Sunday, December 1, 2013

Mangalyaan-India's pride




Mangalyaan




Launch of Mangalyaan


Orbital Path


          Mangalyaan - Isro's Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft - successfully propelled itself on to an interplanetary trajectory and embarked on its 300-day journey to Mars in the wee hours of Sunday. 
          On November 19, the scientists had been positively ecstatic when the Mangalyaan - 70,000 km above the earth - sent back India's first colour images from an indigenously built camera. The scientists are now sure that other instruments on board are working fine
          Isro on Sunday declared that there would be a total of four correctional manoeuvres of the trajectory during Mangalyaan's journey to Mars. The first manoeuvre will happen on December 11. The second and the third manoeuvres are planned for April 2014 and August 2014, and the final orientation will happen 10 days before Mars orbit insertion on September 14.

TIME LINE OF VOYAGE

Nov 5: PSLV-C25, in its twenty-fifth flight, successfully launches Mars Orbiter Mission Spacecraft

Nov 7: The first orbit-raising manoeuvre of the spacecraft

Nov 8: The second orbit-raising manoeuvre of the spacecraft, with a rocket burn time of more than 9 minutes. The observed change in apogee (the farthest point in an elliptical orbit) is from 28,814km to 40,186km.

Nov 9: The third orbit-raising manoeuvre

Nov 11: In the fourth orbit-raising operation, the apogee of the spacecraft was raised from 71,623km to 78,276km by firing up the rockets and imparting an incremental velocity of 35 metres/second against planned 130 metres/second to raise apogee to about 1 lakh km.

Nov 12: Fourth supplementary orbit-raising manoeuvre of the spacecraft. Apogee raised from 78,276km to 1,18,642km.

Nov 16: The fifth orbit-raising manoeuvre. Apogee is raised from 1,18,642km to 1,92,874km.

Dec 1 : Mangalyaan is finally propelled by Trans Mars Injection operations. The liquid engine burn time was more than 22 minutes which imparted incremental velocity was 647.96 m/sec and the craft embarks on its Mars journey

1 comment: