India to take off for Mars from Sriharikota today
India's space ambition will make another giant leap at 2.38pm on Tuesday - mangalvaar, the day of planet Mars. The country's first mission to the red planet will lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh with the Mars Orbiter on board, along with other scientific equipment.
If all goes according to plan, this will also push India into a very small club of nations with interplanetary travel capabilities. The nine-month long journey, after the Orbiter goes around Earth for 22-25 days, is scheduled to enter Mars' orbit on September 24, 2014.
The Mars Orbiter will observe the physical features of Mars and conduct limited study of the Martian atmosphere as finalised by the Advisory Committee on Space Sciences. The pay loads include Lyman Lpha Photometer to measure the relative abundance of deuterium and hydrogen from Lyman-alpha emission; Methane Sensor for Mars to measure methane in the Martian atmosphere, and thus determine past existence of life; Mars Colour Camera to capture images and information about the surface of Mars and its composition; Mars Exopheric Neutral Composition Analyser, which is a spectrometer; and Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer to map surface composition and mineralogy of Mars.
On Monday, officials at the SDSC were busy conducting mandatory checks and preparations for propellant filling operations of Second Stage (PS2).
"On Sunday, we completed a host of operations, such as, propellant filling of PS4 stage and RCT; filling of Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen (MON); filling of Mono Methyl Hydrazine (MMH) and Reaction Control Thrusters (RCT). The Mars Orbiter Mission is on schedule," a senior official from SDSC said.
TheRs.450-crore Mars Orbiter Mission is India's first interplanetary mission to planet Mars with an orbiter craft designed to orbit Mars in an elliptical orbit. The project, built over a remarkably short period of two years, is primarily a technological mission considering the critical operations and stringent requirements on propulsion and other systems of the spacecraft.
Just 21 out of the 51 missions launched to Mars by different countries have been successful and that too by only three space agencies - NASA, European Space Agency and the Russian Federal Space Agency (better known as Roscosmos). ISRO's success will put India into a league China tried, and failed, to enter last year. Japan's Mars mission had failed too in 2003.
The success of the Mars Orbiter Mission, therefore, will also make India the only Asian nation to have achieved the feat. But Isro is quick to dismiss any talk of the mission being about an Asian space race. "One of the main objectives of the first Indian mission to Mars is to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission.
The technological objective include design and realisation of a Mars orbiter with a capability to survive and perform Earthbound manoeuvres, cruise phase of 300 days, Mars orbit insertion /capture, and on-orbit phase around Mars; ensure deep space communication, navigation, mission planning and management," a spokesperson for the mission pointed out.
Mega bill sparks huge debate
Can a country with millions of poor afford to spendRs.450 crore on a Mars exploration mission? India's ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission has sparked a heated debate on the utility of the project, with even Isro’s own former chairman G. Madhavan Nair terming it a "national waste".
"Not only Nair, even (development economist) Jean Dreeze made the same argument. Do we need an MOM at the cost ofRs.450 crore when we have children dying of malnutrition and rural sanitation remains a distant dream? Space quest is understandable for advanced economies. May be our priorities are wrong," said development economist Dr G. Neginhal. Isro officials, though, beg to differ.
"ISRO is pursuing specific objectives, as the government provides aims and goals to different departments.
It is wrong to compare two different issues," a spokesperson said.
If all goes according to plan, this will also push India into a very small club of nations with interplanetary travel capabilities. The nine-month long journey, after the Orbiter goes around Earth for 22-25 days, is scheduled to enter Mars' orbit on September 24, 2014.
The Mars Orbiter will observe the physical features of Mars and conduct limited study of the Martian atmosphere as finalised by the Advisory Committee on Space Sciences. The pay loads include Lyman Lpha Photometer to measure the relative abundance of deuterium and hydrogen from Lyman-alpha emission; Methane Sensor for Mars to measure methane in the Martian atmosphere, and thus determine past existence of life; Mars Colour Camera to capture images and information about the surface of Mars and its composition; Mars Exopheric Neutral Composition Analyser, which is a spectrometer; and Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer to map surface composition and mineralogy of Mars.
On Monday, officials at the SDSC were busy conducting mandatory checks and preparations for propellant filling operations of Second Stage (PS2).
"On Sunday, we completed a host of operations, such as, propellant filling of PS4 stage and RCT; filling of Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen (MON); filling of Mono Methyl Hydrazine (MMH) and Reaction Control Thrusters (RCT). The Mars Orbiter Mission is on schedule," a senior official from SDSC said.
TheRs.450-crore Mars Orbiter Mission is India's first interplanetary mission to planet Mars with an orbiter craft designed to orbit Mars in an elliptical orbit. The project, built over a remarkably short period of two years, is primarily a technological mission considering the critical operations and stringent requirements on propulsion and other systems of the spacecraft.
Just 21 out of the 51 missions launched to Mars by different countries have been successful and that too by only three space agencies - NASA, European Space Agency and the Russian Federal Space Agency (better known as Roscosmos). ISRO's success will put India into a league China tried, and failed, to enter last year. Japan's Mars mission had failed too in 2003.
The success of the Mars Orbiter Mission, therefore, will also make India the only Asian nation to have achieved the feat. But Isro is quick to dismiss any talk of the mission being about an Asian space race. "One of the main objectives of the first Indian mission to Mars is to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission.
The technological objective include design and realisation of a Mars orbiter with a capability to survive and perform Earthbound manoeuvres, cruise phase of 300 days, Mars orbit insertion /capture, and on-orbit phase around Mars; ensure deep space communication, navigation, mission planning and management," a spokesperson for the mission pointed out.
Mega bill sparks huge debate
Can a country with millions of poor afford to spendRs.450 crore on a Mars exploration mission? India's ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission has sparked a heated debate on the utility of the project, with even Isro’s own former chairman G. Madhavan Nair terming it a "national waste".
"Not only Nair, even (development economist) Jean Dreeze made the same argument. Do we need an MOM at the cost ofRs.450 crore when we have children dying of malnutrition and rural sanitation remains a distant dream? Space quest is understandable for advanced economies. May be our priorities are wrong," said development economist Dr G. Neginhal. Isro officials, though, beg to differ.
"ISRO is pursuing specific objectives, as the government provides aims and goals to different departments.
It is wrong to compare two different issues," a spokesperson said.
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