The mission Mars & Mangalyaan & # 39; of ISRO completes its 5 years and is expected to last only 6 months

The Indian Mangalyaan mission, which was originally scheduled to last six months, completed five years of orbit around Mars and is expected to continue longer, said today the ISRO leader, K Sivan.

Over the past five years, the Mars Orbiter Mission or MOM, the first Indian interplanetary company, has helped the Indian Space Agency prepare a Martian atlas based on images provided by the orbiter, said Mr. Sivan at the press agency Press Trust of India.

Mangalyaan's mission ended five years ago on Tuesday. "It works and sends images continuously, there is still time to go," Sivan said.

When asked about "Mangalyaan 2", he replied that the work was continuing and that there was no decision yet on it.

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

The Mars color camera took remote images of Phobos and Deimos, the two moons of Mars. MOM is the only Martian artificial satellite capable of capturing the entire Mars disk in a single frame and taking pictures from the other side of Deimos, said ISRO.

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

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

The success of Mangalyaan, hailed 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 effort to successfully reach another planet. Launchers, spacecraft and the Earth segment cost Rs 450 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 go on for another year," Kumar told the Press Trust of India.

Mr. Kumar said that "non-nominal performance" of various segments was taken into account when planning the mission. "Depending on this, we are allocating some type of fuel to rectification in order to exceed these non-nominal targets," said 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 carry out all the steps without any problem and we managed to reach the orbit of Mars without fuel consumption." The insertion into the Martian orbit also went very smoothly. which saved fuel, "added 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.

In explaining, Mr. Murthy stated that the precise location of the satellite by the ground station had helped to save fuel. In addition, effective control management has also helped to extend the life of the MOM.

Citing another example of a surviving ISRO satellite, Murthy said Cartosat-1, the first Indian remote sensing satellite capable of providing stereoscopic imagery in orbit, was planned for three years but was still in operation for 10 years. The satellite was launched in 2005.

Get breaking news, live coverage and the latest news from India and around the world on NDTV.com. Watch any live TV action on NDTV 24×7 and NDTV India. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram for the latest news and live updates.