[meteorite-list] 100 Days of India's Mars Orbiter Spacecraft

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.isro.org/pressrelease/scripts/pressreleasein.aspx?Feb11_2014

100 Days Of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft
ISRO Press Release
February 11, 2014

Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, India's first interplanetary probe, was launched 
by PSLV-C25 at 1438 hours on November 5, 2013 from Satish Dhawan Space 
Centre, Sriharikota. In its voyage towards Mars, the mission successfully 
completes 100 days in space tomorrow (February 12, 2014). 

Subsequent to six orbit raising manoeuvres around the Earth following 
the launch, the Trans Mars Injection (TMI) Manoeuvre on December 01, 2013 
gave necessary thrust to the spacecraft to escape from Earth and to initiate 
the journey towards Mars, in a helio-centric Orbit. This  journey, of 
course, is long wherein the spacecraft has to travel 680 million km out 
of which a travel of 190 million km is completed so far. 

The First Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM) was conducted on December 
11, 2013. The trajectory of the spacecraft, till today, is as expected. 
Three more TCM operations are planned around April 2014, August 2014 and 
September 2014. 

The spacecraft health is normal. The spacecraft is continuously monitored 
by the ground station of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network 
(ISTRAC), located at Byalalu, near Bangalore. Except for a 40 minute break 
in the Telemetry data received from the spacecraft to the ground station, 
data has been continuously available for all the 100 days. 

The propulsion system of the spacecraft is configured for TCMs and the 
Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) Operation. On February 6, 2014, all the five 
payloads on Mars Orbiter spacecraft were switched 'ON' to check their 
health. 

The health parameters of all the payloads are normal. Presently, the spacecraft 
is at a radio distance of 16 million km causing a one way communication 
delay of approximately 55 seconds. After travelling the remaining distance 
of about 490 million km over the next 210 days, the spacecraft would be 
inserted into the Martian Orbit on September 24, 2014.