India's historic Mission Mars to begin today: Can it overtake China?

India will take its next major step forward in the space programme, after the successful launch of Chandrayaan-1 in 2008, when scientists of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) launch their maiden mission to Mars on Tuesday, at 2:38pm from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.PSLV-C25, the 25th mission of PSLV and fifth in the XL configuration, will carry the 1,337 kg Mars Orbiter Satellite into a 250 km X 23,500 km elliptical orbit. The cost of the mission is Rs. 450 crore. The formal countdown for India's maiden mission to Mars began at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh at 6:08 am today. With the launch of Mangalyaan set at 2:38 pm on November 5 by the Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO, the countdown will last for nearly 56 hours. During the countdown, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) - a giant 45-metre rocket - will be fuelled and its health checked. The PSLV carrying Mangalyaan will blast off from Sriharikota, which is about 80 kilometres from Chennai.

The launch of Mangalyaan, which was scheduled for October 28 initially, was postponed due to bad weather in the Pacific Ocean. Two Indian ships, SCI Yamuna and Nalanda, which will monitor the health of the rocket and satellite as it sails over the ocean after being launched from India, had been delayed due to bad weather. In case the weather does not permit launch on November 5, the launch window is open till Novemmber 19. It is of critical importance that the Mangalyaan begins its over 200 million kilometre journey on its trans-Martian orbit latest by November 30 - any further delay could prove disastrous for the mission. This will be the first ever launch that ISRO will conduct in November at India's space port, which is usually dogged by recurring cyclones at this time of the year. The Mangalyaan mission will cost Rs. 450 crores and will study the Martian atmosphere.

The coasting phase between the third stage (PS3) burn-out and the fourth-stage (PS4) ignition is longer for this mission. The total flight duration before the Orbiter is injected is nearly 40 minutes. This is longer than the average time of 20 minutes for earlier spacecrafts. “There are several technological and scientific challenges in this mission. This is India’s first interplanetary mission. We had to calibrate our hardware to withstand a territory not experienced before,” Isro chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan said.

The spacecraft will move from the Earth’s sphere of influence and go to the heliocentric (sun-centric) orbit on December 1, 2013 at 12:42pm. It will remain in the trans-Martian orbit for nearly 300 days before finally entering the Mars orbit on September 24, 2014. It will then have to be re-oriented and slowed down to enter the Martian orbit or else it will vanish.

The Orbiter has five indigenously-designed payloads to carry different scientific experiments once it reaches the Martian atmosphere. The Methane Sensor is specifically designed to measure methane and map its sources on Mars.