MOM is 6 months old, camera captures beautiful Mars images

India's Mars mission on Tuesday completed six months in space and the Indian Space Research Organisation uploaded five images captured recently by Mangalyaan on social media.

India's Mars mission on Tuesday completed six months in space and the Indian Space Research Organisation uploaded five images captured recently by Mangalyaan on social media.According to official sources, more than 600 images have been captured so far and the data received from the payloads is being analysed.

One of the images shows a three dimensional view of the central portion of Valles Marineris, a system of canyons that runs along the Martian surface. The highs and lows of the canyon can be seen in the image.Another one is a high resolution image of an impact crater taken by Mars Colour Camera from an altitude of 366 km.

The Rs 450-crore project, which is the world's cheapest space mission was launched on November 5, 2013 aboard PSLV rocket C25. And when Mangalyaan entered the Mars orbit on September 24 last year, India created history by becoming the first country to succeed on its maiden mission when Isro's Mangalyaan slipped into the Martian orbit.India joined the United States, European Space Agency and the former Soviet Union in the elite club of Martian explorers with the Mars Orbiter Mission, affectionately called MOM.

Mars Colour Camera on board the mission has been taking spectacular pictures of the surface of Mars, including mountains and dead volcanoes, and sending the images back to earth.

After entering the Martian orbit, MOM had sent several pictures of the Red Planet including dust storm activities and of Phobos - the larger and closer of the two natural satellites of Mars. The pictures were released by the Indian space agency on its official Facebook and Twitter account.