ISRO ON MARS MISSION
India's upcoming Mars
Orbiter Mission (MOM) seeks to reveal whether there is methane, considered a
"precursor chemical" for life, on the Red Planet, key officials
behind the ambitious venture said today. A Methane Sensor, one of the five
payloads (scientific instruments) onboard the spacecraft, would look to detect
the presence of the gas, MOM Project Director Arunan S said. He said the sensor
was aimed at understanding whether life existed on Mars or if it would have
life in future. "Methane is fundamentally base for life on any
planet," he said. M Annadurai, Programme Director, IRS & SSS (Indian
Remote Sensing & Small, Science and Student Satellites), said: "Most
probably we will be able to answer whether there is presence of Methane. If
it's there, yes; if it's not, not there. If it's available, where it's
available". After a media preview of the Mars orbiter at ISRO Satellite
Centre here, where it is being given final shape, officials of the space agency
indicated that the aim is to launch the mission on October 21, weather
permitting. The launch window is from October 21 to November 19. MOM is a Rs
450 crore mission -- Rs 110 crore for building PSLV-C25 that would launch the
Rs 150 crore spacecraft, with the remaining amount spent on augmenting ground
segment, including those required for deep space communication. Once launched
from the spaceport of Sriharikota, the spacecraft would go around the earth for
20-25 days before embarking on a 9-month voyage to Mars. The minimum life of
the spacecraft around Mars is six months but it would certainly outlive it, as
similar satellites orbited by other countries have sometimes lasted six-seven
years, Arunan said.
Director of ISAC S K
Shivakumar and Arunan defended the MOM, saying the thrust is on self-reliance
and building technological base for future inter-planetary missions and there
is nothing like undertaking the mission on our own, even though there have been
similar ventures by other countries in the past. India's MOM would look at Mars
from a different perspective, Arunan said. ISRO has addressed many challenges
in the coming mission, particularly on communication, navigation, power and
propulsion systems. As there is a communication delay of 20 to 40 minutes,
full-scale autonomy has been built into the satellite which means that in the
event of contingency the spacecraft would take decisions on its own and put it
on safe mode without a ground intervention. The ground segment then can
diagnose the problem and correct it. The spacecraft is slated to be transported
to the launch pad on September 27, after the national committee review on
September 19 and pre-shipment committee review on September 26, Arunan said.
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