Mangalyaan

PSLV-C25, in its twenty fifth flight, successfully launched Mars Orbiter Mission(Mangalyaan) Spacecraft from SDSC SHAR Sriharikota in November 2011. It has expected reached the orbit of Mar’s on September 24, 2014 after travelling a distance of 780 million km to reach the red planet. ISRO team for the mission is being led by its Chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan.

It is India’s first interplanetary mission and, if successful, ISRO would become the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after the Soviet space program, NASA, and European Space Agency. The movement of the mission is being monitored by the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennae at Byalalu. Other stations in Port Blair and Brunei are also monitoring it.

ISRO took just 18 months in building its rocket, the space craft, instruments and readying its tracking system. The lift off mass of the spacecraft was 1,350 kg while the dry mass was 500 kg. The mission has been realised at an incredibly low budget: its Rs. 450-crore price tag is less than 0.01% of India’s annual budget.

The mission carries on board five instruments to conduct experiments. Two instruments will take 360 degree pictures of the Martian surface and look for minerals. One instrument will study the Mars atmosphere; another will map just how much water, if any, is present. The fifth instrument will check for the presence of methane which could indicate if life ever existed on Mars.

After six orbit raising manoeuvres around the Earth following the launch, the Trans Mars Injection (TMI) Manoeuvre on December 01, 2013 gave necessary thrust to the spacecraft to escape from Earth and to initiate the journey towards Mars, in a helio-centric Orbit.

The First Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM) was conducted on December 11, 2013. The trajectory of the spacecraft, till today, is as expected. Three more TCM operations are planned around April 2014, August 2014 and September 2014.

The health parameters of all the payloads are normal. Presently, the spacecraft is at a radio distance of 16 million km causing a one way communication delay of approximately 55 seconds. After travelling the remaining distance of about 490 million km over the next 210 days, the spacecraft would be inserted into the Martian Orbit on September 24, 2014

Mission Objectives:

• The primary objective of the Mars Orbiter Mission is to showcase India’s rocket launch systems, spacecraft-building and operations capabilities. Everything achieved at a fraction of the cost being spent by other countries on similar missions.

Technological Objectives:

• Design and realisation of a Mars orbiter with a capability to survive and perform Earth bound manoeuvres, cruise phase of 300 days, Mars orbit insertion/ capture, and on-orbit phase around Mars.
• Deep space communication, navigation, mission planning and management.

Scientific Objectives:

• Exploration of Mars surface features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere by indigenous scientific instruments.

Chandrayaan-2

The Chandrayaan-2 is an ISRO mission aimed at placing an orbiter around the moon and send a lander with two rovers to its surface in 2016-17 using a GSLV launcher.

"The baseline mission objective of Chandrayaan-2 is to soft land at a suitable site on the lunar surface and carry out in-situ chemical analysis. Chandrayaan-2 is envisaged as a two module configuration comprising of Orbiter Craft module and Lander Craft module. Both the modules interfaces mechanically by a inter module adapter. Chandrayaan-2 is planned to be launched onboard GSLV MK II with a lift off mass of 2560 kgs and will carry two rovers each weighing 50 kgs. One Rover is developed by Russian Space Agency and the other at ISRO Satellite Center."

ISRO initially planned to use a Russian lander for the mission. However, following the failure of the Russian Phobos-Grunt, a sample return mission to Phobos (one of the moons of Mars), Roskosmos told ISRO that in order to increase the reliability of their planetary mission they would have to redesign their Moon Lander, resulting in an increase in its mass. Consequently, ROSCOSMOS suggested rescheduling of the Chandrayan-2 mission to either 2015 or in 2017. In case ISRO opted for a 2015 launch, the risk of failure would be higher and the ISRO Moon rover would have to be lighter.

Following the Russian inputs, ISRO invited its former Chairman, Chief Prof UR Rao, to do a program review; he recommended that India should develop its own lander, as the country was capable of realize the Lander module in the next few years. 

Currently the spacecraft is being reconfigured for the proposed Indian Rover and Lander modules.

Chandrayaan-1

Chandrayaan-1 is the first Indian Mission to the Moon devoted to high-resolution remote sensing of the lunar surface features in visible, near infrared, X-ray and low energy gamma ray regions. It is the first collaborative mission between ESA and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and also the first Indian scientific mission leaving the earth’s vicinity. One of the project's task is realize the mission goal of harnessing the science payloads, lunar craft and the launch vehicle with suitable ground support system including DSN station, integration and testing, launching and achieving lunar orbit of ~100 km, in-orbit operation of experiments, communication/telecommand, telemetry data reception, quick look data and archival for scientific utilization by identified group of scientists.

Mission objectives

• high-resolution remote sensing of the lunar surface features in visible, near infrared, X-ray and low energy gamma ray regions
• analyze in unprecedented detail the lunar surface in various geological/mineralogical and topographical units
• search for surface or sub-surface water-ice on the moon, specially at permanently shadowed north and south polar regions
• chemical stratigraphy of lunar crust by remote sensing of central upland of large lunar craters, South Pole Aitken Region (SPAR) etc., where interior material may be expected
• observation of X-ray spectrum greater than 10 keV and stereographic coverage of most of the moon's surface with 5 m resolution, to provide new insights in understanding the moon's origin and evolution

Thirty Metre Telescope

Further advancement in astronomy would require giant telescopes to probe the Universe at a deeper scale, to unravel its formation and evolutionary history and discover the existence and possibility of life elsewhere in the Universe. The cutting edge optical and IR astronomy is expected to move from the present 8-10 m class telescopes (e.g., Keck: 10 m, Subaru and VLT: 8 m) to the ground-based Giant Segmented Mirror Telescopes (GSMTs) of diameters over 20 m, signifying the next major leap in this area of scientific pursuit. Building such mega facilities requires innovative ideas, new technologies and immense funds. These formidable requirements have forged collaborations between institutes and countries across the world, to pool financial and technical resources to build and operate the most ambitious observatories in the near future. Most notably, three international consortia, namely, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) with an aperture of 24.5 m diameter, the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) with an aperture of 30 m diameter, and the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) with an aperture of 39 m diameter, have been formed to build and operate the next generation mega optical and near-infrared telescopes. All three projects are scheduled for commissioning by the end of this decade.

• India has already developed a world class observing facility at radio wavelengths the Giant Metre-wave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and will soon launch a dedicated astronomy satellite ?the ASTROSAT, with multi-wavelength capabilities in the X-ray and UV domain. However, we lack a similar powerful facility in the optical and infrared domain. Presently, we have three 2 m class optical-IR telescopes and a 3.6 m telescope to be commissioned sometime in 2013. Though Indian astronomers have been using many of the existing 8-10m class international facilities, such usage has so far been limited to either individual efforts or - less frequently - to institute-level collaborations.
• Further advancement in astronomy would require giant telescopes to probe the Universe at a deeper scale, to unravel its formation and evolutionary history and discover the existence and possibility of life elsewhere in the Universe. The cutting edge optical and IR astronomy is expected to move from the present 8-10 m class telescopes (e.g., Keck: 10 m, Subaru and VLT: 8 m) to the ground-based Giant Segmented Mirror Telescopes (GSMTs) of diameters over 20 m, signifying the next major leap in this area of scientific pursuit. Building such mega facilities requires innovative ideas, new technologies and immense funds. These formidable requirements have forged collaborations between institutes and countries across the world, to pool financial and technical resources to build and operate the most ambitious observatories in the near future. Most notably, three international consortia, namely, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) with an aperture of 24.5 m diameter, the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) with an aperture of 30 m diameter, and the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) with an aperture of 39 m diameter, have been formed to build and operate the next generation mega optical and near-infrared telescopes. All three projects are scheduled for commissioning by the end of this decade.
• India has already developed a world class observing facility at radio wavelengths ?the Giant Metre-wave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and will soon launch a dedicated astronomy satellite ?the ASTROSAT, with multi-wavelength capabilities in the X-ray and UV domain. However, we lack a similar powerful facility in the optical and infrared domain. Presently, we have three 2 m class optical-IR telescopes and a 3.6 m telescope to be commissioned sometime in 2013. Though Indian astronomers have been using many of the existing 8-10m class international facilities, such usage has so far been limited to either individual efforts or - less frequently - to institute-level collaborations.

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) reviewed the proposal and approved observer status for India in the TMT project in June 2010. Since then, India has been participating in all the policy decisions and development activities of the project.

The Aryabhatta Research Institute for Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital; the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore; and the Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune; are the three main institutes spearheading the efforts. The activities of TMT-India will be coordinated by the India TMT Coordination Center (ITCC) set up by the Department of Science and Technology. The IIA is the nodal agency of ITCC. India TMT will be jointly funded by the Department of Science and Technology and Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India.

International experiments

The Curiosity rover

The Curiosity rover is a car-sized robotic rover exploring Gale Crater on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission (MSL).Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011, and successfully landed on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012.  The Bradbury Landing site was less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the center of the rover's touchdown target after a 563,000,000 km (350,000,000 mi) journey.

The rover's goals include: investigation of the Martian climate and geology; assessment of whether the selected field site inside Gale Crater ever has offered environmental conditions favourable for microbial life, including investigation of the role of water; and planetary habitability studies in preparation for future human exploration. Curiosity will serve as the basis for the design of an unnamed rover launching to Mars in 2020. In December 2012, its two-year mission was extended indefinitely.

NASA scientists announce the Curiosity rover's discovery of evidence of ancient flowing liquid water on Mars.NASA scientists report that the Curiosity Mars rover has performed the first X-ray diffraction analysis of Martian soil at the "Rocknest" site. The results from the rover's CheMin analyzer revealed the presence of several minerals, including feldspar, pyroxenes and olivine, and suggested that the Martian soil in the sample was similar to the "weathered basaltic soils" of Hawaiian volcanoes

On 3rd December 2012 , NASA reported that its Curiosity Mars rover has performed its first extensive soil analysis, revealing the presence of water molecules, sulfur and chlorine in the Martian soil.

MESSENGER

MESSENGER (an acronym of Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) is a robotic NASA spacecraft orbiting the planet Mercury, the first spacecraft ever to do so. The 485-kilogram (1,070 lb) spacecraft was launched aboard a Delta II rocket in August 2004 to study Mercury's chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field. It became the second mission after 1975's Mariner 10 to reach Mercury successfully when it made a flyby in January 2008, followed by a second flyby in October 2008,and a third flyby in September 2009.

The instruments carried by MESSENGER were tested on a complex series of flybys – the spacecraft flew by Earth once, Venus twice, and Mercury itself three times, allowing it to decelerate relative to Mercury using minimal fuel. MESSENGER successfully entered Mercury's orbit on March 18, 2011, and reactivated its science instruments on March 24, returning the first photo from Mercury orbit on March 29. MESSENGER's formal data collection mission began on April 4, 2011. On March 17, 2012, having collected close to 100,000 images, MESSENGER ended its one-year primary mission and entered an extended mission scheduled to last until March 2013.

During its stay in Mercury orbit, MESSENGER's instruments have yielded significant data, including a characterization of Mercury's magnetic field and the discovery of water ice at the planet's North Pole.

GRAIL

The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) is an American lunar science mission in NASA's Discovery Program which uses high-quality gravitational field mapping of the Moon to determine its interior structure. The two small spacecraft GRAIL A (Ebb) and GRAIL B (Flow) were launched on 10 September 2011 aboard a single launch vehicle: the most-powerful configuration of a Delta II, the 7920H-10.GRAIL A separated from the rocket about nine minutes after launch, GRAIL B followed about eight minutes later. They arrived at their orbits around the Moon 24 hours apart. The first probe entered orbit on 31 December 2011 and the second followed on 1 January 2012.

SpaceX

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, is an American space transport company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by former PayPal entrepreneur Elon Musk. It has developed the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles, both of which were designed from conception to eventually become reusable. SpaceX also developed the Dragon spacecraft to be flown into orbit by the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, initially transporting cargo and later planned to carry humans. On 25 May 2012, SpaceX made history as the world's first privately held company to send a cargo payload, carried on the Dragon spacecraft, to the International Space Station.

DRAGON

Dragon is a partially reusable spacecraft developed by SpaceX, an American private space transportation company based in Hawthorne, California. Dragon is launched into space by the SpaceX Falcon 9 two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle. During its uncrewed maiden flight in December 2010, Dragon became the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to be recovered successfully from orbit.

On 25 May 2012, an uncrewed variant of Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous with and be attached to the International Space Station (ISS).

SpaceX is contracted to deliver cargo to the ISS under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services program, and Dragon began regular cargo flights in October 2012.Additionally, NASA awarded SpaceX a Commercial Crew Development 2 (CCDev 2)-funded space act agreement in April 2011, and a Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap)-funded space act agreement in August 2012. Dragon is planned to be able to carry up to seven astronauts, or a combination of personnel and cargo, to and from low Earth orbit. The spacecraft's heat shield is furthermore designed to withstand Earth re-entry velocities from potential Lunar and Martian spaceflights

FALCON 9

Falcon 9 is a rocket-powered spaceflight launch system designed and manufactured by SpaceX, headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It is currently the only active rocket of the Falcon rocket family.

Both stages of this two-stage-to-orbit vehicle use liquid oxygen (LOX) and rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1) propellants. The Falcon 9 can lift payloads of 13,150 kilograms (29,000 lb) to low Earth orbit, and 4,850 kilograms (10,700 lb) to geostationary transfer orbit, which places the Falcon 9 design in the medium-lift range of launch systems.

The Falcon 9 and Dragon combination won a Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract from NASA to resupply the International Space Station under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. The first commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station launched on October 7, 2012. Falcon 9 will also be human-rated for transporting astronauts under the CCiCap program