The Mars Orbiter Mission: Step Towards Elite League: Civil Services Mentor Magazine - January 2014

THE MARS ORBITER MISSION: STEP TOWARDS ELITE LEAGUE

India’s First Interplanetary Mission

The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), informally called Mangalyaan is a Mars orbiter launched into Earth orbit on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The 1,337 Kilogram spacecraft carries a suite of five instruments to study Mars, its atmosphere and acquire photos of the Red Planet. The mission is a “technology demonstrator” project aiming to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission. The Mars Orbiter Mission probe lifted-off from the First Launch Pad at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh near Chennai, using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket C25 at 09:08 UTC (2:38 PM IST) on 5 November 2013.The launch window was approximately 20 days long and started on 28 October 2013.The MOM probe spent about a month in Earth orbit, where it made a series of seven altitude-raising orbital maneuvers before trans-Mars injection.

It is India’s first interplanetary mission and, now ISRO has become the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after the Soviet space program, NASA, and European Space Agency. The spacecraft is being currently monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennae at Byalalu.

Background

The MOM mission concept began with a feasibility study in 2010, after the launch of lunar satellite Chandrayaan-1 in 2008. The government of India approved the project on 3 August 2012, after the Indian Space Research Organisation completed 125 crore (US$19 million) of required studies for the orbiter. The total project cost may be up to 454 crore (US$69 million). The satellite costs 153 crore (US$23 million) and the rest of the budget has been attributed to ground stations and relay upgrades that will be used for other ISRO projects.

The space agency had initially planned the launch on 28 October 2013 but was postponed to 5 November 2013 following the inability of ISRO’s spacecraft tracking ships to take up pre-determined positions due to poor weather in the Pacific Ocean. Launch opportunities for a fuel-saving Hohmann transfer orbit occur about every 26 months, in this case, 2016 and 2018. The Mars Orbiter’s on-orbit mission life will be between six and ten months.

Assembly of the PSLV-XL launch vehicle, designated C25, started on 5 August 2013. The mounting of the five scientific instruments was completed at ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, and the finished spacecraft was shipped to Sriharikota on 2 October 2013 for integration to the PSLV-XL launch vehicle. The satellite’s development was fast-tracked and completed in a record 15 months. Despite the U.S. federal government shutdown, NASA reaffirmed on 5 October 2013 it would provide communications and navigation support to the mission. ISRO chairman stated in  November 2013 that if the MOM and NASA’s orbiter MAVEN were successful, they would complement each other in findings and help understand Mars better.

P. Kunhikrishnan was the PSLVXL spacecraft launch Mission Director. Mylswamy Annadurai is the Program Director and Subbiah Arunan is the Project Director. S. K. Shivkumar of ISAC was responsible for the orbiting payload and also oversaw design and development of the orbiter.

Objectives

The specific objectives of the Mars Orbiter Mission are primarily associated with spacecraft construction and mission operations as Mangalyaan serves as a pathfinder, being India’s first mission beyond the Moon which brings its own unique challenges such as the 20-minute average signal delay to Mars. The Indian Space Science Data Center has provided the following Mission Objectives:

  • Develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission.
  • Orbit maneuvers to transfer the spacecraft from an elliptical Earth orbit to a heliocentric trajectory and finally insert it into Mars orbit.
  • Development of force models and algorithms for orbit and attitude computations and analyses.
  • Navigation in all mission phases.
  • Maintain the spacecraft in all phases of the Mission meeting Power, Communications, Thermal and Payload requirements.
  • Incorporate autonomous features to handle contingency situations.
  • The following scientific Objectives have been set for the Mars Orbiter Mission:
  • Study climate, geology, origin and evolution of Mars
  • To study sustainability of life on the planet.

Mission Design

Launch & Insertion

The Mars Orbiter Mission is planned to launch on an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle flying in its XL configuration. Mangalyaan does not use a direct injection in which the launch vehicle delivers the spacecraft to its Trans-Martian Trajectory. Instead, Mangalyaan is delivered to Earth orbit from where it uses its own propulsion system to insert itself into its TMI trajectory over a period of weeks. This design still requires the spacecraft to be launched within a narrow window that is only open for a few days every 26 months. The MOM launch window opens on October 28, 2013 and extends through November 19, 2013.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in its XL Version stands 44.5 meters tall, has a core diameter of 2.8 meters and a liftoff mass of 320,000 Kilograms. It is a four-stage rocket that uses a combination of solid rocket stages and liquid-fueled stages. The launcher can deliver payloads of up to 1,410 Kilograms to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit and is not capable of delivering payloads of this weight-class to interplanetary trajectories – requiring a different approach to Lunar or Mars missions using PSLV.

The PSLV launcher consists of a large core stage that is 20.34 meters long and holds 138,000 Kilograms of solid propellant – making it one of the largest solid rocket stages ever flown. It provides a whopping thrust of 495,600 Kilograms. Clustered around the core are six Solid Rocket Boosters – each being 1 meter in diameter and 13.5 meters long holding 12,000 Kilograms of propellant. Each of the boosters provides 51,250 Kilograms of thrust.

The second stage of the launch vehicle uses storable propellants, Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine fuel and Nitrogen Tetroxide oxidizer, that are consumed by a single Vikas 4 engine that provides 81,500kg of vacuum thrust. The stage is 12.8 meters long featuring a 40,700- Kilogram propellant load.

The PS3 stage of the PSLV launcher is solid-fueled, being 2.02 meters in diameter and 3.54 meters long holding 6,700 Kilograms of HTPB-based propellant. The third stage provides a total thrust of 24,900 Kilograms. Stacked atop the third stage is the PS4 Upper Stage that again uses hypergolic propellants – Monomethylhydrazine fuel and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen – consumed by two L-2-5 engines. The stage is 2.02 meters in diameter and 2.6 meters long featuring a fuel load of 2,920 Kilograms. Upper stage thrust is 1,500 Kilograms.

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