ISRO unveils orbiter for maiden Mars mission
12 Sept 2013 5:34 AM IST
India has built the orbiter for the country’s maiden Mars mission in October-November, to take off from the spaceport at Sriharikota off the Bay of Bengal, an official said on Wednesday.
‘The Mars orbiter is in the final stages of testing for launch between 21 October and 19 November on board a rocket with five scientific instruments to conduct various experiments after a nine-month voyage to the red planet,’ Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) satellite centre director SK Shivkumar told reporters here.
As the fourth planet from sun, Mars is the second-smallest celestial body in the solar system, at a whopping distance of 400 million km (250 million miles) from earth. Named after the Roman god of war, it is also known as red planet due to the presence of iron oxide in abundance, giving it a reddish appearance.
The Mars mission will cost the government Rs.450 crore (Rs.4.5 billion), including Rs.150 crore for the spacecraft, Rs.110 crore for the rocket and Rs.190 crore to augment ground stations for operations, including navigation and communications.
‘The spacecraft has been built in a record 12 months to orbit elliptically around Mars for six months at a distance of 375 km from its surface when closer, and 80,000 km when away,’ Mars orbiter mission project director S Arunan said.
The 1,340 kg spacecraft (at lift-off) will be shipped to the spaceport Sep 27 for integrating it with the 350-tonne rocket, which is an extended version of the space agency's workhorse, the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV-XL).
‘The launch date will depend on weather conditions and other parameters during the month-long window we have,’ Arunan said.
The orbiter will be in the earth’s orbit for 25 days after launch and fired the next day, to set off on a nine-month voyage to reach Martian orbit by 21 September 2014.
‘The Mars orbiter is in the final stages of testing for launch between 21 October and 19 November on board a rocket with five scientific instruments to conduct various experiments after a nine-month voyage to the red planet,’ Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) satellite centre director SK Shivkumar told reporters here.
As the fourth planet from sun, Mars is the second-smallest celestial body in the solar system, at a whopping distance of 400 million km (250 million miles) from earth. Named after the Roman god of war, it is also known as red planet due to the presence of iron oxide in abundance, giving it a reddish appearance.
The Mars mission will cost the government Rs.450 crore (Rs.4.5 billion), including Rs.150 crore for the spacecraft, Rs.110 crore for the rocket and Rs.190 crore to augment ground stations for operations, including navigation and communications.
‘The spacecraft has been built in a record 12 months to orbit elliptically around Mars for six months at a distance of 375 km from its surface when closer, and 80,000 km when away,’ Mars orbiter mission project director S Arunan said.
The 1,340 kg spacecraft (at lift-off) will be shipped to the spaceport Sep 27 for integrating it with the 350-tonne rocket, which is an extended version of the space agency's workhorse, the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV-XL).
‘The launch date will depend on weather conditions and other parameters during the month-long window we have,’ Arunan said.
The orbiter will be in the earth’s orbit for 25 days after launch and fired the next day, to set off on a nine-month voyage to reach Martian orbit by 21 September 2014.
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