ISRO's Mars Orbiter Insertion is a resounding success, making India the first country to be successful on its maiden Mars mission. Nicknamed 'Mangalyaan', the success of the Mars Orbiter Missionwill boost India's five-decade-old space programme.
The Mars Orbiter Mission is India's first interplanetary mission. It was launched on November 5, 2013 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh with the powerful Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) The mission was approved by the Indian government in August 2012 and was executed in 15 months at a cost of Rs. 450 crore ($74 million).
Today's mission was to manoeuvre the spacecraft and slow its speed using the 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor engine aboard the spacecraft to help it enter Mars' orbit. The engine had been idle for almost 300 days and was fired up today for 24 minutes to reduce its speed from 22.1 km per second to 4.4 km per second .The challenge lay in getting the probe's trajectory right and slowing it down so it can be captured by Mars' orbit.
Starting the liquid engine was crucial in controlling the velocity of the craft as it enters Mars' orbit. If this attempt had not worked, ISRO would have made another attempt using eight fuel powered thrusters.
Creating history in space, India on Wednesday (September 24) successfully placed its Mangalyaan into the Martian orbit in a record time of mere three hours.
Thus, India has become the first Asian country to reach Mars and the first in the world to enter Martian orbit in its maiden attempt.
Read: India has created history: Narendra Modi
With the success of Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), India has joined the United States, European Space Agency and the former Soviet Union in the elite club of Martian explorers.
ISRO scientists successfully ignited the main 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) and eight small thrusters that fired for 24-minutes from 7.17 AM and slowed down the speed of Mars spacecraft 'Mangalyaan' for it to slip into a smooth orbit around the Red Planet after almost a year-long voyage.
“Today MOM has met Mangal (Mars). Today Mangal has got MOM. The time this mission was short named as MOM, I was sure that MOM won't disappoint us,” Modi, who wore a red coloured jacket, said after nerve-wracking final moments at the command centre of Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) in Bangalore.
Mars Orbiter Mission: India's giant leap in space!
Interestingly, India's MOM is also the world's cheapest inter-planetary mission costing around Rs 450 crores or 74 million USD, which is a tenth of NASA's Mars mission MAVEN that entered the Martian orbit on September 22.
It aims to study Mars' surface and mineral composition, and scan its atmosphere for methane with the help of scientific instruments.
ISRO's Mars Orbiter is also now active on Twitter and it has started tweeting soon the spacecraft glided into the Martian orbit.