Happy birthday Mangalyaan! India’s Mars Mission turns one

India’s low-cost Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), which put the country in club of three elite nations, turned one today. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) marked the day by releasing Mars Atlas in Bengaluru.

The Mars Atlas contains a compilation of images acquired by Mars Colour Camera (MCC) and results obtained by other payload in a form of scientific atlas.

ISRO will also unveil a, 'Fishing hamlto Mars', on November 5.

India scripted space history when it successfully placed its Mars spacecraft in orbit around the Red Planet on its very first attempt.
The space probe entered the Mars orbit on September 24, almost a year after its launch.

Out of 51, only 21 missions sent to Mars by various countries have been successful before MOM.

The Mars mission of the ISRO is aimed at establishing the country's capability to reach the red planet and focus on looking for the presence of methane, an indicator of life in Mars.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had termed it as “historic occasion”, saying the country has achieved the "near impossible".

Recently, ISRO chairman AS Kiran Kumar had said that the life of the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft can last "many years". Earlier, the mission was intended for only six months and later extended for another six months in March this year.

"Mars (mission) is expected to last for many years now, because it has gone through solar conjunction also; so we don't see much of a problem," ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar had said, adding “we had planned it only for six months. Then we were not expecting so much fuel to remain after we completed our insertion activity.”

According to Kumar, about 35 kg of fuel was still left and "all other subsystems are working fine and so far we have not had any failures".

Meanwhile, former Chairman of ISRO Dr K Radhakrishnan, during whose tenure the mission was accomplished, has listed out the five contributing factors for the success of MOM.

He said learning from others' failures, the team's preparedness for contingencies, rigorous execution, thorough feasibility study leading to a robust mission planning, and resolve to contribute might for national pride- have contributed for the success.

The Rs 450-crore Mangalyaan is the cheapest inter-planetary mission that, at just USD 74 million, costs less than the estimated USD 100 million budget of the sci-fi blockbuster ‘Gravity’.

ISRO had launched the Mars Orbiter Mission's spacecraft on its nine-month long odyssey on a homegrown PSLV rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on November 5, 2013, and it had escaped the earth's gravitational field on December 1, 2013.

(Image: ISRO)