ISRO has confirmed that the Mars Orbiter is now beyond repair and that the Mangalyaan mission is dead. But what made this engineering marvel so special?
On October 3, the Indian Space and Research Organization (ISRO) broke the hearts of 1.2 billion Indians when it revealed that the Mars Orbiter has lost communication with the ground station and that the Mangalyaan mission is in its current unrecoverable state. end. The orbiter was in its eighth year (7 years, 6 months, 8 days), which had extended its original mission timeline by seven years. Still, Mangalyaan’s death saddened many who looked forward to celebrating the mission’s eighth anniversary. So why was the Mangalyaan mission so loved in India? And what milestones and firsts did this engineering marvel achieve? Read on to find out.
A look back at the Mangalyaan Mission
Popularly known as Mangalyaan, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was launched on November 5, 2013. It was sent to Satish Dhawan Space Center (Sriharikota Range) aboard a PSLV-C25 (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket. SHAR), Andhra Pradesh. The spacecraft stayed in Earth’s orbit for a month and finally moved to Mars orbit in September 2014.
The mission was incredibly important to India, as ISRO had a limited budget for the spacecraft and if the first failed, it didn’t have enough to build another. As a result, a lot of attention was paid to the feasibility of the mission and various studies were carried out.
The primary purpose of the mission was to develop the technologies necessary to design, plan, manage and execute an interplanetary mission. Secondary objectives were to explore the surface features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere of Mars using native scientific instruments.
The mission also brought several milestones, bringing it closer to the hearts of the Indians. The Mangalyaan mission was India’s very first planetary mission. India also became the first Asian country to conduct such a mission. It also made India the only country in the world to successfully launch a Mars mission in the first attempt. After all, this was the cheapest mission to Mars in the world. It emphasized the cost-effectiveness of ISRO.
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