The Indian Space Research Organization reported on Monday that the MarsOrbiter probe had lost contact with the ground station, that it was unrecoverable, and that the Mangalyaan project had reached the end of its life.
The ISRO provided an update on the Mars Orbiter Mission and the national gathering held on September 27 to honour the MOM’s completion of its eight years in Martian orbit.
The MOM has survived for almost eight years in the Martian orbit with a variety of key scientific discoveries on Mars as well as on the Solar corona, before losing connection with the ground station, according to the national space agency, as a consequence of a lengthy eclipse in April 2022, which was also addressed. The MOM was built for a life-span of six months as a technological demonstration.
ISRO decided during the national meeting that the propellant must have been expended, and hence the “desired altitude pointing” could not be obtained for continued power generation, according to ISRO.
“It was declared that the spacecraft is non-recoverable and has reached the end of its life,” according to an ISRO statement. “The mission will go down in history as a great technological and scientific achievement in the annals of planetary exploration.”
MOM was launched on November 5, 2013, and after 300 days in space, it was put into Martian orbit on September 24, 2014.
“With five scientific payloads aboard, the mission has provided considerable scientific understanding on the Martian surface characteristics, morphology, as well as the Martian atmosphere and exosphere during the last eight years,” ISRO stated.
