The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has just started with the launch from the Sriharikota base in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. After less than one hour, the space probe has successfully inserted in the orbit scheduled for the first stage of its mission.

MOM is the first attempt of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Indian space agency, to show the technology necessary to an interplanetary mission, meaning those needed to develop the spacecraft and its instruments, send it to another planet and manage the various stages of its journey communicating with it. The space probe is informally nicknamed Mangalyaan, which in Sanskrit means Mars craft.

This mission is in some ways an evolution of Chandrayaan 1, the first Indian spacecraft successfully launched into orbit around the Moon, active between 2008 and 2009. Various improvements have been implemented to fit a specific mission for Mars with solar panels much larger to compensate for the much greater distance from the Sun.

To launch this spacecraft they used a PSLV-XL rocket, a version with boosters connected to the main body of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle already successfully used by ISRO. In little more than twenty years, various versions of this rocket have been used mainly to launch satellites, Indians but also foreign, in various orbits. For this reason, the launch has been identified as PSLV-C25.

This rocket only serves to put the spacecraft in orbit, where it will start a series of maneuvers that will change it until reaching a hyperbolic trajectory. At the end of the month that trajectory will allow to proceed with the real journey to Mars. This choice is due to the fact that the Indian rocket isn’t as powerful as those used by other nations that have launched spacecraft into deep space.

Among the technologies developed there are those for scientific studies. The space probe has five instruments with the purpose of studying in various ways the atmosphere and the surface of Mars. Originally, ISRO planned to have a greater amount of instruments but this would have resulted in a final greater weight.

Statements regarding a possible rivalry of India’s space program with the Chinese one focus on the differences between them. Certainly the achievements in Indian missions are a matter of national pride but India is focusing on building space probes while China is especially developing a program of astronauts with the intention of building a space station.

For India, the space program is mainly intended to develop technologies to improve the national economy. There’s criticisms to this program for the money spent by a country where poverty is still widespread but in fact the mission of the Mangalyaan spacecraft has a cost equivalent to about $70 million, far less than the probes of other nations.

It should also be noted that today the construction and launch of satellites are an important economic factor for India, therefore it’s important to show their technological capabilities and their reliability. From this point of view, the rivalry in Asia is with Japan.

Instead, there will be a collaboration with NASA, which will give its support for communications with the Mangalyaan spacecraft through its Deep Space Network. NASA and ISRO will share the information gathered by their spacecraft on Mars and by the American rovers.

The Mangalyaan space probe’s launch stage has been a success. If everything goes well, it will reach Mars in Semptember 2014.

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