Indian Martian exploration program

[Kshatriya87]

Re: From India, Proof That a Trip to Mars Doesn't Have to Break the

From India, Proof That a Trip to Mars Doesn't Have to Break the Bank​

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/b...ip-to-mars-doesnt-have-to-break-the-bank.html

Brilliant. I knew the mission was cost effective but I didn't know all these facts. Proud of India. All jealous critics should read this.

 

[Kshatriya87]

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

Guys, any confirmation about India manned mission to moon? Any tentative dates?

 

[cobra commando]

India's Mars mission 200 days away from reaching
destination

Chennai: India's ambitious maiden inter-planetary voyage Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), launched in November last year, has covered over 21 million km and as of today is exactly 200 days away from reaching the red planet's orbit on September 24. The MOM probe was travelling with a helio-centric velocity of 29 km per second and radio signals sent from ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) ground stations near Bangalore takes 142 seconds to reach the spacecraft and return, ISRO said. "If everything goes as planned, MOM will get inserted into its Martian orbit around, exactly after 200 days from today," the space agency said in a posting on its social networking site Facebook page. "MOM team switched 'ON' and checked all the five scientific instruments on-board MOM in February 2014. The health parameters of all these instruments are normal," ISRO said. The agency has performed six orbit raising manoeuvres around the Earth following the launch of the mission on November 5 last year from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, some 100 km from here. It further performed the Trans Mars Injection (TMI) manoeuvre on December 1 last, which gave the necessary thrust to the spacecraft to escape from Earth and to initiate the journey towards Mars, in a helio-centric Orbit. The first Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre was conducted on December 11 last year and three such exercises are planned - next month, in August and in September. If India succeeds in sending its mission to the Mars' orbit, it would become only the sixth in the world after the US, Russia, Europe, Japan and China to have achieved the feat.
India's Mars mission 200 days away from reaching destination | NDTV.com

 

[cobra commando]

Indian Mars Orbiter in
excellent Health - Course
Correction skipped

MOM - Current Position



Mars Orbiter Mission Updates - SPACEFLIGHT101

 

[Free Karma]

Mangalyaan crosses half-way mark - The Hindu

India's spacecraft to Mars today completed half the distance of its epic voyage to the Red Planet. At 9.50 a.m. on Wednesday, the Mars Orbiter sailed past 34 crore km while the entire distance it has to cover on its curved path is 68 crore km. In other words, it has covered half the "road distance" in deep space towards its destination.

"This is a major milestone after our Mars spacecraft got out of the sphere of the influence of the Earth on December 4, 2013," said K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). "The spacecraft is on course towards Mars and is in good health," he said.

Dr. Radhakrishnan added: "The trajectory we have put the spacecraft in is looking to be good that we are not doing the Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM) scheduled for April. It means we have an understanding of the forces, such as the Sun and the planets, acting on the spacecraft. So the calculations we have done have proved to be all right. We are learning every day from the way we are managing the operations" related to the spacecraft.

On November 5, 2013, ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C25) put the Mars orbiter into its earth-orbit. On December 1, Mission Controllers fired the spacecraft's propulsion system called 440 Newton engine, the spacecraft was bolted out its earth-orbit and put into a Sun-centric orbit. On December 4, it got out of the sphere of influence (SOI) of the Earth and was truly on its way to Mars.

ISRO has been continuously monitoring the Mars spacecraft using its Deep Space Network station at Byalalu village, near Bangalore, which is complemented by that of NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA. Periodic tests are being done on the autonomy built into the orbiter, which (autonomy) enables it to take its own decisions for managing emergencies.

At present, the radio distance between the spacecraft and the Earth is 39 million km. A signal from the Earth to the spacecraft and back to the Earth takes about four minutes and 15 seconds.

According to A.S. Kiran Kumar, Director, Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, the Mars spacecraft is now speeding in deep space at seven lakh km a day.

The SAC built three out of the five instruments on board the orbiter to study the Mars' atmosphere, mineralogy, presence of methane etc. Dr. Kiran Kumar added: "The next major operation will be in June when we will do the TCM again (that is, the spacecraft's propulsion system will be fired to correct its trajectory). The TCM slated for April is not being done because there is no need for it. Things are going on smoothly. There will be three more TCMs, one each in June, August and September. The crucial day is on September 24 when the spacecraft will be injected into the Martian orbit."

The most important part is the third paragraph. The TCM that was planned for this month is not needed as the craft is on track (perhaps this also means more fuel for the time in orbit(?)), health of all systems is okay mangalyaan doing well

 

[Blackwater]

India's Mars mission 200 days away from reaching
destination

Chennai: India's ambitious maiden inter-planetary voyage Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), launched in November last year, has covered over 21 million km and as of today is exactly 200 days away from reaching the red planet's orbit on September 24. The MOM probe was travelling with a helio-centric velocity of 29 km per second and radio signals sent from ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) ground stations near Bangalore takes 142 seconds to reach the spacecraft and return, ISRO said. "If everything goes as planned, MOM will get inserted into its Martian orbit around, exactly after 200 days from today," the space agency said in a posting on its social networking site Facebook page. "MOM team switched 'ON' and checked all the five scientific instruments on-board MOM in February 2014. The health parameters of all these instruments are normal," ISRO said. The agency has performed six orbit raising manoeuvres around the Earth following the launch of the mission on November 5 last year from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, some 100 km from here. It further performed the Trans Mars Injection (TMI) manoeuvre on December 1 last, which gave the necessary thrust to the spacecraft to escape from Earth and to initiate the journey towards Mars, in a helio-centric Orbit. The first Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre was conducted on December 11 last year and three such exercises are planned - next month, in August and in September. If India succeeds in sending its mission to the Mars' orbit, it would become only the sixth in the world after the US, Russia, Europe, Japan and China to have achieved the feat.
India's Mars mission 200 days away from reaching destination | NDTV.com

So half of UK AID money well spent😜😜😜

 

[p2prada]

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

Guys, any confirmation about India manned mission to moon? Any tentative dates?

2045.

Let's first get the govt to approve a manned mission to low earth orbit. After that we can think of a moon mission.

 

[Bheeshma]

Why are people jumping the gun. Let them first get the lander there by 2016-17.

 

[abhi_the _gr8_maratha]

Trajectory Correction of Mars Mission Likely by June 11 | idrw.org

 

[Free Karma]

Mars Orbiter's trajectory to be corrected - The Hindu

It will be 16 anxious seconds from 4.30 p.m. on Wednesday at the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) Station, Bangalore, when ground controllers will correct the trajectory of India's Mars Orbiter, speeding towards the Red Planet.

During the complex manoeuvre, the ground controllers will radio commands to the orbiter's thrusters to fire for 15 or 16 seconds to correct its trajectory so that the spacecraft reaches the Martian orbit on the appointed day of September 24.

M. Annadurai, Programme Director, Indian Remote-Sensing Satellites and Small Satellites Systems, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), called it "a trimming manoeuvre" of the spacecraft's trajectory, when "a finer correction will be given to its velocity

from the facebook page:

ISRO's Mars Orbiter spacecraft has traveled more than 460 million km distance in its 680 million km elliptical trajectory around Sun.
MOM is now at a distance of about 100 million km from planet Earth. The two way radio communication delay is approximately 11 minutes.

 

[cobra commando]

India's Mars Orbiter completes second Trajectory Correction Maneuver June 11, 2014


Mars Orbiter Mission Updates - SPACEFLIGHT101

 

[Free Karma]

India's Mars Orbiter completes second Trajectory Correction Maneuver June 11, 2014


Mars Orbiter Mission Updates - SPACEFLIGHT101

I was waiting for the final confirmation of trajectory, I guess it will take some more time.

 

[Bheeshma]

Confirmed..
https://twitter.com/ISROOFFICIAL/status/476742032057069568/photo/1

 

[pmaitra]

[TWEET]476742032057069568[/TWEET]

Making it more visible from above.

 

[Free Karma]

Trajectory corrected, Mars Orbiter now on precise path - The Hindu

Some more details on the specifics.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) received another shot in the arm in its ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission when its ground controllers successfully corrected the spacecraft's trajectory on Wednesday.

This complex trajectory correction manoeuvre (TCM), as it is called, puts the spacecraft on the right celestial path to reach Mars on the scheduled day of September 24. The ground controllers at the ISRO Tracking, Telemetry and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bangalore, corrected the trajectory by radioing commands to the four thrusters of the Orbiter to fire for 16 seconds from 4.30 p.m. The thrusters did so, imparting an incremental velocity of 1.57 metres a second to the spacecraft for its rendezvous with Mars.

ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said the TCM was "precisely done" and "we operated four out of 22 Newton thrusters for 16 seconds" which gave the spacecraft an incremental velocity of 1.574 metres a second. "Reviews are under way. All systems on the Mars Orbiter are normal," Dr. Radhakrishnan said.

"Everything went perfectly well," said M. Annadurai, Programme Director, Indian Remote-sensing Satellites and Small Satellites Systems, ISRO. "We are happy because this is, in a way, a simulation for the crucial Mars Orbit Injection (MOI)" that would take place on September 24.

"The MOI will be exactly similar to this except that we fired four small Newton thrusters today. But we will fire the 440-Newton liquid engine [propulsion system] of the spacecraft for the MOI," he said.

Dr. Annadurai added: "We could not watch today's manoeuvre because the spacecraft's orientation will not allow us to see what is happening. Telemetry was not available. The entire manoeuvre was done in the auto mode."

S. Arunan, Project Director, Mars Orbiter Mission, said: "All the health parameters of the Mars Orbiter are all right. Its payloads have been operated and checked. They are doing well. All the systems and sub-systems are doing well."

Nice!

 

[Free Karma]

100 days to go!!

 

[abhi_the _gr8_maratha]

100 Days for India’s Mars Spacecraft’s Tryst with Red Planet | idrw.org

 

[abhi_the _gr8_maratha]

Turning towards Mars Mission, he said
the spacecraft has already traversed
70% of its designated path towards
the red planet (Mars) since its launch.
Mars is approximately 680 million
kilometers away from earth.
"The next crucial operational
milestone is the insertion of the
spacecraft into the orbit of Mars on
September 24, 2014, when it is
expected to be nearly 500 kms away
from the planet. Success will make
India first country in Asia and fourth in
the world after USA, Russia and Europe
to achieve it in first attempt," said K
Radhakrishnan.
"Our spacecraft is capable of detecting
a problem and fixing it. The spacecraft
is not only highly automated but is
also fed with the necessary
commands. The spacecraft will be put
into safe mode till corrective measures
are taken to resolve the problem," he
added.

.
.
‘Our excellence is being trusted & recognized’ : ISRO | idrw.org

 

[Free Karma]

Getting closer!

 

[cobra commando]

Mars Orbiter Completes 75 Percent of Journey

BANGALORE: India's Mars orbiter spacecraft has completed 75 per cent of its journey for its rendezvous with the red planet scheduled for September 24. The spacecraft has covered a distance of approximately 510 million kilometres on its heliocentric arc towards Mars capture, Bangalore headquartered ISRO said. With this, three-fourth of the 300- day voyage in deep space to Mars has been completed. MOM and her payloads are in good health, ISRO said in a post on its Mars Orbit Mission Facebook page. In the last crucial milestone, ISRO performed the second Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM-2) on its Mars Orbiter spacecraft on June 11 by firing the spacecraft's 22 Newton thrusters for 16 seconds. Mid-course corrections are done to keep the spacecraft on course. Another trajectory correction manoeuvre is planned for August before ISRO performs the Mars Orbit Insertion in September. The ambitious Mars mission under a Rs 450 crore project was launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh onboard the Pollar Satellite Launch Vehicle on November 5 last year with an aim to reach the red planet's atmosphere by September 24. The project is expected to provide the scientific community better opportunities in planetary research. The spacecraft has been configured to carry out observation of physical features of Mars and limited study of Martian atmosphere with five payloads. ISRO has incorporated autonomous features in MOM spacecraft to handle contingencies.
Mars Orbiter Completes 75 Percent of Journey - The New Indian Express