Mars mission successfully completes second orbit-raising manoeuvre

Raised to 40,055 kms; Isro conducts 2nd round of firing on Friday early morning

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) successfully completed the second orbit-raising manoeuvre of the Mars orbiter spacecraft on Friday at 2:18:51 hours.

The spacecraft’s 440-newton liquid engine was fired for 570.6 seconds, after which the spacecraft’s apogee (the farthest point from Earth) increased to 40,186 km, said Isro.

According to Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan, the vital parameters of the spacecraft are normal.

The first round of orbit-raising manoeuvre was successfully completed on Thursday, which raised the apogee to 28,825 km.

Orbit-raising manoeuvre is done by firing the engine, which propels the spacecraft’s orbit farther from Earth.

“We have a few more operations (orbit-raising manoeuvres) planned; one is on early hours on November 9 (which will raise the apogee to around 71,000 km) and the other one on November 11 (to raise apogee to 100,000 km) and then finally one on November 16t (to raise apogee to 192,000 km),” Radhakrishnan added.

Isro had launched the spacecraft on November 5 from Sriharikota and placed it on the parking orbit with perigee (nearest point to Earth) of 250 km and apogee of 23,500 km.

The orbiter will acquire the required escape velocity to leave the Earth’s orbit by firing its engine five times during its one-month stay within the globe’s orbit. Upon the sixth firing, it will go out of the Earth’s gravitational force.

The firing to increase the spacecraft’s elliptical distance from the Earth have been scheduled on November 7, 8, 9, 11 and 16. Thereafter, spacecraft will be mainly under the influence of Sun's gravity.

The crucial day will be on December 1 at 12.42 am, when Isro scientists will give the trans-Martin injection, following which the spacecraft will start its long and difficult voyage towards Mars for almost 300 days. It is expected to reach the Martian orbit on September 24, 2014.