India to keep its date with Mars
23 Sept 2014 5:34 AM IST
The 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) engine, idling for the last 300 days on the Mars Orbiter Mission(MOM) ‘Mangalyaan’ was fired for four seconds, raising the confidence level of Indian Space Research Organistion(ISRO) about the success of insertion of the spacecraft into the Martian orbit planned for early Wednesday.
India will be the first country to enter the Mars orbit on a maiden mission if it succeeds. It will also be the first Asian country and ISRO the fourth space agency to send a satellite to the Red Planet.
European, US and Russian probes have managed to orbit or land on the planet, but after several attempts.
‘The spacecraft is healthy. It has completed 98 per cent of its journey to Mars and we are now prepared for that crucial operation to take place on September 24 morning,’ ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan said. 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. ‘Main Liquid Engine test firing on Mars orbiter spacecraft successful: We had perfect burn for 4 seconds as programmed. The trajectory has been corrected.
Mars Orbiter Mission will now go ahead with the normal plan for Mars Orbit Insertion,’ said ISRO. The success came even as the unmanned probe on Monday entered the Mars Gravitational Sphere of Influence. ‘Our navigators’ calculations show that MOM has entered the Gravitational Sphere of Influence of Mars,’ ISRO said. The spacecraft was within 5.4 lakh km radius of the Mars’ Gravitational Sphere of Influence, it said.
India will be the first country to enter the Mars orbit on a maiden mission if it succeeds. It will also be the first Asian country and ISRO the fourth space agency to send a satellite to the Red Planet.
European, US and Russian probes have managed to orbit or land on the planet, but after several attempts.
‘The spacecraft is healthy. It has completed 98 per cent of its journey to Mars and we are now prepared for that crucial operation to take place on September 24 morning,’ ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan said. 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. ‘Main Liquid Engine test firing on Mars orbiter spacecraft successful: We had perfect burn for 4 seconds as programmed. The trajectory has been corrected.
Mars Orbiter Mission will now go ahead with the normal plan for Mars Orbit Insertion,’ said ISRO. The success came even as the unmanned probe on Monday entered the Mars Gravitational Sphere of Influence. ‘Our navigators’ calculations show that MOM has entered the Gravitational Sphere of Influence of Mars,’ ISRO said. The spacecraft was within 5.4 lakh km radius of the Mars’ Gravitational Sphere of Influence, it said.
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