India’s Mars Mission May Last ‘Many Years,’ Says ISRO Chief
ISRO had launched the spacecraft on its nine-month-long odyssey.
The country’s low-cost Mars mission spacecraft that is in a rendezvous with the Red planet for an extended period has enough fuel for it to last “many years”, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman Kiran Kumar said.
“....now it will be surviving for many years,” Kumar told reporters here on the sidelines of Indian Institute of Science Alumni Global Conference 2015 ‘Science for Society’ here.
...still about 45 kg of fuel is left; ...we are hardly using the fuel, fuel requirement is very small. Originally with the kind of fuel we had carried, we were not expecting that we will be able to complete the mission for more than six months.
– Kiran Kumar, Chairman, ISRO
Elaborating, he said right from launch till the spacecraft was inserted into the desired orbit, many difficulties could have been encountered “in which case we would have spent more fuel....but it didn’t happen right from the beginning through the whole process.”
No Expected Incidents
ISRO had launched the spacecraft on its nine-month-long odyssey on a homegrown PSLV rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on November 5, 2013 and it had escaped the earth’s gravitational field on December 1, 2013.
...there was no untoward incidents, no failures; ....even when you launch you have to give some margin for launch error that also was not there. So we were able to save fuel right from beginning till insertion. Now we have saved, almost 45 kg is there. It will last for many years.
– Kiran Kumar, Chairman, ISRO
From June 8 to 22, the MOM was in “blackout” phase snapping communication with the satellite, as the sun had blocked Mars from the Earth. MOM during this period went into an “autonomous mode”.
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