ISROs Mars Orbiter Mission: Our mangal sutra, and yes, it is rocket science! By Mukul Sharma What is red, is a planet and is the focus of my orbit? read a playful tweet that officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said via Twitter after Indias Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was successfully inserted into Martian orbit and captured by the Red Planets gravity. That happened after the MOM probe — also known as Mangalyaan, Sanskrit for Mars craft — executed a 24-minute main engine burn sequence 300 days after its Earth launch in November last year. In the process, the interplanetary mission also created history by making India the first country to successfully send a spacecraft to Mars on its very first attempt and join a select group of deep-space explorers like the US, Russia and Europe who also have a presence on the planet. (The European Space Agencys Mars Express got it right on its maiden attempt too, but then, thats not the effort of one country but many.) Moreover, getting a spaceship into orbit around Mars is no easy task, especially for a developing country, considering more than half the developed worlds previous attempts — 23 out of 41 missions — have failed, including those of Japan and China. True, Mangalyaan is mainly a technology demonstration project aimed to develop the technologies required for planning and operating interplanetary missions..., but what a demonstration that has turned out to be! Perched atop a giant PSLV-C25 launch vehicle that itself has become comparable to the best launch vehicles of other space-faring nations, the probe began its journey from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh with impeccable flourish. It then spent about a month in Earth orbit, where it made several orbital manoeuvres before effecting a trans-Mars injection. Finally, after a series of mid-space manoeuvres, it reached the Red Planet where it flawlessly woke its main engines that had been idling for about 300 days and got it into insertion mode. And the rest is history. If all this sounds downright amazing for a country that is perceived as still having cows roaming on its streets, heres something much more eye-popping: the whole mission cost the equivalent of approximately $75 million, which is peanuts compared to the US similar MAVEN Mars probe that was launched around the same time and began orbiting the planet two days earlier. It cost them $671 million. Even the space fiction movie Gravity, which was made at a cost of $100 million, was more expensive. However, it should be noted that Mangalyaan is not simply a techdemo showcase. It has a veritable suite of scientific instruments that will now be used for atmospheric, environment and surface imaging studies. These include a Methane Sensor for Mars that will measure methane in the atmosphere, if any, and map its sources. Methane is usually associated with organic systems 90% of the time and, previously, the gas had been detected on the planet. If the Indian probe can pin down methane again, it makes the case for organic life existing on Mars that much more likely. Also on board is a specialised photometer to measure the relative abundance of deuterium and hydrogen in the upper atmosphere that will allow an estimation of the amount of water loss to outer space. This is an important assessment since it has been established that Mars was once awash with water and is today a dry and arid place. It would help in understanding how the transformation took place, along with ramifications for Earth and its ecosystem that might undergo the same processes some day in the future. Finally, some have tried to tone the justified euphoria down by quoting Isaac Newton who said, If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. Meaning, the reason India succeeded in its first attempt whereas scientifically advanced countries like the US and the former Soviet Union didnt is because they were pioneers who went through a stiff learning curve till they got it. While its true India has benefited a lot from their experiences, it would be only fair to say that other great countries and world-powers-to-be havent. For instance Japans spacecraft got nowhere near Mars whereas Chinas probe that didnt even have its own launcher failed when the Russian launcher it was riding piggyback on failed.
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 10:58:22 +0000
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