Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has just confirmed that the main liquid engine of its Mars Orbiter Spacecraft is working after more than 300 days of rest.
Although September 24 is the Big Day for putting the spacecraft into an orbit around Mars, the billion-rupee question for ISRO was whether the LAM (Liquid Apogee Motor), resting for over 300 days, would act as needed on Monday.
And it did.
The LAM has been ‘sleeping’ for about ten months since its last big action of December 1: that of giving the spacecraft the escape velocity from Earth’s gravitational pull.
From The Times of India:
"We are obviously relieved," said an Isro scientist. "Now we know that the engine is fit for Wednesday's exercise." There were apprehensions of the long duration of idling would have affected some valves because of the corrosive fuel used. If the main engine doesn't fire on Wednesday, an alternative plan is to fire the eight thrusters of the spacecraft to capture the Martian orbit. This Plan B, however, would not help MOM achieve a perfect orbit to take up scientific studies during its elliptical journey around Mars.
You can follow the Mars Orbiter Insertion (MOI) operation of the spacecraft as scheduled to be performed on the morning of September 24, 2014 at 07:17:32 hrs IST on facebook or Twitter.
(Score: -1) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 22 2014, @09:04PM
Mars is about to bang your MOM.
(Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Monday September 22 2014, @09:05PM
Maven arrived earlier yester-today depending on where you live.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/maven-mars-probe-closes-in-on-red-planet/ [cbsnews.com]
So two Atmospheric study projects at the same time. This should be quiet interesting.
Go MOM!!
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Monday September 22 2014, @10:48PM
Unless they find Martians.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 22 2014, @11:05PM
There were apprehensions of the long duration of idling would have affected some valves because of the corrosive fuel used.
Wouldn't you test this, on Earth, before sending the spacecraft out there and be apprehensive about it? And select materials that would not corrode? These projects are planned a little further ahead than a few months.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by cngn on Tuesday September 23 2014, @12:28AM
All the testing in the world doesn't prepare any piece of equipment for the rigors of space..
I guess he just being modest and stating his fears.. no harm in that...
(Score: 2) by sudo rm -rf on Tuesday September 23 2014, @11:33AM
Agreed.
Low G, radiation, considerable fluctuations in temperature (hundreds of °C ?), g-forces pushing and pulling during acceleration with highly reactive fluid sitting all the while sitting next to the valves for 300 days... Just to name a few rigors.
Congrats, ISRO!
And for those living outside India: 07:17:32 am IST is 1:47:32 am UTC
(Score: 1) by stingraz on Tuesday September 23 2014, @09:06AM
Mars Orbiter Spacecraft from India healthy, ready to enter Mars
Finally, ISRO will have caught up with the international level of competence in planetary impact, a field long led by NASA (of Mars Climate Orbiter fame) and ESA (which illustrated itself with the Beagle 2 impact a few years later), not to mention numerous Soviet successes at hard impact in the decades before.
Let us hope that India's Mars Orbiter makes as much of an impression, and as lasting one, as its predecessors, and that the mark it leaves in Mars exploration records may last for a long time indeed!
We hope to learn more of the technical background for this planetary entry attempt -- whether it is planned to use the classic "lost radio contact" method, a more complex number conversion failure system in NASA style, or some elaborate hardware failure mode, for example -- and about mission parameters like the planned depth of entry, size of impact crater, etc.
To imagine that most everyone assumed that this was supposed to be an orbital mission, which was only trying to achieve entry into Mars orbit! (To be fair, the mission name would lead to that assumption...)
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Tuesday September 23 2014, @03:40PM
Have the Chinese performed an impact yet?
Aside from artificial satellites that is.
(Score: 1) by stingraz on Tuesday September 23 2014, @04:36PM
You make a good point, the main rivalry here is after all between the Elephant and the Dragon... Sorry for missing that point.
To answer your question: It seems that India is indeed ahead of China here, even without any attempt at joking. China has a Lunar exploration program, which is generally on track (soft landing was a success, no hard impacts so far!), but they do not have any notable planetary exploration. Yinghuo-1 [wikipedia.org] barely qualifies as a serious attempt at a Mars mission, and even if it did, it burnt up before leaving Earth orbit (or indeed, even reaching that). In that sense, it didn't even make an impact on Earth, so that's a total failure so far.