India's first interplanetary mission, Mars Orbiter Mission(MOM) Mangalyaan successfully entered the planet Mars orbit, today morning ...
The 440N Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) along with eight smaller liquid engines were fired for a duration of about 24 minutes to enter the Mars orbit.
Mangalyaan is now circling in an elliptical 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.
With the successful mission, India became the fourth country to reach Mars, after US, Europe and Russia, and the first country to achieve this in maiden mission. Earlier attempts by China and Japan failed to reach Mars.
The probe, was launched by India's workhorse PSLV-C25 launch vehicle on November 5, 2013 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
The 1,337 kg spacecraft (dry mass 500 kg) has a 15 kg (33 lb) scientific payload consisting five instruments, Lyman-Alpha Photometer, Methane Sensor For Mars, Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser, Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer and Mars Colour Camera.
The program was executed at a fractional cost of $74 million, when compared to NASA’s $617 million MAVEN, which entered Mars orbit on September 21, but MAVEN has better capabilities.
All the technologies for the mission were indigenously developed without any foreign help, showing the prowess of Indian capabilities. The spacecraft travelled 670 million kilometres to reach the Mars orbit.
In the coming weeks, the spacecraft will be thoroughly tested in the Mars orbit and the systematic observation of that planet using its five scientific instruments would begin.
