Indian Martian exploration program

[CrYsIs]

update from ISRO

The health of ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission Spacecraft is normal.

In the fourth orbit raising operation conducted this morning (02:06 Hrs IST) the apogee of MOM spacecraft was raised to 78,276 km against the targeted apogee of about one lakh km.

This is because the incremental velocity imparted to the spacecraft was 35 m/s against the targeted 130 m/s.

A supplementary orbit raising operation is planned at 05:00 hrs IST on November 12 to raise the apogee to nearly one lakh km.

A detailed press note is appearing shortly on ISRO website.

 

[Free Karma]

update from ISRO

Aaa...I want to know the reason only that velocity was imparted! ISRO not telling me the reason arrrgh!

Anyway whatever it is, I just hope it is solved and the mission can go on normally!

 

[Free Karma]

ISRO's press release of what happened during the orbit raising early morning

Supplementary Orbit Raising Manoeuvre Planned for Mars Orbiter Spacecraft
In the fourth orbit-raising operation conducted this morning (Nov 11, 2013), the apogee (farthest point to Earth) of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft was raised from 71,623 km to 78,276 km by imparting an incremental velocity of 35 metres/second (as against 130 metres/second originally planned to raise apogee to about 100,000 [1 lakh] km). The spacecraft is in normal health. A supplementary orbit-raising operation is planned tomorrow (November 12, 2013) at 0500 hrs IST to raise the apogee to nearly 1 lakh km.

During the orbit-raising operations conducted since November 7, 2013, ISRO has been testing and exercising the autonomy functions progressively, that are essential for Trans-Mars Injection (TMI) and Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI).

During the first three orbit-raising operations, the prime and redundant chains of gyros, accelerometers, 22 Newton attitude control thrusters, attitude and orbit control electronics as well as the associated logics for their fault detection isolation, and reconfiguration have been exercised successfully. The prime and redundant star sensors have been functioning satisfactorily. The primary coil of the solenoid flow control valve was used successfully for the first three orbit-raising operations.

During the fourth orbit-raising operations held today (November 11, 2013), the redundancies built-in for the propulsion system were exercised, namely, (a) energising the primary and redundant coils of the solenoid flow control valve of 440 Newton Liquid Engine and (b) logic for thrust augmentation by the attitude control thrusters, when needed. However, when both primary and redundant coils were energised together, as one of the planned modes, the flow to the Liquid Engine stopped. The thrust level augmentation logic, as expected, came in and the operation continued using the attitude control thrusters. This sequence resulted in reduction of the incremental velocity.

While this parallel mode of operating the two coils is not possible for subsequent operations, they could be operated independently in sequence

Welcome To ISRO :: Press Release :: November 11, 2013

So basically they were testing a lot of things on this trip, and this mode where both redundant systems and prime systems were powered the flow to the main engine stopped. so when they fire up the systems tomorrow, it should be placed in the 1 lakh km orbt.

 

[Free Karma]

Good news from the ISRO facebook page :thumb::thumb:

The supplementary orbit
raising manoeuver of #ISRO #Mangalyaan , to raise the
apogee height to about 1
lakh km completed
successfully. Velocity
added is 124.9 m/s.

and From the ISRO website:

Fourth supplementary orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 05:03:50 hrs(IST) on Nov 12, 2013, with a burn Time of 303.8 seconds has been successfully completed.The observed change in Apogee is from 78276km to 118642km.

ISRO: Mars Orbiter Mission

 

[pmaitra]

Good news from the ISRO facebook page :thumb::thumb:


and From the ISRO website:


ISRO: Mars Orbiter Mission

Man, you brought in good news! Thanks for that!

Let's hope everything goes smoothly hereafter.

 

[pmaitra]

Date
12-11-2013
Fourth supplementary orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 05:03:50 hrs(IST) on Nov 12, 2013, with a burn Time of 303.8 seconds has been successfully completed.The observed change in Apogee is from 78276km to 118642km.
11-11-2013
In the fourth orbit-raising operation conducted this morning (Nov 11, 2013), the apogee (farthest point to Earth) of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft was raised from 71,623 km to 78,276 km by imparting an incremental velocity of 35 metres/second (as against 130 metres/second originally planned to raise apogee to about 100,000 [1 lakh] km). The spacecraft is in normal health. More..
09-11-2013
The third orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 02:10:43 hrs(IST) on Nov 09, 2013, with a burn time of 707 seconds has been successfully completed.The observed change in Apogee is from 40186km to 71636km.
08-11-2013
The second orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 02:18:51 hrs(IST) on Nov 08, 2013, with a burn time of 570.6 seconds has been successfully completed.The observed change in Apogee is from 28814 km to 40186 km.
07-11-2013
The first orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 01:17 hrs(IST) on Nov 07, 2013 has been successfully completed More..
05-11-2013
PSLV-C25, in its twenty fifth flight, successfully launches Mars Orbiter Mission Spacecraft from SDSC SHAR Sriharikota

From ISRO updates: ISRO: Mars Orbiter Mission

 

[pmaitra]

Mythbusting India's Mars Mission

The successful launch of India's Mars Orbiter Mission is a major step forward for an advancing Asian space power. The global space community has applauded the flight, which will help the world to better understand the red planet.

It's thus surprising to see such a high tide of denouncements and misjudgements for this mission circulating in the media and online forums. Weeks ago, we saw naive criticisms of China's upcoming Moon rover by a Chinese scientist in the Hong Kong press. Now India is in the line of fire with even more dubious comments. What's going on?

Some of this seems to stem from surprise. India has operated one of the world's most advanced space programs for decades, but it has largely escaped the limelight. This has partially been due to some bad communications strategies, but it's also because the program has been more focused on utilitarian goals than headline-grabbing feats in space. India operates its own space launch vehicles and builds its own satellites.

It is also one of a small number of nations to have successfully recovered a satellite from space. Indian satellites are used in communications, weather observation and land management. This vast nation would be much worse off without the benefits of its space program.

The high-profile Mars mission has served as a wake-up call to many people who don't pay much attention to spaceflight. They should understand that this Mars mission is simply another step in a large, long and diverse space program. India has been in space with force for decades. If this mission serves as a wake-up call for the world, so be it.

There are criticisms that money spent on the mission could or should be spent elsewhere. Such dubious claims have been made for every nation that has ventured into space. Generally, these theories have been proven to be somewhat bunk. Stopping space missions does not stop poverty. They also neglect the true economics of the mission. The Mars Orbiter Mission uses a moderately priced, existing launch vehicle design.

It also recycles an existing spacecraft body design, with modifications for deep space. While it is not as sophisticated as other current Mars missions, the pricetag for the Mars Orbiter mission is measured in the tens of millions of dollars. This is truly Mars exploration on a shoestring budget. India's Mars program promises to return useful engineering and scientific data for a price that puts other space agencies to shame!

The science looks good, too. There have been some criticisms of the decision to include a methane detector on the mission. Recent results from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover suggest that methane gas will be hard to find in the Martian atmosphere, and the Indian detector will return a negative result. This expectation is sometimes presented as if there is no point in flying the methane experiment on the Mars Orbiter Mission.

Again, this is silly. Science is not a treasure hunt. It is the quest for truth, even when the truth is not as inspiring as our expectations. The Indian mission will nicely complement the ground data from NASA's rover. Two independent results from different missions in different places will forge a stronger case. There is probably no methane on Mars, and the data from these two missions will settle the question.

In addition, there are four other scientific payloads on the mission, including a colour camera. All of them are worthwhile. The heavy focus on the Martian atmosphere by this mission also offers more bang for the buck.

The fate of the Martian atmosphere, which is believed to have been thicker in the past, is one of the hottest questions in planetary science today. Like NASA's upcoming MAVEN mission, itself largely focused on atmospheric questions, India's orbiter will help to resolve other mysteries besides the hunt for methane.

Good science. National pride. Technical advances. Inspiration for the world. India's first step towards Mars is worth the price.

Dr Morris Jones is an Australian space analyst who has written for spacedaily.com since 1999. Email morrisjonesNOSPAMhotmail.com. Replace NOSPAM with @ to send email. Dr Jones will answer media inquiries.

Source: Mythbusting India's Mars Mission

 

[pmaitra]

I think I read somewhere as to why India has to perform this orbit raising in the middle of the night. Well, it all boils down to where the satellite is via-à-vis the Sun, and not where the satellite is via-à-vis where India is w.r.t the Sun. The orbit raising has to begin at perihelion, i.e. when the satellite is closest to the Sun. It is possible that the satellite might be at perihelion when it is daytime in India, but this might not always be the case.

Anyway, here is an interesting explanation how this orbit raising will eventually send the satellite to Mars.
Link: Basics of Space Flight Section I. The Environment of Space

I will give a simplified explanation:
The satellite might orbit the Earth or Mars, but at all times, it is also orbiting the Sun.
The idea is to keep it orbiting the Sun while gradually raising the orbit of the satellite around the Sun, so that, it leaves the Earth's orbit and enters the Mars' orbit.

 

[Free Karma]

^^ No that is actually incorrect, it is still orbiting the earth, an orbit is defined as a the path around an object in space, and the only thing that the orbiter goes around is the earth, the current orbit is called the parking earth orbit.. The suns influence mainly comes into play only on nov 30th, when it is given the impulse to break out of earth's orbit. If you meant going around the sun implicitly due to orbiting the earth, then yeah, your sort of right, but you wouldnt really call it orbiting the sun.

The sun at this point in time does not even really influence the orbiter too much as compared to the earth, The Earth has a much stronger pull on it., you can calculate it yourself by using F=G * (m1*m1)/r^2, roughtly comes to about 12k at the perigee and 35 at the apogee, for the sun it is roughly 7 or so, with the next burn the force of the earth at the apogee will come down to 16 or so, and the next one on 30th will free it and come under the influence of the sun.

The reason for why it is done during perigee is because of efficiency, a burn at the perigee increases the apogee and increases orbital velocity, while a burn at the apogee decreases the apogee, and reduces the orbital velocity, so the closer you are to the perigee, the better it is in terms of increasing the apogee and the speed, and most of the perigees seem to happen at that late night time.

 

[Compersion]

Loved the headline that appeared in the morning:

Mars orbiter bounces back; raring to go at 1.18 lakh kilometres

Mars orbiter bounces back; raring to go at 1.18 lakh kilometres - The Times of India

CHENNAI: India's first Mars orbiter spacecraft bounced back into action after a day of concern, when Isro scientists raised its apogee (farthest point from Earth) to more than 1 lakh kilometres on Tuesday.


"The orbit-raising operation was a success, " Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan messaged TOI early on Tuesday. "We are expecting an apogee of 1.18 lakh km." This means that the spacecraft is ready to leave Earth's orbit. This exercise, called the trans-Martian injection is planned on December 1.

On Monday, a halt in the flow of the liquid engine had slowed down the orbit-raising operation, as an apogee of only 71,623km could be achieved as against the desired orbit of 1 lakh km. This was corrected with Tuesday's exercise.

What saved the spacecraft were the redundancies (back-up systems) on board the spacecraft.

"When both the primary and redundant coils were energised together, as one of the planned modes, the flow to the liquid engine stopped. The thrust level augmentation logic, as expected, came in and the operation continued using the attitude control thrusters. This sequence resulted in reduction of incremental velocity," Isro said in a statement.

Scientists said the spacecraft is in good health to achieve its objectives including the trans-Martian injection on December 1, and the 400-million km cruise to the red planet in 300 days.

"During the orbit-raising operations conducted since November 7, 2013, Isro has been testing and exercising the autonomy functions progressively. The prime and redundant star sensors have been functioning satisfactorily. The primary coil of the solenoid flow control valve was used successfully for the first three orbit-raising operations," Isro said.

The drawback means the planned simultaneous operation of two coils would not be possible anymore, but if the rest of the operations happen as planned, the spacecraft will reach the Martian orbit on September 24.

 

[Abhijeet Dey]

Pakistan Outcry on India's Mangalyaan "Mars Orbiter Mission"

LINK: youtube.com/watch?v=mnzsVfACpGw

youtube.com/watch?v=LLC8Qs22Dao
@Blackwater

 

[angeldude13]

Pakistan Outcry on India's Mangalyaan "Mars Orbiter Mission"

LINK: youtube.com/watch?v=mnzsVfACpGw

youtube.com/watch?v=LLC8Qs22Dao

bwahahahaha.....

Paki dumb b8tch is comparing a cheap sh8t missile to a f@cking PSLV

 

[Blackwater]

Pakistan Outcry on India's Mangalyaan "Mars Orbiter Mission"

LINK: youtube.com/watch?v=mnzsVfACpGw

youtube.com/watch?v=LLC8Qs22Dao
@Blackwater

Typical pakis , gaand me dum nahi, hum kissi se kam nahi

 

[pmaitra]

^^ No that is actually incorrect, it is still orbiting the earth, an orbit is defined as a the path around an object in space, and the only thing that the orbiter goes around is the earth, the current orbit is called the parking earth orbit.. The suns influence mainly comes into play only on nov 30th, when it is given the impulse to break out of earth's orbit. If you meant going around the sun implicitly due to orbiting the earth, then yeah, your sort of right, but you wouldnt really call it orbiting the sun.

The sun at this point in time does not even really influence the orbiter too much as compared to the earth, The Earth has a much stronger pull on it., you can calculate it yourself by using F=G * (m1*m1)/r^2, roughtly comes to about 12k at the perigee and 35 at the apogee, for the sun it is roughly 7 or so, with the next burn the force of the earth at the apogee will come down to 16 or so, and the next one on 30th will free it and come under the influence of the sun.

The reason for why it is done during perigee is because of efficiency, a burn at the perigee increases the apogee and increases orbital velocity, while a burn at the apogee decreases the apogee, and reduces the orbital velocity, so the closer you are to the perigee, the better it is in terms of increasing the apogee and the speed, and most of the perigees seem to happen at that late night time.

Yes, it is more of an implicit orbit around the Sun. Here is the excerpt from the article:

To launch a spacecraft from Earth to an outer planet such as Mars using the least propellant possible, first consider that the spacecraft is already in solar orbit as it sits on the launch pad. This existing solar orbit must be adjusted to cause it to take the spacecraft to Mars: The desired orbit's perihelion (closest approach to the sun) will be at the distance of Earth's orbit, and the aphelion (farthest distance from the sun) will be at the distance of Mars' orbit. This is called a Hohmann Transfer orbit. The portion of the solar orbit that takes the spacecraft from Earth to Mars is called its trajectory.

It is not really an orbit around the Sun, per se; just that we should consider it in a quasi-orbit around the Sun.

What you are saying is correct. The Sun's orbit comes into effect on Nov 30.

 

[Free Karma]

Payload testing next week!

AHMEDABAD: After having successfully tackled a momentary glitch in Mangalyaan's orbital manoeuvres on Monday, Isro scientists have postponed a crucial exercise. The exercise is to test the five instruments aboard the Mangalyaan before the orbiter embarks on its long journey to Mars in early December. The instruments were to be activated on Monday this week for a brief while to ensure that they work fine. But this procedure will now be carried out next week.

Mangalyaan had completed its first three of the total six planned manoeuvres within Earth's influence. It's fourth manoeuvre which was conducted early morning on Monday had failed.

Isro Ahmedabad's Space Applications Center ( SAC) has played a pivotal role in designing three of the five payloads that are on the orbiter. They include the Mars Colour Camera (MCC), Methane Sensors for Mars (MSM) and the Thermal-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS). While the colour camera will send back the first 'colour' images by any Isro satellite from outer space, the methane sensors will send back signals of methane presence around Earth.

"The exercise of activating the instruments on board has been postponed as we wanted to be doubly sure that the apogee-raising manoeuvre happens flawlessly," says a senior Isro official.

On Monday, Isro reported a halt in the flow of the liquid engine, which had had slowed down the orbit-raising operation, as an apogee of only 71,623km could be achieved against the desired orbit of 1 lakh km. The rocket firing imparted a velocity of 35 metres per second to the spacecraft, which was one-third of what was needed to achieve the desired orbit.

Lets hope we can get some awesome pictures of earth and India, before mangalyaan begins it's long journey to mars!

I'm trying to find out more info on the camera, like the resolution and such, but no luck.

 

[Free Karma]

Final Orbit Raising is complete!! :thumb:

The fifth orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 01:27 hrs(IST) on Nov 16, 2013, with a burn Time of 243.5 seconds has been successfully completed.The observed change in Apogee is from 118642km to 192874km.

ISRO: Mars Orbiter Mission

So now just testing of payloads and then setting the orbiter in the mars trans planetary orbit!

 

[Free Karma]

The first picture from Mangalyaan!!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mangalyaan/131576316859048

First pic from #Mangalyaan

We have a nice little thing to
share with all of you...
yesterday in the process of
testing our payloads we
turned the Mars Color
Camera towards the Earth and switched it on... and
here is the "First ever image
of Earth Taken by Mars
Color Camera" This image was taken
yesterday at around 1350
hrs from a height of almost
70,000 km above earth and
has a spatial resolution of
3.5 km... We are certain we're going to get some
great shots in the orbit of
Mars ..

 

[pmaitra]

Re: India all set to give go ahead for Mars mission

High Resolution image of the earth from the India's Mars Orbiter Mission - courtesy ISRO.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

First image of the Earth by Mars Color Camera (MCC) of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft taken on
Nov 19, 2013 at 13:50 hrs (IST) from 67975 km altitude with a resolution of 3.53 km

A resolution of 3.52 km? Are they using a cell phone camera?

 

[pmaitra]

A resolution of 3.52 km? Are they using a cell phone camera?

Usually, the (elliptical) orbits are made in such a way that it spends most of the time on a certain country. In the case of PSLV, it is India. Now, to ensure that a satellite spends more time on a particular country, the apogee has to be on that country, thus, taking it far away from the earth.

Here is an example of the Molniya Orbit, which was designed to ensure that the satellite spent more time over the territory of the USSR, thus giving maximum temporal coverage.

The Molniya orbit.

Groundtrack of Molniya orbit.