Expected for 6 months, ISRO's Mangalyaan Mars mission ends in 5 years



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Mangalyaan is India's first attempt to successfully cross the Earth's orbit.

New Delhi:

Mangalyaan's mission, which was originally scheduled to last six months, completed Tuesday five years of orbit around Mars and is expected to last a bit longer, said ISRO chief K Sivan.

Over the past five years, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), the first Indian interplanetary company, has helped the Indian Space Agency prepare a Martian atlas based on images provided by the orbiter, said the Dr. Sivan at the PTI news agency.

"It works and sends images continuously, there is still time to go," said Dr. Sivan.

Asked about Mangalyaan 2, he replied that the work was continuing and that no decision had yet been taken on it.

The Mars orbiter has sent thousands of photos totaling two terabytes, said an official of the Indian Space Research Organization (IRSO).

Phobos and Deimos, the two moons of Mars, were also closely photographed by Mars Color Camera (MCC). The MOM is the only Martian artificial satellite capable of imaging Mars' complete record in a single frame and imaging the hidden face of Deimos, said ISRO.

MOM data has produced 23 publications in peer-reviewed journals, he added.

An important conclusion of the mission was the discovery that the dust storms on the Martian can reach hundreds of kilometers, added the predecessor of Dr. Sivan, AS Kiran Kumar.

The success of Mangalyaan, praised for being cheaper than the Hollywood film "Gravity" and much cheaper than NASA's Maven Orbiter, stems from ISRO's failure in the Chandrayaan 2 mission. The Maven Orbiter was similar to the mission of India in March.

Mangalyaan is India's first attempt to successfully cross the Earth's orbit. Launchers, spacecraft and the earth segment cost 450 Rs crore.

A critical parameter for the life of a spacecraft, under nominal orbital conditions, is the availability of the fuel needed to maintain its orbit and orientation. In the case of the mom, the scientists said that there was reserve booster.

"The orbiter can still last a year," Dr. Kumar told PTI.

Dr. Kumar explained in detail how fuel was saved for "non-nominal performance" of various segments during mission planning.

"Depending on this, we are applying some type of fuel to rectification in order to exceed these non-nominal goals," said Dr. Kumar.

As the launch was perfect, he said, the mission has taken full advantage of the "fuel segments".

"It was the first time that we passed the gravitational field of the Earth, during which time you could encounter an unusual situation that could have required a correction and guaranteed the repetition of certain operations.

"We were able to perform all the steps without any problem and we managed to reach the orbit of Mars without additional fuel consumption." The insertion also went very smoothly, which allowed Save fuel, "added Dr. Kumar.

There were cases where the fuel was consumed for correction purposes to prevent the orbiter from coming into contact with comet dust.

"It also shows good management of the mission," said Krishna Murthy YVN, former ISRO scientific secretary.

Krishna Murthy explained that the precise location of the satellite by the ground station made it possible to preserve the fuel. In addition, effective control management has also helped to extend the life of the MOM.

Citing another example of an ISRO satellite surviving life, Krishna Murthy said that Cartosat-1, the first Indian remote sensing satellite capable of providing stereoscopic images in orbit, was planned for three years but was still operating for 10 years. The satellite was launched in 2005.

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