India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) craft has run out of propellant and its battery is drained beyond the safe limit, fuelling speculation that the country’s maiden interplanetary mission Mangalyaan may have finally completed its long innings.
Key points
- With fuel on board, ISRO had been performing orbital manoeuvres on MOM spacecraft to take it to a new orbit to avoid an impending eclipse in the past.
- The MOM functioned for almost eight years, well beyond its designed mission life of six months.
- In the meantime, on September, 27, 2022, ISRO had organized a one day National meeting to commemorate the Mars Orbiter Mission, on the event of completion of its eight years in the Martian orbit.
About MOM
- The Rs 450 crore Mars Orbiter Mission was launched onboard PSLV-C25 on November 5, 2013, and the MOM spacecraft was successfully inserted into the Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 in its first attempt.
- The MOM carried five scientific payloads (total 15 kg) collecting data on surface geology, morphology, atmospheric processes, surface temperature and atmospheric escape process.
- The five instruments are: Mars Color Camera (MCC), Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS), Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM), Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA) and Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP).
- MOM is credited with many achievements like cost-effectiveness, short period of realisation, economical mass-budget, and miniaturisation of five heterogeneous science payloads.
- Highly elliptical orbit geometry of MOM enabled MCC to take snap shots of ‘Full disc’ of Mars at its farthest point and finer details from closest point.
- The MCC has produced more than 1000 images and published a Mars Atlas.
