the BBC site is a global site - go after that angle, not least due to our strong historical link with India, who are classed as friends.
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Offline elakdawalla

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Any higher resolution versions available?
There are higher resolution versions on the Mars Orbiter Mission Facebook page (and, via that, on my blog post :) )

Offline Star One

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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.

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.

I like your thinking on this issue.:)

OT those are possibly the best photos I have seen of a PSLV launch.
« Last Edit: 11/05/2013 04:56 pm by Star One »

Online ugordan

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There are higher resolution versions on the Mars Orbiter Mission Facebook page (and, via that, on my blog post :) )

Thanks, Emily!

Offline akula2

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Very unlikely that this will launch in 2013. I'm going to say 2016 at the earliest.

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.
Not only you, but many under-estimate Indians. This is mostly due to colonial arrogance and/or racist overtones.

Inturn, people like me who setup hi-end/tech companies around the world have a good laugh at them!  ;D

This is only baby steps, a long way to go for Indian Space story.

Thanks to all for updating this thread, very much appreciated.
« Last Edit: 11/05/2013 05:52 pm by jacqmans »

Offline Chris Bergin


There are higher resolution versions on the Mars Orbiter Mission Facebook page (and, via that, on my blog post :) )


And thanks to you for tweeting out both the news article and the thread! It really is appreciated! :)
« Last Edit: 11/05/2013 06:03 pm by Chris Bergin »
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Offline mdo

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Quote from: elakdawalla

Ah, another one of my favourite science writers joined the forum. Brilliant!

Offline Jeff Lerner

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Any higher resolution versions available?
There are higher resolution versions on the Mars Orbiter Mission Facebook page (and, via that, on my blog post :) )

Good to see you on NSF Emily...been following you on The Planetary Society site and UMSF for awhile....welcome !!!

Offline Adonis1

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Offline elakdawalla

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Thanks for the welcome, folks. I lurk here a lot; it's the best place to find info on missions from agencies other than NASA and ESA.

Via Pradeep Mohandas on Twitter here is a link to a new standalone ISRO website for the Mars Orbiter Mission, but at the moment there is no new information there and most links take you back to isro.org. Worth watching for news.

Offline Rocket Science

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Congratulations on your first journey to Mars!  May the voyage be smooth problem free ...
Thanks for the excellent coverage NSF! :)
"The laws of physics are unforgiving"
~Rob: Physics instructor, Aviator

Offline Danderman

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I was wrong, I didn't think they would make the launch window this time around.

I guess the lesson is that PSLV based projects seem to materialize and fly on time, whereas GSLV based projects, not so much.

Offline antriksh

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Waiting eagerly for colored pics of mother Earth taken by MOM!
Nasadiya Sukta:
Srishti se pehle sat nahin thaa, asat bhi nahin | Antariksh bhi nahin, aakaash bhi nahin thaa | chhipaa thaa kyaa, kahaan, kisne dhakaa thaa | us pal to agam, atal jal bhi kahaan thaa ||

From: 1st verse of 129th Hymn of the 10th Book of Rig Veda

Offline vyoma

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http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/mars-baton-shifts-to-istrac/article5318336.ece

Quote
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.

Quote
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.

Offline antriksh

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For those who want to understand the MOM's Hohmann Transfer Orbits

http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/bsf4-1.php
Nasadiya Sukta:
Srishti se pehle sat nahin thaa, asat bhi nahin | Antariksh bhi nahin, aakaash bhi nahin thaa | chhipaa thaa kyaa, kahaan, kisne dhakaa thaa | us pal to agam, atal jal bhi kahaan thaa ||

From: 1st verse of 129th Hymn of the 10th Book of Rig Veda

Offline antriksh

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ISRO Chair interview

Nasadiya Sukta:
Srishti se pehle sat nahin thaa, asat bhi nahin | Antariksh bhi nahin, aakaash bhi nahin thaa | chhipaa thaa kyaa, kahaan, kisne dhakaa thaa | us pal to agam, atal jal bhi kahaan thaa ||

From: 1st verse of 129th Hymn of the 10th Book of Rig Veda

Offline antriksh

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Nasadiya Sukta:
Srishti se pehle sat nahin thaa, asat bhi nahin | Antariksh bhi nahin, aakaash bhi nahin thaa | chhipaa thaa kyaa, kahaan, kisne dhakaa thaa | us pal to agam, atal jal bhi kahaan thaa ||

From: 1st verse of 129th Hymn of the 10th Book of Rig Veda

Offline Steven Pietrobon

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The reason why MOM has to do so many orbit raising manoeuvres is due to the low thrust of the main engine, only 440 Newtons for a spacecraft that is initially 1350 kg. That means initial acceleration is only 0.326 m/s˛. For a change of delta-V of say 1000 m/s, that would take about 3000 s or 50 minutes. The most efficient way to raise your orbit is to do them at perigee. If you burn too long, you won't be at perigee any longer and you'll be wasting propellant. So, you break up the burn into several segments, so your burns are as close to perigee as possible. This means several orbit raising manoeuvres that gradually raise apogee, before the final burn that puts you on a hyperbolic trajectory that leaves Earth on your way to Mars.

By the way, there are no slingshots or magnetic fields involved in this. To perform a slingshot requires three bodies, one of them being the spacecraft. Examples of the two other bodies are the Earth and the Moon (spacecraft in orbit around Earth slingshots past the Moon) or the Sun and the Earth (spacecraft in orbit around Sun slingshots past the Earth). As MOM is in orbit around Earth and won't be going near the Moon, there can be no slingshot.

The Earth's magnetic field is mostly used to orient certain spacecraft (for example that's what the Hubble Space Telescope does). The field is too weak to provide any useful propulsive force.
« Last Edit: 11/06/2013 05:01 am by Steven Pietrobon »
Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design #1:  Engineering is done with numbers.  Analysis without numbers is only an opinion.

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