On Its First Birthday, Mangalyaan Flaunts Stunning Images of Mars (updated)

PARIKRAMA · Sep 24, 2015

On Its First Birthday, Mangalyaan Flaunts Stunning Images of Mars
All India | Written by Pallava Bagla | Updated: September 24, 2015 16:15 IST

Images of Mars have been taken by the colour camera on board Mangalyaan

NEW DELHI: Mangalyaan, India's maiden mission to Mars, completed a year in space today and as part of the first anniversary celebrations, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched a 'Mars Atlas' in Bengaluru.

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Celebrating one year of Mars Orbiter Mission in Orbit; Release of Mars Atlas - See more at: http://www.isro.gov.in/pslv-c25-mars-orbiter-mission/celebrating-one-year-of-mars-orbiter-mission-orbit-release-of-mars …

11:06 AM - 24 Sep 2015

The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has sent back some stunning images of the Red Planet including the best collection of the full disc of Mars and charted the highest volcanoes and deepest valleys of the Solar System.

Over 100 images from a collection of 350 acquired by the Mars Colour Camera on the spacecraft have been compiled in a form of a scientific atlas.

The atlas contains over 100 images.

These images and the data sent by the mission will help to unlock the mystery of the Red Planet.

According to the ISRO, "the knowledge acquired by the analysis of the data suggests enhanced possibility of the presence of life on this now dry and dusty planet."

This possibly refers to the Mangalyaan recording signals of the presence of methane gas in the Martian atmosphere.

The signals still need to be scientifically validated and hence we will have to wait for final confirmation if India's low cost mission will rewrite history of life as we know it in the universe.

According to ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar, the space organization will also release a book 'Fishing hamlet to Mars' on November 5.

"Mars (mission) is expected to last for many years now, because it has gone through solar conjunction also; so we don't see much of a problem," Mr Kumar added.

Scripting space history, India on September 24, 2014, had successfully placed its low-cost Mars spacecraft in orbit around the Red Planet on its very first attempt, breaking into an elite club of three nations.
Story First Published: September 24, 2015 15:57 IST

On Its First Birthday, Mangalyaan Flaunts Stunning Images of Mars

PARIKRAMA · Sep 24, 2015

Celebrating one year of Mars Orbiter Mission in Orbit; Release of Mars Atlas
Mars Orbiter spacecraft marks one year of its life around the red planet today. After successfully completing one year of the mission life around Mars, now a large data set has been acquired by all five payloads of MOM. On this occasion Space Applications Centre, (ISRO), Ahmedabad has brought out a Mar Atlas which contains a compilation of images acquired by Mars Colour Camera (MCC) and results obtained by other payload results in a form of scientific atlas.

Shri A S Kiran Kumar, Chairman ISRO (centre) releasing the Mars Atlas with Dr. Y V N Krishnamoorthy, Scientific Secretary ISRO (left); Dr. Annadurai M, Director ISRO Satellite Centre, Shri Tapan Misra, Director Space Application Centre ISRO, Shri Deviprasad Karnik, Director Public Relations Unit ISRO

The images from MCC have provided unique information about Mars at varying spatial resolutions. It has obtained Mars Global data showing clouds, dust in atmosphere and surface albedo variations, when acquired from apoapsis at around 72000 km. On the other hand high resolution images acquired from periapsis show details of various morphological features on the surface of Mars. Some of these images have been showcased in this atlas. The images have been categorized depending upon the Martian surface and atmospheric processes.

Mars is one of the closest celestial objects to the Earth and it has attracted humans towards itself since the time immemorial. A large number of unmanned orbiters, landers and rovers have been launched to reach Mars since early 1960s. These missions had provided large amount of data on various scientific aspects of the Mars. The knowledge acquired by the analysis of these data, suggested enhanced possibility of the presence of life, on this now dry and dusty planet. India has joined the club of space faring nations to explore Mars by sending its first planetary mission called, Mars Orbiter Mission or popularly known as MOM. The MOM spacecraft was designed, built and launched in record period of less than two years. MOM carried five science instruments collecting data on surface geology, morphology, atmospheric processes, surface temperature and atmospheric escape process.

Celebrating one year of Mars Orbiter Mission in Orbit; Release of Mars Atlas - ISRO