India is preparing for another Mars mission, according to officials at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). This comes nearly a decade after ISRO successfully orbited a spacecraft around Mars on its first attempt.
The Mars Orbiter Mission-2, informally known as Mangalyaan-2, will feature four scientific instruments. These tools will be used to research various aspects of Mars, including space dust and Mars’s atmospheric and environmental conditions.
It’s worth noting that nine years ago, India made headlines by successfully orbiting Mars in its inaugural attempt, a noteworthy achievement that no other space agency had accomplished until then.
Key Instruments And Their Functions On the Second Mars Mission
- The mission is equipped with several instruments, including the Mars Orbit Dust Experiment (MODEX), a Radio Occultation (RO) experiment, an Energetic Ion Spectrometer (EIS), and a Langmuir Probe and Electric Field Experiment (LPEX).
- MODEX’s role is to examine where Martian dust comes from, how much there is, where it’s distributed, and how fast it moves at high altitudes.
- The mission will make the first-ever measurements of Interplanetary Dust Particles (IDPs) at Mars.
- MODEX has the capability to detect tiny particles, ranging from a few hundred nanometers to a few micrometers, moving at high speeds of more than 1 kilometer per second.
- This information will advance our understanding of the dust environment around Mars, possibly confirming the existence of a dust ring and determining whether the dust comes from outside Mars or from its moons, Phobos or Deimos.
- The dust analysis can also provide valuable context for the results of the Radio Occultation experiment.
- The Radio Occultation (RO) experiment is an X-band microwave transmitter. It’s designed to study the Martian atmosphere by measuring neutral and electron density profiles.
- The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is developing the EIS, an instrument for studying solar energy and wind particles in Mars’ environment. It will help understand why Mars’ atmosphere is disappearing by measuring high-energy charged particles.
- The Langmuir Probe and Electric Field (LPEX) instrument will give a detailed understanding of the plasma environment on Mars. It includes a Langmuir probe and two electric field sensors on a long boom to measure electron number density, temperature, and electric field waves.
The First Mars Orbiter Mission
- India’s first interplanetary mission was the Mars Orbiter Mission 1.
- It was launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C25 on November 5, 2013. With this mission, India became the fourth country to reach Mars’ orbit and the first to do so successfully on the first try.
- Originally planned for six months, the mission lasted seven years before retirement in 2021.
- The primary goal of Isro’s first Mars mission was technological. It aimed to design, build, and launch a Mars orbiter that could operate independently throughout its journey to Mars, and successfully enter and maintain a Mars orbit.
- The mission carried five scientific payloads designed to examine Mars’ surface characteristics, shape, mineral composition, and atmospheric conditions.