The Indian Space Research Organisation as revealed that it will be carrying out a manoeuvre next year on Mars Orbiter in order to reduce the impact of an “eclipse duration” to allow the spacecraft “survive” for more time.
Slated for a life of just six months initially, the Mars Orbiter has survived much longer and has completed two years of operations just recently. ISRO has made available a lot of first year observation data that was beamed by the five instruments aboard the Orbiter.
ISRO revealed in a statement that the event will happen sometime early next year and it is being carried out to reduce the impact of the eclipse duration the satellite is going to encounter. Because all the instruments onboard the Orbiter function through power from battery in the satellite, it is imperative that special arrangements are made to ensure that battery can be recharged and the satellite lasts longer. The manoeuvre is being carried out with the intention of reducing the impact of eclipse duration.
The MOM, also called Mangalyaan, was successfully launched on November 5, 2013 by ISRO’s PSLV-C25 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre. After a 300-day journey in deep space, it was successfully inserted into Martian orbit on September 24, 2014.
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