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A Perfect Launch
A Perfect Launch,India's First Mars Orbiter, Mission Orbit Mars, Mangalyaan. Mission Orbit Mars: Mangalyaan put in space for 10-month odyssey India could be first Asian and fourth nation in world to achieve the feat.
Mission Orbit Mars: Mangalyaan put in space for 10-month odyssey India could be first Asian and fourth nation in world to achieve the feat.
- 400-million-km 300-day journey began at 2.38 pm on Tuesday
- India’s trusted PSLV-C25 carried 1,340-kg Mars orbiter
- Around 44 minutes into the flight,PSLV-C25 spat out the orbiter
- A 10-month-long voyage to Mars around 12.42 am on December 1
- It is expected to reach Mars orbit by September 24, 2014
Sriharikota (Agencies): India's first Mars orbiter – the 1,350- kg Mangalyaan (Mars craft in Hindi) – successfully began an ardous 400 million-km-long journey to Mars on Tuesday, making the country the first Asian and the fourth in the world to undertake a mission to the red planet in the hope of finding methane and minerals. US, Russia and European Union undertook missions earlier.
The Mars missions of China and Japan have failed. India's Rs 450-crore (about $72.9 million) Mars orbiter was successfully placed in orbit by an Indian rocket in what scientists said was a flawless launch. Exactly at 2.38 pm, the Indian- made rocket - Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C25 (PSLV-C25) standing around 44 metres tall and weighing around 320 tonnes - rose from its launching pad slowly, and then gathered speed as it zoomed into the skies on a plume of fiery orange flames.
The textbook lift-off was witnessed among others by Minister of State in PMO V Narayanasamy, US Ambassador to India Nancy Powell, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K Radhakrishnan and a host of other officials. The expendable rocket, costing around Rs 110 crore, had a single but important luggage, the 1,340-kg Mars orbiter costing around Rs150 crore. Around Rs 90 crore has been spent on augmenting the ground support/tracking systems.
The orbiter now heads to the red planet that gets its red hue from the iron in its soil. Named after the ancient Roman god of war, Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the planet closest to Earth. NASA says Mars is about onesixth the size of Earth.
UR Rao, a former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) head, said the country could afford the spend. "India spends around Rs 5,000 crore on Diwali purchases and Rs 450 crore to reach Mars is affordable," he said, commenting on criticism that a poor country like India cannot spend so much on space missions.
Its scientific mission will be to explore the Mars surface features, morphology, or the study of organisms, mineralogy, the study of minerals, and Martian atmosphere by all India-made scientific instruments. India began its space journey way back in 1975 with the launch of Aryabhatta, using a Russian rocket and, till date, it has accomplished over 100 space missions. At around 44 minutes into the flight, PSLV-C25 spat out the Mars orbiter.
On the successful ejection, scientists at the mission control centre were visibly relieved and started clapping happily while the tracking systems began their work. Minutes after its launch, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a tweet congratulated ISRO scientists for "successful initiation of Mars Mission and wishes for its successful future". President Pranab Mukherjee described it as "a landmark in our space programme". "Now it will be a complex mission to take the Mars orbiter from the Earth's orbit to Mars orbit," K Radhakrishnan, the ISRO chairman, said post-launch. According to him, in September 2014 the orbiter will be around Mars and it will then be placed in Mars orbit. U R Rao, a former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) head, said the country could afford the spend.
"India spends around Rs 5,000 crore on Diwali purchases and Rs.450 crore to reach Mars is affordable," he said. The objectives of ISRO's Mars mission are two fold - technological and scientific. The technological objectives include design and realisation of Mars orbiter with a capability to survive and perform Earth-bound manoeuvres, cruise phase of 300 days, Mars orbit insertion/capture, and onorbit phase around Mars.
It will also enable deep space communication, navigation, mission planning and management and incorporate autonomous features to handle contingency situations. In 2008, India expanded its space explorations with its maiden Moon mission - Chandrayaan-1. The mission led to the discovery of water on the Moon.
The country is planning another Moon mission in two years' time. According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials, the Mars orbiter will orbit the Earth till November 30 and then its motors will be fired to push it towards the red plane
