This fine Tuesday afternoon, at 14:38 IST (09:08 UTC) India successfully launched a spacecraft — called Mangalyaan, or the Mars Orbiter Mission probe — from the spaceport near Chennai.
More than a space launch, it is proof of competency of Indian engineers to conceive, plan, and put together a spacecraft in such a short time. The plans for the mission was only announced in August 2012, a few months after China’s attempt to send an orbiter (Yinghuo-1) on a Russian mission (Phobos-Grunt) failed in November 2011.
To be fair, Mars has proved to be such a hard planet to reach. Of a total of 40 missions aimed at Mars so far, only 16 - yeah 16 - have been successful. Of the two dozen failures, some have entirely missed Mars - Guk! - while some others did the other extreme thing - crashed into it. [ISRO chief says it is 21 out of 51]
Whether it is 16/40 or 21/51, it is no wonder he wants to launch Mangalyaan before 15:00 IST - to avoid the Rahukalam. He also visited Tirupati and Kalahasti to pay obeisance to Gods - Vishnu the Protector and Shiva the Destroyer (of all evils). While it may looked at as superstition - the top Indian Space Scientist praying to God, personally, I view it as humility - a much needed factor in India today.
The video is screencapture from the webcast by ISRO.
NASA sent Go MOM Go greetings on ISRO Facebook page - recommending roasted peanuts in the launch complex - which is their own sentiment. Shows scientists and engineers all over have their own ‘lucky’ superstitions.
:-P
The craft will take 11 months to reach the atmosphere of the cold, forbidding planet, traveling 140 million miles from Earth. If all goes as scheduled, the Mangalyaan spacecraft is expected to reach Mars’s orbit on 21 September 2014, making India only the fourth nation or group to reach Mars, after the United States, Russia (and the former Soviet Union) and the European Space Agency.
The ISRO with the Govt. of India has deployed 2 ships, of The Shipping Corporation of India, to track the payload when it is over the horizon from India’s own Deep Space Network. The ships, MV Nalanda and MV Yamuna would be stationed in the South Pacific.
Well, well, now, India is deploying spy ships in the South Pacific. Watch out guys! Though I would have liked the other ship to have been named MV Taxila - after the other centre of learning of ancient India.
There has been criticism of the Mangalyaan/MOM project, and strangely, the critics have taken both extreme positions. One hand, they howl that spending about $80mn is a waste for a ‘poor’ country like India. OTOH, they laugh at India sending a ‘small’ spacecraft of only 15 kg. By comparison the now burned up Chinese Yinghuo-1 weighed 115 kg.
I cannot understand their argument. Are they cribbing that spending money on space program is a waste and India has to forever remain on the fringes of high-technology? Or are they cribbing that we should think of landing a tank sized rover on Mars?
The expected life of MOM/Mangalyaan is 6 months, but ISRO hopes it will last much longer. Close on the heels of the India launch, NASA will launch its newest Mars probe, called Maven, from Cape Canaveral on 18 Nov.
But the question is, Will Mangalyaan find proof of Methane gas in Mars, just as Chadrayaan found proof of water locked in Lunar rocks?
Here is the video of the successful launch captured from my rooftop on my Android phone - overcast sky, could only catch the last part.
But, here the screencapture of the live webcast/TV telecast from ISRO.
I still think it would have been easier to say "Ock, Ohem, Oocktei, Wies Barsoom!"
:-P
More than a space launch, it is proof of competency of Indian engineers to conceive, plan, and put together a spacecraft in such a short time. The plans for the mission was only announced in August 2012, a few months after China’s attempt to send an orbiter (Yinghuo-1) on a Russian mission (Phobos-Grunt) failed in November 2011.
To be fair, Mars has proved to be such a hard planet to reach. Of a total of 40 missions aimed at Mars so far, only 16 - yeah 16 - have been successful. Of the two dozen failures, some have entirely missed Mars - Guk! - while some others did the other extreme thing - crashed into it. [ISRO chief says it is 21 out of 51]
Whether it is 16/40 or 21/51, it is no wonder he wants to launch Mangalyaan before 15:00 IST - to avoid the Rahukalam. He also visited Tirupati and Kalahasti to pay obeisance to Gods - Vishnu the Protector and Shiva the Destroyer (of all evils). While it may looked at as superstition - the top Indian Space Scientist praying to God, personally, I view it as humility - a much needed factor in India today.
The video is screencapture from the webcast by ISRO.
NASA sent Go MOM Go greetings on ISRO Facebook page - recommending roasted peanuts in the launch complex - which is their own sentiment. Shows scientists and engineers all over have their own ‘lucky’ superstitions.
:-P
The craft will take 11 months to reach the atmosphere of the cold, forbidding planet, traveling 140 million miles from Earth. If all goes as scheduled, the Mangalyaan spacecraft is expected to reach Mars’s orbit on 21 September 2014, making India only the fourth nation or group to reach Mars, after the United States, Russia (and the former Soviet Union) and the European Space Agency.
The ISRO with the Govt. of India has deployed 2 ships, of The Shipping Corporation of India, to track the payload when it is over the horizon from India’s own Deep Space Network. The ships, MV Nalanda and MV Yamuna would be stationed in the South Pacific.
Well, well, now, India is deploying spy ships in the South Pacific. Watch out guys! Though I would have liked the other ship to have been named MV Taxila - after the other centre of learning of ancient India.
There has been criticism of the Mangalyaan/MOM project, and strangely, the critics have taken both extreme positions. One hand, they howl that spending about $80mn is a waste for a ‘poor’ country like India. OTOH, they laugh at India sending a ‘small’ spacecraft of only 15 kg. By comparison the now burned up Chinese Yinghuo-1 weighed 115 kg.
I cannot understand their argument. Are they cribbing that spending money on space program is a waste and India has to forever remain on the fringes of high-technology? Or are they cribbing that we should think of landing a tank sized rover on Mars?
The expected life of MOM/Mangalyaan is 6 months, but ISRO hopes it will last much longer. Close on the heels of the India launch, NASA will launch its newest Mars probe, called Maven, from Cape Canaveral on 18 Nov.
But the question is, Will Mangalyaan find proof of Methane gas in Mars, just as Chadrayaan found proof of water locked in Lunar rocks?
But, here the screencapture of the live webcast/TV telecast from ISRO.
I still think it would have been easier to say "Ock, Ohem, Oocktei, Wies Barsoom!"
:-P
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