
Mangalyaan, India's Mars Orbiter, has successfully commenced its journey to Mars - middleclick
http://www.isro.gov.in/mars/updates.aspx
======
swatkat
Congratulations to ISRO. I was up all night following ISRO's updates :)

Mission homepage:
[http://www.isro.org/mars/home.aspx](http://www.isro.org/mars/home.aspx)

Here are some pics from ISTRAC (ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network)
that was looking over the Trans Mars Injection, and the spacecraft itself:
[http://www.isro.org/mars/momimg.aspx](http://www.isro.org/mars/momimg.aspx)

Here's a color picture of Earth captured by MOM last week:
[http://www.isro.gov.in/pslv-c25/Imagegallery/mom-
images.aspx](http://www.isro.gov.in/pslv-c25/Imagegallery/mom-images.aspx)

Launch photos of PSLV-XL:
[http://www.isro.org/pslv-c25/Imagegallery/launchvehicle.aspx](http://www.isro.org/pslv-c25/Imagegallery/launchvehicle.aspx)

Differences between NASA MAVEN and ISRO MOM trajectories:
[http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-
lakdawalla/2013/1122094...](http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-
lakdawalla/2013/11220947-maven-mom-trajectory-explainer.html)

Here's a nice animation detailing the trajectories of MOM and MAVEN, in their
heliocentric and geocentric phases:
[http://sankara.net/mom.html](http://sankara.net/mom.html)

Before jumping to heliocentric orbit, ISRO did a series of interesting orbit-
raising maneuvers to build necessary escape velocity to escape from Earth's
sphere of influence. Here are the details:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Orbiter_Mission#Orbit_rais...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Orbiter_Mission#Orbit_raising_manoeuvres)
and
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Orbiter_Mission#Mission_pr...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Orbiter_Mission#Mission_profile)

Now, MOM has left geocentric orbit and is now in heliocentric (Sun-centric)
orbit heading towards Mars. MOM has now entered inter-planetary space. When
MOM comes close to Mars in Sep 2014, its rocket motor will be fired to move
spacecraft into Mars orbit and get captured by Mars gravity. During this
journey, ISRO has planned for four mid-course corrections if needed.

~~~
vardhanw
I saw a reference to the [interplanetary transport
network]([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Transport_Networ...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Transport_Network))
sometime back, and wanted to confirm if that is the only/best way to travel
between planets and is that what the MOM is doing, i.e. it has entered into
one of those paths where it does not need to spend any energy till it reaches
nearby Mars.

~~~
Pinckney
No, the ITN isn't the only way to travel, and it's not what MOM is using. It's
just doing a Hohmann transfer, which is just about the most basic orbital
maneuver possible. The ITN is the clever, sneaky way to travel between planets
with a shoestring fuel budget by bouncing around chaotically. It can be
better, but it does tend to take a whole lot longer.

Note that even a standard Hohmann doesn't need to spend any fuel until arrival
(aside from minor course corrections). But with the ITN, it's potentially
cheaper to achieve certain chaotic trajectories than it is to change the orbit
enough for a Hohmann.

------
chattoraj
Before someone makes the inevitable "Why are they spending money on this
instead of fixing poverty?" argument:

The whole Mars mission costs about as much as making four Bollywood movies.

[http://www.firstpost.com/india/ten-price-tags-to-put-isro-
ma...](http://www.firstpost.com/india/ten-price-tags-to-put-isro-mars-mission-
cost-in-perspective-1213429.html)

~~~
monsterix
Both Bollywood and Mangalyan are a distraction from the core issues, poverty
being one of them. Why do people react to criticism that is inevitable for
such a mission?

In my opinion, space probe to Mars is a good idea for space engineers and for
the idea of adventure, it should be nurtured. But the moment the Indian
Government a$$holes (who have eaten up more than 10000X that amount which a
Mangalyan costs) and their media toots start projecting this achievement of
engineers as their own "moment of glory" and a proof towards India becoming a
global superpower, everything falls flat on the face.

There should be no doubt that poverty IS the biggest challenge for us (I am an
Indian) to work on, and there are people with achievements in rural tech to
help people over with just that. No space wizardry, just basic engineering.
Heroism, inspiration and aspiration should be centred and drawn around those
people too, India needs it more.

~~~
jlmorton
And this is part of working on poverty, in India and everywhere else. Forget
all the other reasons. People need inspiration, and this is one way to provide
it. The payoff may not be immediate, but it will come.

~~~
XorNot
They also need local jobs in high-tech industries, rather then a continuous
brain-drain off to Western nations.

India's poverty also has very little to do with "lack of money" as does
poverty everywhere - i.e. why does the US have poverty, despite it's
incredible wealth?

------
allochthon
Images of the spacecraft and facilities here:
[http://www.isro.gov.in/pslv-c25/Imagegallery/satellite.aspx](http://www.isro.gov.in/pslv-c25/Imagegallery/satellite.aspx).

------
balakk
So does this mean we just sit back & watch for 10 months? Or can something go
wrong after this as well?

~~~
kens
Here's a summary of Mars missions and their success/failure:
[http://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/log/](http://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/log/)

Lots can go wrong on the Mars side. E.g. Mars Polar Lander - smashed into
Mars. Beagle 2 - last heard from just before landing. Mars Climate Orbiter -
failed to land because of confusion between pounds and Newtons. Deep Space 2 -
no communication after landing. Mars Observer - communication lost 3 days from
Mars, probably due to fuel leak.

See "Mars Curse":
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Mars#Probing_dif...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Mars#Probing_dif..).

~~~
pavel_lishin
Venus seems to be much more cursed than Mars - at least when it comes to
Soviet probes trying to take photos.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera#Venera_9_to_12](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera#Venera_9_to_12)

~~~
narrator
Venus isn't the nicest play in the galaxy with surface pressure 92x earth and
a temperature of 462 C and all.

------
rrich
This is awesome news. It's great to now have so many countries doing space
exploration. Can't wait to see what they find.

------
caycep
Nice that they are spending Indian taxpayer money on science! (I am biased
towards robotic missions vs. getting ppl into orbit at all costs)

~~~
linux_devil
I pay tax in India but I am happy for this mission but it causes more pain
when my money goes into the pockets of corrupt politicians. It's not the
country which is poor, it's the corrupt politicians and bureaucracy. Refer to
list of Indian scams :
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_in_India](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_in_India)
, now annual scam every year is worth $20 billion , I wonder why people are
not criticizing the administration and corruption but ISRO.

~~~
bayesianhorse
The problem is not so much that countries like India do not have honest,
competent politicians, but rather how to tell them apart.

Fighting corruption needs transparency and a system that prevents corruption
rather than punishing it.

------
TIJ
I was reading an article somewhere when i came across this stat: that
americans have spent 10 times as much as indians have put in this mars probe,
i mean how is this possible 10x ratio doesn't seem to be justifying either
india is real cheap when it comes to scientific instruments or americans are
overspending... and former case doesn't look like a possibility considering
that mostly the government companies are manufacturing the spare parts for
such missions btw i would like to congratulate the Indians if that stat holds
any truth.

~~~
fuhrer1996
Worth looking at: [http://www.quora.com/Robert-Frost-Quora-user/What-are-
Robert...](http://www.quora.com/Robert-Frost-Quora-user/What-are-Robert-
Frosts-views-on-the-significantly-low-cost-of-Indias-Mars-Orbiter-Mission)

~~~
rttlesnke
Read the answer and the comments on it. What do experts have to say about
this?

~~~
fuhrer1996
Well, Robert Frost /is/ an expert. He works at NASA. But I guess he was in a
bit of a bad mood. That whole month, he kept getting A2A's about MOM.

------
nsimmons
That's so awesome! They need a better web designer for their site though. That
brown background is just horrible.

~~~
parennoob
I'm Indian, and would like to start a gallery of "ghastly Indian government
websites". If you want to gaze in horrified fascination at the train wreck of
execrable blink tags, long scrolling marquees, and millions of unintelligible
categories, go look at:

Delhi Govt.: [http://delhi.gov.in/](http://delhi.gov.in/)

BSNL (a leading public sector telco):
[http://www.bsnl.co.in/](http://www.bsnl.co.in/)

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre:
[http://barcrecruit.gov.in/](http://barcrecruit.gov.in/)

Nehru Science Centre:
[http://www.nehrusciencecentre.gov.in/](http://www.nehrusciencecentre.gov.in/)

Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research:
[http://www.igcar.ernet.in/](http://www.igcar.ernet.in/)

This being said, I feel pretty good about the fact that ISRO and others'
ramshackle websites don't seem to be too indicative of their technical
prowess, though they are undoubtedly embarrassing.

[Possibly jingoistic downvoters -- do you actually think these websites are
decent, or even half-decent? Be honest.]

~~~
coofluence
Government website in India are terrible. Most are built by NIC (National
Informatics Center). That works just like an employment scheme with lots of
entry-level employees.

------
imahboob
Hate it when capitalistic countries and their residents start pointing out to
poverty in India when ever the see a smaller country out doing them in
technology. investing in these technologies helps hundreds of engineers and
also sows the seed of ambition in millions of others.

~~~
plaban123
Boy its not a smaller country. It will explode some day with people.

------
ams6110
Had no idea this was even underway.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Me neither. I vaguely defend myself by noting that HN seems to be fairly US-
centric, and since I live in the US, I tend to hear more about things like
SpaceX launches (watched the two aborted ones this week) than I do about the
Indian, Chinese or Japanese space programs.

~~~
austinz
You're in luck - Chang'e 3 launches tomorrow
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e_3](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e_3)),
and assuming it doesn't blow up en route to orbit you'll probably hear more
about it (especially as it's forecast to be the first spacecraft in decades to
make a soft landing upon the Moon).

~~~
pavel_lishin
Damn, is there video being streamed anywhere?

Edit: I guess it already took off by the time I saw this.

------
VladRussian2
Chak De! India.

------
neil_s
What does this actually mean for non-experts in Astronomy? Is it in a higher
orbit around Earth, has it started a slingshot for Mars, or has it started
orbiting Mars?

~~~
swatkat
It means, MOM has left Earth's sphere of influence, and it's now orbiting in a
heliocentric (Sun-centric) orbit. Later in Sep 2014, when MOM comes close to
Mars, its rocket motors will be fired again in order to move towards Mars
orbit and get captured by Mars gravity.

------
judk
Is this a science project, or a status project? Science would be best, but
even as a status project, better Mars Orbiter than more nuclear warheads.

~~~
swatkat
It's a technology development and demonstration, _and_ science project. This
is the first inter-planetary mission for ISRO, and the next step after their
2009 Moon mission, Chandrayaan-1 :)

[http://www.isro.org/mars/objectives.aspx](http://www.isro.org/mars/objectives.aspx)

[http://www.isro.org/mars/payload.aspx](http://www.isro.org/mars/payload.aspx)

------
bayesianhorse
This announcement makes me want to play more KSP ...

------
ashray5
unrelated comment triggered by looking at the link, why are Indian websites at
large so crappy and appear to be from 1990s? Just like with the insane lawless
vehicle traffic, people have become used to crappy websites in India.

~~~
sn41
1\. Ignorance of the administrators - the programmers in the institutes, if
any, have to listen to the design ideas of the administrators even when the
programmers are more competent and up-to-date. The administrators may be
competent in their own areas, but they have to be listened to at all costs.

2\. The programmers in these institutes are often sidelined, and their work is
seen as inessential. So, many of them lack motivation to update their skills.
Regular "refresher courses" to update skill-sets are hardly ever funded.

3\. There are a lot of restrictions to government companies outsourcing work
to private companies - in general it is very difficult for government
companies' funds to flow to private companies - for example, all govt.
employees have to fly Air India, even when other airline tickets are cheaper.
In things like website development, this means that it is hard (not
impossible) to subcontract the work to a non-government agency. Also, the
private subcontractors who do get the projects leave after 3 years or so,
since there is no maintenance contract built-in. The maintenance contractors
who come in later have no idea what the existing code base is.

Overall, I think this is a system designed to minimize corruption. Please see
a related analysis on the healthcare.gov debacle - "Furthermore, many of the
procurement policies that make access to services like AWS difficult have been
put in place to prevent corrupt or unjust spending of taxpayers’ money.
Unfortunately many of these policies have become so complicated that the
issues get obfuscated, they repel innovative and cost effective solutions, and
ultimately fail to achieve their original intent. " [1]

The policy does a bad job at preventing corruption, anyway. But especially in
the case of a fast-changing technology like web development, it is a
ridiculous hurdle. (No, I am not a programmer, just an exasperated government
employee in India, who is aghast that so much of talent in the country is not
allowed to be used just because of ill-made legislation. I am not a fan of
vigilante activism either - they have no idea of the kind of policy fetters
that people have to deal with in government.)

[1] [http://www.civicagency.org/2013/10/learning-from-the-
healthc...](http://www.civicagency.org/2013/10/learning-from-the-healthcare-
gov-infrastructure/)

------
imahboob
A new cold war in space race has begun..

