Mangal-yaan on Mangal-yatra
India,
ISRO gear up for Mars odyssey glory
Mars
has always held a fascination for us Earthlings. It is our immediate neighbour
out from the Sun and the outermost of the hard, rocky terrestrial planets
before the asteroid belt and the gas giants, such as Jupiter and Saturn. Since
the first telescope observations of Mars in the early 1600s, we have suspected
that it is more Earth-like than any other planet.
Our desire to know it
better has been driven by our need to learn more about our own planet and its
place in the solar system and by our fertile imaginations. Is Mars inhabited?
Could it be a home for mankind in some distant future?
India is inching towards a
milestone in space technology with preparatory work in full swing at the Satish
Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota to launch the country’s first
inter-planetary satellite to Mars Today at 2.38 pm.
As per the ISRO
spokesperson, the 44.4 metre tall rocket has been mounted on the pedestal of
the First Launch Pad at the spaceport, covered by a 76 metre tall Mobile
Service Tower, designed to withstand a wind speed of 230 km per hour, in case
of a cyclone. It will be removed as the countdown comes closer to the launch.
PSLV C 25 is
scheduled to lift off at 2.38 pm tomorrow from the spaceport, Sriharikota.
The Mangal-yaan is
satellite is carrying the payload of totalling a mass of 15 kg, with five
major compact science experiments.
Out of this
five payloads of the Mars Scientific Mission, four payloads have been designed
and developed by the Space Applications Centre and Physical Research
Laboratory, Ahmedabad, the fifth payload (MENCA)has been designed by the Vikram
Sarabhai Space Centre at Thiruvananthapuram.
Vehicle tracking stations
at Port Blair, Bylalu near Bangalore and Brunei are on an alert mode, while
sea-borne terminals on board Shipping Corporation of India’s vessels SCI
Nalanda and SCI Yamuna have taken their positions at South Pacific Ocean.
The sea-borne terminals on
board SCI ships are to capture the crucial moment of the vehicle injecting the
satellite on Earth’s orbit somewhere above South America.
The rocket is expected to
take over 40 minutes to inject the satellite on Earth’s orbit after take off.
Once launched the satellite
is expected to go around Earth for 20-25 days before embarking on a nine-month
voyage to the red planet on December 1 and reach the orbit of Mars on September
24, 2014.
Only 21 of the total of 51
missions sent to Mars by various countries have been successful.
With the success in the MOM
mission. India would be the fourth space agency in the world to have
sent a mission to Mars.
European Space Agency (ESA)
of European consortium, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of
the US and Roscosmos of Russia are the only three agencies which have so far
sent their missions to the red planet.
In order to capture the
imagination about our neighbouring Red Planet Mars and to bring excitement
about the Mars Mission, the Gujarat Science City has elaborate programmes and
outreach activities in its Hall of Space where the students and visitors can
have a virtual tour to Mars and landed on the Mars for further exploration.
Eminent Scientists from
Space Applications Centre (SAC-ISRO) and Physical Research Laboratory,
Ahmedabad are being invited to interact with the young minds and to motivate
about the wonder world of space science and technology.
We take this opportunity to
invite one and all to witness this historical launch programme and to be a part
of this great scientific space mission.
GUJARAT SCIENCE CITY
Capturing New Heights in
Science Literacy!
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