 "Preparedness for Mars Mission has been excellent: K Radhakrishnan")
India today joined interplanetary travelers, after successfully conducting a critical manoeuvre to place the Mars orbiter spacecraft in the Mars transfer trajectory.
Country's first mission to Mars left Earth's orbit in the early hours of Sunday, clearing a critical hurdle in its journey to the red planet, which could not be succeeded by the emerging rival Chinese agency.
The Man who led the team in the Indian Space Research Organsaition (Isro) was 64-year old K Radhakrishnan, chairman, Isro. In an interview with T E Narasimhan he narrates the preparation went for this crucial event, its importance and way forward for the Mission. Edited excerpts:
India is the first Asian country and fourth nation in the world to leap into the interplanetary space, thanks to today's development. How you and your team feeling about it?
We feel that we have been able to do a good job and it was a satisfying experience. Entire team is happy and lot of work has gone behind, including preparation for all the possible contingencies that has been there over the last two weeks for every orbit raising operations. Especially this being a very crucial operation, we have done a lot of analysis, simulation and possible contingencies and how do we address it. Preparedness has been excellent.
Where were the possible contingencies you were expecting?
It can be from any angle, for example the spacecraft itself. Suppose it is not in a condition ready for a trans-mars injection and that is any of its subsystems had a anomaly, then we would not have been able to do the trans-Mars insertion today then we would have waited for another four days. So how do you asses and what is the cut off for it?
Second one is, we have decided to do that and then what happens till that particular moment of injection. In fact, there are several preparations need to be done on the spacecraft. For instance, one hour before the actual burn, the process starts of orienting the spacecraft properly for the firing.
Suppose during the process we are not able to get the proper attitude stablised, whether we can do or we need to postpone - all these were part of the preparation. Suppose there is a problem with one of the specific components, what is the minimum configuration with which we can go for this mission, all these things are worked out.
Then, as the burn starts, suppose in the propulsion system itself, there are three major sections – one is the pressurisation system, second one is the propulsion seed system and the engine itself. Suppose any component shows a problem, in opening or closing properly or there is a leak, what is to be done?
There is one more specific requirement for this operation. Earlier orbit raising operations, the objective was that we need to get one given Delta V (a scale of acceleration required to change from one trajectory to another in orbit manoeuver), here that Delta V has to be obtained within a given period. Unless it happens on that exact position, you do not get the right direction. That is also crucial for us.
All these things we have analysed and were prepared for any possible failures. Thankfully none of the contingencies occurred. Idea is within the 15-20 minutes, you do not get time for any discussion so we keep the actions ready and who has to initiate, who has to authorise all these things are clear.
In previous orbit raising suppose there were some deviations we could have corrected it, but in today's operation if it would have gone out of our control and we cant even get back. It is an irreversible action.
Any unexpected problem was faced?
In the spacecraft movement each station is going have the visibility and just before the start of the burning the South African station was receiving. There are two ground stations in South Africa, if one ground station has any problem other one can take it.
The sequence is after the stations in South Africa gets the visibility, it comes to the visibility of Mauritius and then to Bangalore.
Exactly one minute before the burn started, there was a thunderstorm there and we did not have the data from there when the engine was fired. But within five minutes they got it and we started getting the data in real time. So that is the five minutes gap.
Rest everything went as planned? What is the status of the spacecraft?
Everything is ok. We have got the performance of the liquid engine and we got slightly, around 1.75%, more than what we assumed. Before and after today's operation the spacecraft health is normal. We had a review immediately after the operation and all the subsystems chiefs had reported to us about the health and all are normal.
Next Crucial dates?
The orbit that we got is as expected. December 2nd at 4 a.m. the spacecraft would have crossed the lunar distance, i.e. 3,84,490 kms. On December 4th at 02.16 hours it will get out of the Sphere of influence of Earth (9.03 mns) then we will observe for a few days. On December 11th we will have the first small mid course correction manoeuver, subsequently one will be in April and another one in August next year.
These are all ensure that on September 24, 2014, when we are near the Mars, we are at 500 plus or minus 50 kms.
Two weeks before reaching Mars, there will be one more manoeuver. So there will be four correction manoeuvers. Next crucial event is on September 24, 2014, which is the insertion of the spacecraft into Mars' orbit.
We will be observing and monitoring the spacecraft continuously this is the process number one for all the systems' health. The second thing is the scientific systems which are on board they need to be operated for the purpose of calibration. Four of them were put on during the Earth bound face itself.
During the coming days also we will be switching on in a systematic way. The idea is to get the calibration and the background before we reach the Mars, so we will know whatever is coming afterwards is attributed to Mars and whatever we are doing now interms of calibration and the background has to be unequivocally understood and demonstrated.
Then only whatever the reading we get through the instruments will be accepted by the scientific community. So far the scientific instrument this is the first test (calibration) so that also we will be doing it.
Country's first mission to Mars left Earth's orbit in the early hours of Sunday, clearing a critical hurdle in its journey to the red planet, which could not be succeeded by the emerging rival Chinese agency.
The Man who led the team in the Indian Space Research Organsaition (Isro) was 64-year old K Radhakrishnan, chairman, Isro. In an interview with T E Narasimhan he narrates the preparation went for this crucial event, its importance and way forward for the Mission. Edited excerpts:
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We feel that we have been able to do a good job and it was a satisfying experience. Entire team is happy and lot of work has gone behind, including preparation for all the possible contingencies that has been there over the last two weeks for every orbit raising operations. Especially this being a very crucial operation, we have done a lot of analysis, simulation and possible contingencies and how do we address it. Preparedness has been excellent.
Where were the possible contingencies you were expecting?
It can be from any angle, for example the spacecraft itself. Suppose it is not in a condition ready for a trans-mars injection and that is any of its subsystems had a anomaly, then we would not have been able to do the trans-Mars insertion today then we would have waited for another four days. So how do you asses and what is the cut off for it?
Second one is, we have decided to do that and then what happens till that particular moment of injection. In fact, there are several preparations need to be done on the spacecraft. For instance, one hour before the actual burn, the process starts of orienting the spacecraft properly for the firing.
Suppose during the process we are not able to get the proper attitude stablised, whether we can do or we need to postpone - all these were part of the preparation. Suppose there is a problem with one of the specific components, what is the minimum configuration with which we can go for this mission, all these things are worked out.
Then, as the burn starts, suppose in the propulsion system itself, there are three major sections – one is the pressurisation system, second one is the propulsion seed system and the engine itself. Suppose any component shows a problem, in opening or closing properly or there is a leak, what is to be done?
There is one more specific requirement for this operation. Earlier orbit raising operations, the objective was that we need to get one given Delta V (a scale of acceleration required to change from one trajectory to another in orbit manoeuver), here that Delta V has to be obtained within a given period. Unless it happens on that exact position, you do not get the right direction. That is also crucial for us.
All these things we have analysed and were prepared for any possible failures. Thankfully none of the contingencies occurred. Idea is within the 15-20 minutes, you do not get time for any discussion so we keep the actions ready and who has to initiate, who has to authorise all these things are clear.
In previous orbit raising suppose there were some deviations we could have corrected it, but in today's operation if it would have gone out of our control and we cant even get back. It is an irreversible action.
Any unexpected problem was faced?
In the spacecraft movement each station is going have the visibility and just before the start of the burning the South African station was receiving. There are two ground stations in South Africa, if one ground station has any problem other one can take it.
The sequence is after the stations in South Africa gets the visibility, it comes to the visibility of Mauritius and then to Bangalore.
Exactly one minute before the burn started, there was a thunderstorm there and we did not have the data from there when the engine was fired. But within five minutes they got it and we started getting the data in real time. So that is the five minutes gap.
Rest everything went as planned? What is the status of the spacecraft?
Everything is ok. We have got the performance of the liquid engine and we got slightly, around 1.75%, more than what we assumed. Before and after today's operation the spacecraft health is normal. We had a review immediately after the operation and all the subsystems chiefs had reported to us about the health and all are normal.
Next Crucial dates?
The orbit that we got is as expected. December 2nd at 4 a.m. the spacecraft would have crossed the lunar distance, i.e. 3,84,490 kms. On December 4th at 02.16 hours it will get out of the Sphere of influence of Earth (9.03 mns) then we will observe for a few days. On December 11th we will have the first small mid course correction manoeuver, subsequently one will be in April and another one in August next year.
These are all ensure that on September 24, 2014, when we are near the Mars, we are at 500 plus or minus 50 kms.
Two weeks before reaching Mars, there will be one more manoeuver. So there will be four correction manoeuvers. Next crucial event is on September 24, 2014, which is the insertion of the spacecraft into Mars' orbit.
We will be observing and monitoring the spacecraft continuously this is the process number one for all the systems' health. The second thing is the scientific systems which are on board they need to be operated for the purpose of calibration. Four of them were put on during the Earth bound face itself.
During the coming days also we will be switching on in a systematic way. The idea is to get the calibration and the background before we reach the Mars, so we will know whatever is coming afterwards is attributed to Mars and whatever we are doing now interms of calibration and the background has to be unequivocally understood and demonstrated.
Then only whatever the reading we get through the instruments will be accepted by the scientific community. So far the scientific instrument this is the first test (calibration) so that also we will be doing it.