ISRO did a fine job with MOM, and bigger adventures now await!
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India's MOM going strong after 7 years in orbit
- The story: India’s Mars Orbiter spacecraft MOM has completed seven years in its orbit, well beyond its designed mission life of six months. ISRO has been monitoring it and the five scientific instruments, and scientific analysis of the data being received from MOM spacecraft is steadily in progress.
- The first one: MOM is the maiden interplanetary mission of ISRO. Launched on November 5, 2013, the probe was successfully inserted into Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 in its first attempt.
- MOM is primarily a technology demonstration venture and all the mission objectives were successfully met
- A key lesson was in the field of design and realisation of systems and subsystems, launch for interplanetary mission, insertion into other planet’s orbit, operation of the spacecraft and scientific instruments around Mars orbit
- ISRO is ready to take up future interplanetary missions.
- Age of the spacecraft: ISRO informed that the spacecraft’s health was reasonably good considering that it was in its seventh year, and the spacecraft is likely to have a mission life of probably another year. ISRO had made corrections after learning lessons from the Chandrayaan-1 venture, in terms of reconfiguring the spacecraft and optimisation of fuel management. Noting that Earth remote-sensing satellites typically have a mission life of seven to nine years, it's good that India could establish that around Mars also.
- Criticism: There has been criticism in some quarters that scientific output of the MOM was “low”. ISRO said that it was more of a technology-demonstration mission. Since at the time of launch the GSLV launcher was not available, hence the PSLV launcher was used, with a low payload. ISRO could apportion only about 15 kg for scientific instruments, and the time available for scientists to develop them was only 18-19 months.
- Martian years: ISRO said the spacecraft had covered three Martian years (one Martian year is about two earth years). ISRO was able to study the seasons on Mars much better.
- Summary: It is appreciable that India could prove its basic technology with the MOM. It is time for more missions, deeper into the space now.
- Knowledge centre:
- Man on Mars - Human missions to Mars have been long contemplated, and not executed so far. One day, man hopes to build colonies on Mars, and then terraform it, to suit human needs. Conceptual work for such missions has been on. In the 2010s, numerous US, European, and Asian agencies were developing proposals for human missions to Mars. The lowest energy transfer to Mars is a Hohmann transfer orbit, which would involve a roughly 9-month travel time from Earth to Mars, about 500 days at Mars to wait for the transfer window to Earth, and a travel time of about 9 months to return to Earth. Shorter Mars mission plans have round-trip flight times of 400 to 450 days, but would require significantly higher energy. A fast Mars mission of 245 days round trip could be possible with on-orbit staging. Elon Musk of SpaceX has ambitous plans to take man to Mars before 2030.
- ISRO launchers - Launchers are used to carry spacecraft to space. India has two operational launchers: Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). GSLV with indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage has enabled the launching up to 2 tonne class of communication satellites. The next variant of GSLV is GSLV Mk III, with indigenous high thrust cryogenic engine and stage, having the capability of launching 4 tonne class of communication satellites. The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, located in Thiruvananthapuram, is responsible for the design and development of launch vehicles. Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre and ISRO Propulsion Complex, located at Valiamala and Mahendragiri respectively, develop the liquid and cryogenic stages for these launch vehicles. The Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, is the space port of India and is responsible for integration of launchers.
- Planet Mars - Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun – a dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere. Mars is also a dynamic planet with seasons, polar ice caps, canyons, extinct volcanoes, and evidence that it was even more active in the past. It is one of the most explored bodies in the solar system, and the only planet where man sent rovers to roam the alien landscape. NASA currently has two rovers (Curiosity and Perseverance), one lander (InSight), and one helicopter (Ingenuity) exploring the surface of Mars. In May 2021, China became the second nation to ever land successfully on Mars when its Zhurong Mars rover touched down. Mars orbits Sun, as the fourth planet from it, at an average distance of about 228 million km or 1.52 AU. One day on Mars takes a little over 24 hours. Mars makes a complete orbit around the Sun (a year in Martian time) in 687 Earth days. Mars has a thin atmosphere made up mostly of carbon dioxide (CO2), argon (Ar), nitrogen (N2), and a small amount of oxygen and water vapour. Mars has two moons named Phobos and Deimos. Mars is known as the Red Planet because iron minerals in the Martian soil oxidize, or rust, causing the soil and atmosphere to look red.
- EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain the need for exploring planets like Mars. What benefits flow to humans on Earth, from such projects? (2) Speculate on how humans can colonise Mars, one day.
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