The Indian space agency has a contingency plan to insert its spacecraft into Martian orbit on 24 September in case its main engine fails to re-start and fire, a senior official said Monday.
‘In case the main liquid engine of 440 Newton (power) fails to re-start and fire to put the spacecraft (orbiter) into the intended Mars orbit, we will use the small eight thrusters of 22 Newton each located beneath the engine for orientation to salvage the mission,’ Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) scientific secretary V Koteswara Rao told reporters here.
The 475 kg spacecraft, with five scientific experiments on board, will enter the Mars sphere of influence 22 September after a 300-day voyage from the earth.