Mars Orbiter Mission

Mars Oribter Mission "MOM" , an interplanetary mission conducted by ISRO. The mission was launched on November 5, 2013. MOM is the cheapest mission to mars till date. This took India to a different level in space technology. The orbiter was launched by PSLV-C25, and got into Martian orbit on september 24, 2014 on its first attempt which was another great achievement by ISRO.

MOM went through a communication 'blackout' as a result of solar conjunction from June 2, 2015 to July 2, 2015. Telemetry data was received during most of the conjunction period except for 9 days from June 10-18, during superior conjunction. MOM was commanded with autonomy features starting from May 18, 2015, which enabled it to survive the communication 'blackout' period without any ground commands or intervention. The spacecraft emerged out of 'blackout' period with auto control of the spacecraft systems successfully. This experience had enabled the mission team to program a spacecraft about one month in advance for all operations.The mission was watched not only in India but whole world had an eye on it. When the orbiter came out of solar conjuction the mission was praised by many scientists and space organisation taking ISRO a step ahead in space.

MOM spacecraft experienced the ‘whiteout’ geometry during May 18 to May 30, 2016. A ‘whiteout’ occurs when the Earth is between the Sun and Mars and too much solar radiation may make it impossible to communicate with the Earth.

MOM is built with full autonomy to take care of itself for long periods without any ground intervention.Master Recovery Sequencer was programmed, to acquire the attitude of the spacecraft and ensure communication with earth even in case of loss of attitude. The spacecraft came out of ‘whiteout’ geometry successfully on May 30, 2016and has been normalised for regular operations.

Informations that MOM can collect:-

• Atmospheric informations.

• Particle environment informations.

• Surface imaging.

Appreciations:-

• China referred to India's successful Mars Orbiter Mission as the "Pride of Asia".

• The Mars Orbiter Mission team won US-basedNational Space Society's 2015Space Pioneer Awardin the science and engineering category.

• An illustration of the Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft is featured on the reverse of the₹2000 currency noteof India.

• An image taken by the Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft was the cover photo of the November 2016 issue ofNational Geographicmagazine, for their story "Mars: Race to the Red Planet".

There are many more upcoming missions by ISRO which will take space technology of India to a new level. Already ISRO has achieved many milestone in recent launches.