‘Mission symbolises India’s assured access to space’
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C25)
successfully putting the 1,350-kg Mars Orbiter first into its
earth-bound orbit on Tuesday “symbolised India’s assured access to
space” and it proved that “we can do any type of mission,” said S.
Ramakrishnan, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in
Thiruvananthapuram. “With meticulous planning and team work, no mission
is beyond our capability.”
Not only Mr. Ramakrishnan,
P. Kunhikrishnan, Mission Director of PSLV-C25; M.C. Dathan, Director
of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre; M.Y.S. Prasad, Director of Satish
Dhawan Space Centre;, A.S. Kiran Kumar, Director of Space Applications
Centre, Ahmedabad; and S.K. Shivakumar, Director of ISRO Satellite
Centre, Bangalore, said it was the hard work and dedication of hundreds
of personnel in various ISRO centres that led to the PSLV placing the
Mars orbiter precisely into its orbit.
ISRO Chairman
K. Radhakrishnan praised the contribution of M. Annadurai and V.
Kesavaraju, who were in Bangalore on Tuesday, to the project.
Mr.
Ramakrishnan said the Mars orbiter being placed in earth-bound orbit
marked ISRO’s “first step” in India’s ambitious mission to send a
spacecraft to Mars. “But it is a difficult step because several systems
have to work precisely to take the spacecraft from the earth into orbit.
Besides, energy-wise, what the spacecraft takes to go to Mars is only a
fraction of the percentage that it took to enter into earth-orbit.”
The
PSLV-C25 used 250 tonnes of propellants to put the Mars orbiter into
its near-earth orbit with a perigee of 246.9 km and an apogee of 23,566
km. But from the earth-bound orbit to its Mars orbit, the spacecraft
will use only 850 kg of propellants on its board.
ISRO
scientists said there would be five firings of the 440 Newton engine on
board the Mars Orbiter to gradually increase its apogee. The first
firing would take place early in the morning of November 7. A prolonged
firing on December 1, 2013 would catapult the spacecraft out of its
earth-bound orbit into Sun-centric orbit. It would then go around the
Sun in such a way as to coast along for nine months and then rendezvous
with Mars. On September 24, the engine would again be fired to slow down
the spacecraft’s velocity and it would be reoriented to enter the Mars
orbit with a peri-apsis of 365 km and an apo-apsis of 80,000 km.
Dr.
Radhakrishnan emphasised that the “primary objective of the Indian
mission has been to put our spacecraft into the Martian orbit.”
“Mars
orbiter has five scientific payloads, all built by the ISRO centres. It
has a colour camera for optical imaging of the Earth’s surface; a
methane sensor; a thermal infrared camera to study geological activity; a
Lyman Alpha Photometer to study the Martian atmosphere; and a payload
to study the neutral composition of the planet’s upper atmosphere.”
SRIHARIKOTA: A day after the last of diwali rockets was fired in this part of the country, "the big one" blasted off from the first launch pad in Sriharikota on Tuesday afternoon, firing the ambition of a nation, and the imagination of many others. After 45 minutes, the first phase of India's first Mars mission was pronounced a success.
SRIHARIKOTA: A day after the last of diwali rockets was fired in this part of the country, "the big one" blasted off from the first launch pad in Sriharikota on Tuesday afternoon, firing the ambition of a nation, and the imagination of many others. After 45 minutes, the first phase of India's first Mars mission was pronounced a success.
"I am happy to announce that the Mars orbiter mission first phase is a
success," said Indian Space Research Organisation chairman K
Radhakrishnan soon after the rocket injected the spacecraft into an
Earth orbit about 45 minutes of flight. About 90 minutes after a drizzle
raised minor concerns about weather among lay people, the 44.4m
PSLV-C25 carrying in its head India's first Mars orbiter, lifted off
from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 2.38pm.
"Being a complex mission of this nature, any day you advance (of the 300-day journey from Earth to Mars), it's a progress," Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan said.
"The journey has only begun. The challenging phase is coming," Radhakrishnan added.
Isro officials also pointed out some of the challenges ahead for the mission.
"As it moves towards Mars, given the distance between Mars and Earth, you will encounter communication delay 20 minutes one way. It means when signals are sent from ground stations, it will take 20 minutes to reach the spacecraft. For about 40 minutes (including time for return communication), there will be a occasion when you do not know what's happening," an Isro official said.
Drowning the cheers at the mission control, about 7km away, and the nearby media centre," the rocket rose to the sky with a roar, spewing fire and smoke. Soon it disappeared into the clouds, only to re-emerge after a few second to another round of applause.
About 58 top scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation remained glued to their computers in the mission control that displayed the performance of the rocket as it shed its first and second stages one by one
The nail-biting - albeit expected - phase came soon after the third stage of the rocket burned out, and the blip on the tracking screens disappeared. As Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan had explained earlier, the rocket would be on a coasting phase for almost 28 minutes, 10 minutes of which will be a "tot?al blind phase."
The mission control witnessed some silent moments during this period. And, when mission director P Kunhikrishnan reported that the first of the two ships in the South Pacific Ocean had picked up signal from the rocket, the scientists lit up.
About 35 minutes into the flight, the rocket was cruising at an altitude "slightly higher than the expected trajectory," as a scientist put it. "But it will self-correct its course," he assured. And correct it did, after the fourth stage engine fired on its own, bringing the rocket back to life. Soon, the orbiter was injected into an elliptical Earth orbit in what Kunhikrishnan called a "precision exercise." What follows in the next 10 days would be six crucial "orbit raising operations," in the wee hours of November 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 16.
And then, at 12.42am on December 1, the orbiter will leave the earth's orbit for a 300-day journey to the red planet. "It's only the beginning; Bigger challenges are ahead, said the Isro chairman. "We expect the orbiter to be in Mar's orbit on September 24, 2014."
"Being a complex mission of this nature, any day you advance (of the 300-day journey from Earth to Mars), it's a progress," Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan said.
"The journey has only begun. The challenging phase is coming," Radhakrishnan added.
Isro officials also pointed out some of the challenges ahead for the mission.
"As it moves towards Mars, given the distance between Mars and Earth, you will encounter communication delay 20 minutes one way. It means when signals are sent from ground stations, it will take 20 minutes to reach the spacecraft. For about 40 minutes (including time for return communication), there will be a occasion when you do not know what's happening," an Isro official said.
Drowning the cheers at the mission control, about 7km away, and the nearby media centre," the rocket rose to the sky with a roar, spewing fire and smoke. Soon it disappeared into the clouds, only to re-emerge after a few second to another round of applause.
About 58 top scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation remained glued to their computers in the mission control that displayed the performance of the rocket as it shed its first and second stages one by one
The nail-biting - albeit expected - phase came soon after the third stage of the rocket burned out, and the blip on the tracking screens disappeared. As Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan had explained earlier, the rocket would be on a coasting phase for almost 28 minutes, 10 minutes of which will be a "tot?al blind phase."
The mission control witnessed some silent moments during this period. And, when mission director P Kunhikrishnan reported that the first of the two ships in the South Pacific Ocean had picked up signal from the rocket, the scientists lit up.
About 35 minutes into the flight, the rocket was cruising at an altitude "slightly higher than the expected trajectory," as a scientist put it. "But it will self-correct its course," he assured. And correct it did, after the fourth stage engine fired on its own, bringing the rocket back to life. Soon, the orbiter was injected into an elliptical Earth orbit in what Kunhikrishnan called a "precision exercise." What follows in the next 10 days would be six crucial "orbit raising operations," in the wee hours of November 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 16.
And then, at 12.42am on December 1, the orbiter will leave the earth's orbit for a 300-day journey to the red planet. "It's only the beginning; Bigger challenges are ahead, said the Isro chairman. "We expect the orbiter to be in Mar's orbit on September 24, 2014."
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