Updates New boy around the Red Planet - the 2013 Indian Mars Orbiter update thread!

[Cosmic Penguin]

Fourth stage burn done and spacecraft separated into the planned transfer orbit! Well done so far!

Of course, this is the easy part, now the spacecraft's first task is not to fell into the Earth gravitational trap that doomed the last Mars bound spacecraft requiring outward spiraling burns from the Earth....

 

[N_Molson]

0952 GMT (4:52 a.m. EST)
Fourth stage shutdown confirmed. Standing by for separation of the Mangalyaan spacecraft.

 

[IronRain]

1005 GMT (5:05 a.m. EST)
ISRO confirms the primary and secondary deployment of the Mars orbiter's solar panels following launch.

1002 GMT (5:02 a.m. EST)
The PSLV mission director has announced the launch achieved an orbit with a low point of 246.9 kilometers and a high point of 23,566 kilometers, very close to preflight predictions.

0955 GMT (4:55 a.m. EST)
ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan has declared the PSLV placed the Mars-bound spacecraft in the precise elliptical orbit around Earth to begin its 10-month journey to the red planet.

0953 GMT (4:53 a.m. EST)
Spacecraft separation! The PSLV has released the Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft.

 

[Unstung]

The Planetary Society: "A picture-perfect launch for ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission"

The challenges for ISRO are not over -- they have only begun. They have not left Earth yet. The spacecraft will now perform 7 orbits of Earth over the next 4 weeks, with rocket burns at each apogee to increase the height of the orbit, before departing for a 300-day cruise to Mars. I'll keep you posted as the mission continues.
[...]

Click for video:
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BBC: "India launches spacecraft to Mars"

CNN: "India launches rocket in hope of joining elite Mars explorer club"

Videos of the launch are included in the first two links, with the BBC providing the longest coverage.

 

[Notebook]

India Mars Orbiter Mission News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24729073

India has successfully launched a spacecraft to the Red Planet - with the aim of becoming the fourth space agency to reach Mars.
The Mars Orbiter Mission took off at 09:08 GMT from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on the country's east coast.
The head of India's space agency told the BBC the mission would demonstrate the technological capability to reach Mars orbit and carry out experiments.
The spacecraft is set to travel for 300 days and reaching Mars orbit in 2014.
If the satellite orbits the Red Planet, India's space agency will become the fourth in the world after those of the US, Russia and Europe to undertake a successful Mars mission.

N.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Best photos I've ever seen of an Indian rocket launch - I nearly thought it was a Delta II launch out of the Cape at first glance!

 

[Fabri91]

Something to remember, however: the spacecraft has not been injected in an interplanetary trajectory right away, but will do so only at the end of the month, after having raised it's apoapsis a number of times.

 

[orb]

the spacecraft has not been injected in an interplanetary trajectory right away

It's just waiting for a companion from America.

 

[N_Molson]

It's just waiting for a companion from America.

I hope that NASA and ISA have thought to calculate the probability of an intercourse collision... Certainly ridiculous but everyone would be very sorry to bump 2 spacecrafts in the infinity of interplanetary space :lol:

 

[Ripley]

Something to remember, however: the spacecraft has not been injected in an interplanetary trajectory right away, but will do so only at the end of the month, after having raised it's apoapsis a number of times.

...Which suddenly reminded me of this:
http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?p=361541&postcount=2

 

[4throck]

Best photos I've ever seen of an Indian rocket launch ...

Indeed. The Indian base + rockets need an update in Orbiter...
This mission would make a nice interplanetary navigation challenge.

---------- Post added at 14:00 ---------- Previous post was at 13:58 ----------

I hope that NASA and ISA have thought to calculate the probability of an intercourse collision... Certainly ridiculous but everyone would be very sorry to bump 2 spacecrafts in the infinity of interplanetary space :lol:

Collision is not probable, but radio interference yes.
If both spacecraft are close enough, they might be hard to track, specially if one of the transmitters is stronger and "drowns" the weaker one.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24851242

After a successful launch on Tuesday, India's Mars spacecraft has carried out the first of six crucial engine firings in Earth orbit.

The probe performed the firing with its liquid fuel thruster at 19:47 GMT on Wednesday (Thursday 1:17 IST).

 

[Ripley]

Found this link:
http://www.isro.gov.in/mars/updates.aspx

The second orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 02:18:51 hrs(IST) on Nov 08, 2013, with a burn time of 570.6 seconds has been successfully completed.The observed change in Apogee is from 28814 km to 40186 km.

 

[mahdavi3d]

also third:

The third orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 02:10:43 hrs(IST) on Nov 09, 2013, with a burn time of 707 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in Apogee is from 40186km to 71636km.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Hmm.... problem occurred with the fourth burn yesterday! :huh: At least it doesn't seems to be too problematic....

The Mars Orbiter Mission completed its first, second, and third of six planned maneuvers in Earth orbit successfully last week. However, the fourth maneuver, conducted on Sunday at 12:36 PST / 20:36 UTC / Monday 02:06 IST, failed to lift the apogee of the orbit as high as planned. The rocket firing should have lofted the Mars Orbiter Mission to an apogee of 100,000 kilometers, but the burn imparted only 35 meters per second of velocity to the spacecraft, less than a third of what was needed to achieve the desired orbit. As of this moment ISRO has not yet provided an update on the status of the orbit.

 

[Ripley]

ISRO press release:

http://www.isro.gov.in/pressrelease/scripts/pressreleasein.aspx?Nov11_2013

 

[Einion Yrth]

Their TMI engine has 440N of thrust? No wonder they need such a long run-up.

 

[MattBaker]

RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

At least they have more time than Fobos-Grunt...

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Interesting. Looks like they were testing out their propellant valves, and found out that they will not be able to actuate both valve sets at the same time... At least they found out now, where there is almost nil lag due to speed of light, rather than at MOI.