Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

The Mangalyaan satellite was confirmed to be in orbit shortly after 0800, Indian time. It is, without doubt, a considerable achievement. This is a mission that has been budgeted at 4.5bn rupees ($74m), which, by Western standards, is staggeringly cheap. The American Maven orbiter that arrived at the Red Planet on Monday is costing almost 10 times as much. Back in June, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi even quipped that India's real-life Martian adventure was costing less than the make-believe Hollywood film Gravity. Even Bollywood sci-fi movies like Ra.One cost a good chunk of what it has taken to get Mangalyaan to Mars. So how has India done it? For sure, people costs are less in this populous nation, and the scientists and engineers working on any space mission are always the largest part of the ticket price. Home-grown components and technologies have also been prioritised over expensive foreign imports. But, in addition, India has been careful to do th

ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission ( Image credits- Wikimedia commons/ Author) India’s  Mars Orbiter Mission  (MOM), more commonly known by the Hindi nickname Mangalyaan (meaning Mars-craft), reached Mars early Wednesday (Indian Standard Time). The probe went into orbit around Mars after it was  captured by Mars’ gravity  around 7:41 a.m. This marks the end of the spacecraft’s ten month journey, which began with its launch on November 5, 2013. Mangalyaan’s success makes India only the  fourth entity  to put a spacecraft in Mars’ orbit, after the United States, the Soviet Union, and the European Space Agency. India is the  first Asian country  to successfully place a spacecraft in orbit around Mars, and the first country anywhere to do so on its first attempt. A  previous Chinese attempt  to reach Mars failed in 2011. While Mangalyaan’s primary purpose was to serve as a demonstration that India could indeed reach Mars, it will also carry out valuable scientific research. It  contains  

MOM in the Mars orbit.Congrats India, congrats ISRO. We are all proud of you

India’s MOM spacecraft arrives at Mars | NASASpaceFlight.com

Mars Orbiter Mission ( Image credits- ISRO) The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched its maiden mission to Mars – the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) – on November 5, 2013. This mission is expected to reach the ‘Red Planet’ on September 24, 2014 after a ten month long space journey. Currently, the MOM is travelling at a speed of 22 km/second. After reaching close vicinity of Mars, this speed needs to be reduced significantly to make a correct entry into the planet’s orbit. The biggest challenge of this mission will be faced by the on September 24, when the on-board liquid engine would require restarting. This engine has been in sleep mode since December 1, 2013. The challenge is significant because there is no information as to what kind of space weather and radiation the MOM has experienced during its long travel and how much of impact the spacecraft has taken. ISRO has announced that on September 22, 2014, about two days before the crucial orbit insertion, it woul

Mars Orbiter Mission (Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Author- Nesnad The 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) of India's Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, last fired on December 01, 2013, was successfully fired for a duration of 3.968 seconds at 1430 hrs IST today (September 22, 2014). This operation of the spacecraft's main liquid engine was also used for the spacecraft's trajectory correction and changed its velocity by 2.18 metre/second. With this successful test firing, Mars Orbiter Insertion (MOI) operation of the spacecraft is scheduled to be performed on the morning of September 24, 2014 at 07:17:32 hrs IST by firing the LAM along with eight smaller liquid engines for a duration of about 24 minutes. Original link to the press release:  http://www.isro.org/pressrelease/scripts/pressreleasein.aspx?Sep22_2014