Three years of Mars Orbiter Mission: Made to run only for six months, India's Mangalyaan still going strong

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scientists and engineers monitor the movements of India's Mars orbiter at their Spacecraft Control Center in the southern Indian city of Bangalore November 27, 2013. The orbiter after circling Earth for 20 to 25 days, is scheduled to leave Earth's orbit on December 1. India launched its first rocket to Mars on November 5, aiming to reach the red planet at a much lower cost than successful missions by other nations, positioning the emerging Asian giant as a budget player in the latest global space race. REUTERS/Stringer (INDIA - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY) - RTX15V4R

The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) or Mangalyaan completed three years in the orbit of the red planet on Sunday. Interestingly, the initial tenure of the mission was six months, given the limited resources it flew with.

The view is nice up here. pic.twitter.com/VmAjNI76lm

Story continues below Advertisement

Remove Ad

— ISRO's Mars Orbiter (@MarsOrbiter) September 25, 2014

The orbiter entered the Martian orbit with 40kg of fuel in 2014. Till then, there have been two alterations with its orbit and speed to save it from, a comet, and in January this year to avoid risky eight hours of an eclipse.

Mangalyaan is built to last only 1 hour 40 minutes on its batteries. Beyond that, it needs a constant supply of sunlight to produce energy.

Mars Orbiter Mission Completes 1000 Days in Orbithttps://t.co/DV3ymbwFkw — ISRO (@isro) June 19, 2017

By June, it had completed 388 orbits around Mars and has sent back over 715 images to earth. The spacecraft has successfully manoeuvred through a 'blackout' and a 'whiteout' period, during which connection to earth was interrupted for more than 14 days each.

First snap after coming out of blackout. http://t.co/od7qyPeGB3pic.twitter.com/7X5xuClCCm

Story continues below Advertisement

Remove Ad

— ISRO's Mars Orbiter (@MarsOrbiter) July 24, 2015

The maneuvres have left it with 13kg of propellant which will keep it going for a while. ISRO has declared it as healthy and all five payloads on it are functioning.

Mangalyaan is the cheapest mission to Mars till date. ISRO is only the fourth space agency in the world to send a mission to Mars and the first one to do so in its first attempt.