Indian Martian exploration program

[ninja85]

What I said above is inaccurate. I should have said: "If Mangalyaan manages to get to Mars, ISRO will become the first space agency to get to Mars on its first attempt [ESA is often quoted as the first successful agency to get to Mars, but this is incorrect: ESA's Mars Express was launched by Russia's Roscomos]."

plus european union is not 'a country' like india.

 

[Kishore032]

Some Mangalyaan tidbits ...

Here are the Mangalyaan's and NASA's Maven's trajectories:

(source: Spaceflight 101)

Here is a nice simulation of the trajectories.

Here is the plot of delta-v budget necessary to go to Mars (source: Wikipedia)

The maneuver performed on Dec 1 which increased delta-v by 648 m/sec is a combination of taking the craft to C3 (escape velocity) and then inserting it into a Mars transfer orbit. This was done at the perigee when the craft was moving at almost 30,000 Km/h to take advantage of the Oberth effect. Below is a nice animation of the orbit insertion process (courtesy: Emily Lakdawalla, planetary society blogs)

Here is more on Oberth effect.

 

[pmaitra]

Members are requested to post Chinese Moon Lander related content in the thread below:
http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/science-technology/56438-chinese-moon-lander.html

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Mother of All Slingshots Set to Hurl India's MOM Probe to Mars


Mother of All Slingshots Set to Hurl India's MOM Probe to Mars

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Indian spacecraft leaves Earth's orbit, bound for Mars | Fox News

Indian spacecraft leaves Earth's orbit, bound for Mars




India's Mars orbiter mission left Earth's sphere of influence early Sunday after performing a maneuver to put it on its way to orbit the red planet.

The spacecraft fired its main engine for more than 20 minutes to reach the correct velocity to leave the Earth's orbit, the Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organization said.

"The Earth orbiting phase of the spacecraft ended. The spacecraft is now on a course to encounter Mars after a journey of about 10 months around the sun," the statement said.

It said that all systems onboard the spacecraft are performing normally.

India launched its first spacecraft bound for Mars on Nov. 5, a complex mission that it hopes will demonstrate and advance technologies for space travel.

The 3,000-pound orbiter Mangalyaan, which means "Mars craft" in Hindi, must travel 485 million miles over 300 days to reach an orbit around Mars next September.

If the mission is successful, India will become only the fourth space program to visit the red planet after the Soviet Union, the United States and Europe.

Some have questioned the $72 million price tag for a country of 1.2 billion people still dealing with widespread hunger and poverty. But the government defended the Mars mission, and its $1 billion space program in general, by noting its importance in providing high-tech jobs for scientists and engineers and practical applications in solving problems on Earth.

Decades of space research have allowed India to develop satellite, communications and remote sensing technologies that are helping to solve everyday problems at home, from forecasting where fish can be caught by fishermen to predicting storms and floods.

The orbiter will gather images and data that will help in determining how Martian weather systems work and what happened to the large quantities of water that are believed to have once existed on Mars.

It also will search Mars for methane, a key chemical in life processes that could also come from geological processes. Experts say the data will improve understanding about how planets form, what conditions might make life possible and where else in the universe it might exist.

The orbiter is expected to have at least six months to investigate the planet's landscape and atmosphere. At its closest point, it will be 227 miles from the planet's surface, and its furthest point will be 49,700 miles away.

 

[Free Karma]

Some random bits of info!

https://www.facebook.com/isromom (about 4 hours ago)

MOM has crossed the distance of Moon's orbit this morning. MOM is now the farthest object sent in to space by India !

Some additional Q n A from the facebook page:

1) how they know the position of MOM?
A coded ranging pulse is sent to spacecraft to measure its distance from ground. When the spacecraft receives this pulse, it returns the pulse on its down-link. The distance to the spacecraft and ground station can be computed from the delay between sending and receiving this pulse.

2) when a pulse ranging process is done, the EM wave which would constitute the pulse would first go from a denser to rarer medium when it goes from the earth's atmosphere into space vacuum and then when the pulse is sent back it again goes from vacuum to a denser medium, and so is the variation in the speed of the EM wave taken into account when the pulse ranging is done, or is it that this variation is negligible and it can be ignored?

Characteristics of atmospheric refraction is an essential factor to be considered

3) How do you calculate the speed?

The speed at which the spacecraft is moving away from the ground station is determined by measuring the doppler shift on these pulses.

Also, not sue if some people noticed, but during the firing, the faecbook feed posted a message at the start of the firing, then removed it, and then it reappeared, was quite scary when it happened!

Also here is another first hand account from someone who inside the control room during this:

Some details: at the 3rd (or so) stage of the TMI, the Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) was supposed to burn for around 1360 seconds, with various secondary engines providing stabilization, at 00:49 IST. Previously, the satellite had already been rotated to align the nozzle vector with the anti-velocity vector so that the LAM faces the right way.
Now, on the screen is a schematic showing the satellite sensors and engines(MOH, LAM, etc). They were supposed to light up when the burn starts. Then, the announcer start doing a live countdown from T-10 seconds. He reaches T-0 ... and nothing happens. He starts counting T+1, T+2 goes all the way up to T+10 and stops. Everyone is panicking ... The telecast goes silent, the announcer being asked to stop. Suddenly after about 45 sec, the screen lights up, showing the booster firing.
Everyone stands up clapping, cheering : best feeling in the world right there.
I took some rather grainy videos of the event. If ISRO doesn't put the real thing soon, I'll post em later.

Here is what happened:

Any unexpected problem was faced?

In the spacecraft movement each station is going have the visibility and just before the start of the burning the South African station was receiving. There are two ground stations in South Africa, if one ground station has any problem other one can take it.

The sequence is after the stations in South Africa gets the visibility, it comes to the visibility of Mauritius and then to Bangalore.

Exactly one minute before the burn started, there was a thunderstorm there and we did not have the data from there when the engine was fired. But within five minutes they got it and we started getting the data in real time. So that is the five minutes gap.

Preparedness for Mars Mission has been excellent: K Radhakrishnan | Business Standard

 

[tramp]

Isn't Mangalyaan's current position the farthest an Asian spacecraft has reached yet?

 

[sayareakd]

O

Isn't Mangalyaan's current position the farthest an Asian spacecraft has reached yet?

We should not compete with China.Reverse engineering is not competition. Lets set high goals.

 

[Free Karma]

Isn't Mangalyaan's current position the farthest an Asian spacecraft has reached yet?

Not really, the Japanese sent a spacecraft to mars around 1998, aiming to reach mars in 1999, it got to mars in 2003 but could not capture orbit and suffered a lot of problems before reaching there.

It had a long and painful journey, and fought hard to stay alive. During one of the burns, there were some technical issues and too much fuel was used up, and even more was used during correction burns, so it could not really reach mars as planned. They decided to keep the orbiter in an orbit around the sun, as there was a possibility of reaching mars 4 years later, but sadly, a solar flare fried a lot of the systems and it could not do much from there, (they did try an insertion into mars orbit, but it was unsuccessful). It managed to fly by mars, then the mission was terminated.

 

[Kishore032]

Isn't Mangalyaan's current position the farthest an Asian spacecraft has reached yet?

Besides the Mars probe Nozomi, Japan also sent a Venus probe Akatsuki and a Sun probe Ikaros (both as part of the same launch). The Venus probe failed to enter orbit, but it's still in a parking orbit around the Sun waiting for another Venus encounter; Ikaros was successfully sent on an orbit around the Sun and is still up there - so the record for the longest total distance traveled by an Asian probe is probably between these two.

Nozomi is the Asian probe that has traveled the farthest from the Earth.

But Mangalyaan holds the record for the heaviest and largest Asian probe to enter inter-stellar space (500Kg dry weight + mass of whatever fuel is still left, and a volume of >3 cubic meters]

The largest and heaviest Asian probe to enter space (though not interstellar space) is JAXA's Kaguya.

The "Earth Rise" video sent by Kaguya is particularly spectacular.

 

[Kishore032]

But Mangalyaan holds the record for the heaviest and largest Asian probe to enter inter-stellar space (500Kg dry weight + mass of whatever fuel is still left, and a volume of >3 cubic meters]

The largest and heaviest Asian probe to enter space (though not interstellar space) is JAXA's Kaguya.

Correction: I meant inter-planetary space.

 

[AVERAGE INDIAN]

India's Mars mission leaves Earth's orbit, surpasses Chinese ambitions

India's first mission to Mars left Earth's orbit early on Sunday, clearing a critical hurdle in its journey to the red planet and overtaking the efforts in space of rival Asian giant China.

The success of the spacecraft, scheduled to orbit Mars by next September, would carry India into a small club, which includes the United States, Europe, and Russia, whose probes have orbited or landed on Mars.
India's venture, called Mangalyaan, faces further more hurdles on its journey to Mars. Fewer than half of missions to the planet are successful.

"While Mangalyaan takes 1.2 billion dreams to Mars, we wish you sweet dreams!" India's space agency said in a tweet soon after the event, referring to the citizens of the world's second-most populous country.

China, a keen competitor in the space race, has considered the possibility of putting a man on the moon sometime after 2020 and aims to land its first probe on the moon on Monday.

It will deploy a buggy called the "Jade Rabbit" to explore the lunar surface in a mission that will also test its deep space communication technologies.

China's Mars probe rode piggyback on a Russian spacecraft that failed to leave Earth's orbit in November 2011. The spacecraft crumbled in the atmosphere and its fragments fell into the Pacific Ocean.

India's mission showcases the country's cheap technology, encouraging hopes it could capture more of the $304-billion global space market, which includes launching satellites for other countries, analysts say.

"Given its cost-effective technology, India is attractive," said Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, an expert on space security at the Observer Research Foundation think-tank in Delhi.

India's low-cost Mars mission has a price tag of 4.5 billion rupees ($73 million), just over a tenth of the cost of NASA's latest mission there, which launched on Nov. 18.

"BIG ACHIEVEMENT"

Homegrown companies - including India's largest infrastructure group Larsen & Toubro, one of its biggest conglomerates, Godrej & Boyce, state-owned aircraft maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd <IPO-HIAE.BO> and Walchand Nagar Industries - made more than two-thirds of the parts for both the probe and the rocket that launched it on Nov. 5.

India's probe completed six orbits around Earth before Sunday's "slingshot", which set it on a path around the sun to carry it towards Mars. The slingshot requires precise calculations to eliminate the risk of missing the new orbit.

"Getting to Mars is a big achievement," said Mayank Vahia, a professor in the astronomy and astrophysics department of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai.

India's space agency will have to make a few mid-course corrections to keep the probe on track. Its next big challenge will be to enter an orbit around Mars next year, a test failed in 2003 by Japan's probe, which suffered electrical faults as it neared the planet.

"You have to slow the spacecraft down once it gets close to Mars, to catch the orbit, but you can't wait until Mars is in the field of view to do it - that's too late," Vahia said.

India launched its space programme 50 years ago and developed its own rocket technology after Western powers levied sanctions for a 1974 nuclear weapons test. Five years ago, its Chandrayaan satellite found evidence of water on the moon.

By contrast, India has had mixed results in the aerospace industry. Hindustan Aeronautics has been developing a light combat aircraft since the early 1980s, with no success.

The Mars probe will study the planet's surface and mineral composition, besides sniffing the atmosphere for methane, a chemical strongly tied to life on Earth. NASA mission Curiosity did not find significant amounts of the gas in recent tests.

China is still far from catching up with the established space superpowers, the United States and Russia, which decades ago learned the docking techniques China is only now mastering.

Beijing says its space programme is for peaceful purposes, but the U.S. Defence Department has highlighted China's increasing space capabilities, saying it was pursuing ways to keep adversaries from using space-based assets during a crisis. (Additional reporting by Krishna N Das in NEW DELHI and Sumeet Chatterjee in MUMBAI; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

India's Mars mission leaves Earth's orbit, surpasses Chinese ambitions - CSMonitor.com

 

[pmaitra]

I might be in a minority here, but I don't see why this Indo-Chinese space race is being bandied about.

PRC has already sent people to space, and most importantly, brought them back safely. They are way ahead. This really needs to stop.

 

[Free Karma]

I might be in a minority here, but I don't see why this Indo-Chinese space race is being bandied about.

PRC has already sent people to space, and most importantly, brought them back safely. They are way ahead. This really needs to stop.

Also they already have a prototype space station flying around that can carry out docking procedures!

 

[happy]

Mangalyaan crosses Moon's orbit on its way to Mars

ISRO's Mars Orbiter, which was placed in inter-Mars trajectory in the early hours yesterday, has crossed Moon's orbit and is travelling beyond Earth's natural satellite.

"The Mars Orbiter spacecraft has crossed the Moon orbit. So technically after crossing our Chandrayaan's orbit, it is now travelling beyond the Moon. This is the first time an Indian-made object is being sent into deep space," ISRO officials said.

ISRO's Mars Orbiter mission had ventured out of Earth's sphere of influence yesterday, beginning its 300-day journey to the Red planet, marking a major milestone in India's space history.

Mangalyaan crosses Moon's orbit on its way to Mars | NDTV.com

 

[happy]

I might be in a minority here, but I don't see why this Indo-Chinese space race is being bandied about.

PRC has already sent people to space, and most importantly, brought them back safely. They are way ahead. This really needs to stop.

Simply to taunt chini trolls . I for one would love to see them squirming to reply about their prowess.

 

[tramp]

Good progress... keep it up ISRO!

Spacecraft has travelled a distance of 5,36,000 km by 17:00 hrs (IST) of Dec 2, 2013. It has crossed the distance to Moon's orbit around Earth (mean distance 3,85,000 km) this morning.

ISRO: Mars Orbiter Mission

 

[sayareakd]

 

[vram]

Good progress... keep it up ISRO!


ISRO: Mars Orbiter Mission

I Don't why but when I see this mission am reminded about Carl Sagan's reflections about our planet when he reflected about the image taken by Voyager 1 taken of the solar system once it had passed pluto and exited the inner solar system.
Watch the below video for a few mins guys, won't regret it....

 

[pmaitra]

Indian Mars probe crosses Moon's orbit

Indian Space Research Organisation officials said the spacecraft had crossed the Moon's orbit on Monday night.