India’s Mars mission a step closer to making history

Will India become the first country to have a successful mission to Mars on its first attempt?

In this handout photograph released by the Indian Space Research Organisation shows the PSLV-C25 rocket carrying the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft blasting off from the launch pad at Sriharikota on November 5, 2013. AFP Photo / IsroShow less

NEW DELHI // India put its Mars spacecraft through a major test on Monday, moving one step closer to becoming the only country to complete a successful mission to the Red Planet on its first attempt.

Mangalyaan will face an even bigger test on Wednesday when it attempts a crucial speed correction to enter the orbit after 11 months in space.

The arrival of Mangalyaan was closely preceded by that of Maven, a Nasa spacecraft, which settled into orbit on Monday. A double success will be a rare and remarkable event: 30 out of the 51 Mars spacecraft launched by various countries have failed to complete their missions.

If Mangalyaan succeeds, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will become the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after Nasa, the European Space Agency, and the space programme of the now-defunct Soviet Union.

Yesterday, an engine on board the spacecraft came alive, after it had remained dormant for 10 months as Mangalyaan hurtled the 666 million kilometres towards Mars. The engine was fired for just four seconds at 2.30pm, as a test burn that slightly adjusted Mangalyaan’s course.

But given its long inactivity, the question was whether the engine would fire at all.

“Once we put a spacecraft into space and set it on course, there’s no fuel needed to take it forward, because of its own energy and momentum,” said CD Devgun, president of a New Delhi-based NGO called Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (Space). “The engine comes into play only when the spacecraft nears Mars and gets faster. At that point, firing the engine can help the spacecraft brake.”

Although the progress of these manoeuvres was monitored from Isro’s command centre in Bangalore, there was little that scientists could do to alter events. Since radio waves now take about 12 minutes to reach Mangalyaan, the commands and procedures had been uploaded into the spacecraft last week to begin at appropriate times.

A brief period of suspense ensued when Isro said on Twitter on Monday,that the “engine test firing must have completed. We’ll get a confirmation after the communication delay of 12 minutes.”

Shortly after, Isro said: “We had a perfect burn for four seconds as programmed. The trajectory has been corrected.”

Early Wednesday morning, the same engine will need to fire for 24 minutes, so that the craft’s speed can be slashed further, allowing it to be “captured” by Mars’ gravitational pull.

If the engine had failed to fire, Isro would have resorted to Plan B, involving eight smaller jet thrusters on the spacecraft.

If successful, Mr Devgun said, India will become the first country to complete a Mars mission on its first attempt.

“Of course, the United States sent the first Viking probe to Mars in 1976. So of course Isro has learnt a lot from the mistakes and successes of other space programmes.”

Mangalyaan was launched in November from the town of Sriharikota, where Isro operates its launch centre. At the time, it made news for being a surprisingly low-cost mission.

Isro spent only $71 million (Dh261m) on fabricating and launching Mangalyaan. Maven – admittedly a more complex craft, with double the lifespan of Mangalyaan – cost Nasa $671 million.

Once in orbit around Mars, Mangalyaan is expected to have a lifespan of just six months, during which it will study the planet’s atmosphere and send back images of its surface. In particular, it will examine the presence of methane gas in the atmosphere, which poses something of a riddle to scientists.

Ordinarily, ultraviolet radiation from the sun breaks down atmospheric methane rapidly. On Mars, however, the levels of methane in the atmosphere rise and dip seasonally, leading to suspicions that the planet is generating the gas in some form.

Deepening the mystery is the fact that Curiosity, Nasa’s Mars rover, has detected no trace of methane on the surface of the planet at all.

But the methane studies as well as the surface imaging are secondary objectives. First and foremost, Isro said, Mangalyaan was designed to showcase rocket systems and spacecraft design.

“I would say 85 per cent of our mission is for technology demonstration that we can orbit Mars,” K Radhakrishnan, the chairman of Isro, told the Indian Express newspaper on Sunday.

Showing that it could plan and execute a complicated mission like Mangalyaan will also boost the prospects of Antrix, Isro’s commercial division, Mr Devgun said.

“The success of Mangalyaan’s complex technology can make Antrix a more premium and desirable service that comes with a rock-solid guarantee.”