The Indian Space Research Organisation conducted the first of the four
trajectory correction manoeuvres of the Mars spacecraft on Wednesday.
TCM1, described as a fine-tuning of the spacecraft, was the first
operation to be done since it was pushed out of Earth’s orbit on
December 1.
The operation, lasting over half-a-minute, was done to adjust the motion
of the spacecraft very slightly to ensure that it travels up to Mars in
September next year as scheduled, an official said. It gave a small
additional velocity to the spacecraft, according to the update on the
Mars Orbiter Mission site.
From their command centre here at ISTRAC, controllers of the Mars
orbiter enabled a 40.5-second, preprogrammed firing of the smaller,
22-Newton thrusters on the spacecraft. TCM-1 happened at 6.30am said an
official statement.
Before that, they had to suitably orient it and roll it back later to the cruising position, keeping the contact intact.
At that time, the spacecraft was travelling about 29 lakh km away from
Earth. It is expected to approach Mars by mid-September next year. It
now takes about 20 seconds to send and get a signal ‘response’ from the
spacecraft, said the update.
If the TCM is not done at the appointed time, any deviation in the
spacecraft can build up and take it beyond the decided path, the
official said.
Meanwhile ISRO expects to do three more course corrections in April,
August and September next year so as to keep it on the planned time and
path for Mars.
