ISRO’s Mangalyaan Mission orbiting Mars is likely to operate for six more months owing to its reserve energy, said Minister of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh in a reply to an unstarred question in the Lok Sabha. The reserve propellant onboard the MoM is 37-kg that can energise the mission orbiting Mars since September 2014, making India proud member of the top 4 club of nations to send missions to Mars so far. The MoM was expected to orbit the Red planet till March 24, 2015, but the mission may outlive the expectations with another six months of operation. The minister said in his reply, “It is expected that MOM will outlive its planned life span of six months. The increased duration of observation of Mars by five scientific payloads will enhance the planetary science data. It would also enable coverage of Mars in different seasons.” India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MoM) is the most cost-effective space mission undertaken to Mars with a budget of about Rs.450 crore. This is India’s first deep space exploratory mission taht was successfully launched when other big countries like China failed to achieve in their first Mars mission. The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has significant achievements to its credit being the first interplanetary mission realized by India and first Indian spacecraft to incorporate full scale on-board autonomy to overcome the long distances and the communication gaps due to non-visibility periods, said the minister in his reply. Also the Mangalyaan mission is the first Indian spacecraft to successfully survive Van Allen belt crossing 39 times and also the first mission to use Ship Borne Terminals to track the launch vehicle and satellite over Pacific Ocean by ISRO. The mission has brought accolades to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) all over the world including “Space Pioneer Award” by the US based National Space Society and topped the Time Magazine 2014 Innovations. Awarded the Indira Gandhi Prize for its path-breaking achievement in peaceful use of outer space.
