India Says Its Mars Spacecraft on Course

[Vikrant]

A very nice picture of the team monitoring MOM

India's Mars Mission

 

[ScienceRocks]

I am so happy that more countries are joining humanity's quest for exploration of our solar system!

Here's hoping for a whole lot more! Like a Indian version of Kepler telescope and a manned mission to the moon then onto mars.

 

[Vikrant]

Matthew

I think your whining worked

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Astrosat, India's first space observatory, will fly to its orbit 650km from Earth, on board a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C30) that lifts off from the Sriharikota spaceport at 10am on Monday.

Among its assignments, the 1,153kg Astrosat would look at regions in the universe where stars take birth, and also at black holes.

The main objectives of Astrosat are to understand high-energy processes in binary systems containing neutron stars and black holes; estimate magnetic fields of neutron stars; study star birth regions and high-energy processes in star systems beyond our galaxy; detect briefly bright X-ray sources in the sky; and perform a limited deep-field survey of the universe in the ultraviolet region.

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Countdown begins for India's 1st space observatory - The Times of India

 

[Delta4Embassy]

India+spacecraft aren't words ya usually associate with each other.

 

[Vikrant]

After water, now it is the turn of methane.

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The Indian ISRO space agency was going to announce the result of their first year of observations in Mars orbit - the Indian Times said - on Thursday. But it didn't happen - seems it has been delayed! I look forward to hearing what they found - but seems that we have to wait some more.

We can't really make any deduction about what they will say, as their research is embargoed until then - they can't say anything about it. But we should hear whether or not they have detected methane from orbit so far.

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India's Mars Orbiter Spacecraft - Results Of First Year Of Methane Search - Not Yet Announced