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ISRO's Mission to Mars Gears up for a Tricky Manoeuvre


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In this season of soccer, the Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO is gearing up to play a bit of football of its own -- albeit of the celestial variety -- with its Mars mission Mangalayaan.

At 4.30 pm today, the space agency will gently nudge India's Mars Orbiter Mission a tad closer to the red planet.

It is a risky operation; if things go wrong, theRs.450 crore mission launched on November 5, 2013 from Sriharikota could well get lost.

Nearly 20 per cent of the 51 missions headed for Mars, launched by various countries, have been lost en-route.

ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan told NDTV, "It is not a routine operation. Great precision is required in calculating and correctly firing the four small rocket engines on board the spacecraft in the exact direction,"

He added that the ISRO team working on the project was 'confident' about executing the command.

Mangalayaan has so far covered nearly 466 million kilometres or nearly 70 per cent of its arduous 680 million kilometre-long journey.

For the last six months, since it was launched, the spacecraft has been in a state of induced slumber.

Today, its rocket engines will be fired for a mere 16 seconds, but this is a tricky manoeuvre as the rocket engines have to be fired in the right direction.

Among the factors that can affect the outcome of the operation is solar wind, which can make inter-planetary spacecraft drift from course. If the firing goes awry, the spacecraft can easily get lost.

Today's gentle nudge will help Mangalyaan score a goal on September 24, 2014, when it is supposed to finally rendezvous with the red planet.

Mangalyaan is currently travelling with a velocity of 28 km/s or about 100,800 kilometres per hour. It is now the fastest and farthest ever-traveling Indian object in space. It is so far away that it takes a radio signal almost five minutes to travel from Bangalore to the Mangalyaan.

If the Mars mission manages to reach within 440-560 km of the red planet's surface after its epic marathon, India will become the third country in the world to achieve such an exacting target on a maiden journey.

ISRO's Mission to Mars Gears up for a Tricky Manoeuvre - NDTV
 
1 hour to go for this tricky maneuver.

Best of Luck ISRO.

Slight Mistake may result into loosing of aircraft.
 
Yes it’s 4:30 PM now. The TCM2 firing should have started! We’ll know for sure when the antenna is reoriented back towards Earth post-firing and not to forget, an additional 5 minutes 40 seconds signal delay.

A missive from MOM confirms TCM2-Firing completion. Team MOM is busy crunching numbers to determine the post-TCM2 trajectory.
 
Trajectory corrected, Mars Orbiter now on precise path

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) received another shot in the arm in its ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission when its ground controllers successfully corrected the spacecraft’s trajectory on Wednesday.
This complex trajectory correction manoeuvre (TCM), as it is called, puts the spacecraft on the right celestial path to reach Mars on the scheduled day of September 24. The ground controllers at the ISRO Tracking, Telemetry and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bangalore, corrected the trajectory by radioing commands to the four thrusters of the Orbiter to fire for 16 seconds from 4.30 p.m. The thrusters did so, imparting an incremental velocity of 1.57 metres a second to the spacecraft for its rendezvous with Mars.

ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said the TCM was “precisely done” and “we operated four out of 22 Newton thrusters for 16 seconds” which gave the spacecraft an incremental velocity of 1.574 metres a second. “Reviews are under way. All systems on the Mars Orbiter are normal,” Dr. Radhakrishnan said.

“Everything went perfectly well,” said M. Annadurai, Programme Director, Indian Remote-sensing Satellites and Small Satellites Systems, ISRO. “We are happy because this is, in a way, a simulation for the crucial Mars Orbit Injection (MOI)” that would take place on September 24.

“The MOI will be exactly similar to this except that we fired four small Newton thrusters today. But we will fire the 440-Newton liquid engine [propulsion system] of the spacecraft for the MOI,” he said.

Dr. Annadurai added: “We could not watch today’s manoeuvre because the spacecraft’s orientation will not allow us to see what is happening. Telemetry was not available. The entire manoeuvre was done in the auto mode.”

S. Arunan, Project Director, Mars Orbiter Mission, said: “All the health parameters of the Mars Orbiter are all right. Its payloads have been operated and checked. They are doing well. All the systems and sub-systems are doing well.”


Trajectory corrected, Mars Orbiter now on precise path - The Hindu
 
Trajectory corrected, Mars Orbiter now on precise path

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) received another shot in the arm in its ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission when its ground controllers successfully corrected the spacecraft’s trajectory on Wednesday.
This complex trajectory correction manoeuvre (TCM), as it is called, puts the spacecraft on the right celestial path to reach Mars on the scheduled day of September 24. The ground controllers at the ISRO Tracking, Telemetry and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bangalore, corrected the trajectory by radioing commands to the four thrusters of the Orbiter to fire for 16 seconds from 4.30 p.m. The thrusters did so, imparting an incremental velocity of 1.57 metres a second to the spacecraft for its rendezvous with Mars.

ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said the TCM was “precisely done” and “we operated four out of 22 Newton thrusters for 16 seconds” which gave the spacecraft an incremental velocity of 1.574 metres a second. “Reviews are under way. All systems on the Mars Orbiter are normal,” Dr. Radhakrishnan said.

“Everything went perfectly well,” said M. Annadurai, Programme Director, Indian Remote-sensing Satellites and Small Satellites Systems, ISRO. “We are happy because this is, in a way, a simulation for the crucial Mars Orbit Injection (MOI)” that would take place on September 24.

“The MOI will be exactly similar to this except that we fired four small Newton thrusters today. But we will fire the 440-Newton liquid engine [propulsion system] of the spacecraft for the MOI,” he said.

Dr. Annadurai added: “We could not watch today’s manoeuvre because the spacecraft’s orientation will not allow us to see what is happening. Telemetry was not available. The entire manoeuvre was done in the auto mode.”

S. Arunan, Project Director, Mars Orbiter Mission, said: “All the health parameters of the Mars Orbiter are all right. Its payloads have been operated and checked. They are doing well. All the systems and sub-systems are doing well.”


Trajectory corrected, Mars Orbiter now on precise path - The Hindu


Important thing is that a little fuel was consumed. MOM TCM was carried in auto mode.MOM is in Good health.
 
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ISRO is continuously monitoring Mars Orbiter Spacecraft using Indian Deep Space Network, IDSN. The spacecraft and its five scientific instruments are in good health.
 
ISRO planning to launch French satellite SPOT 7 on June 26
ISRO is planning to launch its next rocket PSLV C23 carrying a French remote sensing satellite SPOT 7, along with four others from Sriharikota spaceport on June 26, a senior official said today.

"As of now, we have scheduled the launch of PSLV C23 at 9.50 am on June 26. A 52-hour countdown has been planned, which would commence at 6 am on June 24," the ISRO official told PTI.

SPOT 7 is an Earth observing satellite, similar to Indian Remote Satellite System (IRSS), he said, adding four other satellites would also be launched on the same day.

This time around, ISRO would use the core-only edition of the launch vehicle PSLV, he said.
Asked if there would be any change in the date of launch, he said the date and time also depend on the availability of VIPs, if any, witnessing the launch.

The satellites would be integrated with the launch vehicle on June 16 and heat shield check would be performed on June 18.

Known for its expertise in launching PSLVs with smaller payloads up to 1,600 kg, the national space agency ISRO has earned a name in the space industry, attracting huge sum to the country as foreign exchange.


ISRO planning to launch French satellite SPOT 7 on June 26 | Business Standard
 

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