Re: India to assist in building the largest Telescope in the world...
Are we talking telescopes?
Re: India to assist in building the largest Telescope in the world...
^Oh it is like a Squash ball.
Re: India to assist in building the largest Telescope in the world...
What is?
Re: India to assist in building the largest Telescope in the world…
Mars Orbiter Mission Updates - SPACEFLIGHT101
It details from the very first start.
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[COLOR=#272E34][COLOR=#060]ndia’s Mars Orbiter collects Photos of Comet Siding Spring Flyby
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November 12, 2014
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[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000] **The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission has released its initial data on Comet Siding Spring’s close encounter with Mars back on October 19 that was the focus of a [detailed scientific study involving all spacecraft currently operating in orbit around or on the surface of the red planet.](http://www.spaceflight101.com/comet-encounter-with-mars-delivers-promising-scientific-results.html)
MOM itself was able to capture several images of the comet’s coma as Siding Spring approached to a distance of 139,500 Kilometers to the Mars – delivering an excessive amount of cometary material to the planet as shown in initial data released by other Mars missions.
** **ISRO joined NASA’s and ESA’s missions by maneuvering the Mars Orbiter into a safe slot for the period of greatest risk of damage to the spacecraft as a result of particle impacts. Although the risk was considered low, MOM was commanded to perform an engine burn to slightly adjust its orbit to be behind Mars when the planet traveled trough the dust trail left by the comet around 100 minutes after the closest approach.
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4901566_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4901566_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000]**This turned out to be a wise decision as data now has shown that Mars was showered in much more cometary particles than initially anticipated. Siding Spring’s close flyby delivered several tons of material to Mars that created a spectacular meteor shower, but also endangered spacecraft in orbit as the particles were moving at a relative velocity of 56 Kilometers per second, possessing tremendous kinetic energy.
Since Mars was not entering the dust trail left by the comet until after closest approach, the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft was able to observe the comet with the Mars Color Camera from 17:44 to 18:25 UTC on October 19 which was just before the comet’s closest approach, giving the camera the best odds of actually seeing the comet. **
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7397483_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7397483_orig.jpg) Image: NASA, ESA, PSI, JHU/APL, STScI/AURA
Hubble Composite Image
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4807045_orig.gif Image: NASA/JPL
[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000]**In the images released by ISRO, the comet is visible as a small dot which is quite a feat considering that the camera was never intended to observe such a faint and distant target. One of the images shows a streak that ISRO interprets to be a jet of material released by the comet nucleus.
** **The Mars Color Camera weighs around 1.2 Kilograms and covers a spectral range of 400 to 700 nanometers – the visible spectrum. The camera includes a multi-element lens assembly and a 2,000 by 2,000-pixel array detector with RGB Bayer Filter. ****At periapsis, MCC provides images with a 50 by 50-Kilometer frame size and a resolution of 25 meters per pixel. At apoapsis, the camera provides a wide field of view of 8,000 by 8,000 Kilometers. Images provided by MCC are normally used to study Martian surface topography.
** **In addition to its camera, the MOM spacecraft was also planned to operate its Methane Sensor and the Martian Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer. The Methane Sensor was on the lookout for any methane introduced into the Martian atmosphere by the comet since comets are known to contain organic molecules including methane. This could have served as a verification that the sensor can indeed identify the species and provide an interesting data point on the composition of Siding Spring.
** **MENCA is a mass spectrometer that is operated when MOM is passing the lowest altitudes of its orbit to make in-situ measurements of the composition of the upper atmosphere. A comparable instrument flying on NASA’s MAVEN missionidentified a number of species in the atmosphere including an abundance of magnesium and iron among other atomized and ionized metals that were created as a result of collisions of cometary dust with atmospheric particles at Mars.
The metal species introduced in the atmosphere disappeared within a few hours due to reactions that are still under investigation. It is likely that MENCA made similar observations, but its data has not been presented yet.**
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[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000]MOM’s measurements could add another data set to that created by NASA and ESA missions, providing additional measurements from a different location in orbit as the planet reacted to its encounter with the cometary particles. NASA and ISRO agreed to share data prior to the comet’s arrival since MAVEN and MOM have similar objectives in terms of atmospheric science.[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]
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[TD=“class: wsite-multicol-col”] [COLOR=#060]Indian Mars Orbiter Mission prepares for Comet Encounter
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October 17, 2014
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[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000] **The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission is continuing as planned with the spacecraft in orbit around Mars, executing science operations and preparing for this weekend’s encounter with comet Siding Spring for which a series of observations are planned.
MOM is in good health according to the Indian Space Research Organization. Having inserted itself into orbit on September 24, the spacecraft activated all of its five instruments in the days following orbital insertion. Initial imagery acquired by the Mars Color Camera payload were released by ISRO just days after Mars Orbit Insertion including full-disk images which will regularly be collected by the spacecraft owing to its highly elliptical orbit that ranges from altitudes of just over 400 to nearly 77,000 Kilometers.
The two latest global images released by the mission show a series of interesting surface features and also appear to reflect the improving calibration of the MCC instrument after its first image showed Mars in a color that was considered ‘too red’ by those familiar with orbital imagery of the planet. The last two photos released by the mission show Mars in a color that is more realistic and in-line with imagery from other spacecraft.
ISRO has also released a series of images showing Mars Moon Phobos transiting across the Martian disk. In the four frames of the video, Phobos can be seen as a tiny black dot moving across the red planet in the background. Phobos is characterized by a very low albedo, reflecting only a small portion of the light that hits it, giving a very dark appearance when compared with Mars or other objects.
The frames of Phobos and Mars were taken when MOM was at an altitude of 66,275 Kilometers.
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3040841.jpg?451](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3040841_orig.jpg?451) Photo: ISRO
[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000] The latest photo released by MOM shows Olympus Mons on the left of the frame and the Tharsis Montes closer to the center of the photo, representing three Martian volcanoes - Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons and Arsia Mons. In the right half of the frame, Valles Marineris can be seen – one of the largest canyon systems in the solar system measuring more than 4,000 Kilometers in length & 200km in diameter with a depth up to 7 Kilometers.
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[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000]Phobos orbits about 6,000 Kilometers above the surface of Mars, closer to its primary body than any other known moon. Phobos is 27 by 22 by 18 Kilometers in size. For an observer on Mars, Phobos rises in the west and sets in the east after moving across the sky in 4 hours 15 minutes or less, making two appearances each Martian Day. Phobos’ orbital altitude is slowly decreasing and the moon will eventually collide with Mars or break into pieces leaving Mars with a planetary ring.[/COLOR][/COLOR]
Phobos passes across Mars - Video Credit: ISRO
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/6282459_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/6282459_orig.jpg) Image: NASA
[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000] **Like NASA’s and ESA’s Mars Orbiters, the MOM spacecraft went through a number of steps to prepare for the arrival of comet Siding Spring that will pass Mars at a distance of 139,000 Kilometers at 18:28 UTC on Sunday which is an extremely close encounter by astronomical standards. Initially it was believed that dust and larger particles released by the comet were a danger to spacecraft in Martian orbit since the two bodies are moving at a relative velocity of 56km/s giving any particles tremendous kinetic energy, however, later studies showed that the risk was minimal.
Nevertheless, NASA and ESA decided to move their spacecraft to the opposite side of Mars to use the planet as a shield when its motion would carry it into the path of possible cometary ejecta. Mars will pass around 27,000 Kilometers from the comet’s orbit at 20:10 UTC which is the point of greatest risk to the spacecraft.
MOM conducted a propulsive maneuver on October 7 to slightly modify its orbit and set up the proper positioning for the comet’s pass-by. The maneuver consumed 1.9 Kilograms of propellant to place MOM on the opposite side of Mars, passing near its periapsis when the encounter takes place. **
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[COLOR=#000000]The spacecraft will attempt to acquire images of the comet with the Mars Color Camera and the other instruments will attempt to record any effects the cometary material has on the Martian atmosphere in the days after the close flyby. Particular focus will be on Methane that may be introduced into the atmosphere by comet. MOM’s MENCA instrument (Martian Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer) will attempt to identify any changes to the neutral exosphere of Mars as a result of the encounter with the comet which will enable scientists to deduce the composition of Siding Spring. After the comet departs the Martian vicinity, MOM will continue its regular scientific observations.[/COLOR]
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5521055.jpg?553 Photo: ISRO
[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000] This global image shows a series of prominent surface features including Gale Crater where NASA’s Curiosity rover is currently exploring the Martian surface. Gale can be seen in the lower half of the picture characterized by its dark crater floor and the brighter Aeolis Mons in its center. The image also shows Gusev Crater where the Spirit rover has found its final resting place on the surface of Mars. In the center of the image is Elysium Planitia, a plain that will be the landing site of NASA’s InSIGHT mission launching in 2016. To the south is Terra Cimmeria characterized by a darker tone and located in the heavily cratered, southern highland regions. A brighter feature in the upper left of the image is Elysium Fossae. Some storm activity can be seen in the northern hemisphere.
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India’s Mars Orbiter begins Instrument Activation, takes Global Image September 30, 2014 [TABLE=“class: wsite-multicol-table”]
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**India’s Mars Orbiter has settled in its orbit around the red planet, successfully sending back the first images taken by the Mars Color Camera and beginning the activation and checkout of the remaining four science instruments. Meanwhile, the Indian Space Research Organization is looking at options for the study of Comet Siding Spring in October and assessments are currently underway on MOM’s propellant expenditure strategy.
Inserting itself into Martian Orbit last Wednesday, the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft achieved a major milestone for ISRO, but teams did not rest on their success, immediately beginning the transition of the spacecraft to its orbital configuration. The Mars Orbiter had already been provided with its initial steps to be taken in orbit which included establishing communications using the High-Gain antenna and completing its first imaging operations using the Mars Color Camera.
Three photos have been released by ISO to far - an image of a portion of Syrtis Major taken from 7,300 Kilometers in altitude, one oblique view of the Martian Atmosphere from a little over 8,000 Kilometers in altitude and one full-disk photo of planet Mars taken from an altitude of 74,500 Kilometers.
The full-disk image illustrates MOM’s unique capability of acquiring single-frame images of the entire planet when in a position near its apoapsis altitude of 76,993 Kilometers. Naturally, the spacecraft spends most time around apoapsis creating opportunities for many full-disk images to be taken by MOM which is the only spacecraft that is capable of acquiring this type of image in a quality that can not be reached by any current spacecraft orbiting Mars or any telescopic asset. **
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7333621.jpg?423](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7333621_orig.jpg?423) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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**The first global image taken by MOM looks almost straight down at Meridiani Planum where the Opportunity rover is exploring the surface of Mars. Visible in the photo is the ice-cap of the Martian south pole as well as a large dust-storm in the northern hemisphere - showcasing the scientific value of this type of image for an overall assessment of dust-lifting events and atmospheric processes. Although Mars weather is being monitored by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s MARCI instrument, the mission relies on mosaic imaging to obtain global photography of the planet which requires time and spacecraft resources.
Owing to its highly elliptical orbit, MOM will be able to cover the entire surface of the planet since the planet makes a full revolution while the spacecraft is near the apoapsis of its orbit from where it can acquire global images.
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3268517_orig.jpg Image: NASA
**In addition to taking images, the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft went through the activation of its instruments. First power-up of instruments was completed on Saturday and Sunday - the plan was to activate the Methane Sensor for Mars, the Lyman Alpha Photometer and the Thermal Infrared Spectrometer over the weekend with MENCA, the Martian Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer to follow a short time later.
The instruments will go through a series of commissioning tasks before being ready to begin the acquisition of scientific data in time for the close encounter of Mars and Comet Siding Spring. **
**The comet was discovered early in 2013 and was initially thought to be on a collision course with the red planet. ****Refined calculations show a miss distance of 139,000 Kilometers which still represents a once in a lifetime scientific opportunity. At its closest approach on October 19, the comet will be easily visible to the Mars orbiters as well as the rovers currently active on the surface. **
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**Mars will move through the orbital path of the comet at 20:10 UTC on October 19 which will cause a measurable effect on the Martian atmosphere as the planet encounters the ejecta from Siding Spring.
The Mars Orbiter will have its instruments running when passing through ejecta from the comet in order to determine whether the comet contains Methane which can be detected by MOM’s dedicated instrument down to parts-per-billion levels. It is likely that the MENCA instrument will also be looking for species released by the comet.**
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**ISRO is currently in the process of studying MOM’s scientific opportunities associated with Siding Spring with particular focus on the spacecraft’s position in its orbit around Mars when the cometary material will arrive. Whether an orbital adjustment maneuver is being evaluated has not been confirmed.
However, it is known that MOM has arrived at Mars with more propellant than expected. Around 40kg of storable propellants remain in the vehicle’s tanks - the planned propellant requirement during MOM’s primary mission of six months is on the order of 20kg. This provides teams with a tough choice - saving the propellant to extend the mission beyond six months or performing an orbital maneuver to improve the science return of the mission, also placing the spacecraft in a better viewing position for Siding Spring. This decision will be made by ISRO over the coming days. **
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2569613_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2569613_orig.jpg) Image: NASA/JPL/Solar System Simulator
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3440625.jpg?659 Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
**This unique full-disk image of Mars taken by the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft was released by the Indian Space Research Organization on September 29, 2014 - illustrating MOM’s capability of acquiring this type of images in a quality that can not be reached by any current spacecraft orbiting Mars or any telescopic asset. The Mars Color Camera acquired the image from an altitude of 74,500 Kilometers - it shows nearly the entire sunlit portion of Mars, looking straight down at Meridiani Planum where Mars rover Opportunity is exploring the surface of Mars. The photo also shows the polar ice cap in the south and a dust storm in the north. **
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[TD=“class: wsite-multicol-col”] Mars Orbiter Mission releases first Photo of Martian Surface
September 25, 2014
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**The Indian Space Research Organization has released the first photo acquired by the Mars Orbiter Mission following the successful Mars Orbit Insertion performed earlier this week.
The Mars Orbiter Spacecraft conducted its crucial Mars Orbit Insertion burn on Wednesday, igniting its Liquid Apogee Motor at 1:47 UTC to slow the spacecraft down in order to be captured in an elliptical orbit around Mars. LAM achieved a total burn duration of 23 minutes and 8.67 seconds supplying a total change in velocity of 1,099 meters per second. Tracking of the spacecraft revealed it had achieved an orbit of 421.7 by 76,993.6 Kilometers at the planned inclination of 150 degrees. This orbit has a period of 72.8642 hours.
Successfully entering Martian Orbit, the MOM spacecraft concluded a 680-million Kilometer journey through the Solar System following its launch in November 2013 and its departure of Earth later that month. **
**Being more of a technically oriented mission, MOM’s primary goals revolved around the construction of a spacecraft capable of performing an interplanetary mission and demonstrating the conduct of such a mission with respect to spacecraft navigation, trajectory planning, vehicle maintenance and autonomous operations at great distance to Earth.
Due to limitations in performance of its PSLV launch vehicle, MOM had to carry a large propellant load to get to Mars, restricting the weight that could be allocated for scientific payloads that amount to a total mass of just 13 Kilograms. **
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2326751_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2326751_orig.jpg) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
First Photo released by India’s Mars Orbiter Mission
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**The science performed in orbit around Mars is considered a bonus and focuses on the Martian atmosphere and the planet’s topography and surface composition.
One of MOM’s instruments is the Mars Color Camera that was the first payload to be activated on Mars to be able to acquire a number of photos in the hours after Mars Orbit Insertion. Up to ten photos were taken over the course of MOM’s first day in orbit, one of which was released on Thursday after being presented to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/9445410_orig.jpg
Photo: ISRO
Mars Color Camera
**The Mars Color Camera weighs around 1.2 Kilograms and covers a spectral range of 400 to 700 nanometers – the visible spectrum. The camera includes a multi-element lens assembly and a 2,000 by 2,000-pixel array detector with RGB Bayer Filter.
At periapsis, MCC provides images with a 50 by 50-Kilometer frame size and a resolution of 25 meters per pixel. At apoapsis, the camera provides a wide field of view of 8,000 by 8,000 Kilometers. Imagery provided by MCC are used to study Martian surface topography.
The first photo of Mars released by ISRO was acquired when the spacecraft was at an altitude of 7,300 Kilometers in its orbit creating a spatial resolution of 376 meters.
The photo shows a portion of Syrtis Major that is located in the boundary between the Martian highlands in the north and the southern highlands. **
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**The area is characterized by its distinctive dark color that puts it in stark contrast with the red-brown Martian regolith. The color is caused by basaltic volcanic rock that is exposed on the surface. Syrtis Major is about 1,300 Kilometers wide and can be observed from Earth using even small telescopes.
Syrtis Major was discovered by Christiaan Huygens who made drawings of it in 1659 and used its position as a reference to determine the length of day on Mars. First known as Hourglass Sea, the area became the first documented surface feature of another planet - giving MOM’s first image some historic reference.
Teams at ISRO are currently in the process of transitioning the MOM spacecraft to its nominal in-orbit configuration that includes the activation of the other four scientific instruments that will be completed over a period of days. Instrument commissioning will follow before MOM can begin regular science operations in orbit around Mars. Whether any orbital adjustments are planned has not been indicated by ISRO yet as assessments of MOM’s fuel reserves are currently being conducted to predict the vehicle’s lifetime since the spacecraft requires about 40 to 50 kg of propellant per year to operate in orbit.**
MOM Image of Martian Atmosphere http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4298702.jpg?504 Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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India’s Mars Orbiter achieves new Milestone in successful Orbital Insertion [TABLE=“class: wsite-multicol-table”]
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>>>Archived Live Coverage
September 24, 2014 - Updated
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**The Indian Mars Orbiter Spacecraft achieved a major milestone on Wednesday, successfully inserting itself into orbit around planet Mars, marking the completion of a 680-million Kilometer journey through the Solar System. This marks one of the biggest achievements of the Indian Space Research Organization as MOM ventured further into space than any previous Indian spacecraft.
Successfully placing a spacecraft in orbit around Mars, ISRO becomes the fourth member in an exclus****ive club of agencies that successfully sent spacecraft to Mars following the Soviet space program, the European Space Agency and NASA that had just sent its MAVEN spacecraftinto Martian orbit on Monday.**
**Launched back on November 5, 2013 atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, the Mars Orbiter was constrained by the performance of India’s workhorse launcher that required the spacecraft to take the scenic route - first entering an elliptical Earth orbit that the spacecraft raised by making six engine burns before firing its main engine, the Liquid Apogee Motor, a seventh time to depart Earth and enter a path to Mars on November 30. **
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7841476_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7841476_orig.jpg) Image: ISRO
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**Spending several weeks in Earth orbit allowed MOM to complete detailed checkouts without the effect of a long communications delay. Once on its way to Mars, the orbiter went through more testing and began to fine-tune its path by making an initial Trajectory Correction on December 11 followed by a second maneuver on June 11 that put the spacecraft on a precise path to Mars that was only modified once more on Monday to set up the planned periapsis passage and orbital insertion conditions.
The Indian Space Research Organization sent the commands for the Mars Orbit Insertion Sequence to the MOM spacecraft on September 14/15 to leave sufficient time for validation of the crucial sequence that had no room for error.
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2009472.jpg?445 Image: ISRO
**One of the biggest unknowns of the orbital insertion maneuver was the performance of the Liquid Apogee Motor and the propellant system that, by design, was only built to operate for a few weeks and not sit idle for 295 days before a re-start. To mitigate the issue of leaky valves due to the corrosive nature of the propellants, MOM is equipped with two sets of propellant lines, valves and regulators. The first set was used for orbit-raising and the first trajectory correction before being isolated using pyro valves. Also utilizing pyro valves, the second set of lines was primed in the days leading up to MOI.
To test out the engine and the second set of propellant lines, the Mission Team implemented a Trajectory Correction that was performed on Monday to serve as a test of the LAM and also refine MOM’s course to Mars. Using a minimal burn duration of under four seconds, the firing delivered just enough data points to allow teams to assess the operational fuel flow and thrust conditions of the engine - confirming that LAM was working. **
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**Successfully conducting the mission’s third TCM, the spacecraft lowered its periapsis attitude from 723 Kilometers to just over 500 Kilometers, optimizing the orbital insertion conditions in order to reach its planned orbit.
With renewed confidence in the LAM engine, ISRO approved their Mars Orbiter to use “Plan A” to enter orbit - firing the 440-Newton LAM instead of reverting to the smaller 22-Newton Attitude Control Thrusters that would have been put to use in case LAM was not operational.
MOM entered the Martian Sphere of influence at 1 UTC on Monday, passing the 577,000-Kilometer-mark as Martian gravity became the primary force acting on the spacecraft.
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**MOM was left on its own throughout the days leading up to MOI, only operating essential systems and running pre-loaded commands, not requiring any more interaction with Earth. However, the craft continued sending telemetry received by NASA’s Deep Space Network Stations and ISRO’s tracking station in Bangalore.
Tensions were rising at the Mission Control Center as the Mars Orbiter approached the final crucial steps leading up to MOI. The critical sequence picked up three hours ahead of ignition when the vehicle switched from its directional High Gain Antenna to the Medium Gain Antenna in preparation for the re-orientation to the burn attitude that pointed the HGA boresight off Earth.
On Wednesday, signals from Mars traveled 12 minutes and 28 seconds before arriving at Earth where they were received by NASA’s Stations in Canberra and Goldstone, being immediately relayed to ISRO to track the progress of their spacecraft via status telemetry and doppler tracking.
At MOI-21 minutes, the spacecraft began the re-orientation to its retrograde burn attitude, pointing LAM forward to be able to slow down and get captured in orbit. This attitude maneuver used MOM’s reaction wheels and was completed as planned, indicated by telemetry from the navigation platform of the vehicle. Five minutes ahead of ignition, the spacecraft passed into the Martian shadow, entering eclipse for the first time since leaving Earth orbit.
Three minutes before MOI, the vehicle handed from the reaction wheels to the eight 22-Newton thrusters for attitude control.
At 1:47:32 UTC, the Liquid Apogee Motor ignited on one of the most important burns performed by any LAM to date since most missions have backup plans and margin for error, but India’s Mars Orbiter did not have that luxury - to get into orbit around Mars, there was only one chance. Signals confirming LAM’s ignition and it reaching operational conditions arrived on Earth at 2:00 UTC.
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8676660_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8676660_orig.jpg) Image: ISRO
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/191685_orig.jpg Image: ISRO
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**The Mission Control team was able to track MOM’s progress until four minutes and 18 seconds after ignition when the spacecraft disappeared behind Mars, causing a 23-minute loss of signal. Without signal from Mars, tensions at Mission Control peaked as teams could only hope that their spacecraft was behaving well while in occultation.
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7816866.jpg?609 Photo: ISRO
Delta-v progress until Mars Occultation
**The Mars Orbit Insertion Burn had a planned change in velocity of 1,098.7 meters per second with an anticipated burn time of 24 minutes and 14 seconds. However, engine shutdown was triggered by the navigation system when accelerometers sensed that the proper delta-v was achieved, dynamically adjusting for actual engine performance by extending of shortening the burn slightly.
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**For MOM, the sun came up 19.5 minutes into its burn, but Earth was not coming into view until three minutes after the scheduled end of the Mars Orbit Insertion burn. The spacecraft was programmed to start the re-orientation back to its comm attitude one minute after shutdown, followed five minutes later by the re-activation of the communications system when MOM was visible from Earth again.
Anxiously awaiting the signal of the spacecraft, Mission Controllers were standing by as the first pieces of data arrived after traveling 224 million Kilometers through space. Loud applause and cheering emerged when initial data indicated that MOM reached the full burn duration with an achieved delta-v of 1,099m/s. ISRO provided the actual burn duration as 23 minutes and 8.67 seconds, indicating a slight overperformance of the engine that was automatically corrected by shortening the burn.
Initial doppler tracking also pointed to a successful orbital insertion, however, it took several hours of tracking until the exact orbit of the Mars Orbiter could be determined. MOM was targeting an insertion orbit of 423 by 80,000 Kilometers inclined 150 degrees and reached a 421.7 by 76,993.6-Kilometer orbit illustrating the accuracy of the spacecraft’s insertion maneuver when looking at the periapsis (the slightly lower apoapsis is no problem and will likely prove favorable for science operations). **
The orbit has a period of 72 hours, 51 minutes and 51 seconds.
**Just like the rest of its mission, this orbit is constrained by propellant availability. Having already consumed the majority of its propellant load to get to Mars, MOM consumed another 250kg of propellant during orbital insertion, leaving just around 40 Kilograms for orbit adjustments and reaction wheel desats, becoming the limiting consumable of the mission. **
**A lower orbit that would have been benefiting the science return would have required a longer MOI burn which was not possible given the performance limitation of PSLV.
**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2575908_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2575908_orig.jpg) Photo: ISRO
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1574745_orig.jpg Image: ISRO
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**Now in orbit, the MOM spacecraft will complete a series of reconfigurations to transition to science operations using its five instruments. ****
If everything goes according to plan, the first picture of Mars taken by the craft’s color camera should arrive on Earth later on Wednesday. The other instruments will complete several days of calibration and checkout before MOM can begin science operations that had been identified as a secondary goal of the mission from the very beginning.
The goal of the Mars Orbiter Mission was primarily to serve as a pathfinder. **
**Being the first mission of this nature for ISRO, the aim of MOM was to demonstrate the construction of a spacecraft capable of cruising through the solar system and entering orbit around another body, also focusing on mission operations such as navigation, trajectory planning, spacecraft maintenance and the autonomous execution of the mission due to long communication delays. Most of these objectives were fulfilled with Wednesday’s orbital insertion, but the operation of the spacecraft in orbit with the bonus of science operations is another milestone ISRO aims to complete.
**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5559774_orig.jpg Image: ISRO
**Five instruments are installed on the MOM spacecraft to conduct a number of scientific studies with focus on the Martian atmosphere and the planet's topography. The Lyman-Alpha Photometer will be used to measure the Deuterium-to-Hydrogen ratio in the atmosphere which can serve as tracer for atmospheric loss processes that played an extremely important role in the evolution of planet Mars. **
MENCA, the Martian Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer is a quadrupole mass spectrometer that will be used to study the composition of the outermost layers of the Martian atmosphere, tracking even minute variations of its composition over time. The Methane Sensor for Mars will support the ongoing search for Methane on Mars as a specialized instrument to detect Methane down to a concentration of a few parts per billion.
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**TIS, the Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer, will track thermal emissions from the Martian surface to deduce surface composition and mineralogy while the Mars Color Camera delivers visible imagery of the surface for an assessment of the Martian topography.
ISRO hopes to operate the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft for at least 160 days in orbit around Mars, but the mission is open-ended and will continue as long as the spacecraft continues to function, paving the way for future missions to distant targets. **
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MOI Timeline [CENTER] [TABLE=“width: 445”]
Event
Date
Time UTC
MOI
ERT/UTC *
Uplink of MOI Commands & Verifications
Sep 14/15
Upload of TCM-4 Commands
Sep 17
MOM Enters Mars’ Sphere of Influence
Sep 22
TCM-4, dt: 3.968sec, dv: 2.142m/s
Sep 22
09:00:00
Handover to Medium Gain Antenna Comm
Sep 23
22:47:32
-03:00:00
23:00:00
Re-Orientation to Retrograde Attitude
Sep 24
01:26:32
-00:21:00
01:39:00
Entering Eclipse
Sep 24
01:42:19
-00:05:13
01:54:47
Handover to 22N Thrusters for Attitude Control
Sep 24
01:44:32
-00:03:00
01:57:00
LAM Ignition - MOI START
Sep 24
01:47:32
+00:00:00
02:00:00
Burn Duration: 24 minutes & 14 seconds
Change in Velocity: 1,098.7m/s, Propellant Consumption: 249.5kg
Target Orbit: 423 by 80,000 Kilometers
Mars Occultation begins
Sep 24
01:51:50
+00:04:18
02:04:18
Telemetry Deactivation
Sep 24
01:52:32
+00:05:00
02:05:00
Confirmation of Burn Start (ERT)
Sep 24
02:00:00
Eclipse Ends
Sep 24
02:07:01
+00:19:29
02:19:29
LAM Shutdown
Sep 24
02:11:46
+00:24:14
02:24:14
Re-Orientation to Comm Attitude
Sep 24
02:12:46
+00:25:14
02:25:14
Occultation Ends
Sep 24
02:15:10
+00:27:38
02:27:38
Telemetry Resumes, Doppler Measurements
Sep 24
02:17:46
+00:30:14
02:31:14
Re-Orientation complete
Sep 24
02:22:46
+00:35:14
02:36:14
*ERT: Earth Receive Time in UTC
[/CENTER]
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8419143.jpg?434](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8419143_orig.jpg?434) Image: ISRO
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7721154.jpg?672](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7721154_orig.jpg?672) Image: NASA JPL Solar System Simulator
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Mars Orbiter Spacecraft completes Engine Test, fine-tunes its Course September 22, 2014 [TABLE=“class: wsite-multicol-table”]
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**India’s Mars Orbiter Spacecraft completed an important course correction on Monday that also acted as a demonstration of its main engine that will be tasked with the crucial Mars Orbit Insertion burn planned on Wednesday. With Monday’s firing going according to plan, the Indian Space Research Organization can press ahead with “Plan A” - performing the maneuver with the Liquid Apogee Motor instead of using the backup procedure of firing the smaller attitude control thrusters. The Mars Orbit Insertion Burn is planned to begin at 1:47 UTC on Wednesday.
Over the past several days, the Mars Orbiter continued onward in its solar orbit before entering the Martian Sphere of influence around 1 UTC on Monday. In this 577,000-Kilometer sphere around the planet, Mars creates the primary gravitational force acting on an object. With its path changing into a hyperbola centered on Mars with a periapsis altitude of approximately 723 Kilometers, MOM prepared for the mission’s final Trajectory Correction Maneuver.
Monday’s Liquid Apogee Motor burn served two purposes - a minor Trajectory Correction Maneuver further refining the craft’s approach trajectory, and secondly, a test of the LAM engine, the second set of propellant lines, valves and regulators to ensure the engine will be operational for the critical Mars Orbit Insertion burn for which MOM only gets one chance.
At 9:00 UTC on Monday, MOM successfully fired its main engine for a planned duration of 3.968 seconds, achieving a change in velocity of 2.18 meters per second indicating a very slight overperformance as the published burn target was a delta-v of 2.142m/s. The burn was targeted to lower the spacecraft’s periapsis altitude to 515 Kilometers to optimize the Mars Orbit Insertion and the resulting elliptical orbit around Mars.
The Indian Space Research Organization confirmed that the Liquid Apogee Motor was successfully fired after sitting idle for 295 days following its last burn on December 1, 2013. This clears the way for MOM’s orbital insertion maneuver on Wednesday to follow in the footsteps of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft that entered orbit on Monday.**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2589127.jpg?446](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2589127_orig.jpg?446) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1882046.jpg?444 Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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At the time of MOM’s orbital insertion, its signals will take 12 minutes and 28 seconds to travel to Earth for reception by NASA’s Deep Space Network Stations in Canberra and Goldstone that will relay the data in real time to ISRO’s station in Bangalore so that teams can monitor data as it comes in. However, much of MOM’s maneuver takes place behind Mars, as seen from Earth which means that from a point four minutes into the MOI burn until three minutes after the scheduled end of the maneuver, teams on Earth will have no insight into the spacecraft’s progress.
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8784200.jpg?619 Image: NASA JPL Solar System Simulator
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**The critical Mars Orbit Insertion Burn Sequence will begin three hours ahead of the planned maneuver time when the spacecraft automatically switches over to its Medium Gain Antenna for communications since the High Gain Antenna will be pointing away from Earth during the retrograde burn.
21 minutes ahead of ignition, the spacecraft will begin the re-orientation to the proper attitude for the burn, pointing LAM to the direction of travel. The re-orientation is accomplished using the vehicle’s Reaction Wheels. Five minutes and 13 seconds ahead of the burn, the spacecraft passes into darkness - for the first time since leaving Earth last year. In advance, MOM will fully charge its battery to be in a safe configuration for the eclipse.
Three minutes ahead of the burn, the vehicle’s eight 22-Newton thrusters are enabled to start providing attitude control which they will continue to do throughout the main engine burn, keeping MOM pointing forward.
**
Video: ISRO
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**Ignition of the Liquid Apogee Motor is planned at 1:47:32 UTC on Wednesday, September 24, 7:17 Indian Standard Time. The Mars Orbit Insertion burn has a planned duration of 24 minutes and 14 seconds, slowing the spacecraft down by 1,098.7 meters per second to be captured in an elliptical orbit around Mars. During the burn, the engines will consume 249.5 Kilograms of propellant leaving only about 40 Kilograms of propellant for the rest of the mission.
MOM is targeting an insertion orbit of 423 by 80,000 Kilometers at an inclination of 150 degrees with an orbital period of more than three days.
Should something go wrong during the burn, MOM is programmed to react appropriately in order to achieve a stable orbit around Mars - even if that means to spend all the vehicle’s propellant to do so. In the event the Liquid Apogee Motor is not ignited or its burn is cut short, MOM would automatically switch to the 22-Newton thrusters to supply as much delta-v as possible. Due to their lower thrust, the 22N thrusters would need to fire much longer than LAM along a greater stretch around the periapsis pass which will increase propellant consumption and leave MOM in a higher orbit.
The thrust augmentation by the 22N thrusters was first tested in November 2013 and worked as planned with the thrusters continuing to fire after LAM cutoff to optimize MOM’s trajectory as best as possible.
**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/775126.jpg?478 Image: ISRO
**Teams are hopeful that everything will go according to plan on Wednesday, given the extremely good performance of the spacecraft over the course of its mission. With the Liquid Apogee Motor firing, MOM will disappear behind Mars, as seen from Earth, at MOI+4 minutes and 18 seconds. Shortly thereafter, MOM will stop sending telemetry since it wouldn't be heard on Earth anyway. Confirmation of a good burn start will be given when signals from ignition arrive at Earth at 2:00:00 UTC.
MOM will head out of eclipse at 2:07:01 UTC while its engine is still firing. After the vehicle’s navigation platform senses a delta-v of 1,098.7m/s, MOM will shut down its engine. LAM Cutoff is expected at 2:11:46 UTC. One minute after cutoff, MOM will begin to maneuver back to its communications orientation, pointing the High Gain Antenna to Earth.
27 minutes and 38 seconds after the start of the Mars Orbit Insertion burn, MOM will appear again and begin sending signals back to Earth a little under three minutes later. **
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**At that point, Deep Space Network stations will be standing by to pick up the spacecraft and relay telemetry to India while also performing an initial doppler measurement to quickly assess whether the vehicle is on the planned trajectory.
Recorded burn data will be downlinked to allow Mission Controllers to assess the success of the burn by means of the analysis of engine and attitude control performance. A final confirmation of orbital insertion will come a few hours after the event when initial orbital data can be computed from doppler tracking.
After arriving in orbit, MOM will go through a series of reconfigurations to re-power some of its systems. For its first day in orbit, MOM already has a schedule of operations in its memory that include the acquisition of a photo of the red planet with the Mars Color Camera. A few commissioning and checkout operations are planned over the coming weeks to prepare MOM’s instruments for science operations - the Lyman Alpha Photometer, the Martian Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer, the Methane Sensor for Mars, and the Thermal Infrared Imaging System.**
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Indian Mars Orbiter to perform critical Orbital Insertion Maneuver next Week September 18, 2014 [TABLE=“class: wsite-multicol-table”]
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[TD=“class: wsite-multicol-col”] http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/598231.jpg?444 Image: ISRO
**Two spacecraft are preparing to insert themselves into orbit around Mars in the next seven days to continue the exploration of our neighboring planet in the Solar System.
NASA who has been to Mars before, both in orbit and on the surface, is gearing up for the orbital insertion of its MAVEN Spacecraft on Monday(UTC) to mark the start of a detailed survey of the Martian atmosphere and the processes ongoing therein. The Indian Space Research Organization hopes to achieve one of its greatest achievements to date by sending its MOM spacecraft into orbit next Wednesday.
The Mars Orbiter Mission is set for its critical Mars Orbit Insertion Burn early on September 24, UTC, in the morning hours Indian Standard Time. This is the final hurdle for MOM to overcome to achieve a big milestone for the Indian Space Research Organization. One of the main objectives of MOM was to demonstrate that it was possible for ISRO to send a spacecraft to Mars and be successful in operating it through the different mission phases.
**
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**Compared to NASA’s MAVEN mission that purely dedicated to science, MOM sets out to fulfill a number of technical mission objectives with science being somewhat of a bonus. MOM serves as a pathfinder, being India’s first mission beyond the Moon which brings its own unique challenges such as the operation of a spacecraft with a significant communications delay. Technical demonstrations that are performed on this mission include spacecraft construction, orbital maneuvers and transfer orbit design, navigation in all mission phases, spacecraft operations and maintenance and the incorporation of mainly autonomous mission operations.
**
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**Many of these elements will be needed for the critical Mars Orbit Insertion Burn that will be performed in a fully autonomous mode by the spacecraft that already received the command sequences that will be executed next week. Command uplink took place on September 14/15 and the sequences were verified by September 16.
One of the biggest unknowns is the behavior of MOM’s main engine, called LAM, the Liquid Apogee Motor due to its original use in Geostationary Satellites that utilized the engine over a period of weeks to raise their orbits and reach GEO. LAM was not designed to sit idle for nearly 300 days and then cleanly re-start. India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter used its engine several months into the mission and studies were performed to clear LAM for use in a Mars Mission.
****LAM provides 440 Newtons of thrust which equates to 44.87 Kilograms, using Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine as fuel and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen as oxidizer. The engine is capable of operating in a broad range of conditions in terms of oxidizer-to-fuel ratio, injection pressures, temperatures and voltages. ****
In order to increase the probability of success of the crucial MOI burn, LAM was outfitted with a second set of propellant lines from the tanks of the spacecraft including a fully independent set of valves and regulators. The primary propellant system was used for the orbit-raising maneuvers, the trans-Martian insertion burn and the first Trajectory Correction Maneuver. After that, the lines were isolated using pyro valves to prevent the corrosive propellant from creating leaks in the valves that would lead to a loss of precious fuel.
Ahead of the MOI maneuver, the second set of propellant lines is opened to feed the engine. In order to test the second set of lines and the engine itself, a short LAM firing is being implemented on September 22 as part the mission’s fourth Trajectory Correction Maneuver. Although this maneuver could be performed more accurately with the vehicle’s eight 22-Newton thrusters, ISRO decided to use LAM for this burn as it presents a final opportunity to test the engine ahead of the critical MOI burn two days later.
**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3485427.jpg?421](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3485427_orig.jpg?421) Image: ISRO
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1967999.jpg?417 Photo: ISRO
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**TCM-4 takes place at 9:00 UTC on Monday when the Mars Orbiter is already within the Martian Sphere of influence in which the Martian gravity pulls the spacecraft in, further accelerating it. The burn has originally been planned for September 14, but trajectory optimization and the desire to use LAM drove the decision to delay the burn to the 22nd.
LAM will ignite just briefly - TCM-4 has a planned duration of 3.968 seconds to supply a change in velocity of 2.142 meters per second, slightly tweaking MOM’s trajectory, lowering the periapsis of the Mars Flyby Trajectory from 723 Kilometers to 515 Kilometers which optimizes the orbital insertion burn that is desired to take place around a low periapsis.
After the Trajectory Correction, teams will examine telemetry recorded by the spacecraft to assess the status of the Liquid Apogee Motor. Should any anomaly related to LAM’s operation be detected, teams would still have a little more than 24 hours to modify burn parameters or operating parameters for the engine during the MOI burn to ensure a good orbital insertion.
At the time of MOM’s orbital insertion, its signals will take 12 minutes and 28 seconds to travel to Earth for reception by NASA’s Deep Space Network Stations in Canberra and Goldstone that will relay the data in real time to ISRO’s station in Bangalore so that teams can monitor data as it comes in. However, much of MOM’s maneuver takes place behind Mars, as seen from Earth which means that from a point four minutes into the MOI burn until three minutes after the scheduled end of the maneuver, teams on Earth will have no insight into the spacecraft’s progress.
**
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Indian Mars Orbiter gears up for Orbital Insertion in four Weeks
August 27, 2014
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/92961_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/92961_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
** India’s Mars Orbiter is gearing up for its critical Mars Orbit Insertion Maneuver set for September 24, 2014 – one of the biggest milestones of the mission. According to the Indian Space Research Organization, the MOM spacecraft is in good health having completed all systems and instrument checkouts during its cruise from Earth to Mars.
Focus is now shifting to the critical orbital insertion maneuver that leaves not much margin for error, requiring MOM’s single main engine to perform perfectly to enable the spacecraft to begin its science mission in orbit around Mars.
Following the mission’s second Trajectory Correction Maneuver on June 11, things got quiet for the Mars Orbiter as the spacecraft had finished an extensive set of checkouts and commissioning activities late in 2013 and early in 2014 while the craft was still close to Earth with a short communications delay.
**
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**Mission Controllers continued to watch over MOM’s status as the spacecraft remained in constant communication with India’s Deep Space Network Stations, also supported by NASA’s Deep Space Network when needed.
MOM performed calibrations of its Medium Gain Antenna in July and August so that it will be ready for use during the critical MOI burn during which the high-gain antenna can not be pointed at Earth because the engine burn requires the spacecraft to be in a retrograde orientation. Teams on the ground also went through rehearsals of the initial operations to be performed once MOM is in orbit to be ready for any anomalies should problems arise.
**
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** The mission plan included a Trajectory Correction Maneuver in August, but tracking data obtained via Delta DOR (Delta differential one-way ranging) measurements showed that the spacecraft was on a precise trajectory, not requiring August’s course correction. A final planned Trajectory Correction Maneuver will be performed on September 14, ten days ahead of MOI to set up the proper trajectory of MOM’s close approach aiming at a precise position over the surface of Mars for the critical insertion burn. If needed, contingency maneuvers could be performed in case of larger trajectory deficiencies leading up to MOI.
The moment of truth for the Mars Orbiter will be the ignition of the Liquid Apogee Motor for the insertion burn. For the Mars Orbiter Mission, the single main engine is sitting idle for 297 days between the Trans-Martian Insertion Burn performed on November 30, 2013. This is the longest interval between LAM firings ever - the engine is usually employed on Geostationary Satellites that use it over a period of days or weeks to achieve their planned orbit.
The Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter flew a version of LAM that was certified for 30 days, but successfully fired 209 days into the mission when the craft raised its orbit around the Moon. Chandrayaan-1 performed a total of eleven LAM burns over the course of its mission, for MOM, the Mars Orbit Insertion Maneuver will be the eighth burn.
To facilitate the long interval between LAM firings and increase the probability of success of the MOI maneuver, MOM’s propulsion system features a number of modifications. These modifications include an additional set of propellant lines and associated valves that feed propellant from the tanks to the main engine. The propellant system used for the orbit raising burns and the TMI burn was isolated by initiating pyro valves early in the cruise phase. This prevents the corrosive propellants from causing propellant leaks since MOM does not have a large margin of propellant. For MOI, the second set of propellant lines will be used, but the engine will still be the same.
**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3504255_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3504255_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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** LAM provides 440 Newtons of thrust which equates to 44.87 Kilograms, using Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine as fuel and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen as oxidizer. The engine operates and an mixture ratio (O/F) of 1.65 and has a nozzle ratio of 160. The engine’s injector is a co-axial swirl element made of titanium while the thrust chamber is constructed of Columbium alloy that is radiatively cooled. **
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1609730_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4671688_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
**LAM is a robust engine that can tolerate injection pressures of 0.9 to 2.0 MPa, propellant temperatures of 0 to 65°C, mixture ratios of 1.2 to 2.0 and bus voltages of 28 to 42 Volts. The engine is certified for long firings of up to 3,000 seconds and a cumulative firing time of >23,542 seconds.
It is known that LAM can lose up to 2% of performance in terms of specific impulse over time which could also be the case for the MOI burn. To achieve the planned change in velocity of 1,100 meters per second, MOM will use its accelerometers to track the burn progress and shut the engine down when the target delta-v has been achieved – compared to an engine cutoff commanded after a given burn time that does not take into account the actual delta-v. The MOI burn will also be the longest retrograde firing ever performed by the LAM.
Presently, the Mars Orbiter has approximately 290 Kilograms of propellant left in its tanks out of an original prop load of 852 Kilograms. The Mars Orbit Insertion burn will consume 240kg of propellants, leaving about 50kg for orbit adjustments and trajectory corrections.
Without much margin for error, the LAM engine has to fire correctly on September 24, however, the spacecraft is capable of re-attempting the MOI burn should a first attempt be cut short for some reason. The aborted orbit-raising maneuver early in the mission has shown that the spacecraft would be capable of supplying additional delta-v by using its 22N attitude control thrusters, but those would only be useful if the remaining delta-v is relatively small.
Due to the long communications delay to Earth, no intervention will be possible and all operations have to run autonomously, as commanded by the spacecraft computers. MOM will be hidden behind Mars (as seen from Earth) for much of the MOI maneuver which means that confirmation of a successful orbital insertion will come when the spacecraft re-appears after the completion of the maneuver.
The Mars Orbiter targets an operational orbit of 365.3 by 80,000 Kilometers with an inclination of 150 degrees and a duration of 76.72 hours from where it will perform its science mission.
As of 22 UTC on August 27, 2014 the Mars Orbiter had traveled 697 Million Kilometers on its journey from Earth to Mars. MOM was 195.8 Million Kilometers from Earth traveling at a relative velocity of 97,470 Kilometers per hour. The one-way signal travel time between the spacecraft and Earth was 10 minutes and 53 seconds.
The spacecraft was 7.35 Million Kilometers from Mars cruising at a relative velocity of 10,980 Kilometers per hour. MOM’s heliocentric velocity was 80,330 Kilometers per hour at a distance to the sun of 215 Million Kilometers. Also on its way to Mars, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft was about 850,000 Kilometers from MOM.**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4325070_orig.jpg
Image: JPL - Solar System Simulator
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India’s Mars Orbiter completes second Trajectory Correction Maneuver
June 11, 2014
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** The Indian Mars Orbiter refined its path to the Red Planet on Wednesday, conducting the mission’s second Trajectory Correction Maneuver to set up the proper approach of Mars for orbital insertion on September 24, 2014. According to the Indian Space Research Organization, MOM is in good health and Wednesday’s TCM was executed successfully.
Following its successful launch into Earth orbit atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle on November 5, 2013 and 25 days of orbit raising, the Mars Orbiter left the planet behind by making its Trans-Martian Insertion Burn after six orbit-raising maneuvers. Leaving for Mars, the orbiter conducted its first Trajectory Correction in December to refine its path to Mars and correct any errors that occurred during TMI.
Carefully calculating MOM’s trajectory by using Delta DOR (Delta differential one-way ranging) measurements, teams decided to skip a planned course correction in April as the Mars Orbiter was on a very accurate path. In April and May, the spacecraft continued its cruise through the inner solar system, staying in contact with ground stations to allow teams to keep up to date on the vehicle’s status and health. Periodically, MOM activated its five instruments for regular check ups to ensure all instruments remain functional throughout the cruise to Mars.
To set up the proper trajectory for the approach to Mars, MOM was set for a short Trajectory Correction Maneuver on Wednesday. The commands for the burn were uplinked to the spacecraft hours in advance. For the burn, the Mars Orbiter was to use its attitude control system to re-orient to the proper attitude for the maneuver, pointing its 22-Newton thrusters in the correct direction. Engine start was expected at 11:00 UTC for a burn of only 16 seconds and a planned change in velocity of 1.577 meters per second.
According to the Indian Space Research Organization, telemetry sent back by the spacecraft showed that the burn was executed nominally. Final confirmation of a successful TCM will be provided after the orbiter could be tracked for some time to allow its precise trajectory to be assessed.
Wednesday’s TCM refined MOM’s trajectory as the vehicle begins approaching Mars. Another TCM is available as the spacecraft gets closer to Mars to target the precise point above the surface of the planet for the critical Mars Orbit Insertion Burn that will occur on September 24, 2014. Additional TCMs can be performed at any point in the cruise if the need arises.
As of 13:00 UTC on Wednesday, the Mars Orbiter had traveled 546 Million Kilometers on its journey from Earth to Mars.
**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/430678_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/430678_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4652276_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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**MOM was 102.1 Million Kilometers from Earth traveling at a relative velocity of 61,200 Kilometers per hour. The one-way signal travel time between the spacecraft and Earth was 5 minutes and 41 seconds. The spacecraft was 27.95 Million Kilometers from Mars cruising at a relative velocity of 14,760 Kilometers per hour. MOM’s heliocentric velocity was 84,500 Kilometers per hour at a distance to the sun of 206 Million Kilometers. Also on its way to Mars, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft was about 2.9 Million Kilometers from MOM.
**
MOM - Current Position http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/6043106.jpg?725 Image: JPL - Solar System Simulator
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Indian Mars Orbiter in excellent Health - Course Correction skipped
April 8, 2014
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/9224367_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/9224367_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
** India’s Mars Orbiter is reaching the halfway-mark of its journey from Earth to Mars and the spacecraft is right on track, allowing it to skip a scheduled Trajectory Correction Maneuver on Wednesday. Carrying on its flight to Mars in excellent health, the MOM spacecraft is set for its Mars Orbit Insertion maneuver on September 24, 2014.
Over the past two months, MOM enjoyed a quiet cruise as it made its way through the inner solar system. The spacecraft was in constant contact with ground stations on Earth and the mission team has been reviewing all telemetry data received from the vehicle. Periodically, MOM activated its five instruments for regular check ups to ensure all instruments remain functional throughout the cruise to Mars.
Keeping in touch with the spacecraft via the Indian Deep Space Network Stations and NASA’s Deep Space Network, trajectory specialists used Delta DOR (Delta differential one-way ranging) measurements to precisely determine MOM’s trajectory. The first Trajectory Correction Maneuver of the mission performed on December 11, 2013 achieved its goal of fine-tuning the vehicle’s trajectory and correcting errors that occurred during Trans-Martian Insertion.
**
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**The TCM was very accurate and placed MOM on a precise trajectory verified through tracking from Earth. With MOM on its deigned trajectory, mission planners decided to skip the next TCM that would have occurred on Wednesday. The next Trajectory Correction Maneuver is now planned for June to set up the proper conditions for Mars Orbit Insertion in September.
On Wednesday at 4:20 UTC, the Mars Orbiter will hit the half-way point, having traveled 337.5 Kilometers on its journey from Earth to Mars. As of 16:00 UTC on Tuesday, the MOM spacecraft was 38.3 million Kilometers from Earth traveling at a relative speed of 30,820 Kilometers per hour. The one-way signal travel time was 2 minutes and 8 seconds. The spacecraft was 63.81 million Kilometers from Mars moving at a relative speed of 35,830 Kilometers per hour. Relative to the sun, MOM was traveling at 96,270 Kilometers per hour at a distance of 182.5 million Kilometers. Also heading to Mars, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft was 4.5 million Kilometers from India’s Mars Orbiter.
**
MOM - Current Position http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8959654.jpg?664 Image: NASA JPL - Solar System Simulator
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India’s Mars Orbiter performing well during Interplanetary Cruise
February 6, 2014
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**The Mars Orbiter Mission operated by the Indian Space Research Organization has been progressing as planned as the MOM spacecraft cruises from Earth to Mars for arrival at the planet on September 24, 2014. MOM has been keeping in contact with ground stations on Earth and Delta DOR (Delta differential one-way ranging) measurements are being made to precisely follow the vehicle’s trajectory.
After the first trajectory maneuver performed in December, the trajectory of MOM was tracked and verified to be as planned. Another TCM may be performed during cruise if required with another correction planned two weeks before Mars Orbit Insertion. While cruising, Mission Controllers are also putting the MOM spacecraft through a series of tests to ensure the instruments remain operational and are ready to begin science operations as soon as the spacecraft arrives at Mars.
As of 2 UTC on February 6, 2014, the Mars Orbiter spacecraft had traveled 254.7 Million Kilometers since being launched on November 5, 2013. The spacecraft was 15.04 million Kilometers from Earth flying at a relative velocity of 7,490 Kilometers per hour. The current communications delay was 50 seconds. MOM’s heliocentric velocity was 111,820 km/h as it was 155.6 million Kilometers from the Sun.
The spacecraft was 137.6 million Kilometers from Mars. Also heading toward Mars, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft was 5.2 million Kilometers from India’s Mars Orbiter.**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7676138_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7676138_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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MOM - Current Position http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2401630.jpg?708 Image: NASA JPL - Solar System Simulator
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December 11, 2013
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/6742381_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/6742381_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
** India’s Mars Orbiter has fine-tuned its course to Mars making its first Trajectory Correction Maneuver on Wednesday.
After inserting itself into the planned trans-Martian Trajectory on November 30 and exiting Earth’s sphere of influence on December 3, the MOM spacecraft was carefully tracked by ground stations to determine its precise trajectory in order to plan the first in a series of Trajectory Correction Maneuvers that will occur during the cruise to Mars. The first TCM was planned to correct any errors that may have occurred during the TMI burn that used the large Liquid Apogee Motor of the spacecraft.
The first TCM was a 40.5-second burn of the 22-Newton thrusters of the Mars Orbiter that was performed at 1:00 UTC on Wednesday.
The 22 Newton thrusters use a co-axial swirl type Titanium alloy injectors and Columbium combustion chambers. The thrusters operate in blowdown mode at a chamber pressure of 0.68 MPa creating a specific impulse of 2,780 Nsec/kg. The 22N thrusters have an area ratio of 100. They can be operated in pulse mode with a minimum pulse duration of 8 milliseconds that supplies a minimum impulse of 65mNsec. Each 22N thruster assembly weighs 0.8 Kilograms.
**
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**The 22N thruster is qualified for 300,000 duty cycles as it is mostly operated in pulse mode, but it can also withstand a single burn of up to 10,000 seconds and a cumulative burn time of 70,000 seconds.
**
According to the Indian Space Research Organization, the Burn was performed successfully. MOM is now continuing a quiet cruise that will feature a number of instrument testing activities. One more Trajectory Correction Maneuver is planned to occur during cruise and the third TCM is planned about two weeks before arriving at Mars in September 2014 to set up the proper flight path for the critical Mars Orbit Insertion. Additional maneuvers may be performed if required.
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As of 5 UTC on December 11, the MOM spacecraft was 2.95 million Kilometers from Earth flying at a relative velocity of 11,320 Kilometers per hour. The current communications delay was 10 seconds. MOM’s heliocentric velocity was 118,440 km/h as it was 145.6 million Kilometers from the Sun.
The spacecraft was 231.9 million Kilometers from Mars. Also heading toward Mars, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft was 3.98 million Kilometers from India’s Mars Orbiter.**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/6312998_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/6312998_orig.jpg) Image: NASA JPL - Solar System Simulator
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India’s Mars Orbiter departs Earth for Interplanetary Journey
November 30, 2013
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**India's Mars Orbiter has successfully conducted its Trans-Martian Insertion Burn on Saturday to depart Earth orbit and begin its long cruise to Mars for insertion into an orbit around the planet in September 2014.
After being launched atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle on November 5, 2013, the MOM spacecraft started out in a sub-GTO (Geostationary Transfer Orbit) from where it had to insert itself into a highly elliptical orbit around Earth to set up for the Trans-Martian Injection. Using a total of six orbit-raising burns, MOM raised its apogee from the initial 23,567 Kilometers to 192,870 Kilometers and placed itself into a higher-energy orbit for the TMI maneuver. **
**This flight profile was chosen because of the limited performance of the PSLV rocket.
**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1145621_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1145621_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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**When MOM had completed its final orbit-raising maneuver on November 15, the spacecraft began two weeks of instrument checkouts. The vehicle activated its five instruments for a set of electrical and functional checks that were completed while MOM was still in close proximity to Earth, eliminating any problems caused by lengthy communication delays. All instruments checked out as planned and the Mars Color Camera sent back its first images, showing what it will be able to do once the spacecraft reaches its destination.
At the conclusion of preliminary instrument checks, the Mission Team started gearing up for the crucial TMI maneuver that had less margin for error than the previous orbital maneuvers. TMI was targeted to occur at the optimal time within the interplanetary launch window that allows the most efficient transfer to Mars in terms of fuel expenditure. Missing the maneuver and trying again an orbit later would have required additional delta-v by the spacecraft. Even more troubling would have been a partial TMI burn placing the vehicle in a higher Orbit around Earth or putting MOM into a lower-energy heliocentric orbit.
**
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**With all these concerns, tension was high, but the team was confident that the engine burn would be completed without problems as their Liquid Apogee Motor has performed lengthy firings on past Geostationary Satellite mission without any trouble. ****
About 16 hours before the TMI burn, the MOM spacecraft received its command sequence for the maneuver. Watching over their spacecraft, the team at the Mission Operations Complex of ISTRAC at Bangalore was busy performing final health checks on Saturday. **
**MOM was awarded a clean bill of health and began executing its TMI sequence at 18:19 UTC on Saturday, one hour before the maneuver.
**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/9472552.jpg?491](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/9472552_orig.jpg?491) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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**To get ready for the burn, the spacecraft performed its re-orientation to point its LAM main engine into the correct direction for the posigrade burn occurring near perigee. Right on time at 19:19 UTC, the Mars Orbiter ignited its LAM engine to begin the Trans-Martian Injection Burn.
The maneuver was 22 minutes and 8 seconds in duration and changed the vehicle’s velocity by 647.96 meters per second, consuming a total of 198 Kilograms of propellants. During the burn, the spacecraft’s eight 22-Newton Attitude Control Thrusters were used to keep the vehicle in the correct orientation. In addition, some of the thrusters were used to supply additional delta-v based on navigation data provided by the vehicle’s sensors to achieve a very precise burn.
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2008194.jpg?452 Image: Indian Space Research Organization
**LAM provides 440 Newtons of thrust which equates to 44.87 Kilograms, using Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine as fuel and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen as oxidizer. The engine operates and an mixture ratio (O/F) of 1.65 and has a nozzle ratio of 160. The engine’s injector is a co-axial swirl element made of titanium while the thrust chamber is constructed of Columbium alloy that is radiatively cooled. **
**
LAM is a robust engine that can tolerate injection pressures of 0.9 to 2.0 MPa, propellant temperatures of 0 to 65°C, mixture ratios of 1.2 to 2.0 and bus voltages of 28 to 42 Volts. The engine is certified for long firings of up to 3,000 seconds and a cumulative firing time of >23,542 seconds.
The 22N attitude control thrusters are also bi-propellant engines that can handle a range of operational conditions.
**
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**While burning the LAM engine, the MOM spacecraft crossed perigee for the final time being tracked by a number of ground stations that supported the mission. LAM was showing solid performance throughout the burn according to updates provided by the Indian Space Research Organization.
After just over 22 minutes, the Mars Orbiter shut down its LAM main engine, achieving a perfect burn and boosting itself into the expected trajectory. Over the coming hours and days, precise trajectory data will be obtained but the initial look at the TMI maneuver confirms an overall success within the expected parameters.
With a successful Trans-Martian Insertion, MOM is now departing Earth. First, the vehicle will exit Earth’s sphere of influence that extends about 925,000 Kilometers before entering a heliocentric orbit for the ten-month cruise to Mars.
**
When ISRO has collected precise tracking data, teams will plan the first of at least three Trajectory Correction Maneuver. The first TCM is planned to occur on December 11, 2013 to correct any errors that may have occurred during TMI to put MOM on a very precise path to Mars.
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**Another TCM is coming up during cruise with additional maneuvers that can be planned when the need arises. The final TCM will be performed about two weeks before arriving at Mars to set up the proper flight path for the critical Mars Orbit Insertion.
Flying in its Hohmann Transfer Orbit, MOM is now set for the trip to Mars that takes about 300 days and is filled with more instrument checkouts and vehicle health checks to get ready for operations at Mars. Insertion into an orbit around the Red Planet will occur on September 24, 2014 with even less margin than Saturday’s TMI maneuver had.
Arriving at Mars, Mangalyaan fires its Liquid Apogee Motor in order to insert itself into an elliptical orbit around Mars. The MOI Maneuver is the biggest nail-biter of the mission as the Liquid Apogee Motor has to function properly even after spending months in cruise mode to Mars.
Although LAM has flown on various GEO satellites and the Chandrayaan-1 Moon Probe, the engine has never had such a long break in between duty cycles performed in space. Should the MOI Burn not start on time or achieve the required change in velocity, Mangalyaan would be lost in its orbit around the sun.**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2813540_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2813540_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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Mars Orbiter takes first Image of Earth using Mars Color Camera
November 20, 2013
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**In the midst of testing its five scientific instruments, India’s Mars Orbiter has acquired its first color image using the Mars Color Camera Instrument. The photo was taken on Tuesday when MOM was about 70,000 Kilometers above Earth. The photo shows India as well as surrounding regions including portions of Asia, Europe and Africa. According to ISRO, it has a spatial resolution of 3.5 Kilometers, showing what the Mars Color Camera instrument will be able to accomplish when the MOM spacecraft is in orbit around Mars.
The Mars Color Camera payload weighs about 1.4 Kilograms. MCC covers a spectral range of 400 to 700 nanometers – the visible spectrum. The camera includes a multi-element lens assembly and a 2,000 by 2,000-pixel array detector with RGB Bayer Filter.
At periapsis in MOM’s orbit around Mars, MCC provides images with a 50 by 50-Kilometer frame size and a resolution of 25 meters per pixel. At apoapsis, the camera provides a wide field of view of 8,000 by 8,000 Kilometers. Imagery provided by MCC are used to study Martian surface topography.
Photo: Indian Space Research Organization**
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/708551.jpg?649 Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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Indian Mars Orbiter completes final orbit-raising Burn -Payload Checks are next [TABLE=“class: wsite-multicol-table”]
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November 15, 2013
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**The Indian Mars Orbiter Spacecraft has successfully conducted its final orbit-raising maneuver, boosting its apogee to more than 192,000 Kilometers for the insertion into its interplanetary trajectory that will be completed on November 30.
Following the successful supplementary engine burn performed on Monday, MOM was in a 239 by 117,739-Kilometer orbit at an inclination of 19.32 degrees, with an argument of perigee of 287.5 degrees which was one of the driving requirements for the initial insertion of the spacecraft. This final Midnight Maneuver was to put MOM into an even higher orbit with an apogee close to 200,000 Kilometers.
On Friday, MOM completed its re-orientation to the posigrade burn attitude and ignited its bipropellant LAM engine at 19:57 UTC to begin the final orbit-raising burn. According to ISRO, the burn achieved the full duration of 243.5 seconds and the expected change in velocity. The Mars Orbiter is now in an orbit with a high apogee of approximately 192,870 Kilometers. MOM now completes one orbit every three days and 19 hours.
Now in its target orbit, MOM begins its final days in Earth orbit ahead of the crucial engine burn on November 30 that will boost the spacecraft out of Earth’s gravitational sphere and into a Hohmann Transfer orbit for a 10-month transit to Mars.
With the incremental orbit raising process complete, the Mars Orbiter can now focus on another important task - checking out its scientific instruments. MOM carries a 15-Kilogram science payload consisting of five instruments:**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8889194_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8889194_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/6064300.png?447 Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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**- a Lyman Alpha Spectrometer to make precise measurements of the Deuterium-to-Hydrogen ratio in the Martian atmosphere as a tracer of atmospheric loss, MENCA (Martian Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer) - a mass spectrometer for in-situ measurements of exospheric density and composition, the Methane Sensor for Mars to be used to measure Methane with parts per billion accuracy, TIS (Thermal Infrared Spectrometer) for measurements of thermal emissions from the Martian surface, and finally, the Mars Color Camera to provide color images of the planet.
The instruments will complete initial activation and electrical & aliveness checks to make sure the instruments are functional. Commissioning will be started to prepare for the operation of the instruments once arriving at Mars. **
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**Instrument activities will also be performed during the cruise phase, but having MOM in close proximity to Earth for two more weeks provides a valuable opportunity of operations without a significant communications delay. This could be particular useful in case troubleshooting steps are necessary during instrument activation. **
>>>MOM Mission Overview (includes detailed payload descriptions)
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Mars Orbiter Mission back on Track after additional Engine Burn
November 11, 2013
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2380371.jpg?536](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2380371_orig.jpg?536) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
**The Indian Space Research Organization has successfully recovered its Mars Orbiter from a technical problem that occurred during the mission’s fourth orbit-raising maneuver which was performed yesterday, but ended ahead of schedule when the spacecraft’s engine was shut down unexpectedly.
After launch on November 4, the MOM spacecraft had performed three successful apogee.raising maneuvers and was gearing up to raise its orbit on Sunday to reach an apogee of more than 100,000 Kilometers.
The burn of the Liquid Apogee Motor started as planned, but stopped when the spacecraft had achieved a change in velocity of 35 meters per second instead of the targeted 130m/s.
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**Later, ISRO reported what had occurred. The fourth Midnight Maneuver was the first burn during which the vehicle’s redundant coils of the solenoid flow control valve of the engine were checked out. During the first three burns, only the primary system was in use. As part of a sequence of operations, the “primary and redundant coils were energised together” which caused propellant flow to the engine to stop. Also tested during the burn was the thrust augmentation by the attitude control thrusters which continued to burn after the LAM had shut down.
MOM is equipped with a single 440-Newton Liquid Apogee Motor part of a redundant main propulsion system plumbing assembly including redundant propellant lines, valves and controllers. The spacecraft uses eight 22-Newton thrusters for attitude control during burns and for smaller maneuver.
ISRO determined both coils of the valve can not be used simultaneously which will be prevented from occurring again by a software patch that will be implemented. Operating the coils independently in sequence is possible to ensure redundancy of the system.
One of the big advantages of MOM’s trajectory is that the spacecraft spends the first weeks of its flight in close proximity to Earth before departing for Mars allowing teams to test the vehicle. Also, the chosen flight profile using an incremental orbit-raising scheme is relatively forgiving as a missed or aborted burn does not mean the loss of the mission. Taking advantage of MOM still being in orbit around Earth, ISRO has put the vehicle’s gyros, accelerometers, star trackers, flight control system and flight software through their paces, showing that all of those systems were functioning as advertised.
With the LAM problem sorted out, ISRO re-planned the flight profile of the MOM mission to facilitate an additional orbit-raising maneuver to add the remaining delta-v in order to reach 100,000 Kilometers.
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1534600_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
**This supplementary orbit-raising maneuver started at 23:30 UTC on Monday and was completed as expected, putting MOM back on track.
The vehicle is now set for one more orbit-raising maneuver that will bring the apogee up to more than 200,000 Kilometers. Then, at the end of the month, the Mars Orbiter conducts another crucial engine burn to exit Earth orbit and place itself onto an interplanetary trajectory for an arrival at Mars in September 2014.**
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India’s Mars Orbiter encounters Problem during Orbit-Raising Burn
November 11, 2013
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** India’s Mars Orbiter has experienced a problem during its fourth orbit-raising maneuver that was performed on Sunday. The engine burn did not achieve the planned change in velocity and left the spacecraft in a lower-than-planned orbit. The Indian Space Research Organization is assessing the issue and its re-planning the flight profile of the MOM spacecraft for an additional burn to put it into the correct orbit.
The spacecraft had performed three successful Midnight Maneuvers as the engine burns are also known, boosting the vehicle’s apogee from 23,567 to 71,636 Kilometers. These burns are part of a methodical orbit-raising process to eventually insert the vehicle into an interplanetary trajectory. Originally, five midnight maneuvers were planned followed by a sixth burn to place the vehicle into a Hohmann Transfer Orbit.
The fourth burn of the Mars Orbiter Mission was planned to raise the apogee of the orbit to above 100,000 Kilometers. Via the mission’s official Facebook page, ISRO reported that the spacecraft performed a nominal re-orientation to its posigrade burn attitude and ignited its Liquid Apogee Motor on time at 20:36 UTC. Later, ISRO announced that a change in velocity of 35 meters per second was achieved which indicates that a problem had occurred during the burn.
To reach an apogee of 100,000 Kilometers, a delta-v of 130m/s would have been required, meaning that the burn only achieved 27% of its target delta-v. This low delta-v raised the apogee to just 78,276 Kilometers.
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7746551_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7746551_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7283435_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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**Whether the burn was cut short due to an anomaly detected by the spacecraft or the engine underperformed for some reason is not clear. Luckily for ISRO, the Mars Orbiter is currently in a mission phase that allows corrections. Once the issue is understood and a solution is implemented, ISRO can conduct a clean-up maneuver to make up for the shortcomings in delta-v. This additional burn will be performed at 23:30 UTC on Monday.
Should this issue have occurred during the Mars Orbit Insertion Burn in September 2014, things would be looking much worse. For the crucial MOI maneuver, there is only one attempt, any major shortcomings during that burn would leave the spacecraft stranded in an orbit around the sun.
MOM’s LAM engine provides 440 Newtons of thrust which equates to 44.87 Kilograms. The engine operates and an mixture ratio (O/F) of 1.65 and has a nozzle ratio of 160 providing a specific impulse of 3,041N*sec/kg. The engine’s injector is a co-axial swirl element made of titanium while the thrust chamber is constructed of Columbium alloy that is radiatively cooled. Electron welding technique is used to mate the injector to the combustion chamber.
LAM is a robust engine that can tolerate injection pressures of 0.9 to 2.0 MPa, propellant temperatures of 0 to 65°C, mixture ratios of 1.2 to 2.0 and bus voltages of 28 to 42 Volts. The engine is certified for long firings of up to 3,000 seconds and a cumulative firing time of >23,542 seconds.**
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Indian Mars Orbiter executes third Orbit-Raising Maneuver
November 8, 2013
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8280948_orig.png](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8280948_orig.png) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
**India’s Mars Orbiter has successfully performed the third orbit-raising maneuver on Friday, continuing to boost its orbit around Earth to set the stage for Trans-Martian Insertion at the end of the Month.
Following the two successful back-to-back apogee-raising maneuvers on Wednesday and Thursday, MOM was in a 280 by 40,186-Kilometer orbit around Earth, ready for the largest of its Midnight Maneuvers as the burns are also called.
The spacecraft started the slew to its posigrade burn orientation as planned and ignited its Liquid Apogee Motor at 20:40 UTC. Firing the engine with the burn centered on the vehicle’s low perigee, MOM started to further increase its orbital velocity. The third maneuver was 707 seconds in duration and raised the apogee to 71,636 Kilometers.
According to ISRO, the maneuver was executed as expected. MOM’s next orbit-raising maneuver is planned to occur roughly two days after the third burn.
Overall, MOM has now completed three Midnight Maneuvers. Two more apogee-raising maneuvers will be performed by burning the LAM at perigee in order to achieve a highly elliptical orbit with an apogee of more than 200,000 Kilometers. Once in that orbit, MOM will spent its final days near Earth before performing its final maneuver to place itself in a Hohmann Transfer Orbit that will take it to Mars after a 10-month cruise.**
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MOM Spacecraft completes second Orbit Raising Maneuver
November 7, 2013
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**The Indian MOM Spacecraft has completed its second major orbit-raising maneuver on Thursday to continue increasing the apogee altitude of its elliptical orbit that will eventually allow the spacecraft to escape the gravity of Earth and enter an interplanetary trajectory to Mars.
MOM had completed its first apogee-raising maneuver on Wednesday that successfully increased the apogee altitude by 5,241 Kilometers placing the spacecraft in a 260 by 28,726-Kilometer orbit.
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2515138_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2515138_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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**Coming just 25 hours after the first Midnight Maneuver, the second burn was also centered around perigee and started at 20:48 UTC on Thursday to further increase the apogee of the orbit. At that point, the Liquid Apogee Motor started firing at its nominal thrust of 440 Newtons which equates to 44.87 Kilogram-force. The burn was 9 minutes and 30.7 seconds and delivered the spacecraft to an orbit of 281 by 40,186 Kilometers with a period of 11 hours and 56 minutes.
** The Mars Orbiter Mission now has three more Midnight Maneuvers left that will be performed over the coming nine days to set the stage for Trans-Martian Insertion at the end of the month.
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Indian Mars Orbiter completes first Orbit Raising Maneuver
November 6, 2013
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8445286_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8445286_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4813588_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
**The Indian Mars Orbiter Spacecraft has successfully executed the first of seven major engine burns that it will be performed to gradually raise its orbit around Earth before inserting itself into its interplanetary trajectory that will take it to Mars after a ten-month cruise.
Following its flawless launch atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle blasting off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on Tuesday at 9:08 UTC, the MOM spacecraft got settled in orbit. Initial orbital operations included the deployment of the vehicle’s single solar array and the 2.2-meter diameter High Gain Antenna. Both deployments were completed successfully just minutes after orbital insertion.
Starting out in a 247 by 23,567-Kilometer orbit at an inclination of 19.2 degrees, MOM completed one orbit of Earth every six hours and 50 minutes. Achieving this type of sub-GTO was only the first step in a carefully planned mission design that was driven by performance limitations of the PSLV which lacks the power directly insert the MOM spacecraft into a Hohmann Transfer Orbit. Instead, the spacecraft will have to boost itself into its planned interplanetary trajectory.
Over the course of its stay in Earth orbit, MOM fires its Liquid Apogee Motor six times – always when passing perigee to gradually increase the apogee of the orbit to work its way up to departing Earth orbit in a fuel-efficient manner.
The Main Propulsion System is centered around the Liquid Apogee Motor which has become the Indian workhorse on Geostationary Satellites and its previous Moon probe. LAM has demonstrated its capabilities in space many times, but for MOM, it has to be ensured that the engine can still fire after a 300-day coast to Mars for the orbit insertion maneuver – which is required for mission success. LAM provides 440 Newtons of thrust which equates to 44.87 Kilograms.
**
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**MOM uses Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine as fuel and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen [MON-3: Nitrogen Tetroxide with 3% Nitric Oxide] as oxidizer. The engine operates and an mixture ratio (O/F) of 1.65 and has a nozzle ratio of 160. It engine is certified for long firings of up to 3,000 seconds and a cumulative firing time of >23,542 seconds.
The first “Midnight Maneuver” of the Mars Orbiter Mission started at at 19:47 UTC on Wednesday and was about 416 seconds in duration to raise the apogee of the orbit by 4,120 Kilometers to 28,785 Kilometers. The maneuver used about 40 Kilograms of the vehicle’s 852-Kilogram propellant load.
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**According to ISRO, the maneuver was completed successfully.
Coming up over the next ten days are four more Midnight Maneuvers that will put the spacecraft in a 600 by 215,000-Kilometer orbit around Earth and set up the proper perigee passage for the final engine burn that puts the vehicle onto its Trans-Martian Trajectory using a standard Hohmann Transfer Orbit. The TMI maneuvers is planned for November 30, 2013.**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5944763_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5944763_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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[TD=“class: wsite-multicol-col”] Indian Mars Orbiter Mission sent on its Way by PSLV Rocket
November 5, 2013
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**India has successfully launched its Mars Orbiter Mission into Earth orbit from where the spacecraft will insert itself into an interplanetary trajectory over a period of weeks. The MOM spacecraft was launched atop at Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle blasting off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at 9:08 UTC on Tuesday. The rocket performed a flawless 44-minute ascent mission to deliver the Mars Orbiter to an elliptical orbit around Earth. **
**Over the course of the coming weeks, the MOM spacecraft will gradually increase its orbital altitude before boosting itself into its interplanetary transfer trajectory where it will spend 10 months cruising to Mars. On September 24, 2014, the spacecraft will conduct the critical Mars Orbit Insertion Maneuver to achieve an elliptical science orbit around the planet for a 160-day primary science mission. The Mars Orbiter Mission serves as a pathfinder for future Indian space missions, giving the Indian Space Research Organization the opportunity of learning how to operate interplanetary spacecraft. **
**The launch of the Mars Orbiter Mission atop a PSLV XL was preceded by a 56.5-hour countdown that began on Sunday morning. The first two days of the long Countdown Operation were dedicated to fueling the second stage and fourth stage of the launcher as well as the Roll Control Thrusters on the first stage. **
**PSLV uses a combination of solid- and liquid-fueled stages – the boosters, PS1 first stage and PS3 third stage use solid propellants that are loaded ahead of launch vehicle integration. Overall, PSLV stands 44.5 meters tall, has a diameter of 2.8 meters and a liftoff mass of 320,000 Kilograms. **
**Over the course of the countdown, final tests and checkouts on the launch vehicle and the MOM spacecraft were performed. **
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5338600_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5338600_orig.jpg) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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On Monday, the Mobile Service Tower was retracted, first to a stand-off distance of 50 meters before rolling to its launch position, 160 meters from the rocket that was fully fueled at this point.
Afterwards**, teams made final close-outs on PSLV and the service structure before departing the launch complex for the final countdown sequence that commenced on Tuesday.**
Throughout the countdown, teams were watching over all systems of the rocket and the payload and completed electrical tests, checkouts of the communications system, control system verifications and Flight Termination System testing. Flight computers were configured for the Terminal Countdown Sequence and the final systems check was performed less than one hour from launch. When all systems were verified in good condition, the formal authorization for launch was given and the countdown headed into its Terminal Sequence at T-8 minutes.
**At that point, the MOM spacecraft underwent its transition to flight mode and it was switched to internal power. At T-5 minutes, th****e flight computers of PSLV were configured for flight and received their appropriate flight software. Also, the launch team verified that all tracking assets were ready to support the mission, including optical and radar tracking sites near the launch pad, downrange tracking stations, India’s Deep Space Network and two tracking ships that were deployed for this mission due to its ascent path. **
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8549055_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8549055_orig.jpg) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2610761_orig.jpg Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
**At T-3 minutes, the launch vehicle transitioned to flight mode. Final countdown procedures included the pressurization of the propellant tanks aboard the launch vehicle that also transferred to internal power. At T-1 minute, the on-board Master Sequencer assumed control of the countdown, putting the rocket through the final steps ahead of liftoff.**
**At T-3 seconds, the two Roll Control Thrusters on the first stage ignited. As clocks hit zero, the PS1 Core Stage received its ignition command. To provide an extra kick to the vehicle, four of the six Solid Rocket Boosters were ignited in pairs at T+0.5 and T+0.7 seconds. **
**The PSLV rocket blasted off on time at 9:08 UTC – 14:38 Indian Standard Time as its first stage and four boosters provided a total thrust of 700,600 Kilogram-force for an initial thrust-to-weight ratio of 2.2. Shortly after clearing the tower, the PSLV rocket began its pitch and roll maneuver to align itself with the pre-planned ascent trajectory, heading south-east across the Bay of Bengal. **
25 seconds into the flight, the two remaining Solid Rocket Boosters ignited. With all six boosters up and running, PSLV had a total thrust of 803,000 Kilograms. In the XL version, PSLV uses stretched boosters that are 13.5 meters in length, 1 meter in diameter, carrying 12,000 Kilograms of propellant that are consumed to provide 51,250 Kilogram-force of thrust over the course of a 49.5-second burn.
With all boosters firing, PSLV quickly gained altitude and started racing downrange. 50 seconds into the flight, the ground-lit boosters burned out. For range safety requirements, the launcher held onto the boosters for another 20 seconds, ensuring the SRBs impact downrange from the launch site. 70 seconds after launch, the SRBs were jettisoned in pairs, 0.2 seconds apart, as the PSLV was passing 23 Kilometers in altitude, traveling 1.5 Kilometers per second.
**The air-lit boosters burned out at T+1:15 and were jettisoned at T+1:32 when the rocket passed 40 Kilometers in altitude. Following booster separation, the PS1 stage was in charge of powered flight. It is one of the largest solid-fueled rocket stages, measuring 20.34 meters in length and 2.8 meters in diameter. **
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The PS1 launched with a fuel load of 138 metric tons to provide 495,600 Kilograms of thrust during a 105-second burn. Vehicle control was provided via Secondary Injection Thrust Vector Control for pitch & yaw and two thrusters for roll. At T+1:45, the PS1 thrust tailed off followed by PS1 separation at T+1:53.
The single Vikas engine of the PS2 stage ignited on its burn just 0.2 seconds after stage separation, beginning a 2-minute 31-second firing. The second stage of the PSLV is 12.8 meters long and capable of holding 40,700 Kilograms of Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine fuel and Nitrogen Tetroxide oxidizer. The Vikas 4 engine provides 81,500 Kilograms of thrust operating at a chamber pressure of 58.5 bar, consuming 278 Kilograms of propellant per second.
Five seconds into the second stage burn, the launch vehicle enabled Closed Loop Control. The first stage flew a pre-determined attitude profile while the remaining stages used navigation data to optimize the vehicle’s trajectory. At T+3 minutes and 22 seconds, the vehicle passed 113 Kilometers in altitude, making it safe to jettison the protective payload fairing as aerodynamic forces could no longer harm the satellite. PSLV’s fairing is 3.2 meters in diameter and 8.3 meters long – offering enough space to the MOM spacecraft.
**The second stage completed its burn at T+4:24, followed moments later by stage separation. 1.2 seconds after PS2 separation, the third stage of the rocket ignited. At that point, the vehicle was 133 Kilometers in altitude, traveling 5.4 Kilometers per second. The PS3 stage has a reduced diameter of 2.02 meters, being 3.54 meters long. It is loaded with 6,700 Kilograms of HTPB based propellant. PS3 provided 24,900 Kilograms of thrust over the course of 112 seconds – boosting the vehicle’s velocity by 2.4 Kilometers per second. **
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**At T+6 minutes and 18 seconds, the third stage tailed off and the vehicle entered a coast phase. The rocket held onto the third stage for another three and a half minutes to allow residual thrust to tail off to ensure a safe stage separation. At T+9:43, pyrotechnics were fired to separate the third and the fourth stage of the PSLV.**
The PS4 coast phase of the MOM ascent mission was the longest of any previous PSLV flight due to the specific requirements of the MOM trajectory plan that required a higher Argument of Perigee than previous PSLV sub-GTO missions. MOM was targeting an orbit with an Argument of Perigee of 282.5 degrees that required an extended coast of 25 minutes and 17 seconds after stage separation. This long cruise moved the fourth stage burn out of range of Indian tracking stations. That is why two tracking ships were deployed in the Pacific Ocean, providing critical telemetry relay during the fourth stage burn and spacecraft separation.
The first three stages of the PSLV Launcher showed a slight overperformance, delivering the stack to a a trajectory with a higher apogee. As a result, the fourth stage adjusted the flight path to achieve the expected orbit.
**During the coast phase, the PS4 stage used its Hydrazine Reaction Control System to maintain a stable attitude, being controlled by flight computers that were using new algorithms to support the long coast phase. 35 minutes into the flight, the fourth stage ignited its two L-2-5 engines on an 8 –minute and 39-second burn to boost the apogee of the orbit and set up the proper Argument of Perigee. **
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4830700_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4830700_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8819812_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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In the PSLV XL configuration, the PS4 stage launches with a full fuel load of 2,000 Kilograms of Monomethylhydrazine and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen. PS4 is 2.02 meters in diameter and 2.6 meters long and its two L-2-5 engines provide 1,490 Kilogram-force of thrust.
Throughout the PS4 burn, the vehicle performed as planned, sticking to its planned trajectory. The fourth stage burn increased the vehicle’s velocity by 2.2 Kilometers per second to 9.83 Kilometers per second. When shutting down at T+43:39, the stack passed an altitude of 343 Kilometers. Immediately after shutdown on the fourth stage, the vehicle began the re-orientation to the proper attitude for MOM spacecraft separation.
The Mars Orbiter was sent on its way at T+44 minutes and 16 seconds, being inserted into its planned orbit. MOM was targeting an orbit of 250 by 23,500 Kilometers at an inclination of 19.2 degrees and achieved an orbit of 247 by 23,567 Kilometers. The PS4 stage performed collision avoidance maneuvers before passivation which marks the completion of the PSLV flight.
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**Being delivered to a 247 by 23,567-Kilometer orbit at an inclination of 19.2 degrees, the Mars Orbiter starts out in a type of GSO Transfer Orbit from where it will boost itself into a Trans-Martian Trajectory over a period of four weeks. **
**This mission design was developed to accommodate the relatively low Payload Capability of the PSLV for an interplanetary mission. A similar profile was being utilized on the Chandrayaan-1 Moon Mission that launched in 2008. **
Spending more than four weeks in Earth Orbit requires MOM to be equipped with radiation shielding to endure the numerous passages through Earth’s Radiation Belts.
Over the course of its stay in Earth orbit, MOM fires its Liquid Apogee Motor six times – always when passing perigee to gradually increase the apogee of the orbit to work its way up to departing Earth orbit in a fuel-efficient manner. The fifth firing places the spacecraft in a 600 by 215,000-Kilometer orbit around Earth and sets up the proper perigee passage for the final engine burn that puts the vehicle onto its Trans-Martian Trajectory using s standard Hohmann Transfer Orbit. The trip to Mars takes about 300 days and features a number of Trajectory Corrections ahead of the critical Mars Orbit Insertion Burn on September 24, 2014 that will determine the fate of the mission.
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5743666_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5743666_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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The specific objectives of the Mars Orbiter Mission are primarily associated with spacecraft construction and mission operations as MOM serves as a pathfinder, being India’s first mission beyond the Moon which brings its own unique challenges such as the 20-minute average signal delay to Mars. Scientific objectives that have been set for this mission are considered a bonus if achieved. Although the orbiter carries five instruments including a color camera, achieving the engineering goals of the mission is the primary focus of MOM.
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Indian PSLV Rocket Set to Launch Mars Orbiter Mission on Tuesday
November 4, 2013
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4903708_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4903708_orig.jpg) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
**The countdown to the launch of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission is progressing as planned at the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India’s east coast. MOM is set for launch atop a PSLV XL Launch Vehicle on Tuesday at 9:08 UTC to start its long journey to planet Mars.
Countdown Operations started early on Sunday, local time and featured final launch vehicle testing and propellant loading on the fourth stage of the rocket as well as the Reaction Control System. On Monday, Propellant Loading on the second stage got underway. **
**The PS2 stage uses a total of 40,700 Kilograms of storable propellants. Also on Monday, the Mobile Service Tower was retracted to a distance of 50 meters to the PSLV launch vehicle.
When PS2 fueling is complete, teams will begin final countdown operations that will get underway early on Tuesday.
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Over the course of the final countdown hours on Tuesday, teams perform final hands-on work to close out the launch vehicle and launch pad facilities while the launch team monitors all systems of the launcher and the spacecraft, putting the vehicle through a last set of electrical, communications and control systems checks before pressing into the final countdown sequence. During the final minutes of the countdown, the launcher pressurizes its propellant tanks for flight, transitions to internal power and enables its flight control system in launch mode for PS1 ignition when clocks hit zero.
**>>>PSLV Ascent Profile
>>>Mars Orbiter Mission Overview
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**The Mars Orbiter Mission launches on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle flying in its XL configuration. MOM does not use a direct injection in which the launch vehicle delivers the spacecraft to its Trans-Martian Trajectory. Instead, Mangalyaan is delivered to Earth orbit from where it uses its own propulsion system to insert itself into its TMI trajectory over a period of weeks. This design still requires the spacecraft to be launched within a narrow window that is only open for a few days every 26 months.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in its XL Version stands 44.5 meters tall, has a core diameter of 2.8 meters and a liftoff mass of 320,000 Kilograms. It is a four-stage rocket that uses a combination of solid rocket stages and liquid-fueled stages. **
** The PSLV launcher consists of a large core stage that is 20.34 meters long and holds 138,000 Kilograms of solid propellant – making it one of the largest solid rocket stages ever flown. It provides a whopping thrust of 495,600 Kilograms. Clustered around the core are six Solid Rocket Boosters – each being 1 meter in diameter and 13.5 meters long holding 12,000 Kilograms of propellant. Each of the boosters provides 51,250 Kilograms of thrust. **
** The second stage of the launch vehicle uses storable propellants, Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine fuel and Nitrogen Tetroxide oxidizer, that are consumed by a single Vikas 4 engine that provides 81,500kg of vacuum thrust. The stage is 12.8 meters long featuring a 40,700-Kilogram propellant load. **
** The PS3 stage of the PSLV launcher is solid-fueled, being 2.02 meters in diameter and 3.54 meters long holding 6,700 Kilograms of HTPB-based propellant. The third stage provides a total thrust of 24,900 Kilograms. Stacked atop the third stage is the PS4 Upper Stage that again uses hypergolic propellants – Monomethylhydrazine fuel and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen – consumed by two L-2-5 engines. The stage is 2.02 meters in diameter and 2.6 meters long featuring a fuel load of 2,920 Kilograms. Upper stage thrust is 1,500 Kilogram-force.
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4938461_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4938461_orig.jpg) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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Following the completion of the 56.5-hour countdown, PSLV will launch with the Mangalyaan spacecraft hidden under its 3.2 by 8.3-meter payload fairing. The rocket will basically follow a standard mission profile to a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit type orbit from where the MOM spacecraft begins its long journey to Mars. PSLV launches from the Satish Dhawan Space Center located on India’s East Coast.
** At the moment of T-0, the PS1 Stage is ignited followed 0.5 seconds later by Boosters 1&2 and another 0.2 seconds later by Boosters 3&4 to create a total launch thrust of 700,600 Kilograms. Blasting off at a thrust to weight ratio of 2.18, initial ascent is very quick as PSLV races into the sky, starting a Pitch and Roll maneuver to align itself with a pre-planned ascent trajectory taking it south-east across the Indian Ocean. **
** The remaining Boosters (5&6) are ignited at T+25 seconds when the vehicle is already 2.5 Kilometers in altitude. Each of the Boosters burns for 49.5 seconds. The four ground-lit boosters are separated at T+1 minute and 10 seconds and fall into the Ocean. The air-lit boosters are jettisoned 22 seconds later enabling the PS1 stage to continue ascent on its own.
Throughout the booster phase and PS1 burn, three axis control is provided by a Secondary Injection Thrust Vector Control (SITVC) for yaw and pitch and two radially mounted thrusters for roll.
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When the first stage has burned out, it separates from the second stage at T+1:53 followed by PS2 ignition an instant later. Staging occurs at approximately 58 Kilometers in altitude. During the second stage burn, the launch vehicle departs the dense atmosphere – allowing the vehicle to jettison its payload fairing at T+3:22 at an altitude of 113 Kilometers, exposing the MOM spacecraft for the remainder of the ascent as aerodynamic forces can no longer damage the vehicle. Vehicle control during second stage flight is provided by engine gimbaling for pitch and yaw and a roll reaction control system.
** The second stage burns for about two minutes and 35 seconds before separating from the third stage that then ignites and assumes control of the flight at T+4:26. The solid-fueled third stage burns for 112 seconds to boost the stack to a sub-orbital trajectory. It uses the fourth stage Reaction Control System for three-axis control. After burnout of the PS3 stage, the stack begins a coast phase – initially holding onto the spent third stage before separating it at T+9:43 and continuing to coast uphill. **
** This coast phase allows the vehicle to fly uphill so that the fourth stage burn can increase the apogee altitude and also put a few Kilometers onto the perigee to place the stack in a stable orbit. MOM is targeting a higher Argument of Perigee than all previous ISRO mission into GTO in order to minimize the energy required from the GTO-type orbit to the interplanetary trajectory. Therefore, the coast between the 3rd and 4th stage burns is extended to 25 minutes. **
** The long coasting necessitated specific modifications to the coast phase guidance algorithm, on-board battery capacity augmentation, assessment on the performance of inertial systems for extended flight duration and deployment of two tracking ships to acquire the critical telemetry data during 4th stage flight and MOM separation.
Once the stack reaches its desired altitude, the two L-2-5 engines of the fourth stage ignite at T+35 minutes on a burn of about 8.5 minutes to boost the stack into its Transfer Orbit.
The Mars Orbiter Mission targets an injection orbit of 250 by 23,500 Kilometers at an inclination of 19.2 degrees. MOM separation takes place 44 minutes and 16 seconds after launch.**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5724494_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5724494_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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Countdown Underway for Indian Mars Orbiter Launch
November 3, 2013
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**The Indian Space Research Organization has started the Countdown for the launch of its first mission to Mars. Countdown Clocks at the Satish Dhawan Space Center started ticking at 6:08 Indian Standard Time (0:38 UTC) on Sunday to set the stage for the liftoff of the Mars Orbiter Mission atop a PSLV rocket on Tuesday at 9:08 UTC.
Before the countdown got underway, teams put the integrated launch vehicle and MOM through a series of thorough checkouts to verify that all systems were ready for the mission. On October 31, ISRO conducted a Launch Rehearsal involving the launch vehicle, spacecraft and launch team.**
**As part of the operation, the computers aboard the vehicle and the launch team went through a simulated countdown and ascent to ensure all commands were sent at the appropriate times. It also gave teams an opportunity to rehearse launch operations. All systems were awarded a clean bill of health after the test.
On Friday, the Launch Authorization Board provided the official approval for the PSLV C-25 launch and the start of the countdown on time. Saturday featured the final pre-countdown operations at Launch Pad 1 that were completed as planned.
As the 56-hour and 30-minute launch countdown got underway, teams started propellant loading operations on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in its XL Version stands 44.5 meters tall, has a core diameter of 2.8 meters and a liftoff mass of 320,000 Kilograms. It is a four-stage rocket that uses a combination of solid rocket stages and liquid-fueled stages. The first stage and the six boosters use solid propellant and a liquid-fueled Roll Control Thruster system installed on the PS1 first stage. **
**The PS2 second stage uses Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine / Hydrazine Hydrate as fuel and Nitrogen Tetroxide as oxidizer while the third stage is solid-fueled. The PS4 stage again uses liquid propellants, namely Monomethylhydrazine fuel and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen as an oxidizer. **
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**Countdown operations started with fuel loading on the Reaction Control Thrusters, loading their tanks with Monomethylhydrazine. Also being loaded with MMH on Sunday is the fourth stage that also received its load of MON oxidizer on Sunday. When flying in its XL configuration, PSLV’s fourth stage features a full fuel load while it is only partially loaded when PSLV flies in the Core Alone configuration. Overall, the PS4 stage is loaded with 2,000 Kilograms of storable propellants. RCT and PS4 fueling operations were reported complete later on Sunday.
Countdown operations will continue early on Monday with propellant loading on the second stage that will be filled with 40,700 Kilograms of hypergolics that will be consumed by a single Vikas engine during flight.
Also during the countdown, extensive checks of the rocket and the spacecraft are conducted as well as battery charging. In addition to that, India’s Ground Network of Tracking Stations is being configured for the flight and the two Tracking Ships that are deployed to track the vehicle as it flies downrange perform communication checks as well.
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**Over the course of the final countdown hours on Tuesday, teams perform final hands-on work to close out the launch vehicle and launch pad facilities while the launch team monitors all systems of the launcher and the spacecraft, putting the vehicle through a last set of electrical, communications and control systems checks before pressing into the final countdown sequence. During the final minutes of the countdown, the launcher pressurizes its propellant tanks for flight, transitions to internal power and enables its flight control system in launch mode.
Liftoff of the Mars Orbiter Mission is planned to occur at 9:08 UTC on Tuesday, November 5, 2013. Following blastoff, PSLV will complete a record-setting 44-minute ascent mission to deliver the MOM spacecraft to its planned GTO-type orbit from where it will boost itself into an interplanetary trajectory.
>>>Detailed PSLV Ascent Profile Overview & Launch Preview**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2334323_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2334323_orig.jpg) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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Indian Mars Orbiter installed atop PSLV Rocket
October 25, 2013
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3876781_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3876781_orig.jpg) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
**The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft has been attached to its PSLV launch vehicle and has been given a revised launch date following a brief delay caused by problems with required tracking ships. MOM is currently planned to launch on November 5, 2013 at 9:06 UTC. Launch opportunities are available through November 19.
This week, teams moved the MOM spacecraft from its processing facility where it completed final reconfigurations and propellant loading to the Launch Vehicle Integration Facility where the integrated Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle was already waiting to receive its payload. To deliver MOM into an elliptical orbit around Earth, PSLV uses its XL version that features larger Solid Rocket Boosters and a fully fueled upper stage.
After carefully hoisting MOM above the fourth stage of the PSLV, the spacecraft was installed on its launcher and electrical and data connections were made. Also, the stack was encapsulated in the protective payload fairing that is 3.2 meters in diameter and 8.3 meters long.
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With the lengthy integration process complete, teams began a series of extensive checkouts on the vehicle, making sure that all connections were in place and the Flight Control System could communicate with all subsystems. Testing continues for several days to ensure all systems are ready to support the mission that has to get off the ground in a tight launch window that will not allow lengthy launch delays. The next opportunity to get to Mars will not come until 2016.
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/9452276_orig.jpg Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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Launch of Indian Mars Orbiter Mission pushed into November
October 20, 2013
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**The Indian Space Research Organization has pushed the launch of its Mars Orbiter Mission into November due to bad weather in the Pacific Ocean that will prevent Tracking Ships from reaching their required locations for the opening of the window. ISRO announced a one-week delay into the first week of November.
Originally, the Mars Orbiter Mission was planned to launch on October 28 - the opening of its interplanetary launch window that extends through November 19, 2013. The launch vehicle and the spacecraft are ready for launch, waiting for weather conditions to improve in the Pacific. Officials will hold a review on October 22 to set a new launch date.
India is deploying two ships from the Shipping Corporation of India, SCI Nalanda and SCI Yamuna to track the launch vehicle while flying over the Pacific Ocean to provide real-time telemetry coverage. Depending on the ships’ progress on their way to their specific destinations, a new launch date will be set.
At the Satish Dhawan Space Center, preparations have been on track for the launch of the ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission. The PSLV XL launch vehicle has been assembled at the launch site over the past months.
The PS1 solid-fueled first stage was moved to the integration facility to be integrated on the launch table. PS1 has a loaded mass of 168,200 Kilograms being 2.8 meters in diameter and 20.34m long. In the XL configuration, the PSLV launcher uses six stretched Solid Rocket Boosters that were mated to PS1, one by one, over the course of several weeks. Each of the boosters has a launch mass of 14,000kg being 1m in diameter and 13.5m in length. Four boosters are ground-lit while the remaining two ignite in flight.
With the boosters in place, teams hoisted the PS2 second stage above the stack and carefully centered it onto the first stage. Unlike the first stage, the second stage of the PSLV is liquid fueled using storable propellants. **
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1909395_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1909395_orig.jpg) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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**It has a liftoff mass of 46,000kg and is 2.8 by 12.8 meters featuring a Vikas engine. Atop the second stage, the third stage was installed. It uses solid fuel and weighs 7,800kg being 3.54m long and 2.02m in diameter.
****Afterwards, the fourth stage was attached to the vehicle. It is a liquid-fueled stage equipped with two L-2-5 engines that use storable propellants. **
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The small fourth stage is 2.02m in diameter and 2.6m long with a fueled mass of 2,920kg. In the XL config, the fourth stage is fully loaded for flight while it only uses a partial fuel load in the Core Alone version. With all four stages and boosters integrated, an extensive testing campaign was started.
**
While the rocket was being assembled, the MOM Spacecraft underwent its final processing tasks at the Spacecraft Processing Facility. Following extensive checkouts and inspections, the spacecraft was fueled for flight, being loaded with 850 Kilograms of Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen.
The next step in the launch campaign is the installation of the spacecraft atop the PSLV rocket.
Preparations are on track for launch as weather permits. With the cyclone season underway in the Bay of Bengal, launch weather on India’s east coast is also a concern along with rough seas in the Pacific that could further delay the arrival of the tracking ships.**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3649412_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3649412_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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India begins final Preparations for ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission
October 8, 2013
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/567745_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/567745_orig.jpg) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
**The Indian Space Research Organization has started final preparations for the launch of its ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission, also known as Mangalyaan. India's first Mars mission is scheduled to launch on October 28, 2013 - the opening of a 23-day launch window that will allow the probe to reach Mars in September 2014.
The 1,350-Kilogram Mars orbiter is equipped with five scientific payloads to study Mars and its atmosphere, but the mission’s primary objective is to demonstrate the operation of an interplanetary mission to Mars. Development of the mission was initiated back in 2011 and official approval for the Mars Orbiter Mission was given in August 2012 - with just 15 months to go until the opening of the interplanetary launch window that is only open for a few days every 26 months.
The spacecraft integration process started in 2012 as the vehicle’s bus was assembled using a platform based on India’s successful Chandrayaan-1 Moon Orbiter. In parallel, the five instruments of the MOM mission were developed, built and tested individually. **
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**These instruments include a Lyman Alpha Photometer to measure Hydrogen & Deuterium abundance in the atmosphere, the Martian Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer - a mass spectrometer to make in-situ measurements of neutral particles, the Methane Sensor for Mars to make precise measurements to support the search for Methane in the atmosphere, the Thermal Infrared Imaging System to study the Martian surface, and the Mars Color Camera for imagery acquisition.
**
>>>Mars Orbiter Mission Overview (Spacecraft Overview, Instrument Descriptions, Trajectory Info & Science Overview)
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**Once the spacecraft bus was ready and all instruments had finished construction, the two segments came together as the instruments were integrated with the spacecraft starting in April 2013. **
**On its path to make the 2013 launch window, the MOM spacecraft underwent final testing at the ISRO Satellite Integration and Testing Establishment in Bangalore in August and September 2013. Final testing included vacuum and thermal testing, radio frequency acceptance testing on the high gain antenna, acoustic testing, vibration testing and extensive electrical tests.
On October 3, the spacecraft was delivered to the Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota located on India’s east coast. At the launch site, the spacecraft will undergo a final round of testing and processing before being loaded with 850 Kilograms of propellants. Afterwards, it will be attached to its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and encapsulated in the protective payload fairing in preparation for launch.
With the US Federal Government shut down, reports emerged that the launch of MOM was in danger as ISRO requires NASA’s Deep Space Network for tracking of the spacecraft when it is out of range of India’s Deep Space Network. Earlier this week, NASA reaffirmed its commitment to the MOM mission that will not be affected by the Shutdown.
Currently, ISRO is aiming for the launch of the Mars Orbiter Mission on October 28, 2013 at 10:45 UTC to kick of an ambitious mission. The PSLV rocket will deliver the spacecraft to a highly elliptical transfer orbit around Earth flying a profile similar to PSLV missions to Geostationary Transfer Orbit. Once in that orbit, MOM will use its main engine five times when passing perigee to gradually increase the apogee over a four-week period before firing its main engine a 6th time to enter a Trans-Martian trajectory. **
**The spacecraft will reach Mars on September 24, 2014 and fire its main engine to insert itself into a highly elliptical science orbit around the planet for an open ended science mission of at least 160 days.
MOM will study surface mineralogy with its TIS instrument, continue the ongoing search for methane with its Methane Sensor, quantify the atmospheric loss on Mars, determine the neutral density of the Martian exosphere over an extended mass range and study the evolution of the atmosphere of the Red Planet. **
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8103005.jpg?338
Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3672008_orig.jpg Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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Re: India to assist in building the largest Telescope in the world…
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/mars-orbiter-mission-updates.html
Mars Orbiter Mission Updates - SPACEFLIGHT101](http://www.spaceflight101.com/mars-orbiter-mission-updates.html)
It details from the very first start.
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[COLOR=#272E34][COLOR=#060]ndia’s Mars Orbiter collects Photos of Comet Siding Spring Flyby
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**November 12, 2014
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[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000] **The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission has released its initial data on Comet Siding Spring’s close encounter with Mars back on October 19 that was the focus of a detailed scientific study involving all spacecraft currently operating in orbit around or on the surface of the red planet.
MOM itself was able to capture several images of the comet’s coma as Siding Spring approached to a distance of 139,500 Kilometers to the Mars – delivering an excessive amount of cometary material to the planet as shown in initial data released by other Mars missions.
** **ISRO joined NASA’s and ESA’s missions by maneuvering the Mars Orbiter into a safe slot for the period of greatest risk of damage to the spacecraft as a result of particle impacts. Although the risk was considered low, MOM was commanded to perform an engine burn to slightly adjust its orbit to be behind Mars when the planet traveled trough the dust trail left by the comet around 100 minutes after the closest approach.
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4901566_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4901566_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000]**This turned out to be a wise decision as data now has shown that Mars was showered in much more cometary particles than initially anticipated. Siding Spring’s close flyby delivered several tons of material to Mars that created a spectacular meteor shower, but also endangered spacecraft in orbit as the particles were moving at a relative velocity of 56 Kilometers per second, possessing tremendous kinetic energy.
Since Mars was not entering the dust trail left by the comet until after closest approach, the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft was able to observe the comet with the Mars Color Camera from 17:44 to 18:25 UTC on October 19 which was just before the comet’s closest approach, giving the camera the best odds of actually seeing the comet. **
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7397483_orig.jpg Image: NASA, ESA, PSI, JHU/APL, STScI/AURA
Hubble Composite Image
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4807045_orig.gif Image: NASA/JPL
[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000]**In the images released by ISRO, the comet is visible as a small dot which is quite a feat considering that the camera was never intended to observe such a faint and distant target. One of the images shows a streak that ISRO interprets to be a jet of material released by the comet nucleus.
** **The Mars Color Camera weighs around 1.2 Kilograms and covers a spectral range of 400 to 700 nanometers – the visible spectrum. The camera includes a multi-element lens assembly and a 2,000 by 2,000-pixel array detector with RGB Bayer Filter. ****At periapsis, MCC provides images with a 50 by 50-Kilometer frame size and a resolution of 25 meters per pixel. At apoapsis, the camera provides a wide field of view of 8,000 by 8,000 Kilometers. Images provided by MCC are normally used to study Martian surface topography.
** **In addition to its camera, the MOM spacecraft was also planned to operate its Methane Sensor and the Martian Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer. The Methane Sensor was on the lookout for any methane introduced into the Martian atmosphere by the comet since comets are known to contain organic molecules including methane. This could have served as a verification that the sensor can indeed identify the species and provide an interesting data point on the composition of Siding Spring.
** **MENCA is a mass spectrometer that is operated when MOM is passing the lowest altitudes of its orbit to make in-situ measurements of the composition of the upper atmosphere. A comparable instrument flying on NASA’s MAVEN missionidentified a number of species in the atmosphere including an abundance of magnesium and iron among other atomized and ionized metals that were created as a result of collisions of cometary dust with atmospheric particles at Mars.
The metal species introduced in the atmosphere disappeared within a few hours due to reactions that are still under investigation. It is likely that MENCA made similar observations, but its data has not been presented yet.**
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[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000]MOM’s measurements could add another data set to that created by NASA and ESA missions, providing additional measurements from a different location in orbit as the planet reacted to its encounter with the cometary particles. NASA and ISRO agreed to share data prior to the comet’s arrival since MAVEN and MOM have similar objectives in terms of atmospheric science.[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]
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[TD=“class: wsite-multicol-col”] [COLOR=#060]Indian Mars Orbiter Mission prepares for Comet Encounter
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**October 17, 2014
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[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000] **The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission is continuing as planned with the spacecraft in orbit around Mars, executing science operations and preparing for this weekend’s encounter with comet Siding Spring for which a series of observations are planned.
MOM is in good health according to the Indian Space Research Organization. Having inserted itself into orbit on September 24, the spacecraft activated all of its five instruments in the days following orbital insertion. Initial imagery acquired by the Mars Color Camera payload were released by ISRO just days after Mars Orbit Insertion including full-disk images which will regularly be collected by the spacecraft owing to its highly elliptical orbit that ranges from altitudes of just over 400 to nearly 77,000 Kilometers.
The two latest global images released by the mission show a series of interesting surface features and also appear to reflect the improving calibration of the MCC instrument after its first image showed Mars in a color that was considered ‘too red’ by those familiar with orbital imagery of the planet. The last two photos released by the mission show Mars in a color that is more realistic and in-line with imagery from other spacecraft.
ISRO has also released a series of images showing Mars Moon Phobos transiting across the Martian disk. In the four frames of the video, Phobos can be seen as a tiny black dot moving across the red planet in the background. Phobos is characterized by a very low albedo, reflecting only a small portion of the light that hits it, giving a very dark appearance when compared with Mars or other objects.
The frames of Phobos and Mars were taken when MOM was at an altitude of 66,275 Kilometers.
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[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3040841.jpg?451](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3040841_orig.jpg?451) Photo: ISRO
[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000] The latest photo released by MOM shows Olympus Mons on the left of the frame and the Tharsis Montes closer to the center of the photo, representing three Martian volcanoes - Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons and Arsia Mons. In the right half of the frame, Valles Marineris can be seen – one of the largest canyon systems in the solar system measuring more than 4,000 Kilometers in length & 200km in diameter with a depth up to 7 Kilometers.
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[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000]Phobos orbits about 6,000 Kilometers above the surface of Mars, closer to its primary body than any other known moon. Phobos is 27 by 22 by 18 Kilometers in size. For an observer on Mars, Phobos rises in the west and sets in the east after moving across the sky in 4 hours 15 minutes or less, making two appearances each Martian Day. Phobos’ orbital altitude is slowly decreasing and the moon will eventually collide with Mars or break into pieces leaving Mars with a planetary ring.[/COLOR][/COLOR]
Phobos passes across Mars - Video Credit: ISRO
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/6282459_orig.jpg Image: NASA
[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000] **Like NASA’s and ESA’s Mars Orbiters, the MOM spacecraft went through a number of steps to prepare for the arrival of comet Siding Spring that will pass Mars at a distance of 139,000 Kilometers at 18:28 UTC on Sunday which is an extremely close encounter by astronomical standards. Initially it was believed that dust and larger particles released by the comet were a danger to spacecraft in Martian orbit since the two bodies are moving at a relative velocity of 56km/s giving any particles tremendous kinetic energy, however, later studies showed that the risk was minimal.
Nevertheless, NASA and ESA decided to move their spacecraft to the opposite side of Mars to use the planet as a shield when its motion would carry it into the path of possible cometary ejecta. Mars will pass around 27,000 Kilometers from the comet’s orbit at 20:10 UTC which is the point of greatest risk to the spacecraft.
MOM conducted a propulsive maneuver on October 7 to slightly modify its orbit and set up the proper positioning for the comet’s pass-by. The maneuver consumed 1.9 Kilograms of propellant to place MOM on the opposite side of Mars, passing near its periapsis when the encounter takes place. **
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[COLOR=#000000]The spacecraft will attempt to acquire images of the comet with the Mars Color Camera and the other instruments will attempt to record any effects the cometary material has on the Martian atmosphere in the days after the close flyby. Particular focus will be on Methane that may be introduced into the atmosphere by comet. MOM’s MENCA instrument (Martian Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer) will attempt to identify any changes to the neutral exosphere of Mars as a result of the encounter with the comet which will enable scientists to deduce the composition of Siding Spring. After the comet departs the Martian vicinity, MOM will continue its regular scientific observations.[/COLOR]
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5521055.jpg?553 Photo: ISRO
[COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000000]This global image shows a series of prominent surface features including Gale Crater where NASA’s Curiosity rover is currently exploring the Martian surface. Gale can be seen in the lower half of the picture characterized by its dark crater floor and the brighter Aeolis Mons in its center. The image also shows Gusev Crater where the Spirit rover has found its final resting place on the surface of Mars. In the center of the image is Elysium Planitia, a plain that will be the landing site of NASA’s InSIGHT mission launching in 2016. To the south is Terra Cimmeria characterized by a darker tone and located in the heavily cratered, southern highland regions. A brighter feature in the upper left of the image is Elysium Fossae. Some storm activity can be seen in the northern hemisphere.[COLOR=#000000]
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India’s Mars Orbiter begins Instrument Activation, takes Global Image
September 30, 2014
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**India’s Mars Orbiter has settled in its orbit around the red planet, successfully sending back the first images taken by the Mars Color Camera and beginning the activation and checkout of the remaining four science instruments. Meanwhile, the Indian Space Research Organization is looking at options for the study of Comet Siding Spring in October and assessments are currently underway on MOM’s propellant expenditure strategy.
Inserting itself into Martian Orbit last Wednesday, the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft achieved a major milestone for ISRO, but teams did not rest on their success, immediately beginning the transition of the spacecraft to its orbital configuration. The Mars Orbiter had already been provided with its initial steps to be taken in orbit which included establishing communications using the High-Gain antenna and completing its first imaging operations using the Mars Color Camera.
Three photos have been released by ISO to far - an image of a portion of Syrtis Major taken from 7,300 Kilometers in altitude, one oblique view of the Martian Atmosphere from a little over 8,000 Kilometers in altitude and one full-disk photo of planet Mars taken from an altitude of 74,500 Kilometers.
The full-disk image illustrates MOM’s unique capability of acquiring single-frame images of the entire planet when in a position near its apoapsis altitude of 76,993 Kilometers. Naturally, the spacecraft spends most time around apoapsis creating opportunities for many full-disk images to be taken by MOM which is the only spacecraft that is capable of acquiring this type of image in a quality that can not be reached by any current spacecraft orbiting Mars or any telescopic asset. **
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7333621.jpg?423](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7333621_orig.jpg?423) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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**The first global image taken by MOM looks almost straight down at Meridiani Planum where the Opportunity rover is exploring the surface of Mars. Visible in the photo is the ice-cap of the Martian south pole as well as a large dust-storm in the northern hemisphere - showcasing the scientific value of this type of image for an overall assessment of dust-lifting events and atmospheric processes. Although Mars weather is being monitored by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s MARCI instrument, the mission relies on mosaic imaging to obtain global photography of the planet which requires time and spacecraft resources.
Owing to its highly elliptical orbit, MOM will be able to cover the entire surface of the planet since the planet makes a full revolution while the spacecraft is near the apoapsis of its orbit from where it can acquire global images.
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3268517_orig.jpg Image: NASA
**In addition to taking images, the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft went through the activation of its instruments. First power-up of instruments was completed on Saturday and Sunday - the plan was to activate the Methane Sensor for Mars, the Lyman Alpha Photometer and the Thermal Infrared Spectrometer over the weekend with MENCA, the Martian Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer to follow a short time later.
The instruments will go through a series of commissioning tasks before being ready to begin the acquisition of scientific data in time for the close encounter of Mars and Comet Siding Spring. **
**The comet was discovered early in 2013 and was initially thought to be on a collision course with the red planet. ****Refined calculations show a miss distance of 139,000 Kilometers which still represents a once in a lifetime scientific opportunity. At its closest approach on October 19, the comet will be easily visible to the Mars orbiters as well as the rovers currently active on the surface. **
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**Mars will move through the orbital path of the comet at 20:10 UTC on October 19 which will cause a measurable effect on the Martian atmosphere as the planet encounters the ejecta from Siding Spring.
The Mars Orbiter will have its instruments running when passing through ejecta from the comet in order to determine whether the comet contains Methane which can be detected by MOM’s dedicated instrument down to parts-per-billion levels. It is likely that the MENCA instrument will also be looking for species released by the comet.**
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**ISRO is currently in the process of studying MOM’s scientific opportunities associated with Siding Spring with particular focus on the spacecraft’s position in its orbit around Mars when the cometary material will arrive. Whether an orbital adjustment maneuver is being evaluated has not been confirmed.
However, it is known that MOM has arrived at Mars with more propellant than expected. Around 40kg of storable propellants remain in the vehicle’s tanks - the planned propellant requirement during MOM’s primary mission of six months is on the order of 20kg. This provides teams with a tough choice - saving the propellant to extend the mission beyond six months or performing an orbital maneuver to improve the science return of the mission, also placing the spacecraft in a better viewing position for Siding Spring. This decision will be made by ISRO over the coming days. **
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2569613_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2569613_orig.jpg) Image: NASA/JPL/Solar System Simulator
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3440625.jpg?659 Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
**This unique full-disk image of Mars taken by the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft was released by the Indian Space Research Organization on September 29, 2014 - illustrating MOM’s capability of acquiring this type of images in a quality that can not be reached by any current spacecraft orbiting Mars or any telescopic asset. The Mars Color Camera acquired the image from an altitude of 74,500 Kilometers - it shows nearly the entire sunlit portion of Mars, looking straight down at Meridiani Planum where Mars rover Opportunity is exploring the surface of Mars. The photo also shows the polar ice cap in the south and a dust storm in the north. **
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[TD=“class: wsite-multicol-col”] Mars Orbiter Mission releases first Photo of Martian Surface
**September 25, 2014**
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**The Indian Space Research Organization has released the first photo acquired by the Mars Orbiter Mission following the successful Mars Orbit Insertion performed earlier this week.
The Mars Orbiter Spacecraft conducted its crucial Mars Orbit Insertion burn on Wednesday, igniting its Liquid Apogee Motor at 1:47 UTC to slow the spacecraft down in order to be captured in an elliptical orbit around Mars. LAM achieved a total burn duration of 23 minutes and 8.67 seconds supplying a total change in velocity of 1,099 meters per second. Tracking of the spacecraft revealed it had achieved an orbit of 421.7 by 76,993.6 Kilometers at the planned inclination of 150 degrees. This orbit has a period of 72.8642 hours.
Successfully entering Martian Orbit, the MOM spacecraft concluded a 680-million Kilometer journey through the Solar System following its launch in November 2013 and its departure of Earth later that month. **
**Being more of a technically oriented mission, MOM’s primary goals revolved around the construction of a spacecraft capable of performing an interplanetary mission and demonstrating the conduct of such a mission with respect to spacecraft navigation, trajectory planning, vehicle maintenance and autonomous operations at great distance to Earth.
Due to limitations in performance of its PSLV launch vehicle, MOM had to carry a large propellant load to get to Mars, restricting the weight that could be allocated for scientific payloads that amount to a total mass of just 13 Kilograms. **
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2326751_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2326751_orig.jpg) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
First Photo released by India’s Mars Orbiter Mission
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**The science performed in orbit around Mars is considered a bonus and focuses on the Martian atmosphere and the planet’s topography and surface composition.
One of MOM’s instruments is the Mars Color Camera that was the first payload to be activated on Mars to be able to acquire a number of photos in the hours after Mars Orbit Insertion. Up to ten photos were taken over the course of MOM’s first day in orbit, one of which was released on Thursday after being presented to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/9445410_orig.jpg
Photo: ISRO
Mars Color Camera
**The Mars Color Camera weighs around 1.2 Kilograms and covers a spectral range of 400 to 700 nanometers – the visible spectrum. The camera includes a multi-element lens assembly and a 2,000 by 2,000-pixel array detector with RGB Bayer Filter.
At periapsis, MCC provides images with a 50 by 50-Kilometer frame size and a resolution of 25 meters per pixel. At apoapsis, the camera provides a wide field of view of 8,000 by 8,000 Kilometers. Imagery provided by MCC are used to study Martian surface topography.
The first photo of Mars released by ISRO was acquired when the spacecraft was at an altitude of 7,300 Kilometers in its orbit creating a spatial resolution of 376 meters.
The photo shows a portion of Syrtis Major that is located in the boundary between the Martian highlands in the north and the southern highlands. **
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**The area is characterized by its distinctive dark color that puts it in stark contrast with the red-brown Martian regolith. The color is caused by basaltic volcanic rock that is exposed on the surface. Syrtis Major is about 1,300 Kilometers wide and can be observed from Earth using even small telescopes.
Syrtis Major was discovered by Christiaan Huygens who made drawings of it in 1659 and used its position as a reference to determine the length of day on Mars. First known as Hourglass Sea, the area became the first documented surface feature of another planet - giving MOM’s first image some historic reference.
Teams at ISRO are currently in the process of transitioning the MOM spacecraft to its nominal in-orbit configuration that includes the activation of the other four scientific instruments that will be completed over a period of days. Instrument commissioning will follow before MOM can begin regular science operations in orbit around Mars. Whether any orbital adjustments are planned has not been indicated by ISRO yet as assessments of MOM’s fuel reserves are currently being conducted to predict the vehicle’s lifetime since the spacecraft requires about 40 to 50 kg of propellant per year to operate in orbit.**
MOM Image of Martian Atmosphere
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4298702.jpg?504 Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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India’s Mars Orbiter achieves new Milestone in successful Orbital Insertion
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>>>Archived Live Coverage
**September 24, 2014 - Updated**
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**The Indian Mars Orbiter Spacecraft achieved a major milestone on Wednesday, successfully inserting itself into orbit around planet Mars, marking the completion of a 680-million Kilometer journey through the Solar System. This marks one of the biggest achievements of the Indian Space Research Organization as MOM ventured further into space than any previous Indian spacecraft.
Successfully placing a spacecraft in orbit around Mars, ISRO becomes the fourth member in an exclus****ive club of agencies that successfully sent spacecraft to Mars following the Soviet space program, the European Space Agency and NASA that had just sent its MAVEN spacecraftinto Martian orbit on Monday.**
**Launched back on November 5, 2013 atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, the Mars Orbiter was constrained by the performance of India’s workhorse launcher that required the spacecraft to take the scenic route - first entering an elliptical Earth orbit that the spacecraft raised by making six engine burns before firing its main engine, the Liquid Apogee Motor, a seventh time to depart Earth and enter a path to Mars on November 30. **
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7841476_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7841476_orig.jpg) Image: ISRO
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**Spending several weeks in Earth orbit allowed MOM to complete detailed checkouts without the effect of a long communications delay. Once on its way to Mars, the orbiter went through more testing and began to fine-tune its path by making an initial Trajectory Correction on December 11 followed by a second maneuver on June 11 that put the spacecraft on a precise path to Mars that was only modified once more on Monday to set up the planned periapsis passage and orbital insertion conditions.
The Indian Space Research Organization sent the commands for the Mars Orbit Insertion Sequence to the MOM spacecraft on September 14/15 to leave sufficient time for validation of the crucial sequence that had no room for error.
**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2009472.jpg?445 Image: ISRO
**One of the biggest unknowns of the orbital insertion maneuver was the performance of the Liquid Apogee Motor and the propellant system that, by design, was only built to operate for a few weeks and not sit idle for 295 days before a re-start. To mitigate the issue of leaky valves due to the corrosive nature of the propellants, MOM is equipped with two sets of propellant lines, valves and regulators. The first set was used for orbit-raising and the first trajectory correction before being isolated using pyro valves. Also utilizing pyro valves, the second set of lines was primed in the days leading up to MOI.
To test out the engine and the second set of propellant lines, the Mission Team implemented a Trajectory Correction that was performed on Monday to serve as a test of the LAM and also refine MOM’s course to Mars. Using a minimal burn duration of under four seconds, the firing delivered just enough data points to allow teams to assess the operational fuel flow and thrust conditions of the engine - confirming that LAM was working. **
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**Successfully conducting the mission’s third TCM, the spacecraft lowered its periapsis attitude from 723 Kilometers to just over 500 Kilometers, optimizing the orbital insertion conditions in order to reach its planned orbit.
With renewed confidence in the LAM engine, ISRO approved their Mars Orbiter to use “Plan A” to enter orbit - firing the 440-Newton LAM instead of reverting to the smaller 22-Newton Attitude Control Thrusters that would have been put to use in case LAM was not operational.
MOM entered the Martian Sphere of influence at 1 UTC on Monday, passing the 577,000-Kilometer-mark as Martian gravity became the primary force acting on the spacecraft.
**
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**MOM was left on its own throughout the days leading up to MOI, only operating essential systems and running pre-loaded commands, not requiring any more interaction with Earth. However, the craft continued sending telemetry received by NASA’s Deep Space Network Stations and ISRO’s tracking station in Bangalore.
Tensions were rising at the Mission Control Center as the Mars Orbiter approached the final crucial steps leading up to MOI. The critical sequence picked up three hours ahead of ignition when the vehicle switched from its directional High Gain Antenna to the Medium Gain Antenna in preparation for the re-orientation to the burn attitude that pointed the HGA boresight off Earth.
On Wednesday, signals from Mars traveled 12 minutes and 28 seconds before arriving at Earth where they were received by NASA’s Stations in Canberra and Goldstone, being immediately relayed to ISRO to track the progress of their spacecraft via status telemetry and doppler tracking.
At MOI-21 minutes, the spacecraft began the re-orientation to its retrograde burn attitude, pointing LAM forward to be able to slow down and get captured in orbit. This attitude maneuver used MOM’s reaction wheels and was completed as planned, indicated by telemetry from the navigation platform of the vehicle. Five minutes ahead of ignition, the spacecraft passed into the Martian shadow, entering eclipse for the first time since leaving Earth orbit.
Three minutes before MOI, the vehicle handed from the reaction wheels to the eight 22-Newton thrusters for attitude control.
At 1:47:32 UTC, the Liquid Apogee Motor ignited on one of the most important burns performed by any LAM to date since most missions have backup plans and margin for error, but India’s Mars Orbiter did not have that luxury - to get into orbit around Mars, there was only one chance. Signals confirming LAM’s ignition and it reaching operational conditions arrived on Earth at 2:00 UTC.
**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8676660_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8676660_orig.jpg) Image: ISRO
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/191685_orig.jpg Image: ISRO
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**The Mission Control team was able to track MOM’s progress until four minutes and 18 seconds after ignition when the spacecraft disappeared behind Mars, causing a 23-minute loss of signal. Without signal from Mars, tensions at Mission Control peaked as teams could only hope that their spacecraft was behaving well while in occultation.
**
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7816866.jpg?609 Photo: ISRO
Delta-v progress until Mars Occultation
**The Mars Orbit Insertion Burn had a planned change in velocity of 1,098.7 meters per second with an anticipated burn time of 24 minutes and 14 seconds. However, engine shutdown was triggered by the navigation system when accelerometers sensed that the proper delta-v was achieved, dynamically adjusting for actual engine performance by extending of shortening the burn slightly.
**
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**For MOM, the sun came up 19.5 minutes into its burn, but Earth was not coming into view until three minutes after the scheduled end of the Mars Orbit Insertion burn. The spacecraft was programmed to start the re-orientation back to its comm attitude one minute after shutdown, followed five minutes later by the re-activation of the communications system when MOM was visible from Earth again.
Anxiously awaiting the signal of the spacecraft, Mission Controllers were standing by as the first pieces of data arrived after traveling 224 million Kilometers through space. Loud applause and cheering emerged when initial data indicated that MOM reached the full burn duration with an achieved delta-v of 1,099m/s. ISRO provided the actual burn duration as 23 minutes and 8.67 seconds, indicating a slight overperformance of the engine that was automatically corrected by shortening the burn.
Initial doppler tracking also pointed to a successful orbital insertion, however, it took several hours of tracking until the exact orbit of the Mars Orbiter could be determined. MOM was targeting an insertion orbit of 423 by 80,000 Kilometers inclined 150 degrees and reached a 421.7 by 76,993.6-Kilometer orbit illustrating the accuracy of the spacecraft’s insertion maneuver when looking at the periapsis (the slightly lower apoapsis is no problem and will likely prove favorable for science operations). **
The orbit has a period of 72 hours, 51 minutes and 51 seconds.
**Just like the rest of its mission, this orbit is constrained by propellant availability. Having already consumed the majority of its propellant load to get to Mars, MOM consumed another 250kg of propellant during orbital insertion, leaving just around 40 Kilograms for orbit adjustments and reaction wheel desats, becoming the limiting consumable of the mission. **
**A lower orbit that would have been benefiting the science return would have required a longer MOI burn which was not possible given the performance limitation of PSLV.
**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2575908_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2575908_orig.jpg) Photo: ISRO
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1574745_orig.jpg Image: ISRO
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**Now in orbit, the MOM spacecraft will complete a series of reconfigurations to transition to science operations using its five instruments. ****
If everything goes according to plan, the first picture of Mars taken by the craft’s color camera should arrive on Earth later on Wednesday. The other instruments will complete several days of calibration and checkout before MOM can begin science operations that had been identified as a secondary goal of the mission from the very beginning.
The goal of the Mars Orbiter Mission was primarily to serve as a pathfinder. **
**Being the first mission of this nature for ISRO, the aim of MOM was to demonstrate the construction of a spacecraft capable of cruising through the solar system and entering orbit around another body, also focusing on mission operations such as navigation, trajectory planning, spacecraft maintenance and the autonomous execution of the mission due to long communication delays. Most of these objectives were fulfilled with Wednesday’s orbital insertion, but the operation of the spacecraft in orbit with the bonus of science operations is another milestone ISRO aims to complete.
**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5559774_orig.jpg Image: ISRO
**Five instruments are installed on the MOM spacecraft to conduct a number of scientific studies with focus on the Martian atmosphere and the planet's topography. The Lyman-Alpha Photometer will be used to measure the Deuterium-to-Hydrogen ratio in the atmosphere which can serve as tracer for atmospheric loss processes that played an extremely important role in the evolution of planet Mars. **
MENCA, the Martian Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer is a quadrupole mass spectrometer that will be used to study the composition of the outermost layers of the Martian atmosphere, tracking even minute variations of its composition over time. The Methane Sensor for Mars will support the ongoing search for Methane on Mars as a specialized instrument to detect Methane down to a concentration of a few parts per billion.
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**TIS, the Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer, will track thermal emissions from the Martian surface to deduce surface composition and mineralogy while the Mars Color Camera delivers visible imagery of the surface for an assessment of the Martian topography.
ISRO hopes to operate the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft for at least 160 days in orbit around Mars, but the mission is open-ended and will continue as long as the spacecraft continues to function, paving the way for future missions to distant targets. **
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MOI Timeline
[CENTER] [TABLE="width: 445"]
Event
Date
Time UTC
MOI
ERT/UTC *
Uplink of MOI Commands & Verifications
Sep 14/15
Upload of TCM-4 Commands
Sep 17
MOM Enters Mars’ Sphere of Influence
Sep 22
TCM-4, dt: 3.968sec, dv: 2.142m/s
Sep 22
09:00:00
Handover to Medium Gain Antenna Comm
Sep 23
22:47:32
-03:00:00
23:00:00
Re-Orientation to Retrograde Attitude
Sep 24
01:26:32
-00:21:00
01:39:00
Entering Eclipse
Sep 24
01:42:19
-00:05:13
01:54:47
Handover to 22N Thrusters for Attitude Control
Sep 24
01:44:32
-00:03:00
01:57:00
LAM Ignition - MOI START
Sep 24
01:47:32
+00:00:00
02:00:00
Burn Duration: 24 minutes & 14 seconds
Change in Velocity: 1,098.7m/s, Propellant Consumption: 249.5kg
Target Orbit: 423 by 80,000 Kilometers
Mars Occultation begins
Sep 24
01:51:50
+00:04:18
02:04:18
Telemetry Deactivation
Sep 24
01:52:32
+00:05:00
02:05:00
Confirmation of Burn Start (ERT)
Sep 24
02:00:00
Eclipse Ends
Sep 24
02:07:01
+00:19:29
02:19:29
LAM Shutdown
Sep 24
02:11:46
+00:24:14
02:24:14
Re-Orientation to Comm Attitude
Sep 24
02:12:46
+00:25:14
02:25:14
Occultation Ends
Sep 24
02:15:10
+00:27:38
02:27:38
Telemetry Resumes, Doppler Measurements
Sep 24
02:17:46
+00:30:14
02:31:14
Re-Orientation complete
Sep 24
02:22:46
+00:35:14
02:36:14
*ERT: Earth Receive Time in UTC
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8419143.jpg?434 Image: ISRO
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7721154.jpg?672](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7721154_orig.jpg?672) Image: NASA JPL Solar System Simulator
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Mars Orbiter Spacecraft completes Engine Test, fine-tunes its Course
September 22, 2014
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**India’s Mars Orbiter Spacecraft completed an important course correction on Monday that also acted as a demonstration of its main engine that will be tasked with the crucial Mars Orbit Insertion burn planned on Wednesday. With Monday’s firing going according to plan, the Indian Space Research Organization can press ahead with “Plan A” - performing the maneuver with the Liquid Apogee Motor instead of using the backup procedure of firing the smaller attitude control thrusters. The Mars Orbit Insertion Burn is planned to begin at 1:47 UTC on Wednesday.
Over the past several days, the Mars Orbiter continued onward in its solar orbit before entering the Martian Sphere of influence around 1 UTC on Monday. In this 577,000-Kilometer sphere around the planet, Mars creates the primary gravitational force acting on an object. With its path changing into a hyperbola centered on Mars with a periapsis altitude of approximately 723 Kilometers, MOM prepared for the mission’s final Trajectory Correction Maneuver.
Monday’s Liquid Apogee Motor burn served two purposes - a minor Trajectory Correction Maneuver further refining the craft’s approach trajectory, and secondly, a test of the LAM engine, the second set of propellant lines, valves and regulators to ensure the engine will be operational for the critical Mars Orbit Insertion burn for which MOM only gets one chance.
At 9:00 UTC on Monday, MOM successfully fired its main engine for a planned duration of 3.968 seconds, achieving a change in velocity of 2.18 meters per second indicating a very slight overperformance as the published burn target was a delta-v of 2.142m/s. The burn was targeted to lower the spacecraft’s periapsis altitude to 515 Kilometers to optimize the Mars Orbit Insertion and the resulting elliptical orbit around Mars.
The Indian Space Research Organization confirmed that the Liquid Apogee Motor was successfully fired after sitting idle for 295 days following its last burn on December 1, 2013. This clears the way for MOM’s orbital insertion maneuver on Wednesday to follow in the footsteps of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft that entered orbit on Monday.**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2589127.jpg?446](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2589127_orig.jpg?446) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1882046.jpg?444 Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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At the time of MOM’s orbital insertion, its signals will take 12 minutes and 28 seconds to travel to Earth for reception by NASA’s Deep Space Network Stations in Canberra and Goldstone that will relay the data in real time to ISRO’s station in Bangalore so that teams can monitor data as it comes in. However, much of MOM’s maneuver takes place behind Mars, as seen from Earth which means that from a point four minutes into the MOI burn until three minutes after the scheduled end of the maneuver, teams on Earth will have no insight into the spacecraft’s progress.
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8784200.jpg?619 Image: NASA JPL Solar System Simulator
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**The critical Mars Orbit Insertion Burn Sequence will begin three hours ahead of the planned maneuver time when the spacecraft automatically switches over to its Medium Gain Antenna for communications since the High Gain Antenna will be pointing away from Earth during the retrograde burn.
21 minutes ahead of ignition, the spacecraft will begin the re-orientation to the proper attitude for the burn, pointing LAM to the direction of travel. The re-orientation is accomplished using the vehicle’s Reaction Wheels. Five minutes and 13 seconds ahead of the burn, the spacecraft passes into darkness - for the first time since leaving Earth last year. In advance, MOM will fully charge its battery to be in a safe configuration for the eclipse.
Three minutes ahead of the burn, the vehicle’s eight 22-Newton thrusters are enabled to start providing attitude control which they will continue to do throughout the main engine burn, keeping MOM pointing forward.
**
Video: ISRO
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**Ignition of the Liquid Apogee Motor is planned at 1:47:32 UTC on Wednesday, September 24, 7:17 Indian Standard Time. The Mars Orbit Insertion burn has a planned duration of 24 minutes and 14 seconds, slowing the spacecraft down by 1,098.7 meters per second to be captured in an elliptical orbit around Mars. During the burn, the engines will consume 249.5 Kilograms of propellant leaving only about 40 Kilograms of propellant for the rest of the mission.
MOM is targeting an insertion orbit of 423 by 80,000 Kilometers at an inclination of 150 degrees with an orbital period of more than three days.
Should something go wrong during the burn, MOM is programmed to react appropriately in order to achieve a stable orbit around Mars - even if that means to spend all the vehicle’s propellant to do so. In the event the Liquid Apogee Motor is not ignited or its burn is cut short, MOM would automatically switch to the 22-Newton thrusters to supply as much delta-v as possible. Due to their lower thrust, the 22N thrusters would need to fire much longer than LAM along a greater stretch around the periapsis pass which will increase propellant consumption and leave MOM in a higher orbit.
The thrust augmentation by the 22N thrusters was first tested in November 2013 and worked as planned with the thrusters continuing to fire after LAM cutoff to optimize MOM’s trajectory as best as possible.
**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/775126.jpg?478 Image: ISRO
**Teams are hopeful that everything will go according to plan on Wednesday, given the extremely good performance of the spacecraft over the course of its mission. With the Liquid Apogee Motor firing, MOM will disappear behind Mars, as seen from Earth, at MOI+4 minutes and 18 seconds. Shortly thereafter, MOM will stop sending telemetry since it wouldn't be heard on Earth anyway. Confirmation of a good burn start will be given when signals from ignition arrive at Earth at 2:00:00 UTC.
MOM will head out of eclipse at 2:07:01 UTC while its engine is still firing. After the vehicle’s navigation platform senses a delta-v of 1,098.7m/s, MOM will shut down its engine. LAM Cutoff is expected at 2:11:46 UTC. One minute after cutoff, MOM will begin to maneuver back to its communications orientation, pointing the High Gain Antenna to Earth.
27 minutes and 38 seconds after the start of the Mars Orbit Insertion burn, MOM will appear again and begin sending signals back to Earth a little under three minutes later. **
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**At that point, Deep Space Network stations will be standing by to pick up the spacecraft and relay telemetry to India while also performing an initial doppler measurement to quickly assess whether the vehicle is on the planned trajectory.
Recorded burn data will be downlinked to allow Mission Controllers to assess the success of the burn by means of the analysis of engine and attitude control performance. A final confirmation of orbital insertion will come a few hours after the event when initial orbital data can be computed from doppler tracking.
After arriving in orbit, MOM will go through a series of reconfigurations to re-power some of its systems. For its first day in orbit, MOM already has a schedule of operations in its memory that include the acquisition of a photo of the red planet with the Mars Color Camera. A few commissioning and checkout operations are planned over the coming weeks to prepare MOM’s instruments for science operations - the Lyman Alpha Photometer, the Martian Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer, the Methane Sensor for Mars, and the Thermal Infrared Imaging System.**
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Indian Mars Orbiter to perform critical Orbital Insertion Maneuver next Week
September 18, 2014
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**Two spacecraft are preparing to insert themselves into orbit around Mars in the next seven days to continue the exploration of our neighboring planet in the Solar System.
NASA who has been to Mars before, both in orbit and on the surface, is gearing up for the orbital insertion of its MAVEN Spacecraft on Monday(UTC) to mark the start of a detailed survey of the Martian atmosphere and the processes ongoing therein. The Indian Space Research Organization hopes to achieve one of its greatest achievements to date by sending its MOM spacecraft into orbit next Wednesday.
The Mars Orbiter Mission is set for its critical Mars Orbit Insertion Burn early on September 24, UTC, in the morning hours Indian Standard Time. This is the final hurdle for MOM to overcome to achieve a big milestone for the Indian Space Research Organization. One of the main objectives of MOM was to demonstrate that it was possible for ISRO to send a spacecraft to Mars and be successful in operating it through the different mission phases.
**
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**Compared to NASA’s MAVEN mission that purely dedicated to science, MOM sets out to fulfill a number of technical mission objectives with science being somewhat of a bonus. MOM serves as a pathfinder, being India’s first mission beyond the Moon which brings its own unique challenges such as the operation of a spacecraft with a significant communications delay. Technical demonstrations that are performed on this mission include spacecraft construction, orbital maneuvers and transfer orbit design, navigation in all mission phases, spacecraft operations and maintenance and the incorporation of mainly autonomous mission operations.
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**Many of these elements will be needed for the critical Mars Orbit Insertion Burn that will be performed in a fully autonomous mode by the spacecraft that already received the command sequences that will be executed next week. Command uplink took place on September 14/15 and the sequences were verified by September 16.
One of the biggest unknowns is the behavior of MOM’s main engine, called LAM, the Liquid Apogee Motor due to its original use in Geostationary Satellites that utilized the engine over a period of weeks to raise their orbits and reach GEO. LAM was not designed to sit idle for nearly 300 days and then cleanly re-start. India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter used its engine several months into the mission and studies were performed to clear LAM for use in a Mars Mission.
****LAM provides 440 Newtons of thrust which equates to 44.87 Kilograms, using Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine as fuel and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen as oxidizer. The engine is capable of operating in a broad range of conditions in terms of oxidizer-to-fuel ratio, injection pressures, temperatures and voltages. ****
In order to increase the probability of success of the crucial MOI burn, LAM was outfitted with a second set of propellant lines from the tanks of the spacecraft including a fully independent set of valves and regulators. The primary propellant system was used for the orbit-raising maneuvers, the trans-Martian insertion burn and the first Trajectory Correction Maneuver. After that, the lines were isolated using pyro valves to prevent the corrosive propellant from creating leaks in the valves that would lead to a loss of precious fuel.
Ahead of the MOI maneuver, the second set of propellant lines is opened to feed the engine. In order to test the second set of lines and the engine itself, a short LAM firing is being implemented on September 22 as part the mission’s fourth Trajectory Correction Maneuver. Although this maneuver could be performed more accurately with the vehicle’s eight 22-Newton thrusters, ISRO decided to use LAM for this burn as it presents a final opportunity to test the engine ahead of the critical MOI burn two days later.
**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3485427.jpg?421](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3485427_orig.jpg?421) Image: ISRO
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1967999.jpg?417 Photo: ISRO
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**TCM-4 takes place at 9:00 UTC on Monday when the Mars Orbiter is already within the Martian Sphere of influence in which the Martian gravity pulls the spacecraft in, further accelerating it. The burn has originally been planned for September 14, but trajectory optimization and the desire to use LAM drove the decision to delay the burn to the 22nd.
LAM will ignite just briefly - TCM-4 has a planned duration of 3.968 seconds to supply a change in velocity of 2.142 meters per second, slightly tweaking MOM’s trajectory, lowering the periapsis of the Mars Flyby Trajectory from 723 Kilometers to 515 Kilometers which optimizes the orbital insertion burn that is desired to take place around a low periapsis.
After the Trajectory Correction, teams will examine telemetry recorded by the spacecraft to assess the status of the Liquid Apogee Motor. Should any anomaly related to LAM’s operation be detected, teams would still have a little more than 24 hours to modify burn parameters or operating parameters for the engine during the MOI burn to ensure a good orbital insertion.
At the time of MOM’s orbital insertion, its signals will take 12 minutes and 28 seconds to travel to Earth for reception by NASA’s Deep Space Network Stations in Canberra and Goldstone that will relay the data in real time to ISRO’s station in Bangalore so that teams can monitor data as it comes in. However, much of MOM’s maneuver takes place behind Mars, as seen from Earth which means that from a point four minutes into the MOI burn until three minutes after the scheduled end of the maneuver, teams on Earth will have no insight into the spacecraft’s progress.
**
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Indian Mars Orbiter gears up for Orbital Insertion in four Weeks
**August 27, 2014**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/92961_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
** India’s Mars Orbiter is gearing up for its critical Mars Orbit Insertion Maneuver set for September 24, 2014 – one of the biggest milestones of the mission. According to the Indian Space Research Organization, the MOM spacecraft is in good health having completed all systems and instrument checkouts during its cruise from Earth to Mars.
Focus is now shifting to the critical orbital insertion maneuver that leaves not much margin for error, requiring MOM’s single main engine to perform perfectly to enable the spacecraft to begin its science mission in orbit around Mars.
Following the mission’s second Trajectory Correction Maneuver on June 11, things got quiet for the Mars Orbiter as the spacecraft had finished an extensive set of checkouts and commissioning activities late in 2013 and early in 2014 while the craft was still close to Earth with a short communications delay.
**
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**Mission Controllers continued to watch over MOM’s status as the spacecraft remained in constant communication with India’s Deep Space Network Stations, also supported by NASA’s Deep Space Network when needed.
MOM performed calibrations of its Medium Gain Antenna in July and August so that it will be ready for use during the critical MOI burn during which the high-gain antenna can not be pointed at Earth because the engine burn requires the spacecraft to be in a retrograde orientation. Teams on the ground also went through rehearsals of the initial operations to be performed once MOM is in orbit to be ready for any anomalies should problems arise.
**
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** The mission plan included a Trajectory Correction Maneuver in August, but tracking data obtained via Delta DOR (Delta differential one-way ranging) measurements showed that the spacecraft was on a precise trajectory, not requiring August’s course correction. A final planned Trajectory Correction Maneuver will be performed on September 14, ten days ahead of MOI to set up the proper trajectory of MOM’s close approach aiming at a precise position over the surface of Mars for the critical insertion burn. If needed, contingency maneuvers could be performed in case of larger trajectory deficiencies leading up to MOI.
The moment of truth for the Mars Orbiter will be the ignition of the Liquid Apogee Motor for the insertion burn. For the Mars Orbiter Mission, the single main engine is sitting idle for 297 days between the Trans-Martian Insertion Burn performed on November 30, 2013. This is the longest interval between LAM firings ever - the engine is usually employed on Geostationary Satellites that use it over a period of days or weeks to achieve their planned orbit.
The Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter flew a version of LAM that was certified for 30 days, but successfully fired 209 days into the mission when the craft raised its orbit around the Moon. Chandrayaan-1 performed a total of eleven LAM burns over the course of its mission, for MOM, the Mars Orbit Insertion Maneuver will be the eighth burn.
To facilitate the long interval between LAM firings and increase the probability of success of the MOI maneuver, MOM’s propulsion system features a number of modifications. These modifications include an additional set of propellant lines and associated valves that feed propellant from the tanks to the main engine. The propellant system used for the orbit raising burns and the TMI burn was isolated by initiating pyro valves early in the cruise phase. This prevents the corrosive propellants from causing propellant leaks since MOM does not have a large margin of propellant. For MOI, the second set of propellant lines will be used, but the engine will still be the same.
**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3504255_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3504255_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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** LAM provides 440 Newtons of thrust which equates to 44.87 Kilograms, using Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine as fuel and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen as oxidizer. The engine operates and an mixture ratio (O/F) of 1.65 and has a nozzle ratio of 160. The engine’s injector is a co-axial swirl element made of titanium while the thrust chamber is constructed of Columbium alloy that is radiatively cooled. **
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1609730_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4671688_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
**LAM is a robust engine that can tolerate injection pressures of 0.9 to 2.0 MPa, propellant temperatures of 0 to 65°C, mixture ratios of 1.2 to 2.0 and bus voltages of 28 to 42 Volts. The engine is certified for long firings of up to 3,000 seconds and a cumulative firing time of >23,542 seconds.
It is known that LAM can lose up to 2% of performance in terms of specific impulse over time which could also be the case for the MOI burn. To achieve the planned change in velocity of 1,100 meters per second, MOM will use its accelerometers to track the burn progress and shut the engine down when the target delta-v has been achieved – compared to an engine cutoff commanded after a given burn time that does not take into account the actual delta-v. The MOI burn will also be the longest retrograde firing ever performed by the LAM.
Presently, the Mars Orbiter has approximately 290 Kilograms of propellant left in its tanks out of an original prop load of 852 Kilograms. The Mars Orbit Insertion burn will consume 240kg of propellants, leaving about 50kg for orbit adjustments and trajectory corrections.
Without much margin for error, the LAM engine has to fire correctly on September 24, however, the spacecraft is capable of re-attempting the MOI burn should a first attempt be cut short for some reason. The aborted orbit-raising maneuver early in the mission has shown that the spacecraft would be capable of supplying additional delta-v by using its 22N attitude control thrusters, but those would only be useful if the remaining delta-v is relatively small.
Due to the long communications delay to Earth, no intervention will be possible and all operations have to run autonomously, as commanded by the spacecraft computers. MOM will be hidden behind Mars (as seen from Earth) for much of the MOI maneuver which means that confirmation of a successful orbital insertion will come when the spacecraft re-appears after the completion of the maneuver.
The Mars Orbiter targets an operational orbit of 365.3 by 80,000 Kilometers with an inclination of 150 degrees and a duration of 76.72 hours from where it will perform its science mission.
As of 22 UTC on August 27, 2014 the Mars Orbiter had traveled 697 Million Kilometers on its journey from Earth to Mars. MOM was 195.8 Million Kilometers from Earth traveling at a relative velocity of 97,470 Kilometers per hour. The one-way signal travel time between the spacecraft and Earth was 10 minutes and 53 seconds.
The spacecraft was 7.35 Million Kilometers from Mars cruising at a relative velocity of 10,980 Kilometers per hour. MOM’s heliocentric velocity was 80,330 Kilometers per hour at a distance to the sun of 215 Million Kilometers. Also on its way to Mars, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft was about 850,000 Kilometers from MOM.**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4325070_orig.jpg
Image: JPL - Solar System Simulator
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India’s Mars Orbiter completes second Trajectory Correction Maneuver
**June 11, 2014**
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** The Indian Mars Orbiter refined its path to the Red Planet on Wednesday, conducting the mission’s second Trajectory Correction Maneuver to set up the proper approach of Mars for orbital insertion on September 24, 2014. According to the Indian Space Research Organization, MOM is in good health and Wednesday’s TCM was executed successfully.
Following its successful launch into Earth orbit atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle on November 5, 2013 and 25 days of orbit raising, the Mars Orbiter left the planet behind by making its Trans-Martian Insertion Burn after six orbit-raising maneuvers. Leaving for Mars, the orbiter conducted its first Trajectory Correction in December to refine its path to Mars and correct any errors that occurred during TMI.
Carefully calculating MOM’s trajectory by using Delta DOR (Delta differential one-way ranging) measurements, teams decided to skip a planned course correction in April as the Mars Orbiter was on a very accurate path. In April and May, the spacecraft continued its cruise through the inner solar system, staying in contact with ground stations to allow teams to keep up to date on the vehicle’s status and health. Periodically, MOM activated its five instruments for regular check ups to ensure all instruments remain functional throughout the cruise to Mars.
To set up the proper trajectory for the approach to Mars, MOM was set for a short Trajectory Correction Maneuver on Wednesday. The commands for the burn were uplinked to the spacecraft hours in advance. For the burn, the Mars Orbiter was to use its attitude control system to re-orient to the proper attitude for the maneuver, pointing its 22-Newton thrusters in the correct direction. Engine start was expected at 11:00 UTC for a burn of only 16 seconds and a planned change in velocity of 1.577 meters per second.
According to the Indian Space Research Organization, telemetry sent back by the spacecraft showed that the burn was executed nominally. Final confirmation of a successful TCM will be provided after the orbiter could be tracked for some time to allow its precise trajectory to be assessed.
Wednesday’s TCM refined MOM’s trajectory as the vehicle begins approaching Mars. Another TCM is available as the spacecraft gets closer to Mars to target the precise point above the surface of the planet for the critical Mars Orbit Insertion Burn that will occur on September 24, 2014. Additional TCMs can be performed at any point in the cruise if the need arises.
As of 13:00 UTC on Wednesday, the Mars Orbiter had traveled 546 Million Kilometers on its journey from Earth to Mars.
**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/430678_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/430678_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4652276_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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**MOM was 102.1 Million Kilometers from Earth traveling at a relative velocity of 61,200 Kilometers per hour. The one-way signal travel time between the spacecraft and Earth was 5 minutes and 41 seconds. The spacecraft was 27.95 Million Kilometers from Mars cruising at a relative velocity of 14,760 Kilometers per hour. MOM’s heliocentric velocity was 84,500 Kilometers per hour at a distance to the sun of 206 Million Kilometers. Also on its way to Mars, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft was about 2.9 Million Kilometers from MOM.
**
MOM - Current Position
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/6043106.jpg?725 Image: JPL - Solar System Simulator
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Indian Mars Orbiter in excellent Health - Course Correction skipped
**April 8, 2014**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/9224367_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
** India’s Mars Orbiter is reaching the halfway-mark of its journey from Earth to Mars and the spacecraft is right on track, allowing it to skip a scheduled Trajectory Correction Maneuver on Wednesday. Carrying on its flight to Mars in excellent health, the MOM spacecraft is set for its Mars Orbit Insertion maneuver on September 24, 2014.
Over the past two months, MOM enjoyed a quiet cruise as it made its way through the inner solar system. The spacecraft was in constant contact with ground stations on Earth and the mission team has been reviewing all telemetry data received from the vehicle. Periodically, MOM activated its five instruments for regular check ups to ensure all instruments remain functional throughout the cruise to Mars.
Keeping in touch with the spacecraft via the Indian Deep Space Network Stations and NASA’s Deep Space Network, trajectory specialists used Delta DOR (Delta differential one-way ranging) measurements to precisely determine MOM’s trajectory. The first Trajectory Correction Maneuver of the mission performed on December 11, 2013 achieved its goal of fine-tuning the vehicle’s trajectory and correcting errors that occurred during Trans-Martian Insertion.
**
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**The TCM was very accurate and placed MOM on a precise trajectory verified through tracking from Earth. With MOM on its deigned trajectory, mission planners decided to skip the next TCM that would have occurred on Wednesday. The next Trajectory Correction Maneuver is now planned for June to set up the proper conditions for Mars Orbit Insertion in September.
On Wednesday at 4:20 UTC, the Mars Orbiter will hit the half-way point, having traveled 337.5 Kilometers on its journey from Earth to Mars. As of 16:00 UTC on Tuesday, the MOM spacecraft was 38.3 million Kilometers from Earth traveling at a relative speed of 30,820 Kilometers per hour. The one-way signal travel time was 2 minutes and 8 seconds. The spacecraft was 63.81 million Kilometers from Mars moving at a relative speed of 35,830 Kilometers per hour. Relative to the sun, MOM was traveling at 96,270 Kilometers per hour at a distance of 182.5 million Kilometers. Also heading to Mars, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft was 4.5 million Kilometers from India’s Mars Orbiter.
**
MOM - Current Position
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8959654.jpg?664 Image: NASA JPL - Solar System Simulator
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India’s Mars Orbiter performing well during Interplanetary Cruise
**February 6, 2014**
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**The Mars Orbiter Mission operated by the Indian Space Research Organization has been progressing as planned as the MOM spacecraft cruises from Earth to Mars for arrival at the planet on September 24, 2014. MOM has been keeping in contact with ground stations on Earth and Delta DOR (Delta differential one-way ranging) measurements are being made to precisely follow the vehicle’s trajectory.
After the first trajectory maneuver performed in December, the trajectory of MOM was tracked and verified to be as planned. Another TCM may be performed during cruise if required with another correction planned two weeks before Mars Orbit Insertion. While cruising, Mission Controllers are also putting the MOM spacecraft through a series of tests to ensure the instruments remain operational and are ready to begin science operations as soon as the spacecraft arrives at Mars.
As of 2 UTC on February 6, 2014, the Mars Orbiter spacecraft had traveled 254.7 Million Kilometers since being launched on November 5, 2013. The spacecraft was 15.04 million Kilometers from Earth flying at a relative velocity of 7,490 Kilometers per hour. The current communications delay was 50 seconds. MOM’s heliocentric velocity was 111,820 km/h as it was 155.6 million Kilometers from the Sun.
The spacecraft was 137.6 million Kilometers from Mars. Also heading toward Mars, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft was 5.2 million Kilometers from India’s Mars Orbiter.**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7676138_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7676138_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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MOM - Current Position
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2401630.jpg?708 Image: NASA JPL - Solar System Simulator
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Indian Mars Orbiter performs successful Trajectory Correction Maneuver
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**December 11, 2013**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/6742381_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
** India’s Mars Orbiter has fine-tuned its course to Mars making its first Trajectory Correction Maneuver on Wednesday.
After inserting itself into the planned trans-Martian Trajectory on November 30 and exiting Earth’s sphere of influence on December 3, the MOM spacecraft was carefully tracked by ground stations to determine its precise trajectory in order to plan the first in a series of Trajectory Correction Maneuvers that will occur during the cruise to Mars. The first TCM was planned to correct any errors that may have occurred during the TMI burn that used the large Liquid Apogee Motor of the spacecraft.
The first TCM was a 40.5-second burn of the 22-Newton thrusters of the Mars Orbiter that was performed at 1:00 UTC on Wednesday.
The 22 Newton thrusters use a co-axial swirl type Titanium alloy injectors and Columbium combustion chambers. The thrusters operate in blowdown mode at a chamber pressure of 0.68 MPa creating a specific impulse of 2,780 Nsec/kg. The 22N thrusters have an area ratio of 100. They can be operated in pulse mode with a minimum pulse duration of 8 milliseconds that supplies a minimum impulse of 65mNsec. Each 22N thruster assembly weighs 0.8 Kilograms.
**
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**The 22N thruster is qualified for 300,000 duty cycles as it is mostly operated in pulse mode, but it can also withstand a single burn of up to 10,000 seconds and a cumulative burn time of 70,000 seconds.
**
According to the Indian Space Research Organization, the Burn was performed successfully. MOM is now continuing a quiet cruise that will feature a number of instrument testing activities. One more Trajectory Correction Maneuver is planned to occur during cruise and the third TCM is planned about two weeks before arriving at Mars in September 2014 to set up the proper flight path for the critical Mars Orbit Insertion. Additional maneuvers may be performed if required.
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**
As of 5 UTC on December 11, the MOM spacecraft was 2.95 million Kilometers from Earth flying at a relative velocity of 11,320 Kilometers per hour. The current communications delay was 10 seconds. MOM’s heliocentric velocity was 118,440 km/h as it was 145.6 million Kilometers from the Sun.
The spacecraft was 231.9 million Kilometers from Mars. Also heading toward Mars, NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft was 3.98 million Kilometers from India’s Mars Orbiter.**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/6312998_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/6312998_orig.jpg) Image: NASA JPL - Solar System Simulator
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India’s Mars Orbiter departs Earth for Interplanetary Journey
**November 30, 2013**
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**India’s Mars Orbiter has successfully conducted its Trans-Martian Insertion Burn on Saturday to depart Earth orbit and begin its long cruise to Mars for insertion into an orbit around the planet in September 2014.
After being launched atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle on November 5, 2013, the MOM spacecraft started out in a sub-GTO (Geostationary Transfer Orbit) from where it had to insert itself into a highly elliptical orbit around Earth to set up for the Trans-Martian Injection. Using a total of six orbit-raising burns, MOM raised its apogee from the initial 23,567 Kilometers to 192,870 Kilometers and placed itself into a higher-energy orbit for the TMI maneuver. **
**This flight profile was chosen because of the limited performance of the PSLV rocket.
**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1145621_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1145621_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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**When MOM had completed its final orbit-raising maneuver on November 15, the spacecraft began two weeks of instrument checkouts. The vehicle activated its five instruments for a set of electrical and functional checks that were completed while MOM was still in close proximity to Earth, eliminating any problems caused by lengthy communication delays. All instruments checked out as planned and the Mars Color Camera sent back its first images, showing what it will be able to do once the spacecraft reaches its destination.
At the conclusion of preliminary instrument checks, the Mission Team started gearing up for the crucial TMI maneuver that had less margin for error than the previous orbital maneuvers. TMI was targeted to occur at the optimal time within the interplanetary launch window that allows the most efficient transfer to Mars in terms of fuel expenditure. Missing the maneuver and trying again an orbit later would have required additional delta-v by the spacecraft. Even more troubling would have been a partial TMI burn placing the vehicle in a higher Orbit around Earth or putting MOM into a lower-energy heliocentric orbit.
**
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**With all these concerns, tension was high, but the team was confident that the engine burn would be completed without problems as their Liquid Apogee Motor has performed lengthy firings on past Geostationary Satellite mission without any trouble. ****
About 16 hours before the TMI burn, the MOM spacecraft received its command sequence for the maneuver. Watching over their spacecraft, the team at the Mission Operations Complex of ISTRAC at Bangalore was busy performing final health checks on Saturday. **
**MOM was awarded a clean bill of health and began executing its TMI sequence at 18:19 UTC on Saturday, one hour before the maneuver.
**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/9472552.jpg?491](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/9472552_orig.jpg?491) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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**To get ready for the burn, the spacecraft performed its re-orientation to point its LAM main engine into the correct direction for the posigrade burn occurring near perigee. Right on time at 19:19 UTC, the Mars Orbiter ignited its LAM engine to begin the Trans-Martian Injection Burn.
The maneuver was 22 minutes and 8 seconds in duration and changed the vehicle’s velocity by 647.96 meters per second, consuming a total of 198 Kilograms of propellants. During the burn, the spacecraft’s eight 22-Newton Attitude Control Thrusters were used to keep the vehicle in the correct orientation. In addition, some of the thrusters were used to supply additional delta-v based on navigation data provided by the vehicle’s sensors to achieve a very precise burn.
**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2008194.jpg?452 Image: Indian Space Research Organization
**LAM provides 440 Newtons of thrust which equates to 44.87 Kilograms, using Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine as fuel and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen as oxidizer. The engine operates and an mixture ratio (O/F) of 1.65 and has a nozzle ratio of 160. The engine’s injector is a co-axial swirl element made of titanium while the thrust chamber is constructed of Columbium alloy that is radiatively cooled. **
**
LAM is a robust engine that can tolerate injection pressures of 0.9 to 2.0 MPa, propellant temperatures of 0 to 65°C, mixture ratios of 1.2 to 2.0 and bus voltages of 28 to 42 Volts. The engine is certified for long firings of up to 3,000 seconds and a cumulative firing time of >23,542 seconds.
The 22N attitude control thrusters are also bi-propellant engines that can handle a range of operational conditions.
**
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**While burning the LAM engine, the MOM spacecraft crossed perigee for the final time being tracked by a number of ground stations that supported the mission. LAM was showing solid performance throughout the burn according to updates provided by the Indian Space Research Organization.
After just over 22 minutes, the Mars Orbiter shut down its LAM main engine, achieving a perfect burn and boosting itself into the expected trajectory. Over the coming hours and days, precise trajectory data will be obtained but the initial look at the TMI maneuver confirms an overall success within the expected parameters.
With a successful Trans-Martian Insertion, MOM is now departing Earth. First, the vehicle will exit Earth’s sphere of influence that extends about 925,000 Kilometers before entering a heliocentric orbit for the ten-month cruise to Mars.
**
When ISRO has collected precise tracking data, teams will plan the first of at least three Trajectory Correction Maneuver. The first TCM is planned to occur on December 11, 2013 to correct any errors that may have occurred during TMI to put MOM on a very precise path to Mars.
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**Another TCM is coming up during cruise with additional maneuvers that can be planned when the need arises. The final TCM will be performed about two weeks before arriving at Mars to set up the proper flight path for the critical Mars Orbit Insertion.
Flying in its Hohmann Transfer Orbit, MOM is now set for the trip to Mars that takes about 300 days and is filled with more instrument checkouts and vehicle health checks to get ready for operations at Mars. Insertion into an orbit around the Red Planet will occur on September 24, 2014 with even less margin than Saturday’s TMI maneuver had.
Arriving at Mars, Mangalyaan fires its Liquid Apogee Motor in order to insert itself into an elliptical orbit around Mars. The MOI Maneuver is the biggest nail-biter of the mission as the Liquid Apogee Motor has to function properly even after spending months in cruise mode to Mars.
Although LAM has flown on various GEO satellites and the Chandrayaan-1 Moon Probe, the engine has never had such a long break in between duty cycles performed in space. Should the MOI Burn not start on time or achieve the required change in velocity, Mangalyaan would be lost in its orbit around the sun.**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2813540_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2813540_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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Mars Orbiter takes first Image of Earth using Mars Color Camera
**November 20, 2013**
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**In the midst of testing its five scientific instruments, India’s Mars Orbiter has acquired its first color image using the Mars Color Camera Instrument. The photo was taken on Tuesday when MOM was about 70,000 Kilometers above Earth. The photo shows India as well as surrounding regions including portions of Asia, Europe and Africa. According to ISRO, it has a spatial resolution of 3.5 Kilometers, showing what the Mars Color Camera instrument will be able to accomplish when the MOM spacecraft is in orbit around Mars.
The Mars Color Camera payload weighs about 1.4 Kilograms. MCC covers a spectral range of 400 to 700 nanometers – the visible spectrum. The camera includes a multi-element lens assembly and a 2,000 by 2,000-pixel array detector with RGB Bayer Filter.
At periapsis in MOM’s orbit around Mars, MCC provides images with a 50 by 50-Kilometer frame size and a resolution of 25 meters per pixel. At apoapsis, the camera provides a wide field of view of 8,000 by 8,000 Kilometers. Imagery provided by MCC are used to study Martian surface topography.
Photo: Indian Space Research Organization**
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/708551.jpg?649 Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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Indian Mars Orbiter completes final orbit-raising Burn -Payload Checks are next
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**November 15, 2013**
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**The Indian Mars Orbiter Spacecraft has successfully conducted its final orbit-raising maneuver, boosting its apogee to more than 192,000 Kilometers for the insertion into its interplanetary trajectory that will be completed on November 30.
Following the successful supplementary engine burn performed on Monday, MOM was in a 239 by 117,739-Kilometer orbit at an inclination of 19.32 degrees, with an argument of perigee of 287.5 degrees which was one of the driving requirements for the initial insertion of the spacecraft. This final Midnight Maneuver was to put MOM into an even higher orbit with an apogee close to 200,000 Kilometers.
On Friday, MOM completed its re-orientation to the posigrade burn attitude and ignited its bipropellant LAM engine at 19:57 UTC to begin the final orbit-raising burn. According to ISRO, the burn achieved the full duration of 243.5 seconds and the expected change in velocity. The Mars Orbiter is now in an orbit with a high apogee of approximately 192,870 Kilometers. MOM now completes one orbit every three days and 19 hours.
Now in its target orbit, MOM begins its final days in Earth orbit ahead of the crucial engine burn on November 30 that will boost the spacecraft out of Earth’s gravitational sphere and into a Hohmann Transfer orbit for a 10-month transit to Mars.
With the incremental orbit raising process complete, the Mars Orbiter can now focus on another important task - checking out its scientific instruments. MOM carries a 15-Kilogram science payload consisting of five instruments:**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8889194_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8889194_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/6064300.png?447 Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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**- a Lyman Alpha Spectrometer to make precise measurements of the Deuterium-to-Hydrogen ratio in the Martian atmosphere as a tracer of atmospheric loss, MENCA (Martian Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer) - a mass spectrometer for in-situ measurements of exospheric density and composition, the Methane Sensor for Mars to be used to measure Methane with parts per billion accuracy, TIS (Thermal Infrared Spectrometer) for measurements of thermal emissions from the Martian surface, and finally, the Mars Color Camera to provide color images of the planet.
The instruments will complete initial activation and electrical & aliveness checks to make sure the instruments are functional. Commissioning will be started to prepare for the operation of the instruments once arriving at Mars. **
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**Instrument activities will also be performed during the cruise phase, but having MOM in close proximity to Earth for two more weeks provides a valuable opportunity of operations without a significant communications delay. This could be particular useful in case troubleshooting steps are necessary during instrument activation. **
>>>MOM Mission Overview (includes detailed payload descriptions)
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Mars Orbiter Mission back on Track after additional Engine Burn
**November 11, 2013**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2380371.jpg?536 Image: Indian Space Research Organization
**The Indian Space Research Organization has successfully recovered its Mars Orbiter from a technical problem that occurred during the mission’s fourth orbit-raising maneuver which was performed yesterday, but ended ahead of schedule when the spacecraft’s engine was shut down unexpectedly.
After launch on November 4, the MOM spacecraft had performed three successful apogee.raising maneuvers and was gearing up to raise its orbit on Sunday to reach an apogee of more than 100,000 Kilometers.
The burn of the Liquid Apogee Motor started as planned, but stopped when the spacecraft had achieved a change in velocity of 35 meters per second instead of the targeted 130m/s.
**
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**Later, ISRO reported what had occurred. The fourth Midnight Maneuver was the first burn during which the vehicle’s redundant coils of the solenoid flow control valve of the engine were checked out. During the first three burns, only the primary system was in use. As part of a sequence of operations, the “primary and redundant coils were energised together” which caused propellant flow to the engine to stop. Also tested during the burn was the thrust augmentation by the attitude control thrusters which continued to burn after the LAM had shut down.
MOM is equipped with a single 440-Newton Liquid Apogee Motor part of a redundant main propulsion system plumbing assembly including redundant propellant lines, valves and controllers. The spacecraft uses eight 22-Newton thrusters for attitude control during burns and for smaller maneuver.
ISRO determined both coils of the valve can not be used simultaneously which will be prevented from occurring again by a software patch that will be implemented. Operating the coils independently in sequence is possible to ensure redundancy of the system.
One of the big advantages of MOM’s trajectory is that the spacecraft spends the first weeks of its flight in close proximity to Earth before departing for Mars allowing teams to test the vehicle. Also, the chosen flight profile using an incremental orbit-raising scheme is relatively forgiving as a missed or aborted burn does not mean the loss of the mission. Taking advantage of MOM still being in orbit around Earth, ISRO has put the vehicle’s gyros, accelerometers, star trackers, flight control system and flight software through their paces, showing that all of those systems were functioning as advertised.
With the LAM problem sorted out, ISRO re-planned the flight profile of the MOM mission to facilitate an additional orbit-raising maneuver to add the remaining delta-v in order to reach 100,000 Kilometers.
**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1534600_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
**This supplementary orbit-raising maneuver started at 23:30 UTC on Monday and was completed as expected, putting MOM back on track.
The vehicle is now set for one more orbit-raising maneuver that will bring the apogee up to more than 200,000 Kilometers. Then, at the end of the month, the Mars Orbiter conducts another crucial engine burn to exit Earth orbit and place itself onto an interplanetary trajectory for an arrival at Mars in September 2014.**
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India’s Mars Orbiter encounters Problem during Orbit-Raising Burn
**November 11, 2013**
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** India’s Mars Orbiter has experienced a problem during its fourth orbit-raising maneuver that was performed on Sunday. The engine burn did not achieve the planned change in velocity and left the spacecraft in a lower-than-planned orbit. The Indian Space Research Organization is assessing the issue and its re-planning the flight profile of the MOM spacecraft for an additional burn to put it into the correct orbit.
The spacecraft had performed three successful Midnight Maneuvers as the engine burns are also known, boosting the vehicle’s apogee from 23,567 to 71,636 Kilometers. These burns are part of a methodical orbit-raising process to eventually insert the vehicle into an interplanetary trajectory. Originally, five midnight maneuvers were planned followed by a sixth burn to place the vehicle into a Hohmann Transfer Orbit.
The fourth burn of the Mars Orbiter Mission was planned to raise the apogee of the orbit to above 100,000 Kilometers. Via the mission’s official Facebook page, ISRO reported that the spacecraft performed a nominal re-orientation to its posigrade burn attitude and ignited its Liquid Apogee Motor on time at 20:36 UTC. Later, ISRO announced that a change in velocity of 35 meters per second was achieved which indicates that a problem had occurred during the burn.
To reach an apogee of 100,000 Kilometers, a delta-v of 130m/s would have been required, meaning that the burn only achieved 27% of its target delta-v. This low delta-v raised the apogee to just 78,276 Kilometers.
**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7746551_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7746551_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7283435_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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**Whether the burn was cut short due to an anomaly detected by the spacecraft or the engine underperformed for some reason is not clear. Luckily for ISRO, the Mars Orbiter is currently in a mission phase that allows corrections. Once the issue is understood and a solution is implemented, ISRO can conduct a clean-up maneuver to make up for the shortcomings in delta-v. This additional burn will be performed at 23:30 UTC on Monday.
Should this issue have occurred during the Mars Orbit Insertion Burn in September 2014, things would be looking much worse. For the crucial MOI maneuver, there is only one attempt, any major shortcomings during that burn would leave the spacecraft stranded in an orbit around the sun.
MOM’s LAM engine provides 440 Newtons of thrust which equates to 44.87 Kilograms. The engine operates and an mixture ratio (O/F) of 1.65 and has a nozzle ratio of 160 providing a specific impulse of 3,041N*sec/kg. The engine’s injector is a co-axial swirl element made of titanium while the thrust chamber is constructed of Columbium alloy that is radiatively cooled. Electron welding technique is used to mate the injector to the combustion chamber.
LAM is a robust engine that can tolerate injection pressures of 0.9 to 2.0 MPa, propellant temperatures of 0 to 65°C, mixture ratios of 1.2 to 2.0 and bus voltages of 28 to 42 Volts. The engine is certified for long firings of up to 3,000 seconds and a cumulative firing time of >23,542 seconds.**
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Indian Mars Orbiter executes third Orbit-Raising Maneuver
**November 8, 2013**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8280948_orig.png Image: Indian Space Research Organization
**India’s Mars Orbiter has successfully performed the third orbit-raising maneuver on Friday, continuing to boost its orbit around Earth to set the stage for Trans-Martian Insertion at the end of the Month.
Following the two successful back-to-back apogee-raising maneuvers on Wednesday and Thursday, MOM was in a 280 by 40,186-Kilometer orbit around Earth, ready for the largest of its Midnight Maneuvers as the burns are also called.
The spacecraft started the slew to its posigrade burn orientation as planned and ignited its Liquid Apogee Motor at 20:40 UTC. Firing the engine with the burn centered on the vehicle’s low perigee, MOM started to further increase its orbital velocity. The third maneuver was 707 seconds in duration and raised the apogee to 71,636 Kilometers.
According to ISRO, the maneuver was executed as expected. MOM’s next orbit-raising maneuver is planned to occur roughly two days after the third burn.
Overall, MOM has now completed three Midnight Maneuvers. Two more apogee-raising maneuvers will be performed by burning the LAM at perigee in order to achieve a highly elliptical orbit with an apogee of more than 200,000 Kilometers. Once in that orbit, MOM will spent its final days near Earth before performing its final maneuver to place itself in a Hohmann Transfer Orbit that will take it to Mars after a 10-month cruise.**
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MOM Spacecraft completes second Orbit Raising Maneuver
**November 7, 2013**
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**The Indian MOM Spacecraft has completed its second major orbit-raising maneuver on Thursday to continue increasing the apogee altitude of its elliptical orbit that will eventually allow the spacecraft to escape the gravity of Earth and enter an interplanetary trajectory to Mars.
MOM had completed its first apogee-raising maneuver on Wednesday that successfully increased the apogee altitude by 5,241 Kilometers placing the spacecraft in a 260 by 28,726-Kilometer orbit.
**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2515138_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2515138_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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**Coming just 25 hours after the first Midnight Maneuver, the second burn was also centered around perigee and started at 20:48 UTC on Thursday to further increase the apogee of the orbit. At that point, the Liquid Apogee Motor started firing at its nominal thrust of 440 Newtons which equates to 44.87 Kilogram-force. The burn was 9 minutes and 30.7 seconds and delivered the spacecraft to an orbit of 281 by 40,186 Kilometers with a period of 11 hours and 56 minutes.
** The Mars Orbiter Mission now has three more Midnight Maneuvers left that will be performed over the coming nine days to set the stage for Trans-Martian Insertion at the end of the month.
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Indian Mars Orbiter completes first Orbit Raising Maneuver
**November 6, 2013**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8445286_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4813588_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
**The Indian Mars Orbiter Spacecraft has successfully executed the first of seven major engine burns that it will be performed to gradually raise its orbit around Earth before inserting itself into its interplanetary trajectory that will take it to Mars after a ten-month cruise.
Following its flawless launch atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle blasting off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on Tuesday at 9:08 UTC, the MOM spacecraft got settled in orbit. Initial orbital operations included the deployment of the vehicle’s single solar array and the 2.2-meter diameter High Gain Antenna. Both deployments were completed successfully just minutes after orbital insertion.
Starting out in a 247 by 23,567-Kilometer orbit at an inclination of 19.2 degrees, MOM completed one orbit of Earth every six hours and 50 minutes. Achieving this type of sub-GTO was only the first step in a carefully planned mission design that was driven by performance limitations of the PSLV which lacks the power directly insert the MOM spacecraft into a Hohmann Transfer Orbit. Instead, the spacecraft will have to boost itself into its planned interplanetary trajectory.
Over the course of its stay in Earth orbit, MOM fires its Liquid Apogee Motor six times – always when passing perigee to gradually increase the apogee of the orbit to work its way up to departing Earth orbit in a fuel-efficient manner.
The Main Propulsion System is centered around the Liquid Apogee Motor which has become the Indian workhorse on Geostationary Satellites and its previous Moon probe. LAM has demonstrated its capabilities in space many times, but for MOM, it has to be ensured that the engine can still fire after a 300-day coast to Mars for the orbit insertion maneuver – which is required for mission success. LAM provides 440 Newtons of thrust which equates to 44.87 Kilograms.
**
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**MOM uses Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine as fuel and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen [MON-3: Nitrogen Tetroxide with 3% Nitric Oxide] as oxidizer. The engine operates and an mixture ratio (O/F) of 1.65 and has a nozzle ratio of 160. It engine is certified for long firings of up to 3,000 seconds and a cumulative firing time of >23,542 seconds.
The first “Midnight Maneuver” of the Mars Orbiter Mission started at at 19:47 UTC on Wednesday and was about 416 seconds in duration to raise the apogee of the orbit by 4,120 Kilometers to 28,785 Kilometers. The maneuver used about 40 Kilograms of the vehicle’s 852-Kilogram propellant load.
**
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**According to ISRO, the maneuver was completed successfully.
Coming up over the next ten days are four more Midnight Maneuvers that will put the spacecraft in a 600 by 215,000-Kilometer orbit around Earth and set up the proper perigee passage for the final engine burn that puts the vehicle onto its Trans-Martian Trajectory using a standard Hohmann Transfer Orbit. The TMI maneuvers is planned for November 30, 2013.**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5944763_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5944763_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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**November 5, 2013**
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**India has successfully launched its Mars Orbiter Mission into Earth orbit from where the spacecraft will insert itself into an interplanetary trajectory over a period of weeks. The MOM spacecraft was launched atop at Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle blasting off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at 9:08 UTC on Tuesday. The rocket performed a flawless 44-minute ascent mission to deliver the Mars Orbiter to an elliptical orbit around Earth. **
**Over the course of the coming weeks, the MOM spacecraft will gradually increase its orbital altitude before boosting itself into its interplanetary transfer trajectory where it will spend 10 months cruising to Mars. On September 24, 2014, the spacecraft will conduct the critical Mars Orbit Insertion Maneuver to achieve an elliptical science orbit around the planet for a 160-day primary science mission. The Mars Orbiter Mission serves as a pathfinder for future Indian space missions, giving the Indian Space Research Organization the opportunity of learning how to operate interplanetary spacecraft. **
**The launch of the Mars Orbiter Mission atop a PSLV XL was preceded by a 56.5-hour countdown that began on Sunday morning. The first two days of the long Countdown Operation were dedicated to fueling the second stage and fourth stage of the launcher as well as the Roll Control Thrusters on the first stage. **
**PSLV uses a combination of solid- and liquid-fueled stages – the boosters, PS1 first stage and PS3 third stage use solid propellants that are loaded ahead of launch vehicle integration. Overall, PSLV stands 44.5 meters tall, has a diameter of 2.8 meters and a liftoff mass of 320,000 Kilograms. **
**Over the course of the countdown, final tests and checkouts on the launch vehicle and the MOM spacecraft were performed. **
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5338600_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5338600_orig.jpg) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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On Monday, the Mobile Service Tower was retracted, first to a stand-off distance of 50 meters before rolling to its launch position, 160 meters from the rocket that was fully fueled at this point.
Afterwards**, teams made final close-outs on PSLV and the service structure before departing the launch complex for the final countdown sequence that commenced on Tuesday.**
Throughout the countdown, teams were watching over all systems of the rocket and the payload and completed electrical tests, checkouts of the communications system, control system verifications and Flight Termination System testing. Flight computers were configured for the Terminal Countdown Sequence and the final systems check was performed less than one hour from launch. When all systems were verified in good condition, the formal authorization for launch was given and the countdown headed into its Terminal Sequence at T-8 minutes.
**At that point, the MOM spacecraft underwent its transition to flight mode and it was switched to internal power. At T-5 minutes, th****e flight computers of PSLV were configured for flight and received their appropriate flight software. Also, the launch team verified that all tracking assets were ready to support the mission, including optical and radar tracking sites near the launch pad, downrange tracking stations, India’s Deep Space Network and two tracking ships that were deployed for this mission due to its ascent path. **
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8549055_orig.jpg Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2610761_orig.jpg Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
**At T-3 minutes, the launch vehicle transitioned to flight mode. Final countdown procedures included the pressurization of the propellant tanks aboard the launch vehicle that also transferred to internal power. At T-1 minute, the on-board Master Sequencer assumed control of the countdown, putting the rocket through the final steps ahead of liftoff.**
**At T-3 seconds, the two Roll Control Thrusters on the first stage ignited. As clocks hit zero, the PS1 Core Stage received its ignition command. To provide an extra kick to the vehicle, four of the six Solid Rocket Boosters were ignited in pairs at T+0.5 and T+0.7 seconds. **
**The PSLV rocket blasted off on time at 9:08 UTC – 14:38 Indian Standard Time as its first stage and four boosters provided a total thrust of 700,600 Kilogram-force for an initial thrust-to-weight ratio of 2.2. Shortly after clearing the tower, the PSLV rocket began its pitch and roll maneuver to align itself with the pre-planned ascent trajectory, heading south-east across the Bay of Bengal. **
25 seconds into the flight, the two remaining Solid Rocket Boosters ignited. With all six boosters up and running, PSLV had a total thrust of 803,000 Kilograms. In the XL version, PSLV uses stretched boosters that are 13.5 meters in length, 1 meter in diameter, carrying 12,000 Kilograms of propellant that are consumed to provide 51,250 Kilogram-force of thrust over the course of a 49.5-second burn.
With all boosters firing, PSLV quickly gained altitude and started racing downrange. 50 seconds into the flight, the ground-lit boosters burned out. For range safety requirements, the launcher held onto the boosters for another 20 seconds, ensuring the SRBs impact downrange from the launch site. 70 seconds after launch, the SRBs were jettisoned in pairs, 0.2 seconds apart, as the PSLV was passing 23 Kilometers in altitude, traveling 1.5 Kilometers per second.
**The air-lit boosters burned out at T+1:15 and were jettisoned at T+1:32 when the rocket passed 40 Kilometers in altitude. Following booster separation, the PS1 stage was in charge of powered flight. It is one of the largest solid-fueled rocket stages, measuring 20.34 meters in length and 2.8 meters in diameter. **
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The PS1 launched with a fuel load of 138 metric tons to provide 495,600 Kilograms of thrust during a 105-second burn. Vehicle control was provided via Secondary Injection Thrust Vector Control for pitch & yaw and two thrusters for roll. At T+1:45, the PS1 thrust tailed off followed by PS1 separation at T+1:53.
The single Vikas engine of the PS2 stage ignited on its burn just 0.2 seconds after stage separation, beginning a 2-minute 31-second firing. The second stage of the PSLV is 12.8 meters long and capable of holding 40,700 Kilograms of Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine fuel and Nitrogen Tetroxide oxidizer. The Vikas 4 engine provides 81,500 Kilograms of thrust operating at a chamber pressure of 58.5 bar, consuming 278 Kilograms of propellant per second.
Five seconds into the second stage burn, the launch vehicle enabled Closed Loop Control. The first stage flew a pre-determined attitude profile while the remaining stages used navigation data to optimize the vehicle’s trajectory. At T+3 minutes and 22 seconds, the vehicle passed 113 Kilometers in altitude, making it safe to jettison the protective payload fairing as aerodynamic forces could no longer harm the satellite. PSLV’s fairing is 3.2 meters in diameter and 8.3 meters long – offering enough space to the MOM spacecraft.
**The second stage completed its burn at T+4:24, followed moments later by stage separation. 1.2 seconds after PS2 separation, the third stage of the rocket ignited. At that point, the vehicle was 133 Kilometers in altitude, traveling 5.4 Kilometers per second. The PS3 stage has a reduced diameter of 2.02 meters, being 3.54 meters long. It is loaded with 6,700 Kilograms of HTPB based propellant. PS3 provided 24,900 Kilograms of thrust over the course of 112 seconds – boosting the vehicle’s velocity by 2.4 Kilometers per second. **
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At T+6 minutes and 18 seconds, the third stage tailed off and the vehicle entered a coast phase. The rocket held onto the third stage for another three and a half minutes to allow residual thrust to tail off to ensure a safe stage separation. At T+9:43, pyrotechnics were fired to separate the third and the fourth stage of the PSLV.
The PS4 coast phase of the MOM ascent mission was the longest of any previous PSLV flight due to the specific requirements of the MOM trajectory plan that required a higher Argument of Perigee than previous PSLV sub-GTO missions. MOM was targeting an orbit with an Argument of Perigee of 282.5 degrees that required an extended coast of 25 minutes and 17 seconds after stage separation. This long cruise moved the fourth stage burn out of range of Indian tracking stations. That is why two tracking ships were deployed in the Pacific Ocean, providing critical telemetry relay during the fourth stage burn and spacecraft separation.
The first three stages of the PSLV Launcher showed a slight overperformance, delivering the stack to a a trajectory with a higher apogee. As a result, the fourth stage adjusted the flight path to achieve the expected orbit.
**During the coast phase, the PS4 stage used its Hydrazine Reaction Control System to maintain a stable attitude, being controlled by flight computers that were using new algorithms to support the long coast phase. 35 minutes into the flight, the fourth stage ignited its two L-2-5 engines on an 8 –minute and 39-second burn to boost the apogee of the orbit and set up the proper Argument of Perigee. **
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4830700_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4830700_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8819812_orig.jpg Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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In the PSLV XL configuration, the PS4 stage launches with a full fuel load of 2,000 Kilograms of Monomethylhydrazine and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen. PS4 is 2.02 meters in diameter and 2.6 meters long and its two L-2-5 engines provide 1,490 Kilogram-force of thrust.
Throughout the PS4 burn, the vehicle performed as planned, sticking to its planned trajectory. The fourth stage burn increased the vehicle’s velocity by 2.2 Kilometers per second to 9.83 Kilometers per second. When shutting down at T+43:39, the stack passed an altitude of 343 Kilometers. Immediately after shutdown on the fourth stage, the vehicle began the re-orientation to the proper attitude for MOM spacecraft separation.
The Mars Orbiter was sent on its way at T+44 minutes and 16 seconds, being inserted into its planned orbit. MOM was targeting an orbit of 250 by 23,500 Kilometers at an inclination of 19.2 degrees and achieved an orbit of 247 by 23,567 Kilometers. The PS4 stage performed collision avoidance maneuvers before passivation which marks the completion of the PSLV flight.
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**Being delivered to a 247 by 23,567-Kilometer orbit at an inclination of 19.2 degrees, the Mars Orbiter starts out in a type of GSO Transfer Orbit from where it will boost itself into a Trans-Martian Trajectory over a period of four weeks. **
**This mission design was developed to accommodate the relatively low Payload Capability of the PSLV for an interplanetary mission. A similar profile was being utilized on the Chandrayaan-1 Moon Mission that launched in 2008. **
Spending more than four weeks in Earth Orbit requires MOM to be equipped with radiation shielding to endure the numerous passages through Earth’s Radiation Belts.
Over the course of its stay in Earth orbit, MOM fires its Liquid Apogee Motor six times – always when passing perigee to gradually increase the apogee of the orbit to work its way up to departing Earth orbit in a fuel-efficient manner. The fifth firing places the spacecraft in a 600 by 215,000-Kilometer orbit around Earth and sets up the proper perigee passage for the final engine burn that puts the vehicle onto its Trans-Martian Trajectory using s standard Hohmann Transfer Orbit. The trip to Mars takes about 300 days and features a number of Trajectory Corrections ahead of the critical Mars Orbit Insertion Burn on September 24, 2014 that will determine the fate of the mission.
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5743666_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5743666_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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The specific objectives of the Mars Orbiter Mission are primarily associated with spacecraft construction and mission operations as MOM serves as a pathfinder, being India’s first mission beyond the Moon which brings its own unique challenges such as the 20-minute average signal delay to Mars. Scientific objectives that have been set for this mission are considered a bonus if achieved. Although the orbiter carries five instruments including a color camera, achieving the engineering goals of the mission is the primary focus of MOM.
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Indian PSLV Rocket Set to Launch Mars Orbiter Mission on Tuesday
**November 4, 2013**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4903708_orig.jpg Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
**The countdown to the launch of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission is progressing as planned at the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India’s east coast. MOM is set for launch atop a PSLV XL Launch Vehicle on Tuesday at 9:08 UTC to start its long journey to planet Mars.
Countdown Operations started early on Sunday, local time and featured final launch vehicle testing and propellant loading on the fourth stage of the rocket as well as the Reaction Control System. On Monday, Propellant Loading on the second stage got underway. **
**The PS2 stage uses a total of 40,700 Kilograms of storable propellants. Also on Monday, the Mobile Service Tower was retracted to a distance of 50 meters to the PSLV launch vehicle.
When PS2 fueling is complete, teams will begin final countdown operations that will get underway early on Tuesday.
**
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Over the course of the final countdown hours on Tuesday, teams perform final hands-on work to close out the launch vehicle and launch pad facilities while the launch team monitors all systems of the launcher and the spacecraft, putting the vehicle through a last set of electrical, communications and control systems checks before pressing into the final countdown sequence. During the final minutes of the countdown, the launcher pressurizes its propellant tanks for flight, transitions to internal power and enables its flight control system in launch mode for PS1 ignition when clocks hit zero.
**>>>PSLV Ascent Profile
>>>Mars Orbiter Mission Overview
**
Launch Preview
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**The Mars Orbiter Mission launches on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle flying in its XL configuration. MOM does not use a direct injection in which the launch vehicle delivers the spacecraft to its Trans-Martian Trajectory. Instead, Mangalyaan is delivered to Earth orbit from where it uses its own propulsion system to insert itself into its TMI trajectory over a period of weeks. This design still requires the spacecraft to be launched within a narrow window that is only open for a few days every 26 months.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in its XL Version stands 44.5 meters tall, has a core diameter of 2.8 meters and a liftoff mass of 320,000 Kilograms. It is a four-stage rocket that uses a combination of solid rocket stages and liquid-fueled stages. **
** The PSLV launcher consists of a large core stage that is 20.34 meters long and holds 138,000 Kilograms of solid propellant – making it one of the largest solid rocket stages ever flown. It provides a whopping thrust of 495,600 Kilograms. Clustered around the core are six Solid Rocket Boosters – each being 1 meter in diameter and 13.5 meters long holding 12,000 Kilograms of propellant. Each of the boosters provides 51,250 Kilograms of thrust. **
** The second stage of the launch vehicle uses storable propellants, Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine fuel and Nitrogen Tetroxide oxidizer, that are consumed by a single Vikas 4 engine that provides 81,500kg of vacuum thrust. The stage is 12.8 meters long featuring a 40,700-Kilogram propellant load. **
** The PS3 stage of the PSLV launcher is solid-fueled, being 2.02 meters in diameter and 3.54 meters long holding 6,700 Kilograms of HTPB-based propellant. The third stage provides a total thrust of 24,900 Kilograms. Stacked atop the third stage is the PS4 Upper Stage that again uses hypergolic propellants – Monomethylhydrazine fuel and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen – consumed by two L-2-5 engines. The stage is 2.02 meters in diameter and 2.6 meters long featuring a fuel load of 2,920 Kilograms. Upper stage thrust is 1,500 Kilogram-force.
**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4938461_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/4938461_orig.jpg) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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Following the completion of the 56.5-hour countdown, PSLV will launch with the Mangalyaan spacecraft hidden under its 3.2 by 8.3-meter payload fairing. The rocket will basically follow a standard mission profile to a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit type orbit from where the MOM spacecraft begins its long journey to Mars. PSLV launches from the Satish Dhawan Space Center located on India’s East Coast.
** At the moment of T-0, the PS1 Stage is ignited followed 0.5 seconds later by Boosters 1&2 and another 0.2 seconds later by Boosters 3&4 to create a total launch thrust of 700,600 Kilograms. Blasting off at a thrust to weight ratio of 2.18, initial ascent is very quick as PSLV races into the sky, starting a Pitch and Roll maneuver to align itself with a pre-planned ascent trajectory taking it south-east across the Indian Ocean. **
** The remaining Boosters (5&6) are ignited at T+25 seconds when the vehicle is already 2.5 Kilometers in altitude. Each of the Boosters burns for 49.5 seconds. The four ground-lit boosters are separated at T+1 minute and 10 seconds and fall into the Ocean. The air-lit boosters are jettisoned 22 seconds later enabling the PS1 stage to continue ascent on its own.
Throughout the booster phase and PS1 burn, three axis control is provided by a Secondary Injection Thrust Vector Control (SITVC) for yaw and pitch and two radially mounted thrusters for roll.
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When the first stage has burned out, it separates from the second stage at T+1:53 followed by PS2 ignition an instant later. Staging occurs at approximately 58 Kilometers in altitude. During the second stage burn, the launch vehicle departs the dense atmosphere – allowing the vehicle to jettison its payload fairing at T+3:22 at an altitude of 113 Kilometers, exposing the MOM spacecraft for the remainder of the ascent as aerodynamic forces can no longer damage the vehicle. Vehicle control during second stage flight is provided by engine gimbaling for pitch and yaw and a roll reaction control system.
** The second stage burns for about two minutes and 35 seconds before separating from the third stage that then ignites and assumes control of the flight at T+4:26. The solid-fueled third stage burns for 112 seconds to boost the stack to a sub-orbital trajectory. It uses the fourth stage Reaction Control System for three-axis control. After burnout of the PS3 stage, the stack begins a coast phase – initially holding onto the spent third stage before separating it at T+9:43 and continuing to coast uphill. **
** This coast phase allows the vehicle to fly uphill so that the fourth stage burn can increase the apogee altitude and also put a few Kilometers onto the perigee to place the stack in a stable orbit. MOM is targeting a higher Argument of Perigee than all previous ISRO mission into GTO in order to minimize the energy required from the GTO-type orbit to the interplanetary trajectory. Therefore, the coast between the 3rd and 4th stage burns is extended to 25 minutes. **
** The long coasting necessitated specific modifications to the coast phase guidance algorithm, on-board battery capacity augmentation, assessment on the performance of inertial systems for extended flight duration and deployment of two tracking ships to acquire the critical telemetry data during 4th stage flight and MOM separation.
Once the stack reaches its desired altitude, the two L-2-5 engines of the fourth stage ignite at T+35 minutes on a burn of about 8.5 minutes to boost the stack into its Transfer Orbit.
The Mars Orbiter Mission targets an injection orbit of 250 by 23,500 Kilometers at an inclination of 19.2 degrees. MOM separation takes place 44 minutes and 16 seconds after launch.**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5724494_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5724494_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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Countdown Underway for Indian Mars Orbiter Launch
**November 3, 2013**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/5374163_orig.jpg Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
**The Indian Space Research Organization has started the Countdown for the launch of its first mission to Mars. Countdown Clocks at the Satish Dhawan Space Center started ticking at 6:08 Indian Standard Time (0:38 UTC) on Sunday to set the stage for the liftoff of the Mars Orbiter Mission atop a PSLV rocket on Tuesday at 9:08 UTC.
Before the countdown got underway, teams put the integrated launch vehicle and MOM through a series of thorough checkouts to verify that all systems were ready for the mission. On October 31, ISRO conducted a Launch Rehearsal involving the launch vehicle, spacecraft and launch team.**
**As part of the operation, the computers aboard the vehicle and the launch team went through a simulated countdown and ascent to ensure all commands were sent at the appropriate times. It also gave teams an opportunity to rehearse launch operations. All systems were awarded a clean bill of health after the test.
On Friday, the Launch Authorization Board provided the official approval for the PSLV C-25 launch and the start of the countdown on time. Saturday featured the final pre-countdown operations at Launch Pad 1 that were completed as planned.
As the 56-hour and 30-minute launch countdown got underway, teams started propellant loading operations on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in its XL Version stands 44.5 meters tall, has a core diameter of 2.8 meters and a liftoff mass of 320,000 Kilograms. It is a four-stage rocket that uses a combination of solid rocket stages and liquid-fueled stages. The first stage and the six boosters use solid propellant and a liquid-fueled Roll Control Thruster system installed on the PS1 first stage. **
**The PS2 second stage uses Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine / Hydrazine Hydrate as fuel and Nitrogen Tetroxide as oxidizer while the third stage is solid-fueled. The PS4 stage again uses liquid propellants, namely Monomethylhydrazine fuel and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen as an oxidizer. **
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**Countdown operations started with fuel loading on the Reaction Control Thrusters, loading their tanks with Monomethylhydrazine. Also being loaded with MMH on Sunday is the fourth stage that also received its load of MON oxidizer on Sunday. When flying in its XL configuration, PSLV’s fourth stage features a full fuel load while it is only partially loaded when PSLV flies in the Core Alone configuration. Overall, the PS4 stage is loaded with 2,000 Kilograms of storable propellants. RCT and PS4 fueling operations were reported complete later on Sunday.
Countdown operations will continue early on Monday with propellant loading on the second stage that will be filled with 40,700 Kilograms of hypergolics that will be consumed by a single Vikas engine during flight.
Also during the countdown, extensive checks of the rocket and the spacecraft are conducted as well as battery charging. In addition to that, India’s Ground Network of Tracking Stations is being configured for the flight and the two Tracking Ships that are deployed to track the vehicle as it flies downrange perform communication checks as well.
**
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**Over the course of the final countdown hours on Tuesday, teams perform final hands-on work to close out the launch vehicle and launch pad facilities while the launch team monitors all systems of the launcher and the spacecraft, putting the vehicle through a last set of electrical, communications and control systems checks before pressing into the final countdown sequence. During the final minutes of the countdown, the launcher pressurizes its propellant tanks for flight, transitions to internal power and enables its flight control system in launch mode.
Liftoff of the Mars Orbiter Mission is planned to occur at 9:08 UTC on Tuesday, November 5, 2013. Following blastoff, PSLV will complete a record-setting 44-minute ascent mission to deliver the MOM spacecraft to its planned GTO-type orbit from where it will boost itself into an interplanetary trajectory.
>>>Detailed PSLV Ascent Profile Overview & Launch Preview**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2334323_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/2334323_orig.jpg) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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Indian Mars Orbiter installed atop PSLV Rocket
**October 25, 2013**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3876781_orig.jpg Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
**The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft has been attached to its PSLV launch vehicle and has been given a revised launch date following a brief delay caused by problems with required tracking ships. MOM is currently planned to launch on November 5, 2013 at 9:06 UTC. Launch opportunities are available through November 19.
This week, teams moved the MOM spacecraft from its processing facility where it completed final reconfigurations and propellant loading to the Launch Vehicle Integration Facility where the integrated Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle was already waiting to receive its payload. To deliver MOM into an elliptical orbit around Earth, PSLV uses its XL version that features larger Solid Rocket Boosters and a fully fueled upper stage.
After carefully hoisting MOM above the fourth stage of the PSLV, the spacecraft was installed on its launcher and electrical and data connections were made. Also, the stack was encapsulated in the protective payload fairing that is 3.2 meters in diameter and 8.3 meters long.
**
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With the lengthy integration process complete, teams began a series of extensive checkouts on the vehicle, making sure that all connections were in place and the Flight Control System could communicate with all subsystems. Testing continues for several days to ensure all systems are ready to support the mission that has to get off the ground in a tight launch window that will not allow lengthy launch delays. The next opportunity to get to Mars will not come until 2016.
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/9452276_orig.jpg Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7722669_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/7722669_orig.jpg) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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Launch of Indian Mars Orbiter Mission pushed into November
**October 20, 2013**
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**The Indian Space Research Organization has pushed the launch of its Mars Orbiter Mission into November due to bad weather in the Pacific Ocean that will prevent Tracking Ships from reaching their required locations for the opening of the window. ISRO announced a one-week delay into the first week of November.
Originally, the Mars Orbiter Mission was planned to launch on October 28 - the opening of its interplanetary launch window that extends through November 19, 2013. The launch vehicle and the spacecraft are ready for launch, waiting for weather conditions to improve in the Pacific. Officials will hold a review on October 22 to set a new launch date.
India is deploying two ships from the Shipping Corporation of India, SCI Nalanda and SCI Yamuna to track the launch vehicle while flying over the Pacific Ocean to provide real-time telemetry coverage. Depending on the ships’ progress on their way to their specific destinations, a new launch date will be set.
At the Satish Dhawan Space Center, preparations have been on track for the launch of the ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission. The PSLV XL launch vehicle has been assembled at the launch site over the past months.
The PS1 solid-fueled first stage was moved to the integration facility to be integrated on the launch table. PS1 has a loaded mass of 168,200 Kilograms being 2.8 meters in diameter and 20.34m long. In the XL configuration, the PSLV launcher uses six stretched Solid Rocket Boosters that were mated to PS1, one by one, over the course of several weeks. Each of the boosters has a launch mass of 14,000kg being 1m in diameter and 13.5m in length. Four boosters are ground-lit while the remaining two ignite in flight.
With the boosters in place, teams hoisted the PS2 second stage above the stack and carefully centered it onto the first stage. Unlike the first stage, the second stage of the PSLV is liquid fueled using storable propellants. **
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1909395_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/1909395_orig.jpg) Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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**It has a liftoff mass of 46,000kg and is 2.8 by 12.8 meters featuring a Vikas engine. Atop the second stage, the third stage was installed. It uses solid fuel and weighs 7,800kg being 3.54m long and 2.02m in diameter.
****Afterwards, the fourth stage was attached to the vehicle. It is a liquid-fueled stage equipped with two L-2-5 engines that use storable propellants. **
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The small fourth stage is 2.02m in diameter and 2.6m long with a fueled mass of 2,920kg. In the XL config, the fourth stage is fully loaded for flight while it only uses a partial fuel load in the Core Alone version. With all four stages and boosters integrated, an extensive testing campaign was started.
**
While the rocket was being assembled, the MOM Spacecraft underwent its final processing tasks at the Spacecraft Processing Facility. Following extensive checkouts and inspections, the spacecraft was fueled for flight, being loaded with 850 Kilograms of Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen.
The next step in the launch campaign is the installation of the spacecraft atop the PSLV rocket.
Preparations are on track for launch as weather permits. With the cyclone season underway in the Bay of Bengal, launch weather on India’s east coast is also a concern along with rough seas in the Pacific that could further delay the arrival of the tracking ships.**
[http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3649412_orig.jpg](http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3649412_orig.jpg) Image: Indian Space Research Organization
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India begins final Preparations for ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission
**October 8, 2013**
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http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/567745_orig.jpg Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
**The Indian Space Research Organization has started final preparations for the launch of its ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission, also known as Mangalyaan. India's first Mars mission is scheduled to launch on October 28, 2013 - the opening of a 23-day launch window that will allow the probe to reach Mars in September 2014.
The 1,350-Kilogram Mars orbiter is equipped with five scientific payloads to study Mars and its atmosphere, but the mission’s primary objective is to demonstrate the operation of an interplanetary mission to Mars. Development of the mission was initiated back in 2011 and official approval for the Mars Orbiter Mission was given in August 2012 - with just 15 months to go until the opening of the interplanetary launch window that is only open for a few days every 26 months.
The spacecraft integration process started in 2012 as the vehicle’s bus was assembled using a platform based on India’s successful Chandrayaan-1 Moon Orbiter. In parallel, the five instruments of the MOM mission were developed, built and tested individually. **
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**These instruments include a Lyman Alpha Photometer to measure Hydrogen & Deuterium abundance in the atmosphere, the Martian Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer - a mass spectrometer to make in-situ measurements of neutral particles, the Methane Sensor for Mars to make precise measurements to support the search for Methane in the atmosphere, the Thermal Infrared Imaging System to study the Martian surface, and the Mars Color Camera for imagery acquisition.
**
>>>Mars Orbiter Mission Overview (Spacecraft Overview, Instrument Descriptions, Trajectory Info & Science Overview)
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**Once the spacecraft bus was ready and all instruments had finished construction, the two segments came together as the instruments were integrated with the spacecraft starting in April 2013. **
**On its path to make the 2013 launch window, the MOM spacecraft underwent final testing at the ISRO Satellite Integration and Testing Establishment in Bangalore in August and September 2013. Final testing included vacuum and thermal testing, radio frequency acceptance testing on the high gain antenna, acoustic testing, vibration testing and extensive electrical tests.
On October 3, the spacecraft was delivered to the Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota located on India’s east coast. At the launch site, the spacecraft will undergo a final round of testing and processing before being loaded with 850 Kilograms of propellants. Afterwards, it will be attached to its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and encapsulated in the protective payload fairing in preparation for launch.
With the US Federal Government shut down, reports emerged that the launch of MOM was in danger as ISRO requires NASA’s Deep Space Network for tracking of the spacecraft when it is out of range of India’s Deep Space Network. Earlier this week, NASA reaffirmed its commitment to the MOM mission that will not be affected by the Shutdown.
Currently, ISRO is aiming for the launch of the Mars Orbiter Mission on October 28, 2013 at 10:45 UTC to kick of an ambitious mission. The PSLV rocket will deliver the spacecraft to a highly elliptical transfer orbit around Earth flying a profile similar to PSLV missions to Geostationary Transfer Orbit. Once in that orbit, MOM will use its main engine five times when passing perigee to gradually increase the apogee over a four-week period before firing its main engine a 6th time to enter a Trans-Martian trajectory. **
**The spacecraft will reach Mars on September 24, 2014 and fire its main engine to insert itself into a highly elliptical science orbit around the planet for an open ended science mission of at least 160 days.
MOM will study surface mineralogy with its TIS instrument, continue the ongoing search for methane with its Methane Sensor, quantify the atmospheric loss on Mars, determine the neutral density of the Martian exosphere over an extended mass range and study the evolution of the atmosphere of the Red Planet. **
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/8103005.jpg?338
Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
http://www.spaceflight101.com/uploads/6/4/0/6/6406961/3672008_orig.jpg Photo: Indian Space Research Organization
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Re: India to assist in building the largest Telescope in the world...
Yes, India will build the wheel on which the telescope will be mounted to move it around.
Modi will be inaugurating this wheel in public soon.