Communications with Mangalyaan to get blocked for 15 days in June

Communications with Mangalyaan to get blocked for 15 days in June

After the success of Mangalyaan, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working on developing the technology to send a manned mission into space, said K Radhakrishnan who recently retired as chairman of the space agency.

“The technology available in India needs to take a few more steps to be able to send human beings to space. ISRO is working on them,” he said while speaking at an interaction with senior space scientist Pramod Kale at the 102nd Indian Science Congress hosted by Mumbai university at its Kalina campus on Saturday.

While confirming that the data sent back by the Mars orbiter was of very good quality, Radhakrishnan said the autonomy technology developed for the Mangalyaan mission could be adapted for navigation satellites and communication satellites in the future as well.

However, for a fortnight in June 2015, the orbiter spacecraft developed will be out of reach of ground control when the Sun will obstruct the space between Earth and Mars. “At that time, it will be a major challenge to keep the spacecraft functioning on autonomy mode,” he said.

Sun to block communication between Mangalyaan and ISRO in June

Bengaluru, Jan 5: Come June and the ISRO team would lost its communication with its ambitious space project Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) for 15 days. According to report in Times of India, former ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan said at the Indian Science Congress that this will be the first such long communication break between ISRO team and MOM since its launch on Nov 5, 2013.

Radhakrishnan further told that the blackout will be the result of an eclipse and it will be from June 8 to 22. MOM project director Subbiah Arunan said that the blackout will happen because the Sun will come between Earth and Mars, blocking the view of the red planet. He said that during the blackout, data cannot be transmitted to the spacecraft or downlinked.

"There have been many manoeuvres when there has been a communication blackout, but this is the first time it is happening for as long as 14 day," Arunan has been quoted as saying in the report. The Mars Orbiter launched on November 5, 2013 onboard ISRO's PSLV C25 from Sriharikota entered the Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 after a nine-month long odyssey, making India the first country in the world to succeed in such inter-planetary mission in the maiden attempt itself. Since then, the spacecraft has been sending data, including pictures of the terrain of the Red planet to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which are being received at Bangalore and being sent to Space Application Centre and Physical Research Laboratory, both located at Ahmedabad for analysis.