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"The Mars Orbiter has crossed the distance
of moon's orbit around 8 a.m. and is now the farthest
object of India in the interplanetary space,"
said a senior ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation)
official.
As earth's only natural satellite, moon is around
384,400 km away and is the fifth largest of its
kind in the solar system.
Cruising at 32 km per second in the 680-million
km solar orbit, the Orbiter flew over the satellite,
crossing the path where India's moon craft Chandrayaan-1
orbited in 2008-09.
The spacecraft has cruised a distance of 536,000
km from earth by 5 p.m. Monday.
"The Orbiter is on course and cruising to
escape the earth's sphere of influence early Wednesday
(01.15 a.m.), which extends up to 918,347 km in
the deep space," Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO) director Deviprasad Karnik told IANS here.
Scientists at the Indian telemetry, tracking
and command network (Istrac) here and the Indian
Deep Space Network at Bylalu, about 40km from
Bangalore, are monitoring the spacecraft's movement
in the sun-synchronous orbit and checking its
subsystems.
"The Orbiter has crossed the rubicon never
to return, as it was freed from the earth's gravity
early Sunday and is on way for a rendezvous with
the red planet," Karnik said.
The craft was flung into outer space 1.11 a.m.
Dec 1 after its engine was fired for 22 minutes
for the crucial trans-Mars injection at a velocity
(speed) of 648 metres per second.
The deep space network will conduct the first
of the four mid-course corrections Dec 11 to ensure
the Orbiter stays on course in the sun orbit.
After a nine-month long journey, the spacecraft
will enter in mid-September 2014 the Mars sphere
of influence, which is around 573,473 km from
its surface, in a hyperbolic trajectory.
"When the spacecraft is closest to Mars
in mid-September, it will be captured into the
Martian orbit through a crucial manoeuvre,"
Karnik said.
Transition from the earth's final orbit to solar
orbit was programmed in line with sun's gravity
and laws of the universe to ensure the Orbiter
reaches precisely on time to sling into the Martian
orbit in mid-September.
The 1,337 kg Orbiter was launched Nov 5 from
Sriharikota spaceport off the Bay of Bengal, about
80 km north east of Chennai, on board a 350-tonne
rocket with five scientific instruments -- Mars
Colour Camera, Methane Sensor, Thermal Infrared
Imaging Spectrometer, Lyman Alpha Photometer,
and Mars exospheric Netural Composition Analyser.
India became the first Asian country and fourth
nation in the world to leap into the interplanetary
space with its Rs.450-crore exploratory mission
to Mars, about 400 million km from earth.
So far, only Russia, USA and the European Space
Agency (ESA) have undertaken such missions.
(IANS)
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