1st anniversary of Mangalyaan launch

After the Mars orbiter spacecraft's successful encounter with comet Siding Spring, a major hurdle was over and the satellite is now in a normal phase of the mission to proceed with other experiments.

"One thing that was quite satisfying was that the satellite survived this comet, there was absolutely no problem... It happened between October 19 and 20. It has been about ten days since then. Things are going on as planned," ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) director SK Shivakumar said.

Exactly a year ago, ISRO's PSLV C25 launched India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) from Sriharikota. The Mangalyaan entered the Martian orbit on September 24, 2014, propelling India into the big league of astronomy.

“Mars Orbiter Mission is a technology demonstrator which shows that we can send a spacecraft to Mars. Within 10 years, ISRO plans to land robots on Mars to study rocks, followed by astronauts in the next 50-60 years. Within this century, some sort of a colony to halt or refuel or serve as a check post will be pursued,” says BG Siddharth, founding director of the BM Birla Science Centre, Hyderabad.

It is India's first interplanetary mission and ISRO has become the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after the Soviet Space Programme, NASA, and the European Space Agency. It is also the first nation to reach Mars orbit on its first attempt, and the first Asian nation to do so.

The spacecraft is currently being monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennae at Byalalu.

The total cost of the mission was approximately 450 crore, making it the least-expensive Mars mission to date. The low cost of the mission was ascribed by K Radhakrishnan, the chairman of ISRO, to various factors, including a "modular approach", a small number of ground tests and long (18-20 hour) working days for scientists. BBC's Jonathan Amos mentioned lower worker costs, home-grown technologies, simpler design, and significantly less complicated payload than NASA's MAVEN. It was pointed out that the cost was equivalent to less than a single bus ride for each of India's population of 1.2 billion.

During its stay on Mars, Mangalyaan will survey the surface of the planet and send data and photographs. Pictures of the recent dust storm on Mars will throw light on the environment of the planet.

“Mars is like a desert now. Winds are produced in its small atmosphere as the planet rotates leading to dust storms. The dust is partly rust so it looks red,” quoted Dr Siddharth. The Birla Science Centre in Hyderabad plans to have a comprehensive programme with special shows on Mars throughout the year. The Planetary Society of India has an ongoing programme titled “Mission to Mars and Beyond” in schools. In this programme various activities like sky observation, quiz, essays and talks were conducted.

N Sri Raghunandan Kumar, director and founder, Planetary Society of India, says, “The mission has generated interest among children and has the potential to inspire future scientists. As far as the data that comes out of the Mission on Mars, the benefits to the common man and results can be seen ten years from now.”

India's Mars orbiter Mangalyaan's journey to red planet Chronology of events that traces the journey of Mangalyaan which lasted over 300 days

• November 5, 2013: ISRO's PSLV C25 launches India's Mars Orbiter Mission from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
• November 7, 2013: First Earth-bound manoeuvre performed.
• November 8, 2013: Second Earth-bound manoeuvre performed.
• November 9, 2013: Third Earth-bound manoeuvre performed.
• November 11, 2013: Fourth Earth-bound manoeuvre performed.
• November 12, 2013: Fifth Earth-bound manoeuvre performed.
• November 16, 2013: Sixth Earth-bound manoeuvre performed.
• December 1, 2013: Mars Orbiter Mission leaves Earth's orbit, Trans-Mars Injection performed.
• December 4, 2013: Mars Orbiter Mission leaves Earth's Sphere of Influence of 9.25 lakh km radius.
• December 11, 2013: First course correction manoeuvre performed on the spacecraft.
• June 11, 2014: Second course correction manoeuvre executed.
• September 22, 2014: Mars Orbiter Mission enters Mars' Gravitational Sphere of Influence; 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor test fired after over 300 days of dormancy; last trajectory correction manoeuvre performed.
• September 24, 2014: Mars Orbiter Mission reaches the intended orbit around Mars, making India the first country in the world to have successfully launched its mission to the red planet on the very first attempt.