Mars Orbiter Mission

The Mars Orbiter Mission, also called Mangalyaan, is a Mars orbiter launched
into Earth orbit on 5th November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organization . It
was successfully inserted into Mars orbit on 24th September 2014. The mission is a
technology demonstrator project to develop the technologies for design, planning,
management, and operations of an interplanetary mission. It carries five instruments,
one of which, a methane detector, will particularly advance knowledge about Mars.
The Mars Orbiter Mission probe lifted-off from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan
Space Centre , Andhra Pradesh, using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket C25 at
14:38 IST on 5th November 2013. The launch window was approximately 20 days long
and started on 28th October 2013. The MOM probe spent about a month in Earth orbit,
where it made a series of seven altitude-raising orbital manoeuvres before trans-Mars
injection on 30th November 2013.
It is India's first interplanetary mission and ISRO has become the fourth space
agency to reach Mars, after the Soviet Space Program, NASA, and the European
Space Agency. It is also the first nation to reach Mars orbit on its first attempt, and the
first Asian nation to do so.
The spacecraft is currently being monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre
at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bangalore with support
from Indian Deep Space Network antennae at Byalalu.
The MOM mission concept began with a feasibility study in 2010, after the launch of
lunar satellite Chandrayaan-1 in 2008. The government of India approved the project
on 3rd August 2012. After the Indian Space Research Organization completed
125 crore of required studies for the orbiter. The total project cost may be up to
454 crore .The satellite costs 153 crore and the rest of the budget has been
attributed to ground stations and relay upgrades that will be used for other ISRO
projects.
The space agency had planned the launch on 28th October 2013 but was postponed
to 5th November 2013 following the delay in ISRO's spacecraft tracking ships to take
up pre-determined positions due to poor weather in the Pacific Ocean. Launch
opportunities for a fuel-saving Hohmann transfer orbit occur every 26 months, in this
case, 2016 and 2018. The Mars Orbiter's on-orbit mission life is six-to-ten months.
Assembly of the PSLV-XL launch vehicle, designated C25, started on 5th August 2013.
The mounting of the five scientific instruments was completed at ISRO Satellite
Centre, Bangalore, and the finished spacecraft was shipped to Sriharikota on 2nd
October 2013 for integration to the PSLV-XL launch vehicle. The satellite's development

was fast-tracked and completed in a record 15 months. Despite the US federal

government shutdown, NASA reaffirmed on 5th October 2013 it would provide
communications and navigation support to the mission. ISRO chairman stated in
November 2013 that if the MOM and NASA's orbiter MAVEN were successful, they
would complement each other in findings and help understand Mars better.
The ISRO plans to send a follow-up mission with a greater scientific payload to Mars
in the 20172020 timeframe; it would include an orbiter and a stationary lander.
The low cost of the mission was ascribed by K. Radhakrishnan, the chairman of ISRO,
to various factors, including a modular approach, a small number of ground tests and
long working days for scientists. BBC's Jonathan Amos mentioned lower worker costs,
home-grown technologies, simpler design, and significantly less complicated payload
than NASA's MAVEN. An opinion piece in The Hindu pointed out that the cost was
equivalent to less than a single bus ride for each of India's population of 1.2 billion.
The primary objective of the Mars Orbiter Mission is to showcase India's rocket launch
systems, spacecraft-building and operations capabilities. Specifically, the primary
objective is to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management
and operations of an interplanetary mission, comprising the following major tasks.

design and realisation of a Mars orbiter with a capability to perform Earth-bound

maneuvres, cruise phase of 300 days, Mars orbit insertion / capture, and on-orbit
phase around Mars;
deep-space communication, navigation, mission planning and management;
Incorporate autonomous features to handle contingency situations.

The secondary objective is to explore Mars' surface

features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere using indigenous scientific
instruments.
The orbit insertion put MOM in a highly elliptical orbit around Mars, with a period of 73
hours. Commissioning and checkout operations are planned over the coming weeks to
prepare MOM's instruments for science operations.