HATS OFF ! TO THEM WHO MADE US PROUD TO BE AN INDIAN.. AGAIN...
India's maiden mission to
Mars, the Mangalyaan, has arrived in orbit after a 300-day marathon
covering over 670 million kilometres (420 million miles). Science writer
Pallava Bagla traced its journey as it neared the Red Planet.
On the morning of 24 September, the Indian Space Research
Organisation (Isro) slowed down the spacecraft sufficiently so it could
be caught in the orbit of Mars.
"India will become the first Asian country to have achieved
this and if it happens in the maiden attempt itself, India could become
the first country in the world to have reached distant Mars on its own
steam in the first attempt,"said Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan as it
approached.
Both Russia and the US failed in their maiden attempts. The
first Chinese mission to Mars, called Yinghuo-1, failed in 2011
alongside the Russian Phobos-Grunt mission with which it was launched.
Earlier in 1998, the Japanese mission to Mars ran out of fuel and was
lost.
Undoubtedly, India - a late starter - is way ahead of its Asian rivals in trying to get to the Red Planet.
"We are really not racing with anyone, but with ourselves to reach the next level of excellence,"said Mr Radhakrishnan.
'Pink of health'
India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) - an indigenously made
unmanned robotic mission weighing 1,350kg (2,976lb) - was launched from
the rocket port at Sriharikota on the coast of the Bay of Bengal on a
balmy afternoon on 5 November last year.
Since then, the mission "has been in the pink of health",
says Isro, and has been cruising at breakneck speed to reach close to
Mars, half-way around the Sun.
The 4.5bn rupee ($74m; £45m)
mission is, as Mr Radhakrishnan says, "the cheapest inter-planetary
mission ever to be undertaken by the world".
On his visit to India's rocket port on 30 June, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi said: "The [making of the] Hollywood movie
Gravity cost more than our Mars mission - this is a great achievement."
India's low-cost and quick turnaround satellite mission has
been attracting a lot of global attention from the scientific community
that seeks to better understand the mysterious Mars.
On the morning of 24 September Indian time, Isro re-oriented
Mangalyaan and fired its on-board rocket motor for about 24 minutes to
slow the spacecraft.
It was a very tricky operation - if it did not slow down
sufficiently, it would have missed being caught by the gravity of Mars
and the mission could have be lost in outer space; but if the rocket
engine had fired more than required it could have slowed the Mangalyaan
so much that it risked crashing down on to the red soil of Mars.
Since 1960, there have been 51 global missions to Mars and
the overall success rate stands at 42% so the odds were loaded against
the Indian Martian entry.
M Annadurai, head of the Indian Mars mission, said he was
"confident that the laws of physics will favour India and the country
could have its first robotic Martian baby soon".
'Delusional dream?'
Isro dubs the mission a "technology demonstrator", essentially
showcasing to the world that India is no longer a country of snake
charmers but a high-tech hub that has developed its technology against
the odds and stringent sanctions.
The mission also makes a big global geo-political statement ahead of Mr Modi's imminent visit to the US.
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