India's Mars Mission hits first hurdle

[Hafizzz]

@Hafizzz Are you sad that I posted this early before you post it?

why would I be sad ?

 

[President]

It's failed already. How sad :'( This really is quite shameful for us.

false flagger !!

 

[Abingdonboy]

But unfortunately more fuel would be spent to raise the orbit. They require this for mid course corrections and for putting it into precise orbit around Mars.

Not an issue bro:

Mr Bagla told BBC News that the attempt on Monday morning used up about 2kg of the craft's 852kg fuel load.
But he added that the spacecraft's insertion into Earth orbit after launch on 5 November had been so precise, 6kg of liquid fuel had been saved. Even with Monday's glitch, the mission still had a fuel surplus of 4kg.

 

[ranjeet]

It's failed already. How sad :'( This really is quite shameful for us.

Oh come on man it's not like Sachin's Century jinx that India would loose !!!

 

[Trev]

Why are Pakistanis and Chinese so desperate for India too fail? Its the hate for us that burns inside of them, they are obsessed.

 

[HunterKiller]

The Mars Orbiter Mission, known as "Mangalyaan" in India, was announced only 15 months ago by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, shortly after China's attempt flopped when it failed to leave Earth's atmosphere.

Now I don't get it why every news report includes this un-necessary statement...
I have been following Mars mission for months and have seen this statement in almost every report...
Sick and Lame Journalism ....

 

[Cyberian]

Why are Pakistanis and Chinese so desperate for India too fail? Its the hate for us that burns inside of them, they are obsessed.

SUPARCO is wishing India and ISRO all the best on this mission.

 

[Cyberian]

 

Now I don't get it why every news report includes this un-necessary statement...
I have been following Mars mission for months and have seen this statement in almost every report...
Sick and Lame Journalism ....

A certain country wishes to use your country against your bigger neighbour.

 

[Guynextdoor2]

SUPARCO is wishing India and ISRO all the best on this mission.

I actually feel sad for Suparco. At a personal level I'd feel that anything that Abdus Salam was associated with should never be..well...'doddering' a lot. Does grave injustice to him.

 

[Gessler]

The PS3 stage of the rocket gave some over-performance during initial launch from SHAR.

That over-performance saved 6kg of fuel on MOM. So the 2kg of fuel "wasted" in the
latest ORM isn't anything to worry about. The satellite still has 4kg of unexpected
surplus fuel, in addition to the planned-for reserve fuel in the tank.

 

[Cyberian]

I actually feel sad for Suparco. At a personal level I'd feel that anything that Abdus Salam was associated with should never be..well...'doddering' a lot. Does grave injustice to him.

I have no respect for Abdus Salam. He did not own SUPARCO. He just happened to be one of the top scientist at that time and the dictator awarded him accordingly. To me he's just a kafir.

SUPARCO as an agency will only move forward when hundreds of millions of dollars are pumped into it year-after-year.

 

[joekrish]

I wish them luck and hope they come out with flying colours.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

There should be enough leeway left to save the mission.

 

[Chronos]

There should be enough leeway left to save the mission.

Are you a Chinese poster? 

I actually feel sad for Suparco. At a personal level I'd feel that anything that Abdus Salam was associated with should never be..well...'doddering' a lot. Does grave injustice to him.

Well a lot of people even in Pakistan consider him a Kafir.

I think they dishonored his memory well enough.

 

[SR-91]

Everything is under control, says ISRO!!!!!!!

The fourth firing of the propulsion system of the Mars spacecraft on Monday morning was among the six exercises planned by the ISRO and aimed at achieving an apogee of 1.92 lakh by the fifth move, scheduled for November 16.

The craft must leave the Earth orbit on November 30/December 1 if it has to meet Mars as planned for mid-September next year.

The release said the spacecraft was in good health and its apogee had been moved to 78,276 km now.

The other point or perigee remains at nearly 250 km from Earth.

In the latest engine burn, the ISTRAC team managed to impart an incremental velocity of 35 metres/second as against the required 130 m/second.

The ISRO described the performance shortfall as part of ongoing trials that its scientists performed to ensure all systems would be in order later during the orbiter’s long journey to Mars.

‘No reason to panic’

An official involved in the building of the Mars spacecraft said, “Everything is safe and under control. There is no reason for panic.”

ISRO scientists explained to The Hindu that the 440-Newton engine onboard is equipped with a primary and a redundant electrical coil that enable the fuel and the oxidiser to flow through two valves of the spacecraft.

During the firing on Monday morning, the team was trying to use both the primary and the redundant coils together as part of a trial. However, there was no fuel flow in this mode and the orbiter could not pick up the required velocity or reach the desired higher orbit.

Meanwhile, the time slot for firing the engine had expired as the spacecraft had moved away.

A senior engineer involved in the process said, “Both the coils are working independently (but not if they are switched on together.) Tomorrow we will use the primary coil (as they did on November 7, 8 and 9.) It’s a very minor issue. We are confident that we will overcome it.”

He explained: “In the last three firings we operated only the primary coil. Today we wanted to conduct a trial. We first operated the primary coil and the redundant coil later, and both worked independently. We then switched on both together in the test firing today but the system did not work in that mode. So we went back to using them separately and they worked well.”

The release said, “In the fourth orbit-raising operation conducted on November 11, the apogee (the farthest point to Earth) of the Mars Orbiter spacecraft was raised from 71,623 km to 78,276 km by imparting an incremental velocity of 35 metres/second (as against 130 m/second originally planned to raise the apogee to about 1,00,000 km). The spacecraft is in normal health. A supplementary orbit-raising operation is planned tomorrow (November 12) at 0500 hrs.”