Mangalyaan, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Rs 450-crore (69 million USD) spacecraftMars, blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota islandat 2.38 pm IST (+5:30 GMT) All parameters were normal at the time of the launch and the first and most critical stage of the launch completed rather successfully. The vehicle data stations, which have been collecting the data, indicate that the progress of Mangalyam so far, has been very good. The Mangalyaan orbiter has successfully separated from PSLV rocket and it has placed the satellite exactly as per plan into a specified orbit.
Visibly happy ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan, stated:
“It has been a new and complex mission for us. I want to salute the entire ISRO community,” he said. “It is a perfect mission. But this is the first step and there is more to go. We have crossed a major first milestone. I thank the entire ISRO team. No mission is beyond our capability,” Radhakrishnan said.
Mission to Mars
A successful interplanetary venture makes India the sixth country to venture towards Mars after Russia, United States, Japan, Europe and China. So far, there have been 51 missions to Mars, these are predominantly from the US, Russia and from the European agency. The success rate is hovering around 50 per cent.
Mangalyaan will prominently showcase Indian scientific capability but beyond that, Indian has already demonstrated a few skills on cost-efficient engineering. The cost of this mission is estimated to be around $69 million (Rs 450 crore). The cost of America’s scheduled launch during mid-November is supposed to be around $671 million (around Rs 4,093 crore). ISRO attributed the cost difference to successful indigenisation. Though because of various factors two efforts cannot be compared apple to apple ISRO’s cost of launching is “definitely” one of the cheapest across the globe.
The timing of the this kind of interplanetary mission launch is crucial and the launch window was open till November 19. The current scenario allows a very rare trajectory formation with Earth, Mars and the sun forming an angle of 44 degrees. This opens up the opportunity to save substantial energy savings. It was critical because such trajectory occurs at intervals of about 780 days with the next window happening only in January 2016 and thereafter in May 2018.
Mangalyaan is expected to reach the Martian orbit by September 2014. According to d ISRO officials the life of the spacecraft in that orbit is six months. Going by the extended life of the current missions Mangalyaan could well last for six-seven years.
Main Objectives
The main objectives of this mission are twofold. Mangalyaan is to showcase India’s ability,acquired knowledge and the technical know-how. Secondly, it is supposed to conduct various tests to confirm if Mars ever had an environment conducive to life. This will be confirmed by exploring the planet’s surface, topography, mineralogy and atmosphere. Five compact and lightweight scientific instruments, totalling just 15 kg will make these experiments possible.
Mangalyaan will work closely with NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, which is scheduled to lift off shortly.
“As you prepare for your launch to Mars, do not forget one of the few, but important actions: pass around the peanuts!” NASA had wished ISRO. The allusion is in the tradition of peanuts being handed out at every American launch since 1964. NASA will specifically help with communications and navigation aspects to make the mission of Mangalyaan a success. NASA’s MAVEN will be launched from Kennedy Space Center on November 18.
“If all goes well, NASA’s MAVEN and ISRO’s MOM will work together to address the mysteries of Mars atmosphere. We plan to collaborate on some overlapping objectives,” Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN’s principal investigator from the University of Colorado at Boulder, told Universe Today. He further stated, “There are some overlapping objectives between MAVEN and MOM, and we have had some discussions with the Indian scientific team.”
Criticism
This mission of Mars has its own share of criticisms. There are concerns within India about the necessity of such costly mission, marking it as wasteful activity – an activity that is not linked to benefit the poor people in India’s population. Most of the Western nations consider this kind of missions to be too expensive for themselves. When the Indian prime minister,Manmohan Singh announced this mission during a speech to mark the 65th anniversary of India’s independence there has been suggestions that the funding for the mission comes through the aids of Western Countries and the same should be better spent on key infrastructure projects. In the United Kingdom, political and media critics have pointed out that the £280 million of the UK’s annual economic aid to India was indirectly funding India’s exploratory space program – funding that the UK’s own space program desperately needs, Others have noted that India’s economic growth is now significantly faster than the UK’s and that soon India’s total wealth will surpass it.
Author: Technology Blog
