India’s Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, which was launched five months ago, crossed the half-way mark of its journey to the Red Planet along the designated helio-centric trajectory. According ISRO officials, on December 1, 2013, Trans Mars Injection manoeuvre was conducted successfully and the spacecraft was set in its course towards Mars. Soon after the Spacecraft crossed the sphere of influence of Earth, a Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM) was performed successfully on December 11, 2013.
ISRO has been continuously monitoring the spacecraft using its Deep Space Network complemented by NASA-JPl. As the spacecraft is on its designated trajectory, the TCM planned for April 2014 is not considered essential. If required, the next TCM is planned to be carried out in June 2014. According to ISRO officials, Mars Orbiter spacecraft and its five scientific instruments are in good health. Periodic tests are being carried out on different levels of autonomy built into the spacecraft for managing contingencies.
“The radio distance between the spacecraft and earth is 39 million km. A signal from the earth to the spacecraft and back to the earth takes four minutes 15 seconds. Soon the High Gain Antenna of the spacecraft will be put in service for handling communications with ground stations” an ISRO release adds.