In big setback, ISRO announces death of India’s Mars Mission

India’s Mars Orbiter mission comes to an end after serving steadfastly for 8 long years in Martian orbit. The Indian Space Research Organization has confirmed that the Mangalyaan has lost communication with the ground station on October 3, 2022. The spacecraft became non-recoverable last week. Confirming the death of India’s maiden interplanetary mission i.e, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), Dr S Somanath, the chief of ISRO has said that the unmanned spacecraft had entered the end of its lifecycle.

Despite being designed for a life-span of six months, the MOM lived for about eight years in the Martian orbit. It has provided scientists with a gamut of significant scientific data on Mars as well as on the Solar corona. Mangalyaan is still in Mars orbit and its electronics may be healthy, but it cannot be operated any longer and hence declared non-functional.

The spacecraft has lost communication with the ground station, due to a long eclipse in April 2022. Launched on November 5, 2013, MOM completed 300 days of interplanetary journey and was launched to Martian orbit on September 24, 2014.

India’s MOM mission cost $74 million. The spacecraft is a tech marvel that has instruments including a color camera, a thermal infrared sensor, an ultraviolet spectrometer to study deuterium and hydrogen in the red planet’s upper atmosphere, a mass spectrometer to study neutral particles in its exosphere and a methane sensor.