India's first Mars mission, Mangalyaan, has completed its mission. This orbiter reached Mars orbit in September 2014, with a six-month mission planned. The orbiter eventually ran out of fuel and battery power after having lost its planned lifespan by several times, and the Indian Space Research Organization ISRO is anticipated to make a formal statement about the mission's termination soon, based on a report from Mashable India.
Several theories have been speculated that India's first interplanetary mission may have halted its lengthy journey when its Mars Orbiter spacecraft ran out of energy and depleted over the safe level. 'There is presently no fuel supplied. According to insiders at the Indian Space Research Organization, the satellite's battery is depleted (ISRO), Mashable report added.
Unfortunately, there has been no unofficial notification from the country's national space agency so it looks that India's Mars lander will be saying farewell soon. As per ISRO specialists, the Mars orbiter spacecraft functioned far beyond its projected mission life, lasting over eight years.
Mangalyaan's Thriving Launch in the Past
Mangalyaan was deployed atop PSLV-C25 in 2013 as India's first interplanetary expedition, enabling ISRO the world's fourth space agency to operate a mission beyond Earth's orbit. This spacecraft was a showcase mission meant to demonstrate that India could build, launch, and operate a mission on another planet, as reported by India Today.
This same spacecraft was packed with five instruments to research Martian surface structure, morphology, minerals, and the Martian atmosphere. All five instruments were the Mars Color Camera (MCC), Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS), Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM), Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer (MENCA), and Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP).
India Times stated that the country has been making preparations to send a second mission to Mars, possibly an orbiter, in the coming years. K Sivan, the previous director general of ISRO from 2021 to 2023, stated that Chandrayaan-3, India's planned Moon mission, will travel first, followed by Mangalyaan-2.
India's Well-Allocated Space Mission
"MOM (Mars Orbiter Mission) is attributed to numerous laurels such as cost-effectiveness, a brief duration of realization, affordable mass-budget, and miniaturization of five heterogeneous research packages," ISRO administrators claimed. The Indian Mars mission was one of the most cost-effective interplanetary missions ever constructed, with a budget of around RS 450 crore or $55 million, added from the report.
These mission goals included exploring the planet, investigating the Martian atmosphere, particularly for the existence of methane and CO2, and investigating atmospheric oscillations. Along with many other things, the orbiter has delivered images of Mars and its satellites.
Mangalyaan was a term derived from"Mars-craft," from mangala, "Mars," and yna, "craft, vehicle" and was India's initial interplanetary mission, and it makes India the fourth space agency to reach Mars orbit, behind Roscosmos, NASA, and the European Space Agency (ESA). It made India the first Asian country to achieve Martian orbit and the first country in the world to accomplish it on its first attempt, according to the Indian space agency.
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