Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)
Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is ISRO's first interplanetary mission to planet Mars with a spacecraft designed to orbit in an elliptical orbit of 372 km by 80,000 km in 9 months time. PSLV injected the spacecraft from SDSC, SHAR in the 250 x 23,000 km orbit. As the minimum energy transfer opportunity from Earth to Mars occurs once in 26 months, the opportunity in 2013 demands a cumulative incremental velocity of 2.592 km/sec
The MOM mission concept began with a feasibility study in 2010, after the launch of lunar satellite Chandrayaan-1 in 2008. The government of India approved the project on 3 August 2012, after the Indian Space Research Organisation completed INR1.25 billion (US$21 million) of required studies for the orbiter.The total project cost may be up to INR4.54 billion (US$74 million).The satellite costs INR1.53 billion (US$25 million) and the rest of the budget has been attributed to ground stations and relay upgrades that will be used for other ISRO projects.The space agency had initially planned the launch on 28 October 2013 but was postponed to 5 November 2013 following the delay in ISRO's spacecraft tracking ships to take up pre-determined positions due to poor weather in the Pacific Ocean. Launch opportunities for a fuel-saving Hohmann transfer orbit occur about every 26 months, in this case, 2016 and 2018. The Mars Orbiter's on-orbit mission life will be between six and ten months.
The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), informally called Mangalyaan, is a Mars orbiter launched into Earth orbit on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was successfully inserted into orbit of Mars on 24 September 2014 making India the only country in the world to enter the orbit in first attempt. The mission is a "technology demonstrator" project aiming to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management, and operations of an interplanetary mission.
The Mars Orbiter Mission probe lifted-off from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket C25 at 09:08 UTC (14:38 IST) on 5 November 2013.The launch window was approximately 20 days long and started on 28 October 2013.The MOM probe spent about a month in Earth orbit, where it made a series of seven altitude-raising orbital manoeuvres before trans-Mars injection on 30 November 2013 (UTC).
The Satellite experiments:
- Payload primary Objective: Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP) Escape process of Mars upper atmosphere through Deuterium/Hydrogen.
- Methane Scanner: Martian Exospheric Compositions Explorer
- Optical Imaging TIR: Image Spectrometer (TIS) to map surface composition and mineralogy
Space Capsule Recovery Experiment to realize a fully recoverable capsule and provide a platform to conduct micro gravity experiments on Micro-biology, Agricultural, Powder Metallurgy , etc.,
It is India's first interplanetary mission and ISRO has become the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after the Soviet space program, NASA, and the European Space Agency. India becomes the first country to enter Martian orbit in the first try. The spacecraft is currently being monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennae at Byalalu.
Team Members Working on the MOM Mission:
- K. Radhakrishan – Chairman, ISRO
- A. S. Kiran Kumar – Director, SAC
- V. Adimurthy - Mission Concept Designer, MOM
- Mylswamy Annadurai – Programme Director, MOM
- B. S. Chandrashekar – Director, ISTRAC
- P. Robert – Operations Director, MOM
- Subbiah Arunan – Project Director, MOM
- V. Kesavaraju – Post-Launch Mission Director, MOM
- P. Ekambaram – Operations Director, MOM
- P. Kunhikrishnan – Launch Mission Director, PSLV-XL
- S. K. Shivkumar – Orbiting payload Director, ISAC
- B. Jayakumar – Launch Vehicle Director, PSLV
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