• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) confirmed that the Mars Orbiter craft has lost communication with ground station, it is non-recoverable and the Mangalyaan mission has attained end-of-life. 

• The ISRO gave an update on the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) and the national meet held on September 27 to commemorate the MOM, on the event of completion of its eight years in the Martian orbit. 

• It was also discussed that despite being designed for a life-span of six months as a technology demonstrator, the MOM has lived for about eight years in the Martian orbit with a gamut of significant scientific results on Mars as well as on the Solar corona, before losing communication with the ground station, as a result of a long eclipse in April 2022.

India’s Mangalyaan

• Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), the maiden interplanetary mission of ISRO, launched on November 5, 2013, by PSLV-C25 got inserted into the Martian orbit on September 24, 2014, in its first attempt. 

• ISRO became the fourth space agency to successfully send a spacecraft to Mars orbit.

• MOM is credited with many laurels such as cost-effectiveness, short period of realisation, economical mass-budget, miniaturisation of five heterogeneous science payloads, etc. 

• Equipped with five scientific payloads onboard, during these eight years, the mission has given significant scientific understanding on the Martian surface features, morphology, as well as the Martian atmosphere and exosphere.

The five scientific payloads were:

i) Mars Colour Camera (MCC) to provide images and information about the surface features and composition of Martian surface. It has produced 1100+ images so far and published a Mars Atlas.

ii) Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS) to map the surface composition and mineralogy of Mars.

iii) Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM) designed to measure Methane (CH4) in the Martian atmosphere. These measurements will trigger further studies to understand the origin of methane.

iv) Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA) to study the composition of Martian upper Atmosphere.

v) Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP) to measure the relative abundance of deuterium and hydrogen  which allows us to understand the process of the loss of water from the Mars planet.

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