India's Mars Orbiter Mission completes four years in red planet's orbit

India was the first nation to reach Mars on its maiden attempt

India's mission to Mars has completed four years in the orbit. The “Mission Mangalyaan”, also known as the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was initially estimated to survive around six months, but it is still active and has captured the seasonal variations of the red planet for two Martian years.  
 

India was the first nation to reach Mars on a maiden attempt.

Its five payloads are functioning well, said an Isro official. One of the main objectives of the first Indian mission to Mars is to develop the technologies required for designing, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission. 

As far as technological objectives are concerned, design and realisation of a Mars orbiter with a capability to survive and perform Earth-bound manoeuvres include cruise phase of 300 days, Mars orbit insertion/capture, and on-orbit phase around Mars. 

The scientific objectives for exploration of the Mars surface include features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere by indigenous scientific instruments.

Kasie-valles | Photo: ISRO website

The Rs 4.50 billion-mission was launched with the PSLV-C25 rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on November 5, 2013. After crossing more than 660 million km in 300 days, it entered into the Mars orbit on September 24, 2014.

Isro officials have said that Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is taking pictures with Mars Colour Camera and Isro is able to view the seasonal variations of the Mars for two Martian years. Isro also released a Mars Atlas with several images of the planet.

Currently, Indian and international scientists are analysing the data for traces of Methane, a possible sign of life.

Olympus Mons Water ice Clouds | Photo: ISRO website

The spacecraft had carried along at least 100 kg of fuel for contingency and orbit corrections and the fuel is still left in abundance. One of the key reasons for the long survival was Isro's ability to do manoeuvres without wasting the fuel.

So far, the spacecraft had survived the passing of comet Siding Spring, avoided a long eclipse that could have potentially exhausted its batteries and survived the communication blackout due to the solar conjunction for a period of one month from June to July in 2015.

During the solar conjunction, MOM was commanded with autonomy features without any ground commands or intervention. The long eclipse was avoided by a course correction, which reduced the eclipse period from as long as eight hours to zero.

Isro is now planning to send a bigger spacecraft with heavier scientific payloads to Mars.