After posting the exciting story about India's Mars satellite on September 25, I have been drifting for a while without attending to this blog. But
today something is happening out there in the cosmos which reminds me
with a jolt to resume these articulations online at once.
Three years ago, India's very first
venture into space beyond 's the earth's magnetic boundary had caused a
sensation by gathering, with American equipment, positive evidence of
the existence of water on the moon. And right now, India's second
outer-space fling -- the Mars Orbiter Mission, alias MOM -- is getting a
close view of the nearest-ever comet encounter of any man-made
equipment, in the company
of American and European satellites orbiting around Mars and a couple of
American vehicles roving on the surface of Mars (see relevant news
report below).
It is 11:30 p.m. in India
on Sunday night as I post this, and just now the comet will be coming closest to Mars.
Surely, this is one of the most memorable actions I have ever taken in my whole life!
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THE HINDU
Bangalore
19 October 2014
Tonight, MOM spacecraft will have a ringside view of Comet Siding Spring
The Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft will have a ringside view of a unique comet. The spacecraft has been at the vantage point since September 24. The teams at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have kept vigil for the impending visit of Comet Siding Spring since then.
The comet will be closest to Mars at 11.40 p.m. on Sunday (Indian Standard Time = 01-10 p.m. in New York) and the encounter will last 21 minutes.
"It is an opportunity that comes once in a million years,” exulted S. Arunan, ISRO’s MOM Project Director who has spearheaded the mission for over two years. "The comet comes within 135,000 km of Mars, which is very close astronomically. We are at the right place at the right time and are extremely fortunate to watch this event.”
ISRO’s payload teams plan to operate four of the five instruments during this period, including the Mars Color Camera and the Methane Sensor for Mars and the Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer. . .
MOM gets to watch the comet in the elite company of fellow orbiters: NASA’s MAVEN, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey; European Space Agency’s Mars Express; and NASA rovers Opportunity and Curiosity that are scouring the Martian surface.
