Mars Orbiter Spacecraft Successfully Inserted into Mars Orbit

India's Mars Orbiter Spacecraft successfully entered into an orbit around planet Mars today morning (September 24, 2014) by firing its 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) along with eight smaller liquid engines. This Liquid Engines firing operation which began at 07:17:32 Hrs IST lasted for 1388.67 seconds which changed the velocity of the spacecraft by 1099 metre/sec. With this operation, the spacecraft entered into an elliptical orbit around Mars. Honourable Prime Minister of India, Mr Narendra Modi, was present at ISRO's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore to witness this important event.

Other dignitaries who were present at ISTRAC include His Excellency Governor of Karnataka, Mr Vajubhai R Vala, Hon'ble Minister of Railways, Mr D V Sadananda Gowda, Hon'ble Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Mr Ananth Kumar, Hon'ble Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr Siddaramaiah, Hon'ble Minister of State (Space), Dr Jitendra Singh, Hon'ble Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Mr G M Siddeswara, Hon'ble Member of Parliament, Mr Prahlad V Joshi, Hon'ble Minister of Transport, Government of Karnataka, Mr Ramalinga Reddy and Hon'ble Member of Legislative Assembly, Government of Karnataka, Mr Muniraju S. Prof U R Rao, former chairman, ISRO and Prof Yash Pal, former director, Space Applications Centre, were also present.Mars is a terrestrial planet which means that its bulk composition, like Earth consists of silicates, is metals and other elements that typically make up rock. Also like Earth, Mars is a differentiated planet, meaning that it has a central core made up of metallic iron and nickel surrounded by a less dense silicate mantle and crust. The planet’s distinctive red colour is due to oxidation of iron on its surface.

The knowledge on type of minerals present in any planetary system provides the information on the conditions under which minerals are formed and process by which they are weathered. Much of what we know about the elemental composition of Mars comes from orbiting spacecraft and landers. Most of these spacecraft carry spectrometers (A spectrometer is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify materials) and other instruments to measure the surface composition of Mars.

Thermal Infrared Spectrometer payload on MOM

Mangalyaan carries a camera payload that acquires color images of planet Mars. MCC covers a spectral range of 400 to 700 nanometers – the visible spectrum. This tri-color Mars color camera gives images & information about the surface features and composition of Martian surface. They are useful to monitor the dynamic events and weather of Mars. MCC will also be used for probing the two satellites of Mars-Phobos & Deimos. It also provides the context information for other science payloads.

 Thermal Infrared Spectrometer is one of the five instruments on MOM. TIS  weighing 3.2 kg can measure the thermal emissions and can be operated during both day and night. Temperature and emissivity are the two basic physical parameters estimated from thermal emission measurement. The TIS instrument measures thermal emissions from the Martian surface to deduce surface composition and mineralogy.

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Martian Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser, MENCA payload weighing 3.56 kg, is a quadrupole mass spectrometer based scientific payload on MOM, capable of measuring relative abundances of neutral constituents,in the mass range of 1-300 amu .The core objective of MENCA is to study the exospheric neutral density and composition at altitudes as low as 372 kilometers above the Martian surface.The instrument examines radial,diurnal,and seasonal variations in the Martian exosphere.with Mangalyaan in its operational orbit, MENCA is to estimate the upper limits of the neutral density distribution and composition around mars.Studying Martian exosphere will provide valuable data on the present conditions.

Science goal
MENCA  would provide the first ever insitu measurement of the neutral composition  and density distribution of the Martian exosphere (atmosphere ~ 500 km and beyond from the Martian surface). 

Methane is an organic molecule present in gaseous form in the Earth’s atmosphere. More than 90% of Methane on our home planet is produced by living organisms. The recent detection of plumes of Methane in the northern hemisphere of Mars is of great interest because of its potential biological origin. Methane sensor for Mars is one of the scientific instruments of the payload on MOM spacecraft, MSM payload  weighing 2.94 kg is designed to measure amount of Methane of the order of parts per billion (ppbs) in martian atmosphere. MSM is a differential radiometer(radiometer is a device used to measure temperature of cosmic background) based on Fabry Perot Etalon (FPE) filters. MSM maps the source and sinks of Methane by scanning the full Martian disc from apogee position of Mars Orbiter.The field of Space technology has the potential to solve many of the Earth problems in the coming years. However, this exciting and fantastic field of Space science and technology is yet to be recognized and promoted in a big way in India among the students and public. This 3-day workshop is a step towards achieving that goal by giving exposure to this fantastic field and groom the future Space entrepreneuers.