The correction in the trajectory of Mangalyaan was required to keep the power supply strong during the eclipse - caused by shadow of Mars falling on it for 7-8 hours - so that it could continue to function longer, as Mangalyaan's battery cannot support long-duration eclipse.
The fate of the probe was in jeopardy as it was to face an eclipse during which dark shadows of the Red Planet was to fall on the satellite, denying its solar panels any light.The on-board battery which was to take over had a life of just about 1.4 hours, while the eclipse was to last for 8 hours. The spacecraft's future was bleak.The scientists thought of a solution. On the night of January 17, a team of eight engineers at Indian Space Research Organisation's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network, Bengaluru, sent a time-delayed command to the Mars probe.The command set in motion firing of eight on-board thruster rockets. Each of them were fired for 431 seconds, pushing the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) space probe to a new orbit that completely avoids an eclipse up to September 2017. The shadowing in September is of a smaller duration, which the satellite's batteries can handle.
Last month's orbital manoeuvre exhausted almost 20 kg of fuel from the MOM’s stock of 30 kg. The remaining 13 kg of fuel, Kiran Kumar said, was sufficient for the rest of its life.The 1,337 kg probe, designed and developed on a shoestring budget of Rs 450 crore, was inserted into the Martian orbit in September 2014.
This image covers about 55 km x 55 km area with 28 m per pixel resolution in Margaritifer quadrangle of Mars. This image portrays the envelope of three linked craters outer rims.This MCC picture was taken on December 26, 2016 from an altitude of 534 km. This RGB image has been color enhanced for better visual appeal.
MENCA has discovered 'hot' (suprathermal) Argon in the exosphere of Mars. The words 'hot' as well as 'suprathermal' indicate that they are more energetic compared to the thermal populations and hence their kinetic temperatures are higher. These observations were conducted during December 2014, when periapsis of MOM was closest to the Mars.
The presence of hot Argon atoms is revealed by the changes in its scale height in certain orbits. The increase inscale height indicates an increase in exospheric temperature, which in normal conditions is about 270 K while on orbits when hot argon is seen, the exospheric temperature is observed to be greater than 400 K. This increase in temperature is because of the significant presence of suprathermal neutral Argon atoms in the Martian exosphere. The discovery has important implications in the context of understanding the energy deposition in the Martian upper atmosphere and will help understand why the Martian atmospheric escape rates are higher than what was believed previously.MENCA is a mass spectrometer, developed at Space Physics Laboratory of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thiruvananthapuram. MENCA is providing in-situ measurements of the neutral composition of the exosphere of Mars. MENCA has provided several measurements of the composition of the key species of the Martian neutral exosphere. Observations pertaining to the evening time exosphere of Mars, has already been published on May 02, 2016.The above result has been published recently in the American Geophysical Union (AGU) journal Geophysical Research Letters vol. 44, 2017. doi:10.1002/2016GL072001.
This image covers about 450 km x 450 km area with 220 m per pixel resolution in sinus Sabaeus quadrangle of Mars, having Bakhuysen Crater of 64 km diameter size qualifying for large basin impact structure candidate in the southern hemisphere. There are many small craters seen above and below these features.This MCC picture was taken on May 27, 2017 from an altitude of 4406 km. This RGB image has been color enhanced/local contrast enhanced for better visual appeal.
Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), the maiden interplanetary mission of ISRO, launched on November 5, 2013 by PSLV-C25 got inserted into Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 in its first attempt. MOM completes 1000 Earth days in its orbit, today (June 19, 2017) well beyond its designed mission life of six months. 1000 Earth days corresponds to 972 Mars Sols (Martian solar day) and MOM completed 388 orbits.
Satellite is in good health and continues to work as expected. Scientific analysis of the data received from the Mars Orbiter spacecraft is in progress.
It's been four years since @MarsOrbiter successfully got inserted into Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 in its first attempt. #MOM's mission life was expected to be six months! So far, the Mars Colour Camera has acquired 980+ images. Mars Atlas is also ready.
India’s rendezvous with the red planet continues as its Mangalyaan (also known as Mars Orbiter Mission) completed four years in orbit on Sunday and in the process captured the seasonal variations of the planet for two Martian years. For a mission which was originally conceived for only six months, it is an achievement that all the five payloads of it is still functioning well.The Rs 450 crore mission — hailed as cheaper than the Hollywood space movie Gravity - was launched with the PSLV-C25 rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on November 5, 2013. After crossing more than 66 crore kilometres in 300 days it entered into Mars orbit on September 24, 2014 thereby creating history for India as the first nation to reach Mars on a maiden attempt.“MOM is taking pictures from a higher altitude where it captures the whole planet. With Mars Colour Camera, we are able to see the seasonal variations of Mars for two Martian years,” says Mylswamy Annadurai, former director of Isro Satellite Centre and who was programme director for the Mangalyaan project. Isro also released a Mars Atlas with several images of the planet. “Some of the satellites that have survived are closer to Mars and they did not have the full view. Our orbit is bigger and we are able to take the full view of the planet,” he said. The imaging system is also able to map the topography through the dust clouds in Mars. Currently, Indian and international scientists are analysing the data for traces of Methane, a possible signature of life. “The Methane Sensor for Mars has sent the data and the scientists are currently correlating it to establish traces of Methane. It will take time,” Mr.Annadurai said. How has the spacecraft which carried the small scientific payload survived this long?The Mangalyaan spacecraft carried 100 kg fuel along with it for contingency and orbit corrections. “Whatever the fuel available to control the satellite, during our manoeuvres the fuel is not wasted. It was the primary reason why the mission life was extended to four years. The spacecraft still has fuel left,” says Isro chairman K.Sivan.In its long journey so far, the spacecraft had survived the passing of comet Siding Spring, avoided a long eclipse that could have potentially exhausted its batteries and survived the communication blackout for a period of one month from June 2, 2015, to July 2, 2015, due to the solar conjunction.During the solar conjunction, MOM was commanded with autonomy features without any ground commands or intervention. The long eclipse was avoided by a course correction, which reduced the eclipse period from as long as eight hours to zero.Isro designed, built and launched the spacecraft in a record time of less than two years. How was that possible? “The hardware used for Chandrayaan-1 was used for Mangalyaan which has reduced time period. It also had the novel of idea ‘slingshot’ mechanism where it orbited earth to gain the speed to escape the earth’s gravitational pull,” scientists said.While some sections viewed it as a costly advertisement to India’s space industry, scientists said it has enhanced the image of India among the space-faring nations.“I had a personal experience how the image of India was changed after the success of Mangalyaan mission. There is a difference in how they viewed us before Chandrayaan-1, Mangalyaan and after the two missions. The international community is taking us seriously now,” Mr.Annadurai said.The present Isro chairman K.Sivan also echoed it. “It gave the confidence to go on bigger missions. We also tested several technologies. We will soon launch a second mission to Mars and we are looking at the technical aspects of the project,” he said.With heavier GSLV-Mk-III rocket now ready, it could carry a larger spacecraft with heavier scientific payloads to the Mars. “After the Chandrayaan-2, Isro's next scientific mission will be Aditya-L1 to study the Sun’s corona or atmosphere,” Mr.Sivan added. The mission will study why the sun’s atmosphere is hotter than the actual surface of the sun.
The orbiter in Chandrayaan 2 is the same as the Chandrayaan 1 — that is why we were ready with the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter some three or four years ago. Unfortunately, the Russians dropped out (of making a lander and rover). That was the orbiter that was eventually used as the Mars orbiter in the Mars mission (2013-14). That is the secret behind how we were able to do the Mangalyaan project in 13 months. The lander is totally new.
Here's a small revelation on how the Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft was completed so quickly -- it was the orbiter already prepared for the Chandrayaan-2 mission, which was itself a modified improvement of the Chandrayaan-1 orbiter:https://indianexpress.com/article/india/dr-m-annadurai-project-director-chandrayaan-1-chandrayaan-2-isro-moon-5805873/QuoteThe orbiter in Chandrayaan 2 is the same as the Chandrayaan 1 — that is why we were ready with the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter some three or four years ago. Unfortunately, the Russians dropped out (of making a lander and rover). That was the orbiter that was eventually used as the Mars orbiter in the Mars mission (2013-14). That is the secret behind how we were able to do the Mangalyaan project in 13 months. The lander is totally new.