Indian Martian exploration program

[tramp]

ISRO scientists need all the congratulations and encouragements they need... all the best.

 

[tramp]

Now waiting for the actual orbit capture that will happen on the blind side of the planet during the spacecraft's eclipse... keeping my fingers crossed!

Congrats isro.

 

[Srinivas_K]

Mangalyaan engine test-fire successful, all set for Mars now

With less than 48 hours left before the spacecraft enters Mars' orbit, scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) have successfully test-fired its liquid engine.

Before the test-firing, Annadurai, programme director at Isro, told Hindustan Times: "The test firing is like a trial. The dormant engine has to be brought back to life. It is a challenge but if one is prepared well for the exam, the confidence for success is higher."

The nail-biting prelim was carried out at 2:30pm when the craft's 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor engine, which has been idle for 300 days, was fired up for four seconds. The fourth and final trajectory corrections were also made.

"The engine will be fired for nearly 4 seconds and almost half a kg of fuel will be needed for this operation," says Koteshwar Rao, scientific secretary, Isro before the test-firing

On September 24 it will be put in action along with eight thrusters to slow down Mangalyaan so it can be injected into a safe orbit around the Red Planet.

Isro launched the Mangalyaan on November 5 to find evidence of life on Mars. If the spacecraft makes it, India will be the fourth after US, Russia and Europe to reach the Red planet. Once in orbit, the craft's five payloads will take pictures and collect data for the next six months.

Probes to Mars have a high failure rate. Of the 51 missions so far, only 21 have succeeded. A similar mission by China failed in 2011.

Mangalyaan engine test-fire successful, all set for Mars now - Hindustan Times

 

[Illusive]

Its so tense, like a thriller movie....love it

 

[happy]

Mars spacecraft test-fired successfully, to enter red planet’s orbit on Wednesday - The Times of India

The test-firing was held at 2:30pm, and it lasted for four seconds. However, scientists had to wait for a little more than 12 minutes to confirm it because of the time lag as the radio signals from the spacecraft take about 740 seconds to traverse 220 million km to earth.

The liquid apogee motor (LAM) engine has been idle for about 300 days since the spacecraft left the Earth's orbit on a Martian trajectory on December 1, 2013. The short-duration test was to ensure that the engine is in good shape for the 24-minute manoeuvre on Wednesday.

MOM executed with precision a set of commands sent from mission control in Bangalore last week and fired the 440N engine for close to four seconds. This test took the spacecraft away from its trajectory by more than 100km, but a different set of commands have been fed into the system to bring it back to the ideal Martian orbital insertion.

"We are obviously relieved," said an Isro scientist. "Now we know that the engine is fit for Wednesday's exercise." There were apprehensions of the long duration of idling would have affected some valves because of the corrosive fuel used. If the main engine doesn't fire on Wednesday, an alternative plan is to fire the eight thrusters of the spacecraft to capture the Martian orbit. This Plan B, however, would not help MOM achieve a perfect orbit to take up scientific studies during its elliptical journey around Mars.

 

[Free Karma]

Pics from the ISRO during the test firing.

 

[Free Karma]

Also
Mangalyaan will send colour images of Mars from Wednesday - The Times of India

Following the successful re-firing of the main liquid engine of the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft for a minor trajectory change on Monday, Isro is planning to activate the colour camera payload and get the first images of the red planet by Wednesday afternoon.

With Monday's success, the possibility of MOM acquiring the desired orbit around Mars on Wednesday has reached near 100 per cent. With respect to this, scientific secretary V Koteswara Rao told TOI: "Soon after the Mars orbit insertion operations on Wednesday is complete and things settle down, we will have the images transmitted back to earth. We are looking at afternoon."

The images, once transmitted will be received by Isro's Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) in Byalalu, Karnataka.

Explaining Monday's operations, he said: "The whole thing happened on the dot. There was not even a minor deviation from our plan. The spacecraft, and the engine are in great health, giving us a lot of confidence for Wednesday."
Isro used 564g of fuel to re-fire the engine for about 4 seconds (3.986 seconds), which achieved a trajectory correction by reducing the speed by 2.18 metre per second. The spacecraft is currently travelling at a speed of 22-km per second. It would have to be reduced drastically to 1.6-km/second so as to be inserted into the martian orbit.

Even as the big challenge was overcome successfully on Monday, Tuesday cannot be quiet, Rao said, pointing out that a constant monitoring of the spacecraft will be done through the day before the last operation early Wednesday.
"Only our control room in Istrac will be tracking MOM on Tuesday," he said.

Awesome, I heard that Maven will take two weeks to activate it's payload, so I assumed the same for Mangalyaan too. Wonder where the two weeks came from.





Also

 

[AVERAGE INDIAN]

India's Mars Orbiter, Mangalyaan Clears Crucial Test

India's Mars orbiter satellite, which has been on an arduous nine-month-long journey to the Red Planet, cleared a crucial test today. The main rocket engine of the satellite, which has been lying dormant for this extended period, was successfully test-fired.

The Indian Space Research organisation or ISRO confirmed that the engine had a "perfect burn' and the trajectory has also been corrected. Now all systems are set for the big event on September 24, the day Mangalyaan is set to enter the Martian orbit

Launched on November 5 last year, Mangalyaan has been successfully braving the rough weather in space. The satellite carries one large rocket motor and eight smaller thrusters


The big rocket motor on board Mangalyaan had performed flawlessly in over two dozen earlier missions since 1992, and scientists were confident that this time too, things would go as per the plan.

"All commands have been uploaded and the satellite will perform the tasks automatically," Mission controller B N Ramakrishna had said.

There were two parallel circuits to start up the larger rocket motor; ISRO had used these two paths sequentially as part of plan A and plan B. In case the trial had failed, the engineers even had a Plan C to fall back on; they would have used the tiny thrusters to slow down the satellite and still try to reach an orbit of Mars.

The Mangalyaan is laced with eight small rockets and one big rocket. The bigger one had been on an extended slumber, one comparable to that of the sleeping demon 'Kumbhakaran'. But now, it has been 'woken up' for a few seconds in a risky, but successful, operation by the ISRO.

Mangalyaan Faces Four-Second Trial by Fire

good videos in the links
Mangalyaan Healthy, Team Cool: ISRO Chief to NDTV

Mangalyaan Faces a Four-Second Trial by Fire

 

[AVERAGE INDIAN]

 

[Dhairya Yadav]

I would be in School at Orbit insertion Time !!!! :weep:

 

[Neeraj Mathur]

I would be in School at Orbit insertion Time !!!! :weep:

youtube is ur friend brother

 

[Free Karma]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZL_Vwy0JqI&feature=youtu.be

 

[happy]

PM Modi has just arrived at ISTRAC, Bangalore.

 

[happy]

[pdf]http://www.isro.org/mars/pdf/press%20briefing%20on%20MOI.pdf[/pdf]

 

[Free Karma]

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[Free Karma]

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Burn end? The firing must have been completed by now & MOM must be turning towards Earth to resume communication.

 

[Free Karma]

[tweet]514600194801807361[/tweet]

12.5 miinutes for the data to reach us!!

 

[happy]

Success !!! Hearty congratulations to ISRO for a job perfectly executed !!!

 

[Free Karma]

LOUD CLAPS!!!!! Mission succesful!!!!

 

[Free Karma]