The 450 crore Mars Orbiter Mission was launched
onboard PSLV-C25 on November five, 2013, and the MOM spacecraft was
successfully inserted into Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 in its
first attempt.
India's Mars Orbiter craft has run out of
propellant and its battery drained beyond the safe limit, fuelling
speculation that the country's maiden interplanetary mission
'Mangalyaan' may have finally completed its long innings.
The ₹
450 crore Mars Orbiter Mission was launched onboard PSLV-C25 on November
five, 2013, and the MOM spacecraft was successfully inserted into
Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 in its first attempt.
"Right
now, there is no fuel left. The satellite battery has drained," sources
in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told PTI. "The link has
been lost".
There was, however, no official word from the country's national space agency, headquartered here.
With
fuel on board, ISRO had been performing orbital manoeuvres on MOM
spacecraft to take it to a new orbit to avoid an impending eclipse in
the past.
"But recently there were back-to-back eclipses including
one that lasted seven-and-half hours," officials said on condition of
anonymity, noting that all the propellant on board the ageing satellite
had been consumed.
"As the satellite battery is designed to handle
eclipse duration of only about one hour and 40 minutes, a longer
eclipse would drain the battery beyond the safe limit," another official
said.
ISRO officials noted that the Mars orbiter craft functioned
for almost eight years, well beyond its designed mission life of six
months.
"It has done its job and yielded significant scientific
results," they said. The objectives of the mission were primarily
technological and included design, realisation and launch of a Mars
Orbiter spacecraft capable of operating with sufficient autonomy during
the journey phase; Mars orbit insertion/ capture and in-orbit phase
around Mars.
The MOM -- a technology demonstration venture --
carried five scientific payloads (total 15 kg) collecting data on
surface geology, morphology, atmospheric processes, surface temperature
and atmospheric escape process.
