The Mangalyaan mission was launched by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) under the presence the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 5 November 2013 and the orbiter entered in the orbit almost after nine months of journey on 24 September, 2014. All up, it’s estimated that it cost about million, compared to NASA’s 1 million Maven Mars orbiter mission, which launched at around the same time.
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Earlier this year, India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has also beamed back high resolution pictures of prominent Martian landmarks including the Aurorae Chaos, a part of chaos terrain which comprises irregular flat topped blocks several kilometres across.
According to Isro, the pictures were taken by the Mars Colour Camera over Ophir Chasma which is part of a canyon onMars. It can still survive for years in the Martian orbit with the 39 kilograms of fuel that it still present in its fuel tanks.
“The word chasma has been designated by the global Astronomical Union to refer to an elongate, steepsided depression”, ISRO said.
Five active spacecrafts are now orbiting the Red Planet, including Mangalyaan from India.
Snapped from the height of almost 2,000 km by the Mars Coloured Camera, Valles Marineris is the largest-known canyon complex in the solar system. The MOM also went into the 15-day blackout phase during solar eclipse when Sun intervened between Mars and Earth. Its wall contains many layers and the floors contain large deposits of layered materials. The Opir Chashma is about 62 km wide and is bordered by high-walled cliffs. The images showed signs of fluvial activity, which means that water or similar substances could have flowed there sometime in the past.
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The project’s primary objective is to serve as a demonstration of India’s ability to develop and implement interplanetary space technology simultaneously also targeting at accumulating data from Mars.
