Things you must know about ‘Mangalyaan’- ISRO Mars mission
India has launched its Mars mission ‘Mangalyaan’
from the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) centre at Sriharikota on
05 November 2013 (Tuesday). If it goes well, India will join the league of
countries like America, Russia and Europe to undertake a successful Mars
mission.
The important move by India is being watched by the world. Here are
some of the highlights of the Mars mission of India:
Distance to Mars: 400 million km
Duration of journey: 300 days
Launch time: 23 minutes as the rocket will
be visible to ISRO through its own ground for this period.
Mars orbit insertion date: September 12, 2014
Next major date: November 30, when the
aircraft will begin its journey to Mars. Before this date, it will continue to
revolve around Earth
Cost of mission: Rs 450 crore
MISSION'S OBJECTIVES
# Orbit manoeuvres to ensure final capture
into Martian orbit
# Development of force models and
algorithms for orbit and attitude computations and analyses
# Maintain the probe in all phases of the
mission, meeting power, communications, thermal and payload operation
requirements
# Look for methane on Mars, for detection
of life on the planet
EYE ON THE SKY
# During the launch, the Mangalyaan Mission
will be tracked by two specially equippeed Shipping Corporation of India
ships--Yamuna and Nalanda, positioned in the South Pacific Ocean.
# During its journey from Earth to Mars,
the MarsOrbiter will be tracked using the Indian Deep Space Network at Baylalu
on the outskirts of Bangalore and sea-borne S-band terminals.
# At the time of the Mars capture in
September 2014, tracking and communication with the satelite will be done using
the 70-metre antenna of NASA's deep space network at Canberra in Australia.
The Team
S
K Shivakumar: The Director of the ISRO Satellite
Centre, which built the Mars Orbiter and spacecraft. An engineer from the
Indian Institute of Science, he was earlier the head of ISRO's telemetry, tracking
and command network, ISTRAC.
Dr
Mylswamy Annnadurai: The Programme Director of IRS & SSS
(Indian Remote Sensing & Small, Science and Student Satellites) at ISRO, he
was the project director of the Moon Mission and is overseeing the one to Mars as
well.
P
Kunhikrishnan: He is the Mission Director for the
launcher. From the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram,
Kunhikrishnan has seven successful PSLV launches under his belt since 2009.
S
Arunan: The Project Director for the Mars Orbiter. For the
senior scientist with the ISRO Satellite Centre, the Mars Mission is a maiden
venture as Project Director. His team created the Mars Orbiter for ISRO in 12
months.
Dr
V Kesavaraju: The Mission Director for the post-launch
operations. A team led by Dr Kesavaraju of the ISRO Satellite Centre will monitor
the Mars Mission following its launch, including tracking it in outer space.
Inputs
from: The Indian Express
