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Opinion Editorial

Mars mission success

fter a journey of over 660 million kilometres that took 10 months, Indias Mars Orbiter Mission has swept withffortless easeinto orbit around the Red Planet, making this country the first to achieve such a feat in a maiden

ttempt. Probes despatched to Earths sibling planet over the last half a century have often run into trouble of one kindr another, with only less than half of those spacecraft ending the voyage successfully. Thus far, only the United States,he former Soviet Union and the European Space Agency have succeeded in doing so. India and its space agency, the

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), now proudly join their ranks. Although ISRO could draw on its experienceith the lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, launched six years back, the challenges involved in sending a spacecraft all theay to Mars are far greater. That includes propelling the spacecraft with sufficient velocity to escape Earthsravitational grasp, guiding it along the proper trajectory over vast distances, and then slowing it down sufficiently too into orbit around that planet. The spacecraft had to be capable of operating autonomously as communication signalso and from ground stations could take minutes to reach it. All of this has gone remarkably smoothly, including therbit insertion manoeuvre with the spacecrafts main engine, which had lain idle for almost 300 days. It is a tribute to

ISRO and the professionalism of its scientists and engineers that every minute detail for such a complex mission coulde attended to in the course of a project completed in just one and a half years. Indias Mars effort costs Rs.460 crore,n economical price tag by Western standards.

he Indian probe joins four spacecraft already circling Mars, including Americas MAVEN (acronym for Marstmosphere and Volatile Evolution) that went into orbit just two days earlier, as well as two U.S. rovers exploring thelanets surface. The Indian and U.S. space agencies are holding discussions on possible scientific collaboration.

Success with the Mars Orbiter will give ISRO the confidence and capability to undertake more challenging missions.However, if the country wants to send heavier and more powerful spacecraft to Mars, it cannot do so with the PolarSatellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) that was used for the current mission. However, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch

ehicle (GSLV) equipped with an indigenous cryogenic stage made its first successful flight only in January this year,nd a few more flights will be necessary to establish its reliability. Further improvements to the rocket may also provessential. ISRO has achieved much, and more will be expected of it in the years to come.

Keywords: Mars orbiter mission, MOM, ISRO, deep space mission, Mangalyaan, Mars orbiter insertion, inter-planetaryission,Asian space race

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