Here's an interview with ISRO chief, which has pretty detailed info on spacecraft operations and technicalities:http://thehindu.com/opinion/interview/mars-orbiter-tests-have-shown-our-ability-to-predict-isro-chairman/article5372129.ece
^ 22.5 minutes sounds like a pretty long burn time for the LAM - more than the launch time for a typical PSLV, 4 stages combined.Any one know if the LAM ( assuming it is very similar to the LAM of ISRO's other sattelites) was fired for this long a period at one go?
The first critical orbit-raising manoeuvre of GSAT-8 was successfully conducted at 03:58 hrs (IST) this morning (May 22, 2011) with the firing of the 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) on board GSAT-8 for 95 minutes by commanding the satellite from ISRO's Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka.
When MCC is 370km away from the Mars surface it provides a frame image of 25m x 25m. At the farthest point on the orbit, 80,000 km away, MCC provides a 4km x 4km field of view.
Quote from: antriksh on 11/22/2013 02:02 amWhen MCC is 370km away from the Mars surface it provides a frame image of 25m x 25m. At the farthest point on the orbit, 80,000 km away, MCC provides a 4km x 4km field of view.really?!? this would mean that the camera has a centimeter-resolution at periapsis!I think that these numbers do not refer to the field of view but to the pixel size, or to the spatial resolution.
Of the orbiter’s five payloads, three had been tested from November 19. They are the MCC, the Martian Exospheric Neutron Composition Analyser to look at the exosphere of Mars and the Thermal Infrared Imaging System (TIIS) to study the Red Planet’s geological activity. “We switched on these three and their health is normal. They are basically working,
Mars spacecraft, said ISRO had successfully completed the calibration of the spacecraft’s high-gain and medium-gain antenna. “All the spacecraft systems are working normally. We are preparing for the orbiter’s trans-Mars insertion on December 1,”
In the early hours of December 1, around 00.36 hours, we have the trans-Mars injection of our Mars spacecraft. On that day, we are going to use the 440 Newton liquid engine again to impart a delta-v, that is, an incremental velocity of nearly 648 metres a second to the spacecraft and the engine will burn for 1,351 seconds...When this running of the 440 Newton liquid engine takes place on December 1, we also have eight numbers of 22 Newton control thrusters firing.
"The trans-Mars injection- we are planning to depart on December 1, 2013 early hours of 00:49 hours IST and we are going to burn a liquid engine for duration of roughly 23 minutes which will impart an incremental velocity of 648 metres per second consuming a fuel of 198kgs," ISRO Scientific Secretary V Koteswara Rao told reporters here.
"We have planned right now four mid course corrections, first one will be around December 11- plus or minus a couple of days depending on the deviation how it is going.""Second one will be in April 2014, third one will be in August 2014 and the last one- the fourth one will be on September 14 that is 10 days before we insert into Martian orbit. Couple of day's uncertainty will be there....," he added.
@vyoma: you should e-mail them and ask isrosocialmedia AT isro.gov.inhttps://twitter.com/Mangalyaan1/status/403539759538384896 Also, NASA's "Eyes on the Solar System" (eyes.nasa.gov) has now added Mangalyaan to its virtual environment!https://twitter.com/nasa_eyes/status/403666988230139905
Mars Programme Director M Annadurai told reporters that the spacecraft would require fuel of 190 kg and time of 1,346 seconds to achieve trans-Mars injection. “Sixteen hours before firing, we will pre-load all commands to the spacecraft and six hours ahead of firing, we will verify whether all processes and commands are accurate.”
The fuel it has consumed so far is 338 kg. The total fuel spent by the time it reaches mars will be 832 kg, leaving 20 kg for rest of the activity of the spacecraft.
“MAVEN upon reaching the designated Mars orbit will have only one chance to enter the the orbit, and if it does not do so, that will be the end. But we have an additional opportunity. In case we reach on September 24, 2014 and we are not able to perform the orbit insertion maneuver, we will have another opportunity after three days of orbiting Mars,” said MoM project director, M Annadurai
we will have another opportunity after three days of orbiting Mars
Both spacecraft get only one chance to enter Mars orbit. Mars Orbiter Mission will again be using its single 440-Newton rocket to perform the orbit insertion maneuver. MAVEN has six rocket motors, each of which can achieve 200 Newtons of thrust.