9.8.14

Mangalyaan update

As momentum steadily grows on India's rendezvous with the Red Planet, Isro on Friday took a significant step towards the do-or-die orbit insertion manoeuvre. Just 46 days before the crucial exercise, the agency readied the Mars Orbiter Mission's (MOM) medium gain antenna to be used to communicate with ground controllers.
According to Isro's Facebook post, only 14% of the historic flight remained in MOM's heliocentric arc. Officials said that on June 12, when the second trajectory correction manoeuvre was executed, a full dress rehearsal of the insertion was conducted. Only the liquid apogee motor was not fired. “We assessed every aspect, including the response of the Mars team in the mission operations control centre in Isro's telemetry tracking and command network, and we were very satisfied,“ said an official. The official said that at T-minus-10-space tech lingo for “10 days prior to insertion“ -Isro is considering another dress rehearsal.
“Right now everything is a go,“ he said. The commands for insertion will be uploaded three days prior and MOM's velocity, now 22 km per second, will be reduced by 1.6 km. On September 24, the insertion exercise with the firing of the liquid apogee motor (LAM) will be initiated around 7.15 am. During this exercise, MOM will be behind Mars, causing a communication blackout.

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