India’s satellite Mangalyaan has only been orbiting Mars for a week, but already space scientists back on Earth are planning their next mission: this time in tandem with the U.S.
On Tuesday, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration signed an agreement to work with the Indian Space Research Organisation during future explorations of Mars. They also agreed to join forces in observations and scientific analysis from their respective satellites currently orbiting the red planet.
October 2nd, 2014
India, U.S. Agree to Joint Exploration of Mars The Wall Street Journal
September 29th, 2014
Dust Storm on Mars Captured by India’s Mars Orbiter IBTimes UK
The full image of Mars shown in the latest of a series of photos from India’s Mars orbiter has generated much interest within the country and in planetary circles.
While those at home chose to see an image of India on the Martian surface, at the Planetary Society the image has been welcomed for its superior detail, coming years after Hubble clicked one 11 years ago.
“A data set unlike any generated before by any other mission, the MOM’s pictures should inform public perception of Mars for years to come’, says the report.
September 25th, 2014
First pictures from Mars arrive, Mangalyaan ‘doing well’ Hindustan Times
The Mangalyaan spacecraft beamed its first photos of Mars’ crater-marked surface on Thursday, a day after India successfully put the probe into the red planet’s orbit.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) posted one of the photos, titled First Light, on its Facebook page, showing an orange surface with dark cavities, taken from a distance of 7,300 km. Isro also posted the photo on Twitter with the note, “The view is nice up here.”
An Isro team led by agency chief K Radhakrishnan met the Prime Minister in Delhi on Thursday with hard copies of all the pictures taken by the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) probe. The space agency will release all the photographs this afternoon.
September 24th, 2014
Mars Robotic Spacecraft Population Reaches New High IEEE Spectrum
September has shaped up to be a very exciting month in the annals of Mars exploration. Two new spacecraft, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission and India’s first interplanetary mission, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), have now entered orbit around the Red Planet.
The new arrivals bring the population of active Mars missions to seven—a record high, confirms Bruce Betts of The Planetary Society, a space advocacy organization. On the ground now are Opportunity, which landed in 2004, and NASA’s Curiosity rover, which recently entered its third year of operation.
MAVEN and MOM join a complement of three orbiters: NASA’s 13-year-old Mars Odyssey spacecraft, the European Space Agency’s 11-year-old Mars Express spacecraft, and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which arrived in 2006.
September 23rd, 2014
Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) from ISTRAC, Bangalore Indian Space Research Organization
September 23rd, 2014
India’s Mars orbiter set for Red Planet rendezvous (+video)
India’s first-ever mission to Mars is ready to make its historic arrival this week, hot on the heels of a NASA probe that just reached the Red Planet on Sunday.
After a 10-month trek, India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is expected to reach Mars on at 7:41 a.m. India Standard Time on Wednesday, Sept. 24 (that’s 10:11 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Sept. 23) after a firing its engine for 24 minutes to enter orbit around the planet. Confirmation of the success (or failure) of this crucial maneuver should come to ground control minutes later, mission officials have said.
India’s Mars orbiter is named Mangalyaan (Hindi for “Mars Craft”), and is in good health and ready for its Martian rendezvous, officials with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) wrote in updates on Facebook. If all goes well, India will become only the fourth country ever to send a spacecraft to Mars once the orbiter arrives.
September 18th, 2014
MAVEN spacecraft close to entering Mars orbit — and it won’t be alone
NASA says its latest Mars-exploring spacecraft is on track to fire up its thrusters and enter orbit this Sunday night, completing a 10-month journey of 442 million miles.
NASA’s MAVEN craft will live up to its formal name — the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution craft — by helping scientists figure out how ancient Mars changed so dramatically into the planet we know today.
It will be the first mission devoted to studying the upper Martian atmosphere as a key to understanding the history of Mars’ climate, water and habitability.
September 16th, 2014
Mars Orbiter Mission prepares for Mars arrival The Planetary Society
The countdown for the crucial and nerve-wracking Mars orbit insertion of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) on September 24 has kicked off. At ISRO’s telemetry, tracking and command network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore, the mood among the scientists is right now a mixture of optimism, excitement, and nervous apprehension. On September 15 at the auditorium of the Mars mission command and control centre at ISTRAC, some of the key players of this mission addressed the media about the sequence of events leading to the orbit insertion. Orbit insertion will take place 48 hours after NASA’s Mars Atmosphere And Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) enters the orbit of the Red Planet on September 22.
August 15th, 2014
Mars Orbiters Duck for Cover Sky & Telescope
As Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring hurtles toward Mars, NASA is taking steps to protect its Martian orbiters. The plan? Use the planet itself as a shield between the spacecraft and the comet’s potentially dangerous debris.
As part of its long-term Mars Exploration Program, NASA currently has two spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and Mars Odyssey, with Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) set to arrive in late September. Teams of scientists at the University of Maryland, the Planetary Science Institute, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) have used data from both Earth-based and space telescopes to model Siding Spring’s journey through the inner solar system, and determined that there is no risk of the comet colliding with Mars. However, at its closest approach to Mars on October 19, 2014, Siding Spring will come within 82,000 miles of the Red Planet, which is about a third of the distance from Earth to the Moon. The closest comets ever to whiz by Earth have been at least ten times more distant.
August 11th, 2014
Mars-Bound Probes Built by India and NASA Are Nearing the Red Planet
Two Mars-bound spacecraft are both in excellent health ahead of their September arrivals in orbit around the Red Planet, managers for both missions report.
India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is more than 80 percent of the way to Mars and performing well, according to a Facebook update posted July 21 by the Indian Space Research Organization. MOM is expected to enter orbit on Sept. 14.
The second craft, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN), is also performing well. MAVEN is scheduled to embark on its final approach to the Red Planet on Sept. 21, one week after MOM’s arrival, principal investigator Bruce Jakosky said. After months of checkouts and tests, the spacecraft will now be left quiet until close to the big day.