Mangalyaan mission attains end-of-life, reports ISRO
If you are an Indian, you would definitely remember what happened on 5th November 2013. Did you already guess it? Yes, we are talking about the iconic Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), better known as Mangalyaan that was launched on this auspicious day by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). In fact, after a successful 300 days interplanetary journey, the Mars Orbiter Craft (the space probe) was inserted into the Martian orbit and has been orbiting the red planet since 24th September 2014, until recently.
In an unprecedented turn of events, ISRO has revealed that the Mars Orbiter Craft has lost communication with ISRO’s ground station (as a consequence of long-drawn eclipse in April 2022), meaning it is non-recoverable and thus Mangalyaan mission had attained end-of-life. Wondering why this happened? Turns out, because the propellant has been exhausted implying that the “desired altitude pointing” could no longer be maintained, in absence of renewed and sustained power generation.
However, sources cite that the Indian space agency deems this mission as a tremendous success. After all, the space probe was initially designed for a period of six months, that too as a technology demonstrator, but ended up lasting for nearly eight years, a feat in itself. In fact, its main objective was to develop the technologies required for designing, planning and management as well as operations of an interplanetary mission.
But instead, MOM, while orbiting the red planet, made a series of stunning scientific discoveries (with the help of five payloads), such as shedding light on Martian topography, morphology, mineralogy, atmosphere (amount of methane and carbon di oxide present using remote sensing techniques and whether they are suitable for human survival) as well as exosphere in all their uniqueness. Interestingly, Mangalyaan, although focussed solely on Mars exploration, helped understand Solar corona, alongside effects of solar wind and radiation on planets other than Earth, unlike anything that was attempted before. Wait, that weren’t all either. MOM helped study the Martian moon Phobos closely and also re-estimate the orbits of asteroids as they passed through the Martian trajectory.
As most of you would know, Mangalyaan was India’s first interplanetary mission and ISRO became only the fourth space agency to reach the milestone of Mars exploration, after Rosmocos, NASA and European Space Agency. If that wasn’t all, Mangalyaan also made India the first Asian nation to reach the Martian orbit as well the first nation in the world to do so on its maiden attempt.