India’s Mars Orbiter Mission – Launch & Trans-Mars Injection
On November 5, 2013, the country of India launched a Mars Orbiter Mission probe into Earth orbit.
The satellite, operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation, orbited the Earth seven times before successfully burning its engines to escape Earth orbit and placing it on a heliocentric trajectory towards Mars. This flight path through space will send the Mars Orbiter Mission around the sun and have it slingshot and pick up speed for its flight to Mars. If the four trajectory course corrections are also successful, then the space probe should arrive at Mars on September 24, 2014.
If this mission is successful and the Mars Orbiter Mission is able to orbit Mars and communicate with home base back on Earth, then India will be the fourth country / organization to have orbited Mars, after the U.S., Russia, and Europe.
launching of the Mars Orbiter Mission on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)
Launching of the Mars Orbiter Mission was carried out on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). This rocket, designed and constructed in India, uses four stages to lift payloads into Earth orbit. So far the PSLV has carried out 25 launches, with 23 of those launches successfully reaching their target orbit.
The concept and practice of space flight has always been a fascination for me. This interest includes everything from satellites orbiting the Earth and the Moon, or space travel to other worlds, whether it’s a fly-by, an orbit, or even landing a vehicle on another body in space.
The fact that it’s India carrying out this Martian mission is fantastic. It’s obvious that the U.S. has greatly diminished in its status of leading the world in space missions. Sure, we’re still launching satellites every so often, but we’re well beyond NASA’s glory days of the Gemini and Apollo programs, and even the Space Shuttle. If it wasn’t for the significant advances in SpaceX, the future of U.S. manned space flight would be doomed.
If humanity is expected to one day branch out into the universe and beyond, it’s going to take an international task force to do so. It’s not just going to be American rockets, American spacecraft, and American astronauts leading the way. It’s going to be an international effort to continue exploring and one day begin the construction of settlements in space and on other planets and moons.
It’s interesting watching India’s success with their recent space missions. Not only do they have the necessary engineering and technology, but the country is able to carry out these missions with a fraction of the cost of what it would take in the U.S. Of course, living in India is much rougher and many living and working conditions are absolutely deplorable when compared to other countries such as the U.S. and Canada. But that’s an area of discussion for another day.
Today we’re celebrating India’s success in not only launching their Mars Orbiter Mission, but also the Trans-Mars Injection that occurred on November 30, 2013. Hopefully, in some 330 days, the Mars Orbiter Mission will successfully reach our neighbor in space.