Vehicle systems powered and health is normal: Isro

The Rs 430-crore Mars Orbiter Mission scheduled to be slated on November 5, 2013 at 02.36 pm

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The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) today said that Mars Orbiter is normal and the rocket systems have been powered. This was announced after Isro conduced rehearsal, which started at 06:08 hrs at Sriharikota, about 100 kms from Chennai, on Thursday.

The Rs 430 crore Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is scheduled to be slated on November 5, 2013 at 02.36 p.m. It may be noted the count down for India’s first Mars’ Mission to start in the next three days .

Except for pressing the ignite button, all other procedures was checked and see whether all preparations are in place during today's rehersal, said an official.

The launch rehearsal simulated the entire procedure of the final eight hours of the countdown, right up to the ignition, after which the system was shut down.

According to reports, the dry run will demonstrate mission-readiness and on November 1 the Launch Authorisation Board will take the final call on initiating the 56 hours and 30 minutes long countdown, due to start ticking two days later, leading to lift-off at 2.38 p.m. on November 5.

Reports added that, the XL variant of the PSLV has been designed to first inject the spacecraft into an elliptical path around the earth in a geocentric phase, then a heliocentric phase, where the flight path is roughly one half an ellipse around the sun.

One of the unique features of the mission arises from the larger ‘Argument of Perigee’ in transferring the orbiter from the earth’s orbit to that of Mars.

The spacecraft would intersect the orbit of Mars almost simultaneously. According to experts, who were quoted in media, such a rare trajectory ? that occurs when the Earth, Mars and the Sun form an angle of 44 degrees ? can offer substantial minimum energy opportunities and occur only at intervals of about 780 days, with the next window possible in January 2016 and then in May 2018.

Isro's Chairman K Radhakrishnan is confident this launch will be successful on November 5. HE noted, there have been only 51 missions to Mars, predominantly by the US, Russia and the European Union consortium, and the success rate has been less than 50%.

On December 1, the satellite would be injected into trans-Martian orbit and begin a long cruise of 300 days. The insertion into Martian orbit is expected on September 24, 2014.