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India's Rs.450 crore (about $72.9 million) Mars
orbiter was successfully placed in orbit by an
Indian rocket in what scientists said was a flawless
launch.
Exactly at 2.38 p.m., the Indian-made rocket
- Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C25 (PSLV-C25)
standing around 44 metres tall and weighing around
320 tonnes - rose from its launching pad slowly,
and then gathered speed as it zoomed into the
skies on a plume of fiery orange flames.
The expendable rocket, costing around Rs.110
crore had a single but important luggage, the
1,340-kg Mars orbiter costing around Rs.150 crore.
Around Rs.90 crore has been spent on augmenting
the ground support/tracking systems.
The orbiter now heads to the red planet that
gets its red hue from the iron in its soil. Named
after the ancient Roman god of war, Mars is the
fourth planet from the Sun and the planet closest
to Earth. NASA says Mars is about one-sixth the
size of Earth.
Its scientific mission will be to explore the
Mars surface features, morphology, or the study
of organisms, mineralogy, the study of minerals,
and Martian atmosphere by all Indian-made scientific
instruments.
India began its space journey way back in 1975
with the launch of Aryabhatta, using a Russian
rocket and, till date, it has accomplished over
100 space missions.
In 2008, India expanded its space explorations
with its maiden Moon mission - Chandrayaan-1.
The mission led to the discovery of water on the
Moon. The country is planning another Moon mission
in two years' time.
According to Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO) officials, the Mars orbiter will orbit
the Earth till Nov 30 and then its motors will
be fired to push it towards the red planet.
For nearly 300 days the motor will be off while
the spacecraft floats through the inky void towards
Mars. When the spacecraft nears Mars, the motors
will be restarted and fired again to carry out
maneuvers to put it in Martian orbit around September
2014.
Following that, the on-board instruments would
carry out their jobs.
The Mars mission blasted off from the first launch
pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, around
80 km from Chennai.
At around 44 minutes into the flight, PSLV-C25
spat out the Mars orbiter.
On the successful ejection, scientists at the
mission control centre were visibly relieved and
started clapping happily while the tracking systems
began their work.
Minutes after its launch, Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh in a tweet congratulated ISRO scientists
for "successful initiation of Mars Mission
and wishes for its successful future".
President Pranab Mukherjee described it as "a
landmark in our space programme".
"Now it will be complex mission to take
the Mars orbiter from the Earth's orbit to Mars
orbit," K. Radhakrishnan, ISRO chairman,
said post launch.
According to him, in September 2014 the orbiter
will be around Mars and it will then be placed
in Mars orbit.
The entire launch duration was full of suspense.
Unlike the normal PSLV missions that ended around
18 minutes into the flight, the Mars Orbiter Mission
took 44 minutes.
The suspense was heightened as the rocket had
a long coasting period of around 25 minutes between
the third stage/engine burn-out and the ignition
of the fourth and final stage.
As missing the launch would have set back the
mission at least by two more years, ISRO officials
did not leave out anything to chance, including
the weather forecast.
"As the launch was during northeast monsoon
season, we enhanced our weather/cyclone forecasting
techniques to 10 days. The preparatory work for
the Mars mission while dismantling of the GSLV
(geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle) rocket
after the mission was aborted this year posed
a challenge for us," M.Y.S. Prasad, director,
Satish Dhawan Space Centre and chairman, Launch
Authorisation Board, told IANS.
U.R.Rao, a former Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO) head, said the country can afford the spend.
"India spends around Rs.5,000 crore on Diwali
purchases and Rs.450 crore to reach Mars is affordable,"
he said.
The objectives of ISRO's Mars mission are two
fold - technological and scientific.
The technological objectives include design and
realisation of Mars orbiter with a capability
to survive and perform Earth-bound manoeuvres,
cruise phase of 300 days, Mars orbit insertion/capture,
and on-orbit phase around Mars.
It will also enable deep space communication,
navigation, mission planning and management and
incorporate autonomous features to handle contingency
situations.
(IANS)
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