Indian Mars Orbiter Mangalyaan's last lap of firing LAM engine is critical for the success of country's biggest space mission.
India's biggest space trophy Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) or Mangalyaan is all set to enter its final and most important phase. This is something that is going to redefine India's 40 years space journey from a nation where scientists peddled on their bicycles to the launch-pad to a nation that is among the top achievers in the space arena.
While United States and Europe are facing massive budget cuts due to economic recession that has afflicted them, India and neighboring China are buzzing with more and more activity and infusion of large sums of money. Merely two years after sending its moon mission, the Mars Orbiter Mission or Mangalyaan has proved beyond doubt that India is a nation in a hurry to make a mark when it comes to space. Recently India also proved its expertise in being a dependable space player when it sent French weather satellite into space without a single issue.
In the meantime Mars Orbiter Mission or Mangalyaan that was launched some nine months ago hasn't faced any major issue since its successful launch. It has already travelled more than 80 million kilometers. Now within the next one month the spaceship will reach its target from where it will start orbiting around the Red Planet.
ISRO while making the announcement on its Facebook page said, "33 days to Mars. MOM is just 9 million km away from Mars and 189 million kms away from the Earth". ISRO officials say that the next 30 days are going to be of great importance as far as Mars Mission was concerned. Isro chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan told Hindustan Times "This is a very critical phase of the Mission. Our mission controllers are going through ground simulations and rehearsals to respond to contingencies".
Things are going to be done very carefully. ISRO officials say that the next major challenge will be to bring down velocity of the moon mission to 1.6 km/sec by firing the LAM engine. This engine is lying idle for the past 300 days since the launch of the mars mission. An ISRO official says, "The firing has to be done very precisely. When we reduce the spacecraft's velocity, it should be close enough to Mars for it to be captured by the planet's gravity".
via Science - Google News http://ift.tt/1tHlH5h
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