The tenure of India’s Mars Orbiter ‘Magalyan’ finally came to an end after paving the way of success for ISRO Mars mission. India’s Mars mission got initiated with the launch of PSLV-C25 on November five, 2013. The Rs 450 crore Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) proved to be fruitful after MOM spacecraft was successfully inserted into Martian orbit on September 24, 2014, in its very first attempt.
Sources from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) informed PTI, "Right now, there is no fuel left. The satellite battery that works using solar energy has drained. The link has been lost". Also the officials noted that "Recently there were back-to-back eclipses including one that lasted seven-and-half hours. 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".
Although ISRO had reportedly designed the spacecraft for a mission of six months duration it kept operating for almost eight years which is undoubtedly a huge achievement for Indian Space Agency. The officials satisfactorily stated MOM enabled MCC to take around 1000 snap shots of 'Full disc' of Mars at its farthest point and finer details from closest point. The MCC has planned to publish this imaged in a Mars Atlas.
However no official declaration regarding the termination of this mission has been declared yet. Interestingly The MOM carried five scientific payloads (total 15 kg): Mars Color Camera (MCC), Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS), and Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM), Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA) and Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP)."MOM is credited with many laurels like cost-effectiveness, short period of realisation, economical mass-budget, and miniaturisation of five heterogeneous science payloads", ISRO officials pointed out.
The officials discussed that "It is now planned to have the next orbiter mission around Mars for a future launch opportunity. Proposals are solicited from interested scientists within India for experiments onboard an orbiter mission around Mars (MOM-2), to address relevant scientific problems and topics. "We need to formulate the project proposals and payloads based on the wider consultation with the research community.It's still on the drawing board. But it needs some more details and international collaboration for finalising the mission."