Bangalore: India’s tryst with Mars begins early today when its inter-planetary spacecraft readies to enter the Martian orbit in a maiden attempt to study the red planet’s atmosphere and search for life-sustaining elements.
Excitement is building up at the Mars Mission control centre in the space agency’s telemetry, tracking and command network (Istrac) in this tech hub for the historic event, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also witness. Modi, on a two-day visit to Karnataka for the first time after assuming office, was yesterday given a rousing welcome by thousands of people at the HAL airport.
“As Modi is also in charge of the space department, he has expressed keen interest to witness the historic event when the spacecraft (Orbiter) enters the Martian orbit in its maiden attempt,” a space official said.
Though the orbit insertion exercise begins at 4.17am, the prime minister will be at the mission control centre from 6.45am to watch the crucial operation when the spacecraft main engine will be fired at 7.17am to carry the Orbiter through the region to enter the Martian orbit by 7.53am,” the official said.
As command signals to the spacecraft and signals from it to the mission control centre take 12.5 minutes each way, confirmation about its insertion into the orbit will be known by 8.15am.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)Chairman K Radhakrishanan and scientists of the Mars Orbiter Mission will brief Modi about the operations.
Buoyed by the test-firing of the 440 Newton liquid apogee motor (LAM) engine on Monday, about 300 days after it was shut off following the spacecraft’s trans-Mars injection into the Sun’s orbit on December 1, 2013, for its voyage to the red planet, the scientists also corrected its trajectory (direction) for the final manoeuvre.
“Everything is going on smoothly as programmed and the spacecraft’s health is normal. We are waiting for the final move,” the mission’s programme director M Annadurai said.
The spacecraft will consume about 250 kg of liquid fuel with oxidiser. In the absence of sunlight on the Martian surface from 7.12am causing eclipse, eight thrusters (smaller engines) on board the spacecraft will control its attitude due to lack of solar energy during the operation.
“As the spacecraft will pass through the eclipsed region during the firing, radars at the four earth stations will not receive telemetry (radio) signals till 7.53am,” the director noted.
In the event of the engine not firing at the designated time (7.17am), the mission control will give commands to fire the eight thrusters for sustaining the momentum.
The deep space networks of America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) at California in the US, Madrid in Spain and Canberra in Australia will coordinate with ISRO’s deep space network at Baylalu, about 40km from Bangalore, for receiving the signals from the spacecraft after its insertion into the Martian orbit.
The five scientific instruments on board the 475kg Orbiter will study the Martian surface and its mineral composition and scan its atmosphere for methane gas. India became the first Asian country to enter the Martian gravity or sphere of its influence on Monday.
The Rs450 crore ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission was launched on November 5, 2013, on board a polar rocket from the country’s only spaceport at Sriharikota off the Bay of Bengal, about 80km northeast of Chennai.
ISRO is the fourth international space agency after Nasa of the US, Russian Federal Space Agency and European Space Agency to undertake a mission to Mars.
As the second smallest celestial body in the solar system, Mars is also known as the red planet due to the presence of iron oxide in abundance, giving it a reddish appearance.
Though both the planets have equal period of revolution around their axis, Mars takes 24 hours and 37 minutes to complete a revolution. Earth takes 365 days to orbit the sun while Mars takes 687 days to move around sun.
India launched its space programme five decades ago and developed rockets after sanctions were imposed on it for conducting two nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998. ISRO has so far launched 40 foreign satellites, many of them for developed countries like Britain, Canada, Germany and France.
IANS
