Mangalyaan: ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 07 Dec 2013 22:14

NASA eyes can be downloaded that gives MOM's position

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 08 Dec 2013 07:29

Abhaey wrote:My latest article may be of interest to you:

Mars is a 'Red' Herring: Why India's Space Programme Is a Global Role Model

superb artilce.
also have read your other articles on India earlier.
eagerly awaiting your articles.
you give a positive flavor to whatever you write. kudos.
Havent see you post often though you joined long time.

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 08 Dec 2013 19:18

prasannasimha wrote:NASA eyes can be downloaded that gives MOM's position

Can you please give the link- am having trouble finding it through Google!( eg when I type NASA MOM/Mangalyaan tracking, old info comes up).

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 08 Dec 2013 19:38

Varoon Shekhar wrote:
prasannasimha wrote:NASA eyes can be downloaded that gives MOM's position
Can you please give the link- am having trouble finding it through Google!( eg when I type NASA MOM/Mangalyaan tracking, old info comes up).

I think he means this

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 08 Dec 2013 21:32

Thanks, I downloaded the software. The graphics are nice, but it is very difficult to find the distance of MOM at any one time. It should be very easy, as 1, 2, 3, for the layman, but it is not. By clicking on the MOM image, that itself should tell you the distance, or failing that, an easy second click or something. Still cannot find the distance!

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 09 Dec 2013 09:43

Small steps to Mars are a big leap for Indian companies

New Delhi: Indian companies that built most of the parts for the country's recently launched Mars mission are using their low-cost, high-tech expertise in frugal space engineering to compete for global aerospace, defence and nuclear contracts worth billions.

Mangalyaan spacecraft was launched last month and then catapulted from Earth orbit on December 1, clearing an important hurdle on its 420 million mile journey to Mars and putting it on course to be the first Asian mission to reach the red planet.

The venture has a price tag of just Rs. 450 crore, roughly one-tenth the cost of Maven, NASA's latest Mars mission. Two-thirds of the parts for the Indian probe and rocket were made by domestic firms like Larsen & Toubro, the country's largest engineering firm, Godrej & Boyce, and state plane-maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

While such companies have a long way to go before they can attract big business in the commercial space sector, years of work on home-grown space projects are helping them carve out a niche as suppliers of precision parts for related sectors like defence, aeronautics and nuclear energy.

Those firms with proven space know-how will find themselves with the advantage as India, the world's biggest arms importer, shells out $100 billion over a decade to modernise its military with the country favouring local sources.

India in June strengthened a defence policy stipulating that local firms must be considered first for contracts and foreign companies winning contracts worth more than Rs. 300 crore must "offset" at least 30 per cent of the deal's value in India.

"We think over the next two to three years we will be able to convert this into a profit centre," said S. M. Vaidya, the business head of Godrej's aerospace division, which made the rocket's engine and fuel-powered thrusters for the Indian Mars probe.

Thanks to the space work, the company's engineers now know how to handle the specific metal alloys and the high-precision welding needed for aircraft and missiles as well as rockets, Vaidya added.

Godrej has worked with India's space agency for almost three decades and in recent years started making engine parts for aircraft makers Boeing Co, the Airbus unit of EADS and Israel's state-owned Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd. It is in talks with Boeing to make parts for aircraft frames.

Home-grown, go it alone

India launched its domestic space program 50 years ago and had to develop its own rocket technology after Western powers levied sanctions in response to a 1974 nuclear weapons test, resulting in a "go it alone" development mentality.

The Indian Space Research Organisation, or ISRO, has worked to keep import costs low by designing most of the parts for its programme that are then outsourced to the domestic private sector.

ISRO must still import some metal alloys used in the space programme that it then gives to its contractors and Indian companies also must buy some of the machinery needed to make the parts from Europe and Japan.

India's heavy reliance on domestic companies for its space programme allows it to tap homegrown technicians and engineers who earn half as much as those in the West. Starting salaries for aerospace engineers in India are at most $2,000 per month, according to Indian recruitment consultancy TeamLease. The same role in the United States brings in about $5,300 on average, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

"The commercial value of the business with ISRO is not high, it is the spin-offs that are valuable," said M. V. Kotwal, president of the heavy engineering division at Larsen & Toubro, which has made $5.7 million in parts for ISRO in recent years.

L&T has also supplied $240 million worth of parts so far to ITER, an inter-governmental science experiment that is building a thermonuclear reactor in southern France.

Godrej earlier this year won a deal to build a frame for the world's largest optical telescope in collaboration with University of California, the California Institute of Technology, and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy.

Walchand Nagar Industries, a Pune-headquartered company that made Rs. 10 crore worth of parts for India's Mars rocket, said the project helped it win contracts worth double that amount for a state-run nuclear plant in Gujarat.

Copyright: Thomson Reuters 2013

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 09 Dec 2013 21:41

Varoon Shekhar wrote:Thanks, I downloaded the software. The graphics are nice, but it is very difficult to find the distance of MOM at any one time. It should be very easy, as 1, 2, 3, for the layman, but it is not. By clicking on the MOM image, that itself should tell you the distance, or failing that, an easy second click or something. Still cannot find the distance!

Agreed this is not very intuitive. You have to click on MOM and right click and use measure distance and click on earth.

juvva · Post by **juvva** » 10 Dec 2013 21:38

just a reminder:

do plan for an early cup of strong coffee on a wintery morning.

coming up, mid course correction manoeuvre #1 @ 6:30 AM IST tomorrow ( 11th Dec. 2013).

vdutta · Post by **vdutta** » 10 Dec 2013 22:29

So how far is MoM from Dharti Maa?

I downloaded that software but it keeps on crashing on my computer

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 11 Dec 2013 00:40

vdutta wrote:So how far is MoM from Dharti Maa?

I downloaded that software but it keeps on crashing on my computer

As of yesterday from the NASA site, it was over 1.6 million miles( Added:2.9 million miles now, from ISRO's facebook page) away from earth, and counting of course.Moving away at over 7000 miles per hour. That has to be one of the most user-unfriendly softwares I have ever seen!

harbans · Post by **harbans** » 11 Dec 2013 00:49

So how far is MoM from Dharti Maa?

From what i read it does ~32 km/sec. So 3600x32x24= 2,764,800 km/ day.
It's done some 10 days since escape velocity time.
300 days to cover 480 million Km..Which approximates 1.6 million km a day.
As it's not heading direct to Mars and taking an orbit round the sun and intersecting it in Sept..
What is it's relative distance from Earth..i wish they were posting that info on a regular basis. Will have lots of enthusiasts checking.

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 11 Dec 2013 01:07

^
If the ISRO facebook info is accurate, the spacecraft is now 2.9 million miles away, or 4,667,097.6 km. This is of course changing every second!

SSSalvi · Post by **SSSalvi** » 11 Dec 2013 05:58

It is 11 12 13 today.

ISRO has carried out 1st attitude control maneuver for proper orientation.

This is carried out with 22N thrusters.

s/c was 2.9 million Kms from Earth and one way delay in communication at this distance is about 10 sec

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 11 Dec 2013 05:58

Craft oriented and ready for trajectory correct on maneuver

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 11 Dec 2013 06:03

TCM started 44 second burn

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 11 Dec 2013 06:04

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 11 Dec 2013 06:05

TCM completed succesfully

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 11 Dec 2013 06:17

MOM at first TCM

Is it possible to post an image directly from ones computer instead of uploading it on some site ?

SSSalvi · Post by **SSSalvi** » 11 Dec 2013 06:38

^^^

BRF posting editor for members does not allow posting from your computer. ( May be that is - correctly - a privilege for site administrator ).

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 11 Dec 2013 06:43

SSSalvi wrote:^^^

BRF posting editor for members does not allow posting from your computer. ( May be that is - correctly - a privilege for site administrator ).

Thanks

vdutta · Post by **vdutta** » 11 Dec 2013 10:40

Varoon Shekhar wrote:
vdutta wrote:So how far is MoM from Dharti Maa?

I downloaded that software but it keeps on crashing on my computer
As of yesterday from the NASA site, it was over 1.6 million miles( Added:2.9 million miles now, from ISRO's facebook page) away from earth, and counting of course.Moving away at over 7000 miles per hour. That has to be one of the most user-unfriendly softwares I have ever seen!

Thanks for the info.

First TCM is complete, I wish ISRO was more proactive in spreading out information.

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 11 Dec 2013 15:01

[/quote] First TCM is complete, I wish ISRO was more proactive in spreading out information.[/quote]

They are having a very active facebook page and give nearly 'real time' information during events wrt MOM.They inform us when the spacecraft is rotated to fire the thrusters and when the TCM was done etc etc.

vdutta · Post by **vdutta** » 11 Dec 2013 17:43

prasannasimha wrote: First TCM is complete, I wish ISRO was more proactive in spreading out information.

They are having a very active facebook page and give nearly 'real time' information during events wrt MOM.They inform us when the spacecraft is rotated to fire the thrusters and when the TCM was done etc etc.

Facebook is very informal. If you check the news and press release on their site it is horrible. Updates are too few and far between.

Even the media gets the information from the FB page which is not professional.

Its hard to find much about MOM from ISRO official sources.

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 11 Dec 2013 19:12

Is it possible to post an image directly from ones computer instead of uploading it on some site ?

You can.

The problem is that the URL that you provide (in BR) will need an IP to your computer, then the path to the file you want to display here. Once you overcome those problems (security, permissions), then comes the kicker - BR has to have permanent access to your machine (you cannot shut it down) - else we will not see what you posted all the time.

Just upload it somewhere where someone else has figured out all these and other issues.

SSSalvi · Post by **SSSalvi** » 11 Dec 2013 21:15

^^^
I had faced this problem long ago.

Uploaded from a free picture hosting site. When reached free limit I deleted images from that site and those images disappeared from BRF.

Now I upload from my blog

.

Victor · Post by **Victor** » 11 Dec 2013 23:22

On Twitter, ISRO reported the start of the 44-second burn but on Facebook, ISRO says it was completed after only 40.5 seconds. Maybe MOM was closer on track then expected.

Next trajectory correction burn is in April followed by another in August and a final one in September for fine-tuning just before main thruster burn for Mars orbit insertion.

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 12 Dec 2013 09:27

It was clarified in Facebook. The expected maximum burn was 44 seconds. The feedback loop of the accelerometer determines the ultimate duration of firing at it needed 40.5 seconds to achieve the correction. These are the variables that are "expected " but actually controlled real time by the thrusters. This was not unexpected.

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 12 Dec 2013 09:31

One thing about TCM's is that they can intentionally be planned so that the secondary stages which are now free coasting do not enter into the sphere of influence of the targeted body.

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 12 Dec 2013 09:31

One thing about TCM's is that they can intentionally be planned so that the secondary stages which are now free coasting do not enter into the sphere of influence of the targeted body.

juvva · Post by **juvva** » 14 Dec 2013 20:03

prasannasimha wrote:One thing about TCM's is that they can intentionally be planned so that the secondary stages which are now free coasting do not enter into the sphere of influence of the targeted body.

In the case of MOM there is no booster stage following it to Mars, as MOM did TMI all by itself using its built in LAM. The 4th stage of PSLV was left in Earth orbit.

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 15 Dec 2013 08:12

Yes in the case of MOM it could not take that path because of the multiple orbit raising maneuvers independent of the 4th stage which precludes that happening.The PSLV debris should be decaying or burnt up by now. Anyone knows the NORAD ID of the PSLV C25 Debris ?

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 15 Dec 2013 14:45

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 15 Dec 2013 14:48

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 15 Dec 2013 18:06

Another interesting bit of info: The distance between MOM and Earth is 35 lakh( 3.5 million) km as of yesterday, or even day before, but the actual distance MOM has travelled so far is much more. Earth is also moving relative to MOM. Some laymen may mistake the 3.5 million km as the distance MOM has gone in its journey!

SriKumar · Post by **SriKumar** » 15 Dec 2013 19:10

prasannasimha wrote:Yes in the case of MOM it could not take that path because of the multiple orbit raising maneuvers independent of the 4th stage which precludes that happening .

As I understand it, MOM had multiple orbit raising maneuvers _because_ it did not have a booster to power it, and not the other way round. If MOM had a more powerful booster (like MAVEN's Centaur), orbit raising maneuvers would have been not needed.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-la ... ainer.html

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 15 Dec 2013 21:11

It used the Oberth effect to raise the orbit and increase the velocity at perigee succesfully.The same was done for Chandrayaan.

vdutta · Post by **vdutta** » 16 Dec 2013 20:49

9 crore miles, approx 15.5 crore kms

SSSalvi · Post by **SSSalvi** » 17 Dec 2013 09:59

prasannasimha wrote:Yes in the case of MOM it could not take that path because of the multiple orbit raising maneuvers independent of the 4th stage which precludes that happening.The PSLV debris should be decaying or burnt up by now. Anyone knows the NORAD ID of the PSLV C25 Debris ?

Not yet decayed.

ID:2013-060B NORAD :39371

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 17 Dec 2013 18:29

^^

V. Dutta, can you say how far from the surface of the Sun, Mangalyaan is? Thanks in advance!

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 17 Dec 2013 22:00

Mars Maven and MOM
MOM is 145.4 million Kms away from the Sun