Mangalyaan

This is a story which every Indian should be proud of.

A story which made even the progressive countries like USA to look at India in admiration.

This story is about MOM- the Mars Orbiter Mission or Mangalyaan.

Let us begin with Mangalyaan’s journey.

Mangalyaan is a space probe orbiting Mars since 24 September 2014.

space probe is a spacecraft that does not orbit earth.

Mangalyaan was launched on 5th November, 2013 by ISRO.

ISRO is the fourth space agency to reach the Mars orbit.

Mangalyaan entered Mars’ orbit on 24th September, 2014

It was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota

The rocket used was the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C25.

The entire project costed ₹ 450 crore.

Let us now look at why the Mangalyaan was launched.

The mission is to develop the technologies for designing, planning, management, and operations of an interplanetary mission.

Interplanetary mission is a trip through outer space involving more than one planet.

It carries five scientific instruments.

Let's see the mission objectives

1. Exploration of Mars surface features by studying its morphology, topography and mineralogy.

Morphology: study of the size, shape and structure of organisms on mars.

Topography: study of the shape and features of land surfaces. Mineralogy: study of minerals.

2. Study the parts of Martian atmosphere including methane and carbon dioxide

3. Study the dynamics of upper atmosphere of Mars, effects of Solar wind and radiation.

The probe carried 5 payloads (instruments) to achieve these scientific objectives.

These are the reasons why every Indian should be proud of this mission.

With this mission, India became the first Asian nation to reach Mars orbit.

India is also the first country to do this in its first attempt!

The mission costed ₹ 450 crore but this is the cheapest Mars missions by any country!

The cost is nearly a tenth of the Maven spacecraft sent to Mars by NASA!

In 2014, China referred to this mission as “The Pride of Asia”.

Image taken by MOM was the cover photo of a National Geographic magazine

Take pride in being an Indian!