New Delhi: India's first interplanetary mission completes 100 days of its voyage towards Mars on Wednesday. 

The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan, was launched into Earth orbit on board indigenous PSLV-C25 rocket at 02:38pm (0908 GMT) on November 5, 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
The orbiter which is on a 300-day journey will cover over 680 million km in an elliptical orbit and is expected to reach the Red planet on September 24, 2014. The spacecraft has travelled 190 million km so far. 
“The spacecraft health is normal. The spacecraft is continuously monitored by the ground station of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), located at Byalalu, near Bangalore. Except for a 40 minute break in the Telemetry data received from the spacecraft to the ground station, data has been continuously available for all the 100 days,” ISRO said in a statement. 

The propulsion system of the spacecraft is configured for Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCMs) and the Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) Operation. On February 6, 2014, all the five payloads on Mars Orbiter spacecraft were switched 'ON' to check their health. 

“The health parameters of all the payloads are normal. Presently, the spacecraft is at a radio distance of 16 million km causing a one way communication delay of approximately 55 seconds. After travelling the remaining distance of about 490 million km over the next 210 days, the spacecraft would be inserted into the Martian Orbit on September 24, 2014,” the agency said. 

The 350-tonne launch vehicle which orbited Earth for nearly a month ventured out of the planet’s sphere of influence on December 01, 2013, following six orbit raising manoeuvres. 

The first TCM was conducted on December 11, 2013. Three more TCM operations are planned around April 2014, August 2014 and September 2014. 

“The trajectory of the spacecraft, till today, is as expected,” the agency added. 

The Rs 450 crore mission - if successful - will allow ISRO to join an elite group of space explorers to Mars along with United States’ NASA, Russia’s Roscosmos and the Europe's space agency. The success of the mission will also make India the first Asian nation to have achieved the feat. 

The objectives of the mission are to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission and also to study the Martian surface and atmosphere using indigenous scientific instruments. 

A Singaporean earth observation satellite will be launched with an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) next year, a senior official said on Sunday. The TeLEOS-1 would be Singapore’s first commercial project on Indian Space Research organisation’s PSLV, making Near Equatorial Orbit, taking images for shipping and maritime security, Mah How Teck, Vice President for Market Development at Singapore Technologies Electronics Ltd told PTI.

ST Electronics has signed an agreement with India’s Antrix Corporation Ltd for the satellite to ride on PSLV, which would be launched into space at 550-km above the Earth at a low inclination in the fourth quarter of 2015. The 400-kg satellite is equipped with an electro-optical camera capable of taking images at ground resolution of one metre, Mah said. “It is suitable for applications such as disaster and environment monitoring, maritime safety, urban planning and homeland security,” he said, after hosting a pre-Singapore Airshow press conference.

The unique Near Equatorial Orbit allows frequent revisits to areas of interest in equatorial regions at approximately 96-minute intervals, delivering high data availability and responsiveness, Mah said. Singapore launched its first experimental satellite XSAT in April 2011 with the help of ISRO. This is their second project.

The TeLEOS-1 is a commercial project by ST Electronics and its compatriot partners Nanyang Technological University and Defence Science Organisation Laboratories, following up with the XSAT, their first research project. Mah said TeLEOS-1 would be ready for launch in the fourth quarter of next year, having completed more than 60 per cent of the project.

Meanwhile, preparations were underway for Singapore Airshow, which held pre-opening full dress rehearsal on Sunday. Staring Monday, more than 80 civilian and defence aircraft and 60 out of the top 100 aviation companies are taking part in the week-long exhibition and conferences.

TeLEOS-1 is the first commercial remote sensing satellite being developed by Singapore Technologies Electronics Limited (ST Electronics) to be launched in 2015. It has come to light that for the first time this satellite be launched on an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in collaboration with ISRO. This earth observation satellite will be moving in the orbit near to the Equator at an orbital height of about 550km and will be used for capturing images for shipping and maritime security. The TeLEOS-1 weighs about 400 kg and will have an update rate of 90 minutes and the satellite images that it provides will be of 1 metre ground sampling distance from an electro-optics camera.

ST Electronics is going to work with India's Antrix Corporation Ltd. for the satellite's launch and has signed an agreement for the same. This is not the first time that Singapore is working with India on their mission. Back in April 2011, they had launched their first experimental satellite called XSAT. So, this is their second project in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation. Partnering with ST Electronics on this project's development are Nanyang Technological University and Defence Science Organisation Laboratories. The uses of the images captured through this satellite will be used in multiple applications such as mineral exploration, environmental monitoring, agriculture resource studies and management, urban planning, precision farming and homeland security.

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As this news develops, the news has also surfaced that Singapore Technologies will be working with ATK Space Systems (the company known for building small satellites primarily for U.S. government) for development and marketing of their micro-satellite platforms globally.

The development of TeLEOS-1 satellite should be complete by the fourth quarter of 2015 and then it will become launch ready. Till then, we will keep you updated with more details about the project that shall follow.

Strengthening its advancement towards space research, India is all set to launch four foreign satellites in 2014-15 in the Earth's lower orbit, using its workhorse polar rocket, according to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sources. 

“Our commercial arm Antrix Corporation has signed agreements with a British firm Jan 29 and a Singapore agency Wednesday to launch their spacecraft onboard our polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV),” an official of the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was quoted as saying to IANS.

Engineers work with their staff next to a pyramid shaped rocket or Liquid Apogee Motor, foreground, to be installed on the Mars orbiter spacecraft, background, at the satellite center of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in Bangalore - PTI

India's Mars Orbiter Mission is slated to be launched on October 28 after a national committee of experts gave the go ahead for the Rs 450 crore ambitious venture after threadbare deliberations.

The committee held deliberations over two days on Thursday and Friday last and reviewed the status after senior Indian Space Research Organisation scientists gave an in-depth presentation on the mission.

Primary objectives of the mission are to demonstrate India's technological capability to send a satellite to orbit around Mars and conduct meaningful experiments such as looking for signs of life, take pictures of the red planet and study Martian environment.

"The committee has given the go ahead", an ISRO official told the media here on Sunday.

Former ISRO Chairman U.R. Rao, noted space expert Roddam Narasimha and Professors of Indian Institute of Science Bangalore were among those part of the eminent panel.

The October 21-November 19 launch window has now been pushed forward by a week, and it now starts on October 28 though final date of the window remains the same (Nov19).

"We would like to utilise the first available opportunity", the official said, adding, the launch can be expected on the afternoon of October 28, weather permitting. The Rs 150-crore Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft is currently underoing vibration and acoustic tests at ISRO Satellite Integration and Testing Establishment here, and is slated for shipment from here on September 30 to the Sriharikota spaceport after a pre-shipment committee review on September 26. Launch campaign has already commenced in Sriharikota spaceport from where the 1,350-kg MOM spacecraft is slated to be launched by the Rs 110 crore Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C25).

The first stage of the PSLV-C25 with strap-ons has already been assembled, with the rocket ready for satellite integration by October ten.

Amid fears of a comet (C/2013 AI) heading into the Red Planet in 2014, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has said that its Rs 450-crore Mars Orbiter Mission, scheduled to be launched in November this year will take place as per the plan.

Comet C/2013 A1, discovered on January 3 by Rob McNaught at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, is crashing into the Mars in October. Earlier, NASA has said that the chance of comet striking Mars is1 in 8,000, but now revised calculations put the possibility of an impact at just 1 in 120,000. 

“The comet could bring some constituents, but we don't expect any effect on the spacecraft. It will pass 50,000 km away from Mars’ surface. We will get more information on the comet in future and scientists are looking at all possibilities,” ISRO Chief K Radhakrishnan said. 

The Mars Orbiter will carry scientific payload consists of five instruments (weighing about 15 kg): Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM) Mars Color Camera (MCC) Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer (MENCA) TIR Spectrometer (TIS) Lyman-Alpha Photometer (LAP) 

According to ISRO, the tentative scientific objective for the Mars mission will be to focus on life, climate, geology, origin, evolution and sustainability of life on the planet. 

ISRO will launch the orbiter using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. 

The Mars Orbiter, which is expected to exit the Earth’s orbit on 27 November, will take over 300 days to travel towards the Red Planet. The orbit insertion is planned for September 2014 and would allow the spacecraft to enter a highly elliptical orbit of 500 km x 80,000 km around Mars. 

India will become the sixth country to launch a mission to Mars after the US, Russia, Europe, Japan and China. 

 A comet heading towards Mars' orbit in 2014 will not delay Isro'sRs450-croreMars Orbiter Mission, said K Radhakrishnan, chairman, Indian Space Research Organization, of the country's premier space agency, on Wednesday.

"India's Mars Orbiter is on schedule. The five instruments are ready and will be integrated soon.

The spacecraft sub systems are in the process of integration while the launch vehicle, PSLV, is also getting ready. It will be integrated from August onwards," said Radhakrishnan, at the sidelines of a national conference on 'Space Based Navigations' held at Isro Satellite Centre on Wednesday.

Comet C/2013 A1, discovered on January 3 by Rob McNaught at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, is approaching Mars at a speed of 2 lakh km/hour. There's a probability of 1 in 8,000 chance that it might strike Mars.

The Isro chief said it is yet to be studied how the comet might affect their observations.

"The comet could bring some constituents, but we don't expect any effect on the spacecraft. It will pass 50,000 km away from Mars' surface. We will get more information on the comet in future and scientists are looking at all possibilities," he said.

The Mars Orbiter, set to be launched on November 27, will take about 300 days to reach the planet, after leaving Earth's orbit. Once the satellite reaches Mars' orbit around September 2014, which is an electrical orbit of 500 km when it comes closest to mars, and 80,000 km at furthest,

a number of experiments will be conducted by Isro. Some of them are looking at Mars with a thermal infrared imaging system, and also at the possible presence and source of methane in the Martian environment.

"The Mars Orbiter Mission will essentially to prove the country's capability to reach the Martian orbit using its technology," he said.

Five Payloads of Mars Orbiter

MARS Colour Camera (MCC): Weighing 1.24 kg, it will take pictures in red, green and blue colours. It can capture a complete image of Mars in a single shot from an altitude of 80,000km. The camera will help understand the Martian dust storms or dust devils.

A Thermal Infrared Imaging System: A 4.1-kg Thermal-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer will map the surface and mineral composition of Mars. Through this, scientists will know if there is hydrothermal activity that will help locate water.

Lyman-alpha photometer: Among the other things, it will measure atomic hydrogen in Martian atmosphere.

Martian Exospheric Composition Explorer: It will study the neutral composition of the Martian upper atmosphere.

Methane Sensor for MARS: It will measure methane in the Martian atmosphere with a high level of accuracy.