The entire
Nation celebrated happily on 5th Nov 2013 when Mangalyaan was
successfully launched at scheduled
time at 2:38 pm from Sriharikota.
The 1,337 kg Mars Orbiter Satellite was
later put into a 250 km X 23,500 km elliptical orbit. The launch vehicle used was a PSLV-C25. This is the 25th mission
of PSLV and fifth in the XL configuration.
On Sept. 24,
2014 – more was to occur as Mangalyaan successfully fired its 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) along
with eight smaller liquid engines. This Liquid Engines firing operation for
1388.67 seconds changed the velocity of the spacecraft by 1099 metre/sec. With
this operation, the spacecraft entered into an elliptical orbit around
Mars. The country joined the United
States, European Space Agency and the former Soviet Union in the elite club of
Martian explorers with the Mars Orbiter Mission, affectionately called MOM.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country had achieved the
"near impossible".
It was a
proud moment for all Indians as India became the 4th country to do
so. Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second smallest planet in
the Solar System, after Mercury. Named after the Roman god of war, it is often
described as the "Red Planet" because the iron oxide prevalent on its
surface gives it areddish appearance.
Indian scientists were delighted when Mangalyaan beamed home its
greatest photo of the Red Planet yet, a view that reveals the planet from pole
to pole. The new photo of Mars from India's Mangalyaan probe was unveiled on
Sept 21 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It shows Mars as a
red globe in space, with the planet's southern ice cap clearly visible, while a
huge dust storm blankets part of the northern region. "Something's brewing
here!" ISRO officials wrote in a Twitter post for the Mars orbiter.
The
Mangalyaan spacecraft used its Mars Color Camera to capture the amazing photo
from a distance of 46,292 miles (74,500 kilometers) above the Red Planet on
Sunday (Sept. 28), according to an ISRO photo description. It is the third and
best view of Mars from Mangalyaan since the spacecraft arrived in orbit around
the planet last week. The Mars Color Camera is one of five different
instruments riding aboard Mangalyaan to study Mars from orbit.
Earth
imagery from Mangalyaan taken on 19.11.2013.
As we know, the Google search page is not plain. It has Google logo and many a times animated
expressions – which keep changing.
Google has had several logos since its renaming from BackRub. The
founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin had nicknamed their search engine ‘backrub’
as the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site. These special logos, some designed by Dennis
Hwang, have come to be known as Google Doodles.~ and
today is dedicated to “Mangalyaan completing one month in Mars orbit’ ….. but
this google doodle can be seen only in India.
With regards
– S. Sampathkumar
24th Oct 2014.
