Mangalyaan Mission of India
On November 5, 2013, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched its first spacecraft bound for Mars. India built Mangalyaan (“Mars craft” in English) to study the Red Planet and test key technologies required for exploring the inner solar system. The Mangalyaan spacecraft successfully entered Mars orbit on September 23, 2014, making ISRO only the fourth space agency in the world to do so. Before India, only the United States, the Soviet Union and the European Space Agency (ESA) had successfully explored Mars.
Mangalyaan operated for seven and a half years, observing Martian landscapes and studying their composition using its five science instruments.
The primary objective of the Mars Orbiter Mission is to showcase India’s rocket launch systems, spacecraft-building and operations capabilities. Specifically, the primary objective is to develop the technologies required for the design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission, comprising the following major tasks:
• design and realization of a Mars orbiter with the capability to perform Earthbound manoeuvres, a cruise phase of 300 days, Mars orbit insertion/capture, and an on-orbit phase around Mars;
• Deep-space communication, navigation, mission planning and management;
• incorporate autonomous features to handle contingency situations. The secondary objective is to explore Mars’ surface features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere using indigenous scientific instruments.
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