India's Mars mission (Arrival date, crew spacecraft test soon)

[Dr Mordrid]

If they pull this off on the first try it's going to be a bitter pill for Russia after all their Mars failures.

http://www.aviationweek.com/awmobile/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/asd_03_21_2013_p04-01-561387.xml

NEW DELHI — India is preparing to integrate scientific payloads with its first Mars orbiter, which is scheduled to be launched Nov. 27, the country’s top space scientist says. “The scientific payloads for the Mars Orbiter will be received in the end of this month for integration. Preparations are in full swing for the country’s first orbiter mission to Mars,” Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan says.

Subsystems are currently being tested and ground station augmentations are being made at the satellite center in the south Indian city of Bengaluru, the ISRO chief says. Integration of the satellite should be complete in September, he says.

The Maangalyaan orbiter will carry nine scientific instruments to study the Martian atmosphere, climate, geology, origin and evolution, as well as its past and current habitability.

The orbiter, including the Liquid Apogee Motor that will propel it to Mars and the rocket motor that will slow it down for Mars orbit insertion, will together weigh 1.35 tons, Radhakrishnan says.

The spacecraft will be boosted by a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, which was also used for the Chandrayaan-1 Moon mission.

Following launch, the mission is expected to take eight months to reach Mars. The schedule calls for insertion into Mars orbit in September 2014.

If the ISRO fails to launch the Mars mission this year, the next launch opportunities occur in January-April 2016 and April-May 2018. The mission is estimated to cost 4.5 billion rupees ($83 million).

[paulw]

Before they spend billions on this maybe they should do something about the Indian slums.

[Dr Mordrid]

http://m.space.com/23464-india-launches-mars-orbiter-mission.html

India's first-ever mission to Mars launched into space today (Nov. 5), beginning the country's first interplanetary mission to explore the solar system.
With a thunderous roar, India's Mars Orbiter Mission rocketed into space at 4:08 a.m. EST (0908 GMT) from the Indian Space Research Organisation's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, where the local time will be 2:38 p.m. in the afternoon. An ISRO Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle launched the probe on its 300-day trek into orbit around the Red Planet.

"The journey has only just begun," said ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan after the successful launch.

Less than an hour after liftoff, Radhakrishnan reported that India's Mars probe successfully entered a staging orbit around Earth. Mars Orbiter Mission director Kunhi Krishnan describing the launch as a start to a "grand and glorious" mission.
If all goes well, India's first Mars orbiter — called Mangalyaan (Hindi for "Mars Craft") — will arrive at the Red Planet on Sept. 24, 2014, making India the fourth country to successfully deliver a spacecraft to Mars. The $73.5 million Mangalyaan spacecraft weighs 2,980 pounds (1,350 kilograms). Through the course of several orbits, the spacecraft will perform a series of maneuvers to place it on a path to Mars.
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[Dr Mordrid]

ISRO confirms both primary and secondary deployment of the solar panels.

Orbit:
Target: 250 x 23500 km x 19.2°
Observed: 246.9 x 23566.69 km x 19.2°

Argument of perigee :
Target: 282.550°
Achieved: 282.785°

Well done!!

Launch....

[KRSESQ]

Before they spend billions on this maybe they should do something about the Indian slums.

"They've" been trying to "do something" about "the slums" for 10,000 years. It turns out that going to Mars is orders of magnitude easier and cheaper.

[paulw]

I wonder if the British will be so glad to hear of this launch as the give them about $460mil of tax payer aid each year.

[Umfriend]

The space program creates jobs so that some can get out of the slums: it works (?). By this reasoning, what *can* a country do?

Is the US$ 83 mln accurate? Seems rather cheap for a space project or are they just looking at direct cost for this specific object + launch?

[Dr Mordrid]

The space program creates jobs so that some can get out of the slums: it works (?). By this reasoning, what *can* a country do?

Exactly. A rising tech sector raises revenues that can be directed to other needs. In India's case ISRO is earning them a lot of money in launch contracts and this sets them up to launch science payloads for other nations who don't have launch capabilities.

Is the US$ 83 mln accurate? Seems rather cheap for a space project or are they just looking at direct cost for this specific object + launch?

That's the cost of the probe, which is still very cheap by a factor of ~4-5. Even so, their launch vehicles are also very inexpensive. They follow the KISS design philosophy - keep it simple stupid - and they're VERY good at it.

This launcher is a good example. Liquid engines are efficient but expensive because of the turbo-machinery and metallurgy. Solid rockets aren't as efficient but they're powerful, cheap and relatively easy to make.

For this launcher ISRO built one of the largest solid booster cores in the world, surrounded it with 6 more solid strap-on boosters, then used $$ liquids for only those upper stages where they were absolutely necessary; the 2nd stage which needed maximum efficiency and the 4th stage which needed to be restartable several times to spiral out to the Mars departure trajectory. Stage 3 was another cheap, dumb, solid because it only needed to do the initial orbital insertion.

Now prepare yourself: they are ramping up to a manned mission, and their spacecraft is already undergoing ground tests on its way to a series of unmanned dry runs. It looks a lot like SpaceX's Dragon but only has a crew of 3. The 4th stage of the PSLV would be adapted to become the spacecraft's service module.



Engineering Test Article

[Dr Mordrid]

Going well, and they're prepping a crew capsule test.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/ma...hairman-523085

Mangalyaan Doing Well, Will Reach Martian Orbit on September 24: ISRO Chairman

Thiruvananthapuram:*India's maiden inter-planetary mission to Mars "Mangalyaan" was on course and the orbiter would reach the Martian orbit on September 24, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K Radhakrishnan said on Monday.

Dismissing the skeptical views expressed by certain quarters over the mission, he said, "Mars mission is going well and will reach the orbit on September 24, 2014." This will make all in ISRO and also the people of the country proud "as it will be a major milestone for ISRO," Mr Radhakrishnan said at a felicitation function organised by The Institute of Engineers India (Kerala Chapter).

Now it took four minutes for a signal from the ground station to reach the spacecraft, launched from Sriharikota on November 5, he said.

Stating that many more missions were under different stages, Mr* Radhakrishnan said another major project in the coming months would be the experimental mission of GSLV-MARK 3 with the crew module for country's human space flight mission.

ISRO's rating among the countries with space missions had gone up, he said, adding a USA-based bench mark agency has put the Indian agency in the sixth place.

ISRO had 10 successful launches during the last one year, he said, adding, "ISRO uses its resources judiciously for the benefit of the society."
*
Space scientists M Chandra Dathan, Director LPSC, K Sivan, Project Director GSLV and P Kuhhikrishnan, Project Director PSLV were also felicitated.*