India gears up for Mars mission Photogallery

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Sleepless Indian space scientists on Sunday began the process of 'waking up' the engine of the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft for a four-seco

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Three days later, it will be put to its ultimate test — firing for 24 minutes to slow down the MOM and inject it into the Martial orbit. Should they pull it off, India will be the first country to do so on debut.

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MOM, hurtling at a speed of 82,000kmph, has been idling for about 300 days since it left the Earth's influence on November 30, 2013.

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MOM project director S Arunan said the test-firing would take the spacecraft, moving at a speed of about 22km per second, away from the trajectory by more than 100km, but this would be factored in to the final Martian orbital injection on September 24.

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MOM would be reaching the Martian orbit two days after the US orbiter MAVEN. With the ingenuous sling-shot approach, India has been able to send the orbiter to Mars at Rs450 crore, which is 10 times less than the cost of the Nasa mission. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said India could launch this mission at the cost of the Hollywood film 'Gravity'.

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Once in orbit around the red planet, MOM will study its atmosphere, mineralogy and morphology. More than the results of the scientific studies, the mission will serve as a starting point for India's interplanetary exploration.

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