[CA] India's Mangalyaan

Current Affairs

Mangalyaan

Mangalyaan

Synopsis:

(01) Mars planet – basics

(02) How far is Mars from Earth?

(03) Missions to Mars

(04) MoM Vs MAVEN

(05) India’s launch vehicle

(06) Why PSLV for Mars?

(07) MoM – Factoids

(08) Payloads of MoM

(09) Purpose of sending MoM

(10) ISTRAC

(11) Anti – arguments for Mars

(12) Pro – arguments for Mars

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(01) Mars Planet: Basics:

·        Has two moons: Phobos and Deimos

·        4th planet from Sun

·        2nd smallest planet in the Solar system after Mercury.

·        Diameter: ~6800 kms (Mars); Earth (~12700 kms)

·        Volume wise, ~8 Mars would fit inside our Earth.

·        One Martian day: 24 hours 37 minutes

·        One Martian year: 687 days

·        Mars is also tilted on its axis (25 degrees).

·        Mars gravity 1/10th of Earth.

·        When Sun and Mars are in opposite direction, it can be easily observed from Earth.

(02) How far is Mars from Earth?:

·        Shortest: 56 million kms   

·        Farthest: 400 million kms, when both are on opposite sides of solar system.

 (03) Missions to Mars:

Success	Failures
USSR Mars orbiter (70s)	USSR: Korabl series, Mars 1969 series, Phobos Grunt
USA / NASA Marine Series (1960s) Viking Series(1970s) Pathfinder (1990s) Rovers: Sprit, Opportunity (2003) Phoenix (2007) Curiosity (2011) MAVEN (2013-14)	USA  Mariner series before mid-60s
European Space Agency (2003) “Beagal lender” (although images lost)	Japan’s Nozomi- failed to enter Mars orbit (1998-2003)
ISRO’s Mars Orbitor Mission (MoM) (2013-14)

(04) MoM Vs MAVEN:

ISRO’s MoM	NASA’s MAVEN
Mars Orbitor Mission	Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission
Launch Vehicle = PSLV	Launch Vehicle = Atlas V
Launched on: Nov 05, 2013	Launched on: Nov 18, 2013
Reached Mars on Sep 24, 2014	Reached Mars on: Sep 21, 2014
Launched from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh	Launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida (USA)
Cost: Rs. 450 crore	Cost: $671 million
Weight: 1350 kg	-
Doing 3 studies: (i) Surface/Geology: using camera and spectrometer (ii) Particle Environment: using MENCA (iii) Atmosphere: using Photometer and Methane sensor	Only study Martian (upper) atmosphere Based on that data, it will give clues about Martian climate, geologic, ad geochemical conditions over time Will find the answer for, Did Mars ever had suitable environment to support life?
Has 5 instruments/payloads	Has 8 instruments/payloads
-	The spacecraft may also provide communications relay support for future Mars landers and rovers.

(05) India’s launch Vehicle:

PSLV	GSLV
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle	Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle
Can carry upto 1600 kg satellite	2500kg

(06)Why PSLV for Mars?:

·        ISRO had used PSLV XL (C25) launch vehicle to launch the Mangalyaan (Mars spacecraft).

·        At that time, GSLV tests were not successful. Last time they tried GSLV to launch GSAT-14 satellite and failed because of fuel leak. (Aug 2013)

·        Mangalyaan weighs ~1300 kg. PSLV can easily carry this weight.

·        PSLV is tried and tested technology.

(07) MoM - Factoids:

·        MoM/Mangalyaan: first Indian spacecraft to cross Earth’s escape velocity of 11.2 km per second.

·        Mangalyaan traveled for ~300 days, covering ~65 crore kilometers, and reached Martian orbit in September 2014.

·        Mangalyaan is not the fastest spacecraft to reach Mars. Others are far ahead of it, in terms of speed. For example- European Space Agency’s Mars mission (2003) reached Mars in  ~210 days.

·        MoM cost 7 rupees per kms to reach Mars.

(08) Payloads:

(09) What is the purpose of sending MoM?:

·        To find out composition of Mar’s SAM (Surface – Atmosphere – Minerals), using five payloads/instruments:

Study Mars	Payloads	Detail
Surface	Color Camera	Mars Color Camera
		Study Surface, Dust Storms, etc
		Take photos of Mar’s satellites: Phobos and Deimos
Atmosphere	MENCA	Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer
		To study neutral gas atoms in the Martian atmosphere
	Methane Sensor	Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM)
		If Methane + water detected =possible that at some point of time, Mars had supported life form
	Photometer	Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP)
		To measure hydrogen and deuterium (Deuterium: heavier than hydrogen. Water made from heavy hydrogen is heavier and hence it evaporates differently)
		Knowing Hydrogen: Deuterium ratio will help answer. How did water vanish from Mars?
Minerals	Spectrometer	Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS) – to study mineral resources of Mars

(10) ISTRAC:

·        ISRO Telemetry, Tracking & Command Network @Banglore.

·        Previously tracked and commanded Chandrayaan-1

·        Now doing the same for Mars orbiter.

(11) Anti – Arguments for Mars Mission:

·        Crores of rupee wasted- could be used to feed millions of hungry people in India. Millions of children suffering from malnutrition, half the people doesn’t have toilets- Modi himself highlighting this issue in his every speech.

·        Better get those thousands of ISRO scientists and engineers to come up with new technology to fix malnutrition and malnutrition.

·        ISRO’s budget is better spent to meet India’s communication needs and bring down digital divide.

·        Even Airtel has sued ISRO for not meeting its contract obligations. So, ISRO better focus on present rather than doing some mars research whose benefits can materialize may be after 100-200 years.

·        ISRO has installed a fancy methane detector in this spacecraft. But NASA’s curiosity rover data has already concluded that Mars environment doesn’t contain methane. ISRO is only doing donkey labour. Counter argument: NASA’s Curiosity rover measured presence of methane in a small area. But ISRO will scan entire Martian environment to detect Methane.

·        GSLV testing has not giving positive result yet. Had they waited for GSLV testing to finish- Mars Mission could be done in 2016. (Even Chandrayan-2 project is stalled due to this GSLV problem). But it seems ISRO chairman wants media publicity before retiring, so made he all the haste to launch Mars Mission in 2013 using PSLV (instead of GSLV).

·        Less of a scientific pursuit and more of a space race with China- ‘me too’ going on Mars. First India should overtake China in terms of GDP and poverty removal.

·        Britain, Japan, World Bank etc. reduce the donation to India thinking “since India has lot of money of run such Mars adventures, they must have money to take care of their poors as well.”

(12) Pro – arguments for Mars Mission:

#1: cash will be recovered

·        Many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America are seeing good economic growth. But they lack skilled manpower, technology and budget to setup their own launch vehicles and premier space agencies.

·        But they too need satellites for communication and military. So, they outsource the satellite launch/survey work to established players.

·        ISRO’s commercial Arm ANTRIX makes annual profit of ~100 crore rupees from such ‘outsourced’ contracts.

·        ISRO spent only 450 crore rupees. NASA has spent billions of dollars on Mars.  This Makes ISRO world-famous as a prudent cost saving space agency= more clients via its commercial arm ANTRIX = more money incoming.

·        So, we can see this Mars mission as ISRO’s 450 crore rupees advertisement / PR campaign- to impress those potential ‘clients’ and get more contracts=> money will be recovered and profit will be made.

#2: Did not steal from Poor’s month

·        Government spends barely ~0.35% of budget on space programs. And even out of that ~0.35% allocation, ISRO spent only 8% on Mars Missions. There are plenty of government schemes with way bigger budgetary allotments for poor people. So it’s not like government stopped/reduced expenditure on some xyz scheme for poors to fund ISRO’s Mars adventure.

·        Agreed, poverty should be removed, and everyone must get food security. But the proposed food security bill will need ~1-2 lakh crores rupees every year.

·        Even If ISRO didn’t spend 450 crores on Mars, the money thus saved- won’t make a big contribution to food security anyways.

#3: Making History

·        Until now, only three agencies had succeeded in Mars Mission

·        European Space Agency (ESA) of European consortium,

·        National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US

·        Roscosmos of Russia

·        And ISRO became the fourth one.

·        Even USA, Japan and China failed to reach mars in their first attempt.

·        Overall, 51 missions made so far, only 21 have succeeded.

·        ISRO’s Mars mission succeeded in its first attempt (that too without coaching), hence it’s a milestone in the history of space explorations.

·        Even China has applauded this event as “pride of Asia”.

#4: Misc.

·        Will attract talented desi scientist/engineers to join ISRO. Thus, brain drain will decline.

·        Data gathered from ISRO’s mission, can be used to send manned mission (astronauts) on Mars later, with collaboration of NASA etc.

·        The technology used in this mission has potential application in weather forecast, computer tech, health-medicine etc. in future.

·        Space research is not waste of time. 1990 Odisha cyclone killed >10000 people. But 2013 cyclone Phalin killed very few, because Indian satellite gave accurate weather prediction about where and when the storm would hit. Space research has given immense benefits to Agriculture, education, fisheries and defense. (Counter argument: then send more weather/education satellites- not spacecraft’s to Moon and Mars!)

·        Humanity would not have progressed, if we had not taken such leaps into the unknown. And space is indeed the biggest unknown out there.

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