Just in time for India's Independence Day, the country's
very first interplanetary mission, the Mars Orbiter
Mission, has sent back some beautiful images of the
Red Planet's surface.
The Indian Space Research Organisation mission, also
known as Mangalyaan, which means "Mars-craft" in
Sanskrit, was launched in early November 2013 on a
shoestring budget compared to other space missions.
All up, it's estimated that it cost about $74 million,
compared to NASA's $671 million Maven Mars orbiter
mission, which launched at around the same time.
Mangalyaan has been something of a success story for
the ISRO. It was the country's first attempt at an
interplanetary mission, and an ambitious one at that.
Mars serves as the next major milestone in space
exploration, and India is the first country to succeed in
reaching the planet's orbit in its first attempt. More than
half of all attempts to reach Mars fail and India not only
got it right on its first attempt, it did so at record cost.
Mangalyaan reached Mars orbit in September 2014 and
since then it has been monitoring the red planet,
studying its atmosphere and particle environment. It's
also been surveying the surface of Mars, sending back
images taken with its Thermal Infrared Spectrometer and
tricolour Mars Colour Camera.
The most recent, snapped on July 19, 2015, shows a
portion the Ophir Chasma, a deep canyon about 317km
(197 miles) in length and 62km (38.5 miles) in width.
"The word chasma has been designated by the
International Astronomical Union to refer to an elongate,
steep-sided depression," the ISRO wrote on its website.
"Ophir Chasma is part of the largest canyon system in
the solar system known as Valles Marineris. The walls of
the chasma contain many layers and the floors contain
large deposits of layered materials. This image is taken
on 19th July 2015 at an altitude of 1,857 km (1,154
miles) with a resolution of 96 megapixels."
The project's primary objective, while also aimed at
collecting data from Mars, is to serve as a demonstration
of India's ability to develop and implement interplanetary
space technology.
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