Indian
Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing up for trans-Mars
injection of the country's Mars Orbiter Mission on December 1.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing up for
trans-Mars injection of the country's Mars Orbiter Mission on December 1
and has planned four mid-course corrections in case of any deviation
along its path to Martian orbit.
"The trans-Mars injection- we
are planning to depart on December 1, 2013 early hours of 00:49 hours
IST and we are going to burn a liquid engine for duration of roughly 23
minutes which will impart an incremental velocity of 648 metres per
second consuming a fuel of 198kgs," ISRO Scientific Secretary V
Koteswara Rao told reporters in Bangalore.
He said, "Then it
travels a long path....after travelling roughly 680 million kilometres
through this path, it comes closer to Mars that is on September 24 of
next year 2014."
ISRO would closely monitor if there is any minor
deviation in the path, Rao said. "We have planned right now four
mid-course corrections; first one will be around December 11- plus or
minus a couple of days depending on the deviation how it is going."
"Second
one will be in April 2014, third one will be in August 2014 and the
last one- the fourth one will be on September 14 that is 10 days before
we insert into Martian orbit. Couple of day's uncertainty will be
there," he added.
Mars orbiter spacecraft was launched on board
PSLV rocket on November 5 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota
in Andhra Pradesh.
