India to make history on Oct 28, Orbiter will leave for Mars

New Delhi: The 400-million kilometres, 299-day, Rs. 450-cr voyage to Mars, set to launch on October 28, is also a leap of faith for ISRO. The Mars Orbiter Mission, informally called Mangalyaan is a planned Mars orbiter to be launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The mission is a technology demonstrator project aiming to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission. The Mars orbiter mission probe will lift off from ISRO's launch site at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket. The launch window available is for about 20 days starting 28 October. This will be India's first mission to Mars. Ahead of the rollout of the spacecraft—the 1,343-kg main bus carrying the 15-kg Mars Orbiter—prayers were conducted for success and blessings were sought for the spacecraft. Over the next three weeks, as final checks are conducted, 852 kg of solid and liquid fuel is loaded for rocket engines, the spacecraft is integrated with the launch vehicle and the final countdown is started, a core group of 50 scientists will be at work 24/7. On 5 August 2013 ISRO started the assembly of the PSLV-XL designated C-25. ISRO completed the integration of the five scientific instruments at spacecraft checkout room at ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, and the finished spacecraft was shipped to Sriharikotta on 2 October 2013. The satellite's development was fast-tracked and completed in a record 15 months. The space agency will use its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket. The October–November 2013 launch will place Mangalyaan into Earth orbit, then six engine firings will raise that orbit to one with an apogee of 215,000 km and a perigee of 600 km, where it will remain for about 25 days. A final firing in 30 November 2013 will send Mangalyaan onto an interplanetary trajectory. Mars orbit insertion is planned for 21 September 2014 and would allow the spacecraft to enter a highly elliptical orbit of 500 km x 80,000 km around Mars. It will take 299 days for the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft to traverse the 400 million kilometres to reach an orbit around Mars for example. Every piece of communication that the spacecraft sends will have a 40-minute lag before it is received. The spacecraft's dry mass is planned to be 500 kg, and it will carry 850 kg of propellant and oxidiser. The main engine uses the bipropellant combination monomethylhydrazine and dinitrogen tetroxide for orbit insertion and other manoeuvres. The main objective of this first Indian mission to Mars is to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission, comprising the following major tasks. The US government shutdown has forced NASA to leave many of its tracking stations worldwide unmanned. ISRO is depending on NASA for tracking and orbital information in the non-visible period. If the shut down proceeds beyond ISRO's launch window the space craft will have to await a future launch window in 2015 or 2016.