India's Mars spacecraft leaves Earth's orbit, heads for the Red Planet

Roy Blanchard, Tech Times 03 December 2013, 05:12 pm

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said India's Mars spacecraft has left Earth's orbit and is now heading to the red planet.

"The critical manoeuvre to place India's Mars Orbiter Spacecraft in the Mars Transfer Trajectory was successfully carried out in the early hours of today (Sunday, December 1, 2013). During this manoeuvre, which began at 00:49 today, the spacecraft's 440 Newton liquid engine was fired for about 22 minutes providing a velocity increment of 648 meters/second to the spacecraft. Following the completion of this manoeuvre, the Earth orbiting phase of the spacecraft ended," per ISRO.

India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) still faces further hurdles on its journey to the red planet. Reports suggest that less than half of missions to Mars succeed. MOM's next big hurdle comes when it tries to enter Mars orbit. In 2003, Japan's Mars probe - Nozomi - was abandoned as the spacecraft developed electrical fault when trying to enter Mars' orbit.

"The spacecraft is now on a course to encounter Mars after a journey of about 10 months around the Sun," per ISRO.

India's Mars mission, also referred to as the Mangalyaan, has overtaken the efforts of China to send a spacecraft to the red planet. The success of the mission is very important to India as well as for ISRO and will put India in a select league of countries, which have successfully sent their spacecraft to Mars.

India's venture to Mars cost the government only 4.5 billion rupees (approximately $73 million), which is just over a tenth of the cost of NASA's Mars mission launched in November this year.

The Mars mission also showcases India's prowess in the global space market, which is worth over $304-billion and its success may enable India to get contracts to launch satellites for other countries in the near term.

ISRO also confirmed that the MOM will be constantly monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore along with help from the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennae at Byalalu.