“People are in a serious mood. We don’t want them to be disturbed as critical operations are coming up on December 1,” says Mars Mission Programme Director M Annadurai, reflecting the frame of mind of the engineers at work in the mission control room at Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) centre ISTRAC, Peenya.





“People are continuously at work. They work in shifts. The mission and the work of the control room is 24/7. Overall, we have between 150 and 200 people working with us on the Mars mission. We are serious, but we are also confident having done rehearsals after rehearsals. All the exercises and tests that have to be done before the critical trans-Mars injection have been undertaken. The testing moment comes on December 1,” Annadurai said in a free chat.



The mission, he says, will be a success only when insertion into the mars orbit happens. “Even the mighty space power USA tasted success after six attempts, while Russia did so after 10 attempts. No one has been successful in the first attempt. China and Japan are yet to achieve success. India has a chance to make it the first time, but we have to see how the mission goes. We have taken all the precautions that have to be taken and hopefully nothing that is not anticipated will happen,” says Annadurai.



The programme director also spoke about a second testing moment.



“There is plenty tension when we have to inject the orbiter into Mars. We have to catch the Mars orbit precisely - the calculation has to be to the last second. There is no second chance. When we faced a small glitch at the time of the fourth orbit, we undertook a supplementary manoeuvre. But a supplementary manoeuvre is not possible on the Mars orbit. If a similar glitch happens and we lose the orbit for any reason, there is nothing we can do. But we are hoping that all will go well with the planned procedures.”



Annadurai says the mission has been planned in such a way that if the orbiter reaches Mars orbit, it will do so ahead of a solar eclipse.



“Surviving such an eclipse is very difficult. But a European mission was lucky when it got caught in solar flares. To their good luck, they were able to recover the spacecraft despite the flares. Whether it will happen all the time no one can predict. The eclipse is expected around April 2014.”

