India's maiden mission to Mars was already a success even before the Mangalyaan entered the red planet's orbit on Wednesday. The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) travelled more than 300 days to Mars and subjected everyone to a nerve-wracking 54 minutes when it manoeuvred itself into the orbit, but among these triumphs was how India showed off how the spacecraft managed to think and act on its own.

MOM, weighing 1,350kg, was launched from the rocket port in Sriharikota, located on the coast of the Bay of Bengal, in November last year. According to BBC, the ₹448.48 crore mission is the cheapest interplanetary mission in the world, costing only about one-tenth of NASA's Mars mission that also entered the orbit over the weekend.

Despite the mission's small budget, MOM has on-board autonomy functions incorporated into the spacecraft. These functions make the orbiter "smarter," enabling it to journey for more than 680 million kilometres, while at the same time, correct its altitude, position its antenna system for communication with the base here and constantly angle its three solar panels towards the sun to generate energy.

The craft's High Gain antenna system is based on a single 2.2m reflector, which is illuminated by a feed at S-band. This is used to transmit and receive telemetry and tracking commands as well as data from the Indian Deep Space Network.

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation, "on-board autonomy functions are incorporated as the large distance does not permit real time interventions."

To make the autonomy function work, ISRO, from Bangalore, stored commands in MOM's electronic brain 10 days before the spacecraft entered Martian orbit. Then on Wednesday, ISRO re-oriented Mangalyaan, firing its on-board rocket motor, containing a liquid engine of 440N thrust, to slow the craft as it enters the orbit.

In addition, MOM also carries about 15kg of scientific instruments that it will use to observe Martian surface. There's a tri-colour Mars camera, which will provide snapshots of the features and composition of the planet's surface. It will also be used for probing the two satellites of Mars—Phobos and Deimos.

MOM also carries a Lyman Alpha photometer to measure the abundance of deuterium and hydrogen in the Martian upper atmosphere; a methane sensor to detect the presence of methane in the planet.

There is also a thermal infrared imaging spectrometer that will measure the thermal emission and the Mars Enospheric Neutral Composition Analyser, which will study the neutral composition of the Martian atmosphere.

Since the 1960s, there have been a total of 51 missions to Mars, and only 21 missions have succeeded. India is the fourth country after U.S., Europe and Russia to successfully enter the red planet. Compared to the other missions, MOM is still in its early stage, but it showed a promising future for the next generation of Indian space adventures.

"We put together the spacecraft in record time, within a mere 3 years of first studying its feasibility. [We] built it indigenously, in a pan-Indian effort stretching from Bangalore to Bhubaneshwar, and Faridabad to Rajkot," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "These are all accomplishments that will go down as landmarks in history."

By: DocMemory
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