Mangalyaan: A Successful Chapter in Indian Space Exploration
By Priyanka Mehta
October 08, 2022
For the First Time
Mangalyaan recognises India as the first Asian country to reach Mars' orbit, after Roscosmos, NASA, and the European Space Agency.
Image Source: Alamy
Survived a Long Journey
Mangalyaan arrived in orbit after a 300-day marathon covering over 670 million kilometres.
Image Source: Alamy
Outlived its Life
India's Mars orbiter craft passed about eight years in its orbit, well beyond its designed mission life of six months.
Image Source: Alamy
Designed to Inform
Mangalyaan was developed to demonstrate technology, achieve designing, planning, management, and operations of an interplanetary mission.
Image Source: Alamy
Explored Outer Space
Mangalyaan collected data on the Martian landscape including surface geology, morphology, atmospheric processes, surface temperature, and atmospheric escape processes.
Image Source: Alamy
Successful Space Tech Demonstration
Technological demonstration of space instruments came to reality with Mangalyaan. Instruments included Mars Colour Camera (MCC), Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS), and Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM), among others.
Image Source: Wikipedia
Interesting Space Studies
Using space instruments, Mangalyaan studied the dynamic events and weather of Mars. We could measure thermal emissions all the time and map the surface and mineral composition of Mars, levels of Methane (CH4), map neutral composition in the exosphere and more.
Image Source: Alamy
Thank You Mangalyaan
Eight years later, the mission is now over. ISRO declared the end of the most successful mission on October 2, 2022, declaring Mangalyaan as non-recoverable due to lack of fuel.
Image Source: Alamy
Always an Inspiration
Looking at the success Mangalyaan achieved, India is planning to launch a mission to study the Sun and planet Venus. We are making headway to launch Chandrayaan-3 to the Moon alongside other astronaut missions.
Image Source: Alamy