ISRO's Mangalyaan to prevent communication break in long-duration eclipse

Scientists of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have successfully realigned the orbit of the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) Mangalyaan. The realignment was first announced in August last year and after ISRO said that correction in Mangalyaan, Mars Orbiter Mission was necessary.

The corrections were necessary to reduce the impact on eclipse, which is responsible for seeing Mars cast the shadow on the satellite.

It was realigned so that satellite is not affected by long-duration eclipse, said ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar on Thursday.

ISRO Chairman also said that work on ISRO's ambitious South Asia satellite project has begun. The satellite is expected to be launched by March this year, he said.

"The duration of the eclipse was so long that had we done nothing, the Mangalyaan's battery capacity would have got exhausted due to lack of sun rays. No effect of the eclipse was felt on Mangalyaan yesterday.

"On the evening of January 17, we manoeuvred to change the orbit of Mangalyaan and reduced the duration of eclipse," Kumar told reporters here on sidelines of Gujarat Technological University's convocation.

"The experiment was successful. The spacecraft still has 30kg fuel left, and with realignment we expect it to work for a very long time to come," he said.

The correction in the trajectory of Mangalyaan was required to keep the power supply strong during the eclipse - caused by shadow of Mars falling on it for 7-8 hours - so that it could continue to function longer, as Mangalyaan's battery cannot support long-duration eclipse.

Kumar also said work on ISRO's ambitious South Asia satellite project has begun. The satellite is expected to be launched by March this year, he said.

"Work on assembly of rocket has begun and we expect to launch it by March. The satellite will be carried on GSLV Mark II. The satellite will have provisions for telecommunication and disaster monitoring, among others," he said.

"Experiment works on Chandrayaan II are on. We are testing soft landing engines at Mahendragiri and a place in Karnataka by simulating lunar surface. We plan to launch it in the first half of 2018," he said.

He also informed that work on 'Chandrayaan II' has begun and the satellite is expected to be launched in the first half of 2018.