BENGALURU: Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) maiden mission to Mars — the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) or Mangalyaan — when it entered Martian orbit on September 24, 2014, was expected to have a mission life for about six months. Four years hence, Mars Orbiter, the cheapest inter-planetary mission ever, is still in its orbit around the red planet, achieving several firsts and relaying crucial data related to its atmosphere, mineralogy and other aspects.
The first inter-planetary mission by India — which, at `450 crore, famously cost less than the 2014 sci-fi hit Gravity — has helped in acquiring around a thousand images of the key features of the Martian landscape, apart from other data, using five miniaturised science payloads.
According to ISRO, the two moons of the planet — Phobos and Deimos — were also imaged using the on-board Mars Colour Camera, and “MOM is the only Martian artificial satellite which could image the full disc of Mars in one view frame and also image the far side of Deimos”, according to ISRO.
When MOM was launched aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C25), India became the fifth country to launch a Mars mission. However, none of them, USA, Russia, China or the European Union had succeeded in their first attempt, a feat achieved by ISRO’s MOM.
“MOM is credited with many laurels like cost-effectiveness, short period of realisation, economical weight-budget, miniaturisation of five heterogeneous science payloads, etc. The satellite is in good health and continues to work as expected.
Two years of science data collected by the Orbiter was released to the public via Indian Space Science Data Center (ISSDC). Third year data is now ready to be released to the public.