Mars Orbiter Mission India (Mangalyaan)

Few Facts About Planet Mars

• Mars has two moons viz. Phobos and Deimos
• One Martian year is of 687 days
• Mars gravity is 1/3^rd  of Earth
• One Martian day equals 24 hours 37 minutes

Mangalyaan

• Launch vehicle →PSLV (Polar satellite launch vehicle) from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh
• First Indian spacecraft to cross Earth’s escape velocity of 11.2 km per second

Why Mangalyaan was sent to Mars?

ISTRAC (ISRO Telemetry, Tracking & Command Network) – Bangalore

• Previously tracked and commanded Chandrayaan -1
• Also did tracking for Mars orbiter Mangalyaan mission

Lunar Missions India – Chandrayaan

Chandrayaan 1

• Launch vehicle →PSLV (Polar satellite launch vehicle) from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh
• India’s maiden moon exploration mission ‘Chandrayaan-1’ was launched in October 2008

• for mapping the lunar surface with high resolution remote sensing
• to study the chemical and mineralogical composition

• This mission has enabled to detect the presence of Hydroxyl (OH), a molecule consisting of oxygen and hydrogen atoms and water molecules on the lunar surface, which has set new directions of lunar explorations in the global community.

Chandrayaan 2

• Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and ISRO signed an agreement to work together on the Chandrayaan 2 project
• ISRO would have the prime responsibility for the orbiter and rover, while Roscosmos was to provide the lander.
• Chandrayaan 2 is India’s second lunar exploration mission after Chandrayaan 1.
• Developed by ISRO, the mission is planned to be launched to the Moon by a GSLV Mk III
• India is planning to launch Chandrayaan-2 by 2018
• The wheeled rover will move on the lunar surface and will pick up soil or rock samples for on-site chemical analysis.
• The data will be relayed to Earth through the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter.

Few Famous Space Exploration Missions

Comet Mission – Philae

• Europeans Rosetta spacecraft’s mission to study comets, landed a spacecraft on comet for the 1^st time in history
• Rosetta – took off from Earth 10 years ago carrying Philae & became the first spacecraft to orbit a comet
• Philae – a robotic European Space Agency lander attached to Rosetta; transmit data from the surface about the comet’s composition

Philae

• a robotic European Space Agency lander that accompanied the Rosetta spacecraft until it landed on comet 67P
• Rosetta →Mothership (spacecraft) orbiting Comet 67P → Philae communicates with Rosetta which sends the received data to the earth

Objectives 

• To focus on elemental, isotopic, molecular and mineralogical composition of the comet material
• The large-scale structure and the magnetic and plasma environment of the nucleus
• The mission seeks to unlock the long-held secrets of comets — primordial clusters of ice and dust that scientists believe may reveal how the Solar System was formed.