>> Creating history, ISRO's Mars
Orbiter Mission (MOM) on Wednesday successfully entered the orbit of the red
planet. With this, India has become the first nation in the world to have
entered the Mars orbit in the first attempt. ISRO's MOM is also the cheapest
such mission till now.
>> Indian Space Research
Organisation's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft started orbiting the red
planet at 7.47am, but it was only 12 minutes later —because of a time delay in
radio signals travelling the 680 million km -- that scientists at Isro
Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bangalore, could erupt in joy as
Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood a happy witness.
>> The scientists had waited for more
than 300 days as MOM journeyed on through space, but the last 54 minutes were
virtually unbearable. For, it was during this period that the orbiter first
reoriented itself and then fired its engine and thrusters for about 24 minutes
to get into the Mars orbit.
>> Prime Minister Narendra Modi
congratulated the Isro scientists over the success. "MOM never
disappoints," he told applauding scientists at the Isro Telemetry,
Tracking and Command Network in Bangalore. "India is the first country to
get this right in the first attempt," he said.
>> With MOM successfully entering the
red planet's orbit, ISRO on Wednesday also launched the MOM's official Twitter
handle, @MarsOrbiter.
>> With the success of Mars Orbiter
Mission (MOM), India has joined the United States, European Space Agency and
the former Soviet Union in the elite club of Martian explorers.
>> Interestingly, India's MOM is also
the world's cheapest inter-planetary mission costing around Rs 450 crores or 74
million USD, which is a tenth of NASA's Mars mission MAVEN that entered the
Martian orbit on September 22.
>> It aims to study Mars' surface and
mineral composition, and scan its atmosphere for methane with the help of
scientific instruments.
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