Celebrating the Aniversary of Mars Orbiter Mission also known as Mangalyaan today on 24th September 2015 completing the one year of a space probe succcessfully orbitting the Mars since then wishing it with great success.
India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has really gained a status of Mom which in English means Mother. Our Mother always has a status which is imcomparable to anyone in family and in this World who takes care of her children, inhabits them and makes up the whole family.
Similarily, MOM that is Mars Orbiter Mission has gained a status like Mother India in its Indian people family and World reaching out the space of Mars, India becoming the first nation in the World to reach the Mars orbit with its very first attempt and first Asian country to successfully send an orbiter to Mars.
MOM has proved to be a Mother (Mom) both in technical and literal sense. What it has done for us in one year time is no less less than a feat. We Indians are now looked up with great respect all over the world. Indian Scientists are one of the most sought after in important missions across the World. This Mother has really made the whole Globe looked up at its achievement with the same respect as one is having for her Mother.
All it started with Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam -
We are indebted to Dr. Kalam for his outstanding contributions in laying a strong foundation for rocket technology as the Project Director of Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV3) and nurturing India’s space programme in his 18-year association with ISRO. After the success of SLV3, Dr. Kalam headed the Aerospace Dynamics and Design Group and played a significant role in the study team for the evolution of PSLV mission.
Starting with the Journey of ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission into space on Nov 5 2013, from the Indian Space Research Organisation's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, beginning the country's first interplanetary mission to explore the solar system.
The Mars Orbiter Mission was launched around the same time as NASA’s MAVEN mission to Mars, and with comparable instrumental specifications. While MOM cost ISRO $74 million, MAVEN cost NASA $672 million. In fact, ISRO’s orbiter was by far the least expensive Mars satellite ever built.
The main objective or goal of Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is the demonstration of India’s capability to build a spacecraft capable of travelling to Mars and survive in an orbit around the red planet. Thus, the main goal of MOM is mainly technological. But that does not mean MOM does not have any scientific objectives. The mission also intended to gather useful scientific data about that planet during the spacecraft’s journey to Mars, and more importantly, from a suitable orbit around that planet later. The scientific data which is now being collected, is about the surface of Mars, its very thin atmosphere as well as the space near Mars.
Lets come and travel across some Interesting Facts about the Mars Orbiter Mission -
- India's First Robotic Messenger to Mars.
- PSLV : The Muscle Power to Lift Mars Orbiter Spacecraft from the Mother Earth.PSLV-C25 rocket that launched Mars Orbiter Spacecraft only carried it into a large egg shaped orbit around the Earth (not Mars!).
- From there, the job of taking the spacecraft to distant Mars and to make it to circle the red planet was assigned to the spacecraft's main rocket engine known as LAM (Liquid Apogee Motor) .
- In the history of Mars exploration, India is the only country to achieve total success in its very first attempt itself!
- India is the first nation in the World to successfully put the Mangalyaan into the Mars orbit with lowest expenditure of Rs 450 crores as comapred to any other mission.
- Developed and Deployed in just 15 months of time.
- It takes only 14 minutes for a signal to reach Mars and vice versa.
- Hollywood spent more than that amount to create a movie named 'Gravity'.
- MOM to determine levels of water & methane in Martian atmosphere – both key elements for sustenance of life.
- ISRO became the fourth space agency to successfully reach Mars after the Soviet Union, NASA (USA) and ESA (Europe).
Awards - The Mars Orbiter Mission team won US-based National Space Society's 2015 Space Pioneer Award in the science and engineering category.
Follow up Mission - ISRO plans to develop and launch a follow-up mission called Mangalyaan 2 with a greater scientific payload to Mars between 2018 and 2020. This mission will likely consist of a lander and a Mars rover.
Undoubtedly, Mars Orbiter Mission is one of the greatest achievements of Modern India. This should inspire our younger to take up more challenging space endeavours in future.
Finally, the day has come to celebrate the Day on Mars Orbit Insertion when ISRO has released an Atlas containing photos taken by the colour camera on board the spacecraft and results obtained by other payload results in a form of scientific atlas.
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