BANGALORE, Nov 4:
The stage is all set for India’s most ambitious space mission, the ‘Mission Orbiter Mars’ (MOM), the first inter-planetary mission by ISRO, which will be launched from its spaceport in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh tomorrow afternoon.
The countdown for the Rs 460-crore mission, which will put India among the select space fairing nations, began yesterday and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today completed filling of liquid fuel into the second stage of PSLV-C25, the larger version of its workhorse launch vehicle that will put the satellite on the Earth’s orbit.
The launch is expected to take place at 14:36 hrs tomorrow and the countdown was progressing smoothly. The entire think tank including top officials of the space agency are in Sriharikota, a crescent shaped island overlooking Bay of Bengal close to the Chennai metropolis.
Unlike other PSLV launches that put Indian satellites restricted to the Moon and Earth Stationary orbits, MOM is expected to take a longer time of more than 40 minutes to get injected into Earth’s orbit. To enable this, the ISRO is using the extra powerful C25 rocket with four strap on motors, the technology which it has already demonstrated.
India will be among the select US, Russia, China, Japan and European Union that have so far launched the inter-planetary mission.
In its standard configuration, this PSLV-C25 will measures 44.4 m tall, with a lift off weight of 295 tonnes.
The orbiter will remain in Earth’s orbit till December 1 and start 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.
Meanwhile, sources said the satellite will be tracked after it leaves the Earth’s orbit by NASA, which would be supporting the mission during its initial voyage. Then it will be taken over by ISRO scientists at Baylalu the agency’s Deep Space Network Station (IDSN) near Bangalore until the spacecraft reaches Martian orbit.
The orbiter will remain in Earth orbit till December one, when it starts its 300-day voyage to Mars.
The space craft would also, initially, monitored by two tracking ships of Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) Nalanda and SCI Yamuna, which have taken their positions in the South Pacific, off Fiji, for monitoring the mission.
The satellite has been kept light in view of the longer travel to Mars. The payload that weights just 515 kg. The five indigenous
instruments that will look for, among other things, traces of methane and deuterium, signs of possible early life and water in Mars.
(UNI)
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