One day after its historic launch, the first post -launch manoeuvre of the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is scheduled to take place at 01:17am on Thursday for raising the orbit.
“We are confident that this will happen as has been planned,” Dr M Annadurai who is part of the team tracking the Orbiter from the ground station said.
The firings of the 440 Newton engine onboard the Mars Orbiter will be done to raise the orbit. This will last for less than 7 minutes and will raise the orbit to around 5000-28,700 km.”
Following this, there would be a series of firings scheduled for November 8, 9 11 and 16.
The next crucial event is on December 1 at 0042 hours when it will move out of the sphere of the earth’s influence and move to the trans Martian orbit, where it will remain for 300 days. Finally on September 24, 2014, it will move towards the Mars orbit.
MOM is presently in an Earth parking orbit of approximately 250 by 23500 km.
{{/usCountry}}MOM is presently in an Earth parking orbit of approximately 250 by 23500 km.
{{/usCountry}}Now that the spacecraft has been placed in its parking orbit, the action has shifted to ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) which will monitor, control, navigate and control the spacecraft.