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SOURCE: TNN
At sharp 6.08am on Sunday just as the sun was rising over Sriharikota, the final 56-and-a-half-hour countdown for the much-awaited launch of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) started. The Rs 450-crore Mars mission, which has attracted worldwide interest, is slated for lift-off at 2.38pm on November 5 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. On November 1, Isro’s launch authorization board had given the final green signal for the launch of the MOM.
The nod was based on the flawless launch rehearsal on October 31. With just two days left for the lift- off, all systems on Sunday received a “go” for India’s date with the Red Planet. State-run Doordarshan will telecast the launch live from 2pm onwards on November 5.
The mission is in the last stages of readiness, with propellant being filled in the fourth and last phase of the rocket at 1.30pm.
Scientists at the spaceport told TOI that all the preparations are going on as per schedule. “The weather is fine and all parameters are just great for the launch,” an Indian Space Research Organisation official said.
India will be the sixth — after the US, Russia, China, Japan and the European Union—to launch a Mars mission. Once launched, thesatellite is expected to take more than 40 minutes to get injected into Earth’s orbit.
The orbiter will remain in Earth orbit till December 1 when it starts its 300-day voyage to Mars. It is expected to reach the orbit of the red planet on September 24, 2014, after traversing 400 million km. The two tracking ships of Shipping Corporation of India — SCI Nalanda and SCI Yamuna — have taken their positions in the South Pacific, off Fiji, for monitoring the mission. during the initial phases of the launch and the separation of the spacecraft from the fourth stage of the rocket.
ToI has learnt that scientists at the mission control centres of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the European Space Agency and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency will also monitor the launch. The official Facebook page of the mission, which was launched on October 22, has proved immensely popular and garnered nearly 20,000 hits so far. Isro completed filling of mixed oxides of nitrogen into the fourth stage of the launch vehicle. The final nod for the mission was given by the Launch Authorisation Board on November 1, after Isro completed its successful rehearsal on October 31.
The payload has five indigenous instruments that will look for, among other things, traces of methane and deuterium, signs of possible early life and water in Mars. Of the 51 such missions by the US and Russia/USSR, 21 have been successful.
“Orbiting Mars itself is a challenge,” said Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan. “This is our first interplanetary mission. There will be bigger missions later.” Fourteen days after the Indian mission, the US will be launching a similar Mars orbiter called Maven.
Nasa will provide earthly support to MOM
Nasa will help Isro with ground monitoring from three deep-space facilities after the launch. The American space agency will send its own probe, Maven, 13 days later. The American agency is under budget pressure and has faced cuts to proposed Mars missions in 2016 and 2018 despite having an overall objective, set by US President Barack Obama, of sending an astronaut there by 2030.
The United States is the only nation that has successfully sent robotic explorers to land on Mars, the most recent being Curiosity, a nearly one-tonne vehicle which touched down in August 2012. One of its discoveries appeared to undercut the purpose of the Indian mission after a study published in September revealed Curiosity detected only trace elements of methane in the Mars atmosphere
At sharp 6.08am on Sunday just as the sun was rising over Sriharikota, the final 56-and-a-half-hour countdown for the much-awaited launch of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) started. The Rs 450-crore Mars mission, which has attracted worldwide interest, is slated for lift-off at 2.38pm on November 5 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. On November 1, Isro’s launch authorization board had given the final green signal for the launch of the MOM.
The nod was based on the flawless launch rehearsal on October 31. With just two days left for the lift- off, all systems on Sunday received a “go” for India’s date with the Red Planet. State-run Doordarshan will telecast the launch live from 2pm onwards on November 5.
The mission is in the last stages of readiness, with propellant being filled in the fourth and last phase of the rocket at 1.30pm.
Scientists at the spaceport told TOI that all the preparations are going on as per schedule. “The weather is fine and all parameters are just great for the launch,” an Indian Space Research Organisation official said.
India will be the sixth — after the US, Russia, China, Japan and the European Union—to launch a Mars mission. Once launched, thesatellite is expected to take more than 40 minutes to get injected into Earth’s orbit.
The orbiter will remain in Earth orbit till December 1 when it starts its 300-day voyage to Mars. It is expected to reach the orbit of the red planet on September 24, 2014, after traversing 400 million km. The two tracking ships of Shipping Corporation of India — SCI Nalanda and SCI Yamuna — have taken their positions in the South Pacific, off Fiji, for monitoring the mission. during the initial phases of the launch and the separation of the spacecraft from the fourth stage of the rocket.
ToI has learnt that scientists at the mission control centres of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the European Space Agency and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency will also monitor the launch. The official Facebook page of the mission, which was launched on October 22, has proved immensely popular and garnered nearly 20,000 hits so far. Isro completed filling of mixed oxides of nitrogen into the fourth stage of the launch vehicle. The final nod for the mission was given by the Launch Authorisation Board on November 1, after Isro completed its successful rehearsal on October 31.
The payload has five indigenous instruments that will look for, among other things, traces of methane and deuterium, signs of possible early life and water in Mars. Of the 51 such missions by the US and Russia/USSR, 21 have been successful.
“Orbiting Mars itself is a challenge,” said Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan. “This is our first interplanetary mission. There will be bigger missions later.” Fourteen days after the Indian mission, the US will be launching a similar Mars orbiter called Maven.
Nasa will provide earthly support to MOM
Nasa will help Isro with ground monitoring from three deep-space facilities after the launch. The American space agency will send its own probe, Maven, 13 days later. The American agency is under budget pressure and has faced cuts to proposed Mars missions in 2016 and 2018 despite having an overall objective, set by US President Barack Obama, of sending an astronaut there by 2030.
The United States is the only nation that has successfully sent robotic explorers to land on Mars, the most recent being Curiosity, a nearly one-tonne vehicle which touched down in August 2012. One of its discoveries appeared to undercut the purpose of the Indian mission after a study published in September revealed Curiosity detected only trace elements of methane in the Mars atmosphere
