Author Topic: ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission - Nov 2013 launch to September 2014 arrival - UPDATES  (Read 786968 times)

Offline vineethgk

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 892
  • India
  • Liked: 187
  • Likes Given: 265
I'd love it if people stopped talking about who went first. We had the advantage of learning from past missions. The ISRO chairman said as much in an interview, but it gets glossed over.

I agree AJA! We are standing on the shoulders of giants here. Our success here, in no small measure, owes to the challenges and failures the Americans and Soviets faced early on due to the unknowns. We should rather see this success as a sign that more and more countries are coming to the forefront of deep space exploration, and opportunities for greater international cooperation. It is no longer a 2 or 3 person race.

By the way, a great coverage here by the folks at NSF! Didn't have a TV or good Net connection where I stay, so this forum was the only source for the up-to-date info for me..  :)

Great work.. and a Big Thanks everyone!!

Offline Star One

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13997
  • UK
  • Liked: 3974
  • Likes Given: 220
Congratulations to all concerned & it's a truly great achievement to do something like this on the first attempt. Gratified too see it was quite high up on the BBC news schedule this morning.

Here's the story on their website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28268186
« Last Edit: 09/24/2014 06:29 am by Star One »

Offline vyoma

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1878
  • India
  • Liked: 850
  • Likes Given: 127
Speaking of MOM's history....can someone explain how on Earth it could be launched 15 months after receiving the government's green light? I guess the individual parts of the spacecraft and its instruments were funded separately before as "R&D effort" projects? Or ISRO et al. simply can work on it without waiting for the snail pace Indian bureaucracy to approve it?

When did MOM started to become one project?  ::)



Project feasibility study began in 2010. And, 15 months was the time taken to build/assemble spacecraft and payloads, after budget was allocated in 2012. So, total time taken from concept to launch would be 3 years (2010 to 2013).

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/mangalyaan-from-report-to-reality-in-three-years-597027
Quote
Three years ago, V Adimurthy wrote a feasibility report, the first ever, on a mission to Mars. Today, when India's Mars orbiter Mangalyaan successfully entered the red planet's orbit, he said, "It is a dream come true."

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2139/1 (dated August 20, 2012)
Quote
Even though the official approval for India’s mission has come just this month, the budgetary provisions were already included in the Union Budget of 2011–2012 and mission preparations had begun. Nonetheless, with the mission’s launch planned for November 2013, there is very little time left for completing all the arrangements. This is going to be a real challenge for ISRO, but it has very little option in this regard: if they miss the November 2013 window then the next chance available would be only around the year 2016 or 2018.

Various scientific payloads have been shortlisted by ISRO's Advisory Committee for Space Sciences (ADCOS) review committee. Also, the baseline solar array and reflector configuration of the satellite has been finalized. Various details about the exact nature of scientific payloads are yet to be announced, though. Also, it is not known whether the entire scientific payload would be from India or ISRO is making the platform available for other countries to send their payloads, as was done during the Moon mission.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2012/09271011-mangalyaan-update.html (dated 27 Sep 2012)
Quote
Mangalyaan, India's 2013 Mars mission, is now under construction
« Last Edit: 09/24/2014 08:26 am by vyoma »

Offline Dalhousie

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2766
  • Liked: 780
  • Likes Given: 1131
This is a great achievement, I can't resisting pointing out the negativity when this was first announced, 26 months ago, at the start of the thread.

Reply #1 on: 07/15/2012 10:07 AM »
Very unlikely that this will launch in 2013. I'm going to say 2016 at the earliest.

Reply #2 on: 07/16/2012 12:19 PM »
I don't know why they're even claiming it would launch in 2013, hell the design isn't even finalized yet.

Reply #3 on: 07/16/2012 03:15 PM »
Is 2013 even a launch window to Mars?

Reply #5 on: 07/18/2012 08:59 AM »
Maybe 2013 is when the next *phase* of the Indian Mars programme is started/launched?

Reply #6 on: 07/23/2012 01:36 AM »
It's only supposed to be a 25-kg probe. There may not be a whole lot to finalize or design into it.

Reply #12 on: 08/28/2012 08:18 PM »
Do any of their launch vehicles actually have the throw capacity to put a significant & useful payload into orbit around Mars, as that second link certainly makes it sound like this isn't the case?

Reply #14 on: 08/29/2012 05:49 PM »
wouldn't it be better to wait for the GSLV MK III?

Reply #15 on: 08/29/2012 05:54 PM »
I remain convinced that the haste with which the mission has been approved, in spite of the launch window opening practically tomorrow (in 14 months, which will require a very fast development and testing phase), has something to do with the fact that China will likely launch something to Mars in 2016

Reply #16 on: 08/29/2012 06:47 PM »
I fear that as a result of this undue haste there is far higher likelihood that the mission will end negatively. Something which will not stand any future Mars exploration by the country in good stead.

Reply #17 on: 08/30/2012 02:42 PM »
Actually, the main reason for the haste is because of the fallout of a political corruption scam.

Reply #18 on: 09/08/2012 10:44 PM »
India's politically embattled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is increasingly trying to associate himself with ISRO, hoping that the national pride it invokes will rub off on him

Reply #25 on: 10/09/2012 04:07 AM »
Did the project actually started one or two years ago? I can't see the developers churning out probe structures and engines a month or two after it started development...

Reply #42 on: 01/04/2013 04:47 PM »
This sounds awfully tight to meet the October launch date....  Hopefully the Indian engineers and scientists aren't under too much pressure to meet the 2013 window - just as the Russians/Americans had learned the painful lesson of skipping whole system testing on Phobos-Grunt/MCO/MPL........

 Reply #50 on: 01/08/2013 05:37 PM »
This all seems very rushed I hope this aspect doesn't come back to haunt them.


So it is great to see the Indians confounding it by being on time (yes 2013 was a launch window), on budget and, despite the alleged political smoke screen as a motivation, have delivered a scientific payload to Mars orbit on the first attempt.
Apologies in advance for any lack of civility - it's unintended

Offline avollhar

  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 144
  • Liked: 41
  • Likes Given: 26
Congratulations! I am pleased to see that ISRO demonstrated that planetary missions *can* be done for less money than NASA/ESA thinks, well done!

Side remark: AMSAT-DL has proposed the idea of lauching into geostationary transfer orbit first and then use on-board propulsion of the Mars probe to inject into Mars transfer orbit in 2002:

http://www.amsat-dl.org/p5a/p5a-to-mars.pdf

As an effort to drastically reduce launch costs.. The mission plan executed by MOM is very close to our mission plan which was refined over the following years (and even positively reviewed by german space ageny DLR in 2010). Unfortunately, we were not able to secure enough funding..

Online Galactic Penguin SST

This is a great achievement, I can't resisting pointing out the negativity when this was first announced, 26 months ago, at the start of the thread.

(snip)

So it is great to see the Indians confounding it by being on time (yes 2013 was a launch window), on budget and, despite the alleged political smoke screen as a motivation, have delivered a scientific payload to Mars orbit on the first attempt.

To be fair, at that time no-one really knows that the project was already undergoing since 2010, and the "final authorization" to build the spacecraft muddles the water even more. And the Indians were certainly quite fast in building up the spacecraft - 15 months for spacecraft final assembly and testing through launch is still rather tight (though actually doable), even when MOM has a rather conservative design.

I wonder how much of the spacecraft reuses the actual back-up components or even science instruments (with minor modifications) from Chandrayaan 1? That would explains the development and assembly process. (see how Venus Express results from Mars Express/Rosetta for comparison)
Astronomy & spaceflight geek penguin. In a relationship w/ Space Shuttle Discovery. Current Priority: Chasing the Chinese Spaceflight Wonder Egg & A Certain Chinese Mars Rover

Offline Steven Pietrobon

  • Member
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 39215
  • Adelaide, Australia
    • Steven Pietrobon's Space Archive
  • Liked: 32735
  • Likes Given: 8178
Posted on ISRO MOM facebook.
« Last Edit: 09/24/2014 10:03 am by Steven Pietrobon »
Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design #1:  Engineering is done with numbers.  Analysis without numbers is only an opinion.

Online LouScheffer

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3381
  • Liked: 6109
  • Likes Given: 837
@RonBaalke at the NASA JPL Mars control room, observing the Doppler shifts

@MAVEN2Mars tweeted

It looks like NASA was devoting quite a bit of DSN time to this mission.  (2 70-m antennas and 2 34 meter antenna).  USA domestic science projects have to pay for this (something like $5k/hour for a big dish and $1250/hr for a small one), plus there is always competition for the limited antenna time.

For international projects like this, does NASA "donate" the time in a spirit of encouraging more space science?  Or do the projects need to rent time just like anyone else?

Offline baldusi

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8356
  • Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Liked: 2539
  • Likes Given: 8273
Quote
"India is the only country to have succeeded in its very first attempt."

Maybe the first "single-country" to succeed in first attempt. Since ESA already made it in first attempt with Mars Express.  ;)
May be he considers Mars 96 the first ESA mission. It was presented as such in that time.

Offline baldusi

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8356
  • Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Liked: 2539
  • Likes Given: 8273
I want to congratulate ISRO. What they have achieved is an inspiration for us all. And the PM speech brought tears to my eyes. I just say that all Indians should be extremely pride, and the team that worked on this, particularly so.
Let's remember that the Russian haven't been able to do a successful orbit insertion outside of Earth's since Phobos 2. So they are up there with NASA, ESA and CNSA wrt planetary exploration.

Offline Moe Grills

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 780
  • Liked: 27
  • Likes Given: 1
Congrats to India; success on the first try. Not even the USA achieved that.
Now what?
When is India going to launch a Mars lander?

Offline Ohsin

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1469
  • Liked: 1453
  • Likes Given: 2379
Quote
Just heard @ibnlive that #MarsOrbiter has sent five pictures back to Earth. Will look for them as soon as I am done with TV interview!

Source: https://twitter.com/elakdawalla/status/514799043927486464
« Last Edit: 09/24/2014 03:41 pm by Ohsin »
"Well, three cheers to Sharma, but our real baby is INSAT."

Offline antriksh

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 758
  • Liked: 132
  • Likes Given: 107
Just 12 hours into the orbit, India's successful Mars mission Mangalyaan sends first set of data


 It's been just 12 hours since India's first interplanetary mission, the Mars orbiter, entered the red planet's orbit successfully and it is already hard at work.
The Mangalyaan has sent back five photographs of Mars. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) confirmed that their ground station had received the first set of data from the craft.
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 Gaganaut

  • Member
  • Posts: 21
  • India
  • Liked: 15
  • Likes Given: 30
Just heard @NDTV where Prof U R Rao said Mangalyaan saved precious fuel due to precise navigation and Insertion and It is now left with around 40 Kg of fuel, if that is the case it looks that Mars Orbiter Mission may have longer life than six months.  I distinctly remember one of the article in Times of India, a year back, Scientific secretary V Koteswara Rao mentioned that it needs only about 20 kg of fuel to survive for six months, which has been set as its lifespan there.
Ok found the old source

Offline vineethgk

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 892
  • India
  • Liked: 187
  • Likes Given: 265
An very passionate post on MOM's success by Emily @planetary.org

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/09240910-reflecting-on-the-success-of-mom.html

Quite some reflections on the "first country" arguments and how that should indeed be irrelevant in the larger context of ISRO's achievement. Found it quite moving.  :)
« Last Edit: 09/24/2014 04:58 pm by vineethgk »

Offline vineethgk

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 892
  • India
  • Liked: 187
  • Likes Given: 265
Just heard @NDTV where Prof U R Rao said Mangalyaan saved precious fuel due to precise navigation and Insertion and It is now left with around 40 Kg of fuel, if that is the case it looks that Mars Orbiter Mission may have longer life than six months.  I distinctly remember one of the article in Times of India, a year back, Scientific secretary V Koteswara Rao mentioned that it needs only about 20 kg of fuel to survive for six months, which has been set as its lifespan there.
Ok found the old source

Ok. And I assume ISRO may not be planning to reduce the periapsis any further. I was wondering if they planned something of that sort since their original plan was to achieve a periapsis of 370km as against the 427 km that apparently became their new plan.

As per ISRO's latest press release, the final orbital data for MOM is as follows:
Quote
The Spacecraft is now circling Mars in an orbit whose nearest point to Mars (periapsis) is at 421.7 km and farthest point (apoapsis) at 76,993.6 km. The inclination of orbit with respect to the equatorial plane of Mars is 150 degree, as intended. In this orbit, the spacecraft takes 72 hours 51 minutes 51 seconds to go round the Mars once.

Source:http://isro.org/pressrelease/scripts/pressreleasein.aspx?Sep24_2014

Online Chris Bergin

Bolden:


September 24, 2014
NASA Administrator Statement About India's Mars Orbiter Mission

The following statement is from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden about India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM):

"We congratulate the Indian Space Research Organisation for its successful arrival at Mars with the Mars Orbiter Mission.

"It was an impressive engineering feat, and we welcome India to the family of nations studying another facet of the Red Planet. We look forward to MOM adding to the knowledge the international community is gathering with the other spacecraft at Mars.

"All space exploration expands the frontiers of scientific knowledge and improves life for everyone on Earth. We commend this significant milestone for India."
Support NSF via L2 -- Help improve NSF -- Site Rules/Feedback/Updates
**Not a L2 member? Whitelist this forum in your adblocker to support the site and ensure full functionality.**

Offline Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15287
  • Liked: 7823
  • Likes Given: 2
This is a great achievement, I can't resisting pointing out the negativity when this was first announced, 26 months ago, at the start of the thread.

(snip)

So it is great to see the Indians confounding it by being on time (yes 2013 was a launch window), on budget and, despite the alleged political smoke screen as a motivation, have delivered a scientific payload to Mars orbit on the first attempt.

To be fair, at that time no-one really knows that the project was already undergoing since 2010, and the "final authorization" to build the spacecraft muddles the water even more.

Yeah, if you read those comments in context, it is clear that everybody was reacting to the claim that the project started yesterday and was launching tomorrow, something that proved to be incorrect.


Offline Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15287
  • Liked: 7823
  • Likes Given: 2
For international projects like this, does NASA "donate" the time in a spirit of encouraging more space science?  Or do the projects need to rent time just like anyone else?

My suspicion--I don't have any hard data on this--that NASA has some kind of agreement with ISRO that they will provide DSN time in return for access to data eventually. But it could also be a goodwill gesture to foster future ties. The cost probably comes out of a DSN discretionary budget.

An interesting question is if the MOM data will go into NASA's Planetary Data System database, which would be to everybody's benefit, including ISRO's. Of course, that might only happen after an embargo date so that Indian scientists get first crack at the data.

NASA actually provided substantial help to ISRO on thermal heating issues for their lunar orbiter, and I have heard that NASA also provided behind the scenes support on MOM as well (although when I asked the MAVEN PI if he had been in touch with them he said that he tried but nobody responded).

Offline reddy

  • Member
  • Posts: 1
  • Liked: 1
  • Likes Given: 0
For international projects like this, does NASA "donate" the time in a spirit of encouraging more space science?  Or do the projects need to rent time just like anyone else?

My suspicion--I don't have any hard data on this--that NASA has some kind of agreement with ISRO that they will provide DSN time in return for access to data eventually. But it could also be a goodwill gesture to foster future ties. The cost probably comes out of a DSN discretionary budget.

An interesting question is if the MOM data will go into NASA's Planetary Data System database, which would be to everybody's benefit, including ISRO's. Of course, that might only happen after an embargo date so that Indian scientists get first crack at the data.

NASA actually provided substantial help to ISRO on thermal heating issues for their lunar orbiter, and I have heard that NASA also provided behind the scenes support on MOM as well (although when I asked the MAVEN PI if he had been in touch with them he said that he tried but nobody responded).

ISRO is paying 70 Crore rupees for DSN access, it's equivalent to $11.49 Million.

Tags:
 

Advertisement NovaTech
Advertisement Northrop Grumman
Advertisement
Advertisement Margaritaville Beach Resort South Padre Island
Advertisement Brady Kenniston
Advertisement NextSpaceflight
Advertisement Nathan Barker Photography
1