It has been one year since “Mars got its MOMâ€.
By Dileep Thekkethil
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India’s maiden inter-planetary mission, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) — dubbed “Mangalyaan†— has successfully completed 356 days in the Martian orbit, marking the significant day by sending stunning images of Earth’s close cousin.
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Thursday released a Mars Atlas, which is a compilation of the images taken with Mars Color Camera. The stunning images sent by MOM include the full disc of the red planet along with its biggest volcano and deep valleys.
According to the official statement of ISRO, the Mars atlas is a collage of over 100 images selected from over 350 shots taken by the Mars Color Camera.
The other payloads sent along with Mangalyaan have obtained Mars global data showing clouds, dust in atmosphere and surface albedo variations.
ISRO added that the high-resolution images sent have details of various morphological features of the surface of Mars.
Like any normal atlas, the Mars atlas also has images arranged according to the Martian surface and atmospheric processes.
The success of India’s maiden mission to mars was a subject of intense discussion not only because of the heights achieved by ISRO but also for the cost effective method used to put the mission on martian orbit.
ISRO also confirmed that the spacecraft has many more years of life as it still has over 35Kg of fuel left in its belly.
On November 5, ISRO will launch a book named “Fishing Hamlet to Mars” to mark the anniversary of the successful Mars Orbiter Mission launch, which gave a fillip to Indian space technology.
Mars has always been a curious planet because of its close proximity to the earth and the fact that life once existed there.
Mangalyaan was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, on November 5, 2013, using PSLV launcher. The spacecraft spent one month orbiting the earth later to be moved into a heliocentric trajectory toward Mars after undergoing a series of earthbound maneuvers.
Mangalyaan reached the Martian orbit on September 24 as scheduled and India became the first Asian country to successfully complete its maiden Mars mission.
The main objective of Mangalyaan mission is to showcase that India has the capability to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission. Mission Mangalyaan was successfully completed for a budget of $70 million, less than the budget of the Hollywood movie “Gravity.”