An overview of mars orbiter mission (mom) and other scientific payloads on mars

Author: 
Chinnamuthu M., Uma Maheswaran S and Gowthaman A.T

The Planetary scientists are always interested in exploration of Mars because of habitation conditions might have prevailing in the red planet. The experience gained from Chandrayaan-1 by the Indian scientist encouraged that to develop the concept of Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) or otherwise called Mangalyaan feasibility report sending MOM to Mars was finalized during 2010 and that project was sanctioned on August 03, 2012. The total project cost is about Rs 454 crore for satellite cost and established facilities for ground station. The MOM was successfully launched on November 05, 2013, from Sriharikota using the PSLV rocket C25. After several manoeuvres and trans-Mars injection it reached Mars on September 24, 2014. With this achievement India became the first nation to reach the Mars orbit in its first attempt. Currently, the MOM spacecraft is orbiting Mars just 421.7 km at its closest point and about 76,993.6 km at the farthest point in an elliptical orbit. The MOM has five scientific instruments on board to study the surface of Mars for water, methane and its mineral and chemical composition. The payloads are Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM), Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS), Mars Color Camera (MCC), Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP), Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA), High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), MAVEN and Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) specifications and objectives of payloads are discussed in the papers.

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DOI: 
http://dx.doi.org/10.24327/ijcar.2018.12215.2140
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