India's Mars Mission likely to be a victim of US Government shutdown

Few weeks back, I had written about India's Mars sniffer spacecraft that was to have been launched in November-December of this year from Sriharikota on eastern sea board of India. As per latest the news. The spacecraft had already moved from ISRO workshops in Bengaluru city to Sriharikota, where it is supposed to be integrated with its launch vehicle PSLV C 25 already at the launch site. The integration is supposed to begin by October 10^th, 2013.

Traditionally, ISRO avoids any rocket launching from Sriharikota during October and November as it is generally considered as a cyclone season. However, Mars spacecraft would be an exception as only between November to early December, planets Mars and earth would be in a position, which is suitable for launching the spacecraft. ISRO says that this launch window is important and crucial. They must launch the spacecraft in this period, hoping that the weatherr does not play spoilsport. If the window gets lost due to some reason or other, Planet Mars and Earth would not be coming is same positions for 24 months. India's 4.5 Billion Rupees Mars orbiter mission (MOM), is scheduled for lift-off at 4.15pm on October 28 as per present plans so that by the time it reaches a Geo Synchronous orbit after 20 days, the window would be still open.

One of the problems with the Mars mission is that unlike other near earth satellite launches and even Lunar mission, spacecraft would be out of coverage area of India's navigation systems, during the launch and post-launch phases. To overcome this difficulty India has contracted American space agency NASA, who have agreed to provide communication and navigation support to track the spacecraft for Indian Space Research Organisation at reimbursable cost. Nasa's deep space network facilities in Spain, Australia and the US are scheduled to provide navigation and tracking support, which would help in accurate determination/ reconfirmation of orbit and position of spacecraft. According to an ISRO spokesman, this NASA support alone will cost ISRO about Rs 700 Million.

This is the area, where the latest difficulty has now arisen for the Mars mission. The present US government shutdown, that has inconvenienced millions of Americans, has made is compulsory for NASA's 97% of its 18,000-strong workforce, to go on unpaid leave. This has left many of its tracking stations worldwide unmanned. The ISRO's Mars mission is banking on such stations to track the spacecraft. US Government shutdown has thus become another source of worry for ISRO scientists working on India's ambitious space programme to Mars.

ISRO says that the launch window is so crucial because as Mars and Earth will not be in positions suitable for such a launch programme till the end of 2015 or beginning of 2016. In other words if present window is lost, the spacecraft would have to wait for at least 2 years. As per present schedule, the spacecraft is supposed to have been launched in the beginning of the window. If NASA support is unavailable due to Government shut down, it may be posssible to delay the launch at the most till early December. But once that is lost, next opportunity would come after almost 24 months.

The US government shutdown has not only inconvenienced millions of Americans, it is also worrying India's scientists working on ambitious space programme to Mars.

There appears to be a ray of hope for ISRO. NASA has announced that that it would go ahead with its own MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) mission, slated for launch as early as November 18. This would mean that NASA would keep its international network of antennas that track interplanetary spacecraft missions, operational. This would suffice for India's Mars mission. ISRO scientists are taking relief from this announcement as they go ahead with the launch preparations.

7^th October 2013

India's Mars sniffer ready to go

The spacecraft that shall lead India's first mission to Mars, is all ready on ground. This spacecraft, of the size of a large hatchback car and weighing 1,350 kg, is ready to commence its 385 Million Kilometer journey to Mars, when launched. Since there are no plans to land the spacecraft on Mars, it is being officially called as Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM). Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO, plans to launch it between October 21 and November 19 of 2013, from Sriharikota on east coast of India. MOM will go around the planet once in three days, its nearest point being only 371 km from the planet’s surface and the farthest point about 80,000 km away.

MOM carries five instruments or payloads to study five different aspects of Mars. Detecting the presence of methane, if any, in the Martian atmosphere, is one of the studies that would be carried out. I think that calling the spacecraft as Mars sniffer may be more appropriate. The Methane Sensor on board of the spacecraft, weighing just 3.59 Kg, would be capable of scanning the entire Martian disc within six minutes. Earlier missions by other countries to Mars have detected Methane in the thin Martian atmosphere. Since Methane is known to be released by some microbes as part of their digestive process, corroborating the earlier find might turn out to be real big thing.

Besides Methane sniffer, other instruments on board include a Thermal Infrared Spectrometer, weighing 4 kg, would map the surface composition of Mars. Mars Colour Camera with a weight of 1.4 Kg would take images of the planet, whereas Lyman-alpha photometer, weighing 1.5 kg, would measure atomic hydrogen in the Martian atmosphere. The last payload on board is called The Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA) that weighs 4 Kg and would be used to study the Martian atmosphere. Weight of the total payload package is 14.49 Kg.

The payload weight is rather critical for the mission as ISRO has been forced to use trusted warhorse rocket PSLV-XL, because of its inability to launch successfully, larger GSLV rocket, since last 10 years, and has to use this light-lift, low-cost rocket. This major constraint has forced the ISRO scientists to launch the spacecraft to first orbit the Earth, and achieve the necessary velocity to escape the Earth’s gravitational pull. As a result, the spacecraft will take over 20 days just to get on to the path to Mars and require six orbit boosts whereas use of GSLV would have shortened this period to just a day. Once the MOM exitts the Earth’s orbit and embarks on the journey to Mars, it would take around 300 days to reach there.

In addition to all this, there are other challenges too. The spacecraft has to be inserted in an orbit around Mars, when it reaches there after one year. A liquid rocket engine, capable of generating a 440 Newton thrust, is on board, to steer the spacecraft into the Martian orbit. As communication with the spacecraft takes 20 minutes each way, a key challenge is to navigate the spacecraft from earth. ISRO has built for this purpose, the Deep Space Network at Baylalu on the outskirts of Bengaluru city in India. Another challenge would be to re-activate the temporary inactive sub-systems of the spacecraft once it reaches Mars after an year long journey through deep space. The spacecraft has on board, in-built systems to correct itself as communicating with it from earth would be a delayed process. For this reason, the spacecraft has its own navigation software developed by ISRO.

Many people question the logic and reason of sending such a small spacecraft to Mars, when other nations have managed to send much larger spacecrafts. However, it should be understood that a Mars mission is a mission in deep space and an entire new range of technological gains and experiences in spacecraft maneuvering are to learned. That itself is a much desired and important gain for ISRO and with this acquired experience, it would be able to launch bigger spacecrafts, when GSLV rocket becomes functional. This mission is the start or beginning of India's deep space exploration efforts and are well worth it without doubt.

13 September 2013

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