Mars mission

About Mars Mission

Photo of Mars Mission

ISRO originally intended to launch Mangalyaan on their Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket instead of the only roughly half-as-powerful Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). As with most Mars missions, a GSLV rocket could’ve boosted Mangalyaan out of Earth orbit and onto an interplanetary trajectory to the Red Planet. But the rocket suffered two failures in 2010, just as Mangalyaan was being conceptualized.

Fixing the identified issues in the rocket’s design and preparing for another launch could have taken at least three years, placing it close to the time-sensitive November 2013 launch window for Mars. The next launch opportunity was in 2016, so ISRO decided to launch Mangalyaan on a PSLV rocket in 2013 instead.

However, the PSLV could only place Mangalyaan in a highly elliptical Earth orbit. It would be the spacecraft’s job to fire its engines at precise points in each orbit multiple times over the next few weeks to set itself on a trajectory to Mars, or it would miss the planet entirely. The trajectory design was highly unusual for a Mars mission but it worked. Once the spacecraft arrived at the Red Planet roughly 300 days later, it fired its engines again and successfully entered Mars orbit.

Mars Misssion

Launch Date, Nov 05, 2013

Mangalyaan: Mangalyaan, or India's Mars Orbiter Mission(MOM), was India's first interplanetary mission. Launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO), the Mangalyaan mission not only made ISRO the fourth agency to put a mission on Mars' orbit but also made India the first Asian country to reach the orbit of Mars.

The Mangalyaan mission also made India the first country to reach Martian orbit on its first attempt. The Mangalyaan mission brought several laurels to India and strengthened the Indian Space Research Organisation's position amongst the global space agencies, including the American NASA and Russian Roscosmos.

Launched in 2013, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan, was India’s first interplanetary mission and the first time that any country successfully reached Martian orbit on the first try read more.

Highlights of Mission

November 5, 2013

The mission was first announced by the then ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair in November 2008. A feasibility study was conducted in 2010 and governmental approval came in 2012.
Launch vehicle: PSLV-C25
Time: 9:50 AM; Date: 5 November 2013 (launch into earth’s orbit)
Launch mass: 1337 kg: Power of the spacecraft: 840 W
The mission was planned to last 6 months. Now, 3 years have elapsed since the mission was launched.
The mission entered Mars orbit on 24 September 2014.

Mangalyaan, India’s first Mars mission