India’s low-cost mission to Mars has cleared a key hurdle after ‘Mangalyaan’, the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, left the Earth’s orbit on 1 December.

Mangalyaan was successfully placed in the Mars transfer trajectory after the spacecraft’s 440 Newton liquid engine was fired for about 22 minutes, offering the required velocity increment of 648m/sec.

The spacecraft is currently on a course to reach the planet after a journey of nearly ten months, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement.

India’s first interplanetary probe, the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, onboard PSLV-C25, was launched on 5 November from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

The project is being carried out at a lower cost compared with previous Mars missions by other nations and will cost $69.3m, which is significantly less expensive than Nasa’s $2.5bn Curiosity mission to Mars in 2011.

On 11 November, the project encountered a problem with maneuvers due to which the spacecraft fell short of its estimated mark.

ISRO said that the rocket is being monitored continuously from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennae.

The mission intends to reach Mars by September 2014 and aims to examine the Martian surface and mineral composition, as well as test the atmosphere for hydrogen and methane gases.

With the recent development, India steams ahead of China’s efforts to reach the planet, as a Chinese project failed to leave Earth’s orbit in 2011.

Defence Technology