Program overview | |
---|---|
Country | India |
Organization | ISRO |
Purpose | Exploration of Mars |
Status | Active |
Programme history | |
Cost | ₹ 454 crore (US$54 million) [1] [2] |
Duration | 2013–present |
First flight | Mars Orbiter Mission, 5 November 2013 |
Launch site(s) | Satish Dhawan Space Centre |
Vehicle information | |
Launch vehicle(s) | PSLV-XL |
The Indian Mars exploration missions are an ongoing series of outer space missions by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the exploration of Mars. The exploration is currently in the primary phase with Orbiter missions. [3]
There has been a single mission so far that deployed an orbiter around the planet which later lost its contact with the earth in 2022. [4] [5] [6] A second mission planned for 2024 when the launch window opens. [7]
The first mission, which is also known as Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was launched in 2013 which carried Mars Orbiter Mission orbiter. The original mission was expected to operate for 6 months, but it lived well past its expected lifetime and lost its contact with the earth in 2022, lasting for over seven years.
Mars Lander Mission is a proposed second Indian mission to Mars. Unlike the previous orbiter, it will operate in a lower orbit with Periareon and Apoareon altitude closer to the Martian surface. It will also carry greater scientific payload that includes a hyperspectral camera, a very high resolution panchromatic camera and a radar to better understand the early stages of Mars, its early crust, recent basalts, and ongoing activities such as boulder falls. [8] [9] Furthermore ISRO has also conceptualized a Mars UAV Marble (Martian Boundary Layer Explorer), that will have a suite of payloads for aerial exploration of Mars. The aerial vehicle will be designed to be capable of flying up to 100 meters in the thin Martian air to profile the Martian atmosphere. [10] [11] It is planned to be a part of Mangalyaan 2 mission. [12]
It will conduct a high-resolution vertical profiling of critical atmospheric parameters and perform first-of-its-kind in-situ measurements in the near-surface boundary layers of Mars. The payloads will include temperature sensor, humidity sensor, pressure sensor, wind speed sensor, electric field sensor, and the trace species and dust sensor to measure vertical distribution of dust aerosols. The information was shared by Jayadev Pradeep, a scientist with the Space Physics Laboratory at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, during a webinar. [13] [14] The mission will also have a small rover. [12]
Successful and inactive
Active
Unsuccessful
Mission | Launch Date | Launch Vehicle | Orbital Insertion Date | Landing Date | Return Date | Status | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Main Mission | Extended Mission | Expected Mission Duration | Final Mission Duration | Notes | |||||||
Phase 1: Orbiters | |||||||||||
Mars Orbiter Mission | 5 November 2013 | PSLV-XL | 24 September 2014 | – | – | Success | Success | 6 months | 7 years, 6 months, 8 days | First Indian interplanetary mission. | |
Mars Lander Mission | TBD | LVM3 | TBD | – | – | TBD | TBD | 1 year | TBD | Proposed second Indian Mars orbiter mission. | |
A Mars rover is a remote-controlled motor vehicle designed to travel on the surface of Mars. Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers: they examine more territory, they can be directed to interesting features, they can place themselves in sunny positions to weather winter months, and they can advance the knowledge of how to perform very remote robotic vehicle control. They serve a different purpose than orbital spacecraft like Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. A more recent development is the Mars helicopter.
The planet Mars has been explored remotely by spacecraft. Probes sent from Earth, beginning in the late 20th century, have yielded a large increase in knowledge about the Martian system, focused primarily on understanding its geology and habitability potential. Engineering interplanetary journeys is complicated and the exploration of Mars has experienced a high failure rate, especially the early attempts. Roughly sixty percent of all spacecraft destined for Mars failed before completing their missions, with some failing before their observations could begin. Some missions have been met with unexpected success, such as the twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which operated for years beyond their specification.
Indian Space Research Organisation is India's national space agency. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), overseen by the Prime Minister of India, with the Chairman of ISRO also serving as the chief executive of the DoS. It is primarily responsible for space-based operations, space exploration, international space cooperation and the development of related technologies. The agency maintains a constellation of imaging, communication and remote sensing satellites. It operates the GAGAN and IRNSS satellite navigation systems. It has sent three missions to the Moon and one mission to Mars.
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A Mars aircraft is a vehicle capable of sustaining powered flight in the atmosphere of Mars. So far, the Mars helicopter Ingenuity is the only aircraft ever to fly on Mars, completing 72 successful flights covering 17.242 km (10.714 mi) in 2 hours, 8 minutes and 48 seconds of flight time. Ingenuity operated on Mars for 1042 sols, until its rotor blades, possibly all four, were damaged, causing NASA to retire the craft.
Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), unofficially known as Mangalyaan, was a space probe orbiting Mars since 24 September 2014. It was launched on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was India's first interplanetary mission and it made ISRO the fourth space agency to achieve Mars orbit, after Soviet space program, NASA, and the European Space Agency. It made India the first Asian nation to reach Martian orbit and the second national space agency in the world to do so on its maiden attempt after the European Space Agency did in 2003. It also made India the fourth nation to orbit another planet after the United States, the Soviet Union, and ESA member states.
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The Emirates Mars Mission is a United Arab Emirates Space Agency uncrewed space exploration mission to Mars. The Hope probe was launched on 20 July 2020, and went into orbit around Mars on 9 February 2021.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)It was also discussed that despite being designed for a life-span of six months as a technology demonstrator, the Mars Orbiter Mission has lived for about eight years in the Martian orbit with a gamut of significant scientific results on Mars as well as on the Solar corona, before losing communication with the ground station as a result of a long eclipse in April 2022. During the national meet, ISRO deliberated that the propellant must have been exhausted, and therefore, the desired attitude pointing could not be achieved for sustained power generation. It was declared that the spacecraft is non-recoverable, and attended its end-of-life. The mission will be ever-regarded as a remarkable technological and scientific feat in the history of planetary exploration.