September 24, 2019 (Tuesday) marks five Earth years in the Martian Orbit for Isro's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), bringing subdued cheer at the space agency, amid a lull caused by an unsuccessful attempt at soft-landing Vikram, Chandrayaan-2's lander on Moon.That MOM was designed for just six months around Mars makes its long life a feat for Isro, which had failed to achieve this with Chandrayaan-1, its first mission to Moon, in 2008. The lunar orbiter died before it's life, but not before a probe it dropped discovered presence of water ice.
And, it should have sent in at least 5TB of data by now, but the space agency is yet to officially announce anything on the detection of Methane at Mars, which was one of MOM's principal objectives."All the instruments are fine and are still sending in data. We cannot comment on the methane sensor at this moment as the data is still being analysed," an Isro official said, requesting anonymity.Sivan K, chairman, Isro had told TOI earlier that the orbiter is expected to live on for many more years and continue sending data. "The payloads are healthy and there is sufficient fuel," Sivan said.While multiple officials TOI spoke with said that MOM has provided the scientific community a treasure of data about the planet that has been the most exciting for Earthians, none wished to comment on methane.A team at Byalalu (in the outskirts of Bengaluru), and scientists from the Isro Space Application Centre in Ahmedabad, which developed majority of the payloads are all working on deciphering the data, an official said.
Among the major studies the mission is conducting is the joint morphological studies using the Mars Colour Camera (MCC) and the high resolution mineralogical data with the Nasa’s Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) data.The joint work with Nasa will enable identification of different minerals like sulphates and ferrous based compounds on the surface of Mars. Also, MOM has completed comprehensive imaging of the two moons of Mars—Phobos and Deimos—which has revealed new details.
And, it should have sent in at least 5TB of data by now, but the space agency is yet to officially announce anything on the detection of Methane at Mars, which was one of MOM's principal objectives."All the instruments are fine and are still sending in data. We cannot comment on the methane sensor at this moment as the data is still being analysed," an Isro official said, requesting anonymity.
Feb 28, 2022Indian Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) used for Investigating the Solar Corona by ISRO ScientistsUtilizing the solar conjunction event, when the Earth and Mars are on the opposite sides of the Sun, a team of scientists from Space Physics Laboratory of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum; Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad; and ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bangalore; used S-band radio signals coming from the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) to study the Solar Corona. During conjunction events, which usually happens once in approximately two years for Mars, the radio signals from MOM passes through the solar corona, as close as 10 solar radii (1 solar radii (Rʘ) = 696,340 km = about 100 Earth radii), from the center of the Sun, thus providing a unique opportunity to study solar dynamics. ISRO scientists used the conjunction event of May-June 2015 – a time when the Sun's activity was quite low, to study the turbulence in the solar corona and found that transition of solar wind from sub-alfvenic to super-alfvenic flow occurs around 10–15 Rʘ during low solar activity period.The outer atmosphere of the Sun, called the solar corona, is the region where the temperature is several million degrees Kelvin, rendering it quite inaccessible for in-situ measurements thereby challenging the experimenters. The reason for such a high temperature of the corona is still an enigma. The solar wind, which originates in the corona and accelerates in this region, passes through the interplanetary spaces, shapes the magnetosphere of planets, as well as affects the near-Earth space environment through a phenomenon known as "Space Weather".Since the solar corona is an ionized medium (plasma) and has its intrinsic turbulence, it is a dispersive medium for an electromagnetic radio wave passing through it. The radio signals from MOM spacecraft crossing through the solar corona during the conjunction event (cf. Figure 1) consequently experience dispersive effects. The turbulence in the corona produces fluctuations in plasma density which get registered as fluctuations in the phase of radio waves passing through it. Thus, the radio signals received at the ground station (Indian Deep Space Network, ISTRAC for MOM) contain the signature of propagating medium (solar corona) and can be spectrally analyzed to derive the turbulence spectrum of the medium. This forms the basis of the coronal radio-sounding technique which has been used by spacecraft to study coronal regions spanning maximum and minimum phases of different solar cycles.ISRO scientists obtained coronal turbulence spectrum at heliocentric distances between 4 and 20 Rʘ by spectrally analyzing the Doppler frequency residuals from radio signals received from MOM spacecraft. This is the region where the solar wind primarily gets accelerated to velocities of a few hundreds of kilometers per second. The changes in turbulence regime are well reflected in spectral index values of the temporal frequency fluctuation spectrum. The scientists found that the turbulence power spectrum at a lower heliocentric distance (<10 Rʘ) has flattened at shorter frequencies with a smaller spectral index, which corresponds to the solar wind acceleration region. Smaller spectral index values closer to the Sun’s surface signify the energy input regime where turbulence is still underdeveloped. For larger heliocentric distances (> 10 Rʘ), the curve steepens with a spectral index close to 2/3, which is indicative of the inertial regime of a developed Kolmogorov-type turbulence, where energy is transported through cascading. This finding is consistent with those of theoretical models of solar wind turbulence and substantiates the process of turbulence energy transport and dissipation of magnetohydrodynamic waves, leading to coronal heating and solar wind acceleration in the near-Sun region.Incidentally, this finding of ISRO scientists is also supported by the first direct observation of solar corona by Parker Probe, published very recently in an independent study.Another intriguing observation is when the results of studies by MOM are compared with similar experiments conducted by the earlier missions which spanned past solar cycles. The work based on MOM data reports an insight into the feeble maxima of solar cycle 24, which is recorded as a peculiar solar cycle in terms of overall lower activity than any other previous solar cycle.These outstanding science results on the solar coronal dynamics using MOM in an innovative way is published in the refereed journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, titled "A study on the solar coronal dynamics during the post-maxima phase of the solar cycle 24 using S-band radio signals from the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission", authored by Richa N. Jain,R. K. Choudhary, Anil Bhardwaj, Umang Parikh, Bijoy K. Dai, and Roopa M. V.Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stac056https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/mnras/stac056/6506470PS: - India’s first mission to Mars, the MOM, was launched on 5 November 2013, and arrived at Mars on 24 September 2014. The MOM was planned for a mission lifetime of 6 months, but has successfully surpassed it by a factor of 10 – now in Martian orbit for more than 7 years, and is doing well in the extended mission phase. The MOM has provided the first measurements of the evening time exosphere of Mars (1) and has discovered hot Argon in its upper atmosphere-exosphere by the MENCA experiment onboard MOM (2).
‘Yaanam,’ the first science film in Sanskrit that revolves around the success story of India's historic Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) alias 'Mangalyaan', will be premiered before a selected audience on August 21 in Chennai The first science film in Sanskrit in the history of world cinema, ‘Yaanam’ which revolves around India’s successful Mangalyaan mission, is all set to reach audiences this month.
He said 'Yaanam ' is based on K Radhakrishnan's [former ISRO chairman] book "My Odyssey: Memoirs of the Man Behind the Mangalyaan Mission"."The objective of the documentary is to project the potentials of the ISRO and the capabilities of its scientists before the world. It explains how the Indian scientists have overcome all the limitations and made the complex Mars mission a huge success in the first attempt itself," he said.Mankara said the movie was made with the complete support of ISRO, and added that the 45-minute documentary is a complete Sanskrit film by all means as the entire script and dialogues are in the ancient language.
https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/worlds-first-science-sanskrit-film-on-mangalyaan-set-for-premiere-this-month/article65730703.eceQuote‘Yaanam,’ the first science film in Sanskrit that revolves around the success story of India's historic Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) alias 'Mangalyaan', will be premiered before a selected audience on August 21 in Chennai The first science film in Sanskrit in the history of world cinema, ‘Yaanam’ which revolves around India’s successful Mangalyaan mission, is all set to reach audiences this month.QuoteHe said 'Yaanam ' is based on K Radhakrishnan's [former ISRO chairman] book "My Odyssey: Memoirs of the Man Behind the Mangalyaan Mission"."The objective of the documentary is to project the potentials of the ISRO and the capabilities of its scientists before the world. It explains how the Indian scientists have overcome all the limitations and made the complex Mars mission a huge success in the first attempt itself," he said.Mankara said the movie was made with the complete support of ISRO, and added that the 45-minute documentary is a complete Sanskrit film by all means as the entire script and dialogues are in the ancient language.
India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft, which was designed to last for six months when launched on November 5, 2013, has lost communication with the ground stations, bringing an end to its life after 8 long years.Isro is working out the details of whether the spacecraft ran out of fuel and battery power, or whether communication was lost because of an automated manoeuvre while moving out of a long eclipse changing the direction of the antenna.However, multiple sources confirmed that it would not be possible to recover the spacecraft. Isro's UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) director on September 27 communicated the same and Isro will officially announce it soon, a scientist said.
