Mars Orbiter Mission, India's Space Expedition Losses Communication According to Reports

INDIA-The Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) communications systems have lost contact with the spacecraft. Space.com reports that the original cause is undetermined; the orbiter might just run out of fuel, the MOM's battery may have been depleted past the safe operational limit, or an autonomous operation may have terminated connections.

India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) may reach the end of its space operations after eight long years of orbiting around Mars.

India's MOM, popularly abbreviated as Mangalyaan, has been stationed on Mars for eight years, well beyond its estimated mission duration of six to ten months. As Science Times reported, this spacecraft was launched back in November 2013 and attained a flight path around Mars in Sept. 2014.

MOM emerged from a protracted blackout in April, but as it recovered, the spacecraft may have depleted its stored energy. MOM launched with almost 1,880 pounds (852 kilograms) of energy to operate its primary propulsion and eight smaller thrusters with altitude adjustments.

Based on an unidentified source reported in the Times of India, the communications disruption might result from MOM's automatic mechanism pulling it out of another blackout. Its mechanism may have caused the orbiter to roll-spin to shift orientation, leading to MOM's Earth-facing antenna turning away from the earth and the communications satellites going quiet.

The Unclear Culprit of Loss of Communication

However, ISRO has not yet made a formal announcement. An organization insider informed local publication The Hindu that "the satellite battery" has been depleted and "the contact with MOM has also been severed."

MOM possesses a 4.6 by 6-foot (1.4 x 1.8-meter) solar array flap composed of three panels on a single side of the orbiter. Upon Mars, the array can provide 800 watts of electrical power and charge a lithium-ion battery; however, the spacecraft has lately seen a sequence of eclipses, which could have hampered its replenishment capacity.

An anonymous ISRO source told The Hindu reporters that "recently, there were two consecutive eclipses, among which spanned seven and a half hours," as quoted from the Indian publication.

"Because the satellite battery is only built to endure one-hour and forty-minute eclipses, a lengthier eclipse will deplete the batteries beyond the safe limit," another anonymous informant told The Hindu.

MOM has repeatedly prevailed blackouts in its first and second years orbiting Mars, regenerating independently without aid from the base. Nonetheless, the first examples indicate that this current blackout is persistent, and various sources told the Times of India that despite the cause, the orbiter would not be able to retrieve it.

(Photo: The Hindu)
The Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft was successfully inserted into Martian Orbit on September 24, 2014.

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Mangalyaan Early Expedition

"We are already attempting to determine the actual cause - whether it involves fuel exhaustion or transmitter failure," an anonymous senior scientist told the Times of India. "But one thing is certain: we will not be able to rescue the spacecraft."

The Mangalyaan was India's first interplanetary expedition, and it made the ISRO only the fourth space agency to orbit Mars. On Oct. 19, 2014, the spacecraft arrived at Mars just in time to see the departure of Comet Siding Spring.

Its central function the mission was to test the technologies needed for interplanetary navigation and to research the Martian terrain and environment from orbit.

The orbiter has a color camera, a thermal infrared sensor, an ultraviolet spectrometer to examine deuterium and hydrogen in Mars' high atmosphere, and a gravity spectrometer to analyze neutral particles in the Martian atmosphere were among the equipment aboard.

It contained a sensor to look for methane, a chemical that, if found, may indicate that life once flourished on Mars. ISRO has not yet released the results of that equipment.