India’s first ever mission to Mars "Mangalyaan" completed its first stage

India’s first ever mission to Mars "Mangalyaan" completed its first stage

>>India’s first ever mission to Mars successfully completed its first stage on Tuesday, as a rocket carrying the Mangalyaan Mars orbiter delivered the spacecraft into earth’s orbit, some 45 minutes after lift-off.

>> "I am happy to announce that the Mars orbiter mission first phase is a success," said Indian Space Research Organisation chairman K Radhakrishnan soon after the rocket injected the spacecraft into an Earth orbit about 45 minutes of flight. About 90 minutes after a drizzle raised minor concerns about weather among lay people, the 44.4m PSLV-C25 carrying in its head India's first Mars orbiter, lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 2.38pm.

>> The textbook lift-off of ISRO’s workhorse launch vehicle PSLV C25 at 2.38 p.m. from Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, about 100 km from Chennai, was witnessed among others by Minister of State in PMO, V. Narayanasamy, US Ambassador to India, Nancy Powell, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman, K. Radhakrishnan, and a host of other officials.

>> The XL version of PSLV C 25 had carried Chandrayaan 1, the country’s maiden moon mission, in 2008.

>> After going around Earth for 20-25 days in an elliptical orbit (perigee of 250 km and apogee of 23,500 km), the Rs 450-crore orbiter would begin a nine-month long voyage to Mars around 12.42 a.m. on December 1.

>> It is expected to reach the red planet’s orbit by September 24, 2014 and go around in an elliptical orbit (periapsis of 366 km and apo-apsis of 80,000 km).

>> The Mars mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation is aimed at establishing the country’s capability to reach the red planet and focus on looking for the presence of methane, an indicator of life in Mars.

>> Mars Orbiter has five scientific instruments — Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP), Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM), Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA), Mars Colour Camera (MCC) and Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS).

>> European Space Agency (ESA) of the European consortium, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US and Roscosmos of Russia are the three agencies which have successfully sent their missions to the red planet.

>> India would be the sixth after the US, USSR/Russia, European Union, China and Japan to launch a Mars mission.