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Taurian Innovative Journal/Volume 1/ Issue 1

Mars exploration: An overview of Indian and International Missions NayamaValsa Scariah1, Dr. Mili Ghosh2, Dr.A.P.Krishna3 Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi

Abstract- Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. It is 1. Introduction also known as red planet because of its iron oxide content. There are lots of missions have been launched to Mars is also known as red planet, because of the mars for better understanding of our neighboring planet. reddish iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a There are lots of unmanned including reddish appearance. It is the fourth planet from sun. orbiters, landers and rovers have been launched into mars since early 1960. Sputnik was the first satellite The term is used to define duration of solar day on launched in 1957 by Soviet Union. After seven failure Mars. A mean solar day or sol is 24 hours 39 missions to Mars, was the first satellite which minutes and 34.244 seconds. Many space missions to reached the Martian orbiter successfully. The Mars have been planned and launched for Mars was the first reached on Mars on 1975. India exploration (Table:1) but most of them failed without successfully launched a spacecraft, Mangalyan (Mars completing the task specially in early attempts th Orbiter Mission) on 5 November, 2013, with five whereas some NASA missions were very payloads to Mars. India was the first nation to successful(such as the twin Mars Exploration Rovers, successfully reach Mars on its first attempt. It was really MER-A and MER-B ).There are lots a proud moment for all the Indians. India is the fourth of unmanned spacecraft including orbiters, landers planet to reach Mars after United States, Europe and Soviet Union. India may put a lander on Mars in 2021 or and rovers which have been launched since early 1960 2022. MOM() has five payloads for the better understanding of our neighboring planet. such as LAP(Lyman Alpha photometer), MSM(Methane Marsnik 1 (USSR) launched Oct. 10, 1960, was the Sensor for Mars), MENCA(Mars Exospheric Neutral first satellite on an intended Mars . After seven Composition Analyser), TIS(Thermal Infrared Imaging failure missions to Mars, Mariner 4 was the first Spectrometer), MCC(Mars Color Camera). LAP is used satellite which reached the Martian orbiter successfully to measure the relative abundance of deuterium and on July 14, 1965, and sent 21 photos back to Earth.The hydrogen in the upper atmosphere. Deuterium/hydrogen Viking 1 was the first lander reached on Mars on 1975. ratio will allow an estimation of the amount of water loss India successfully launched a spacecraft, Mangalyan to the atmosphere. MENCA is used for analyzing the neutral composition of particles. MSM is used to (Mars Orbiter Mission) on 5th November 2013, with measure methane in the Martian atmosphere. MCC five payloads to Mars. India was the first nation to gives images and information about the surface features successfully reach Mars on its first attempt. It was and composition of the . Temperature really a proud moment for all the Indians. India is the and emissivity can be measured by using TIS data. fourth country to reach Mars after United States, There are lots of studies have been carried out in Mars Europe and Soviet Union. India may put a lander on such as mineral exploration, morphological analysis, Mars in 2021 or 2022. There are lots of studies have climatic variation, assessment of environmental been carried out in Mars such as mineral exploration, conditions ever been favorable for microbial conditions morphological analysis, climatic variation, assessment etc. The rover, which was launched on 2011 by of environmental conditions ever been favorable for NASA gave more salient information regarding the evidence of water in Mars. microbial conditions etc. The curiosity rover, launched in 2011 by NASA, gave more salient information regarding the evidence of water in Mars.

Corresponding Author: Nayama Valsa Scariah 66 Taurian Innovative Journal/Volume 1/ Issue 1

Spacecraft Agency Launched Mission Outcome Remark on Type Marsnik1 USSR 1960 Launch Failed to failure Marsnik2 USSR 1960 Mars flyby Launch Failed to orbit failure

Sputnik22 USSR 1962 Mars flyby Launch Booster stage ("Block failure L") disintegrated in LEO

Mars1 USSR 1962 Mars flyby Spacecraft Communications lost failure before flyby Sputnik 24 USSR 1962 Lander Launch Never left LEO failure

Mariner 3 NASA 1964 Mars flyby Launch Payload fairing failed failure to seperate Mariner 4 NASA 1964 Mars flyby Successful Closest approach at 01:00:57 UTC on 15 July 1965 USSR 1953 Mars flyby Spacecraft Communications lost failure before flyby

Mariner 6 NASA 1969 Mars flyby Successful Mars M-69 USSR 1969 Orbiter Launch Failed to orbit No:521 failure Mariner 7 NASA 1969 Mars flyby Successful

Mars M-69 USSR 1969 Orbiter Launch Failed to orbit No:522 failure NASA 1971 Orbiter Launch Failed to orbit failure

Kosmos 419 USSR 1971 Orbiter Launch Never left LEO; failure booster stage burn timer set incorrectly

Mars 2 USSR 1971 Orbiter Mostly Entered orbit on 27 successful November 1971, operated for 362 . Mapping operations unsuccessful due to dust storms on the surface Lander USSR 1971 Lander Spacecraft Deployed from Mars failure 2, failed to land during attempt on 27

Corresponding Author: Nayama Valsa Scariah 67 Taurian Innovative Journal/Volume 1/ Issue 1

November 1971 USSR 1971 Orbiter Mostly Entered orbit on 2 successful December 1971, operated for 20 orbits. Mapping operations unsuccessful due to dust storms on the surface Mars 3 Lander USSR 1971 Lander Partial Deployed from Mars failure 3; landed at 13:52 UTC on 2 December 1971; contact lost 14.5 seconds after transmission start Prop-M Rover USSR 1971 Rover Spacecraft Failed to deploy failure NASA 1971 Orbiter Successful Entered orbit on 14 November 1971, deactivated 516 days after entering orbit USSR 1973 Orbiter Spacecraft Failed to perform failure orbital insertion burn

Mars 5 USSR 1973 Orbiter Partial Failed after 9 days in failure Mars orbit; returned 180 frames USSR 1973 Lander Spacecraft Contact lost upon Flyby failure landing, atmospheric data mostly unreadable. Flyby bus collected data USSR 1973 Lander Spacecraft Separated from coast Flyby failure stage prematurely, failed to enter Martian atmosphere

Viking 1 NASA 1975 Orbiter Successful Operated for 1385 Orbiter orbits Viking 1 NASA 1975 Lander Successful Deployed Lander from Viking 1 orbiter, operated for 2245 sols NASA 1975 Orbiter Successful Operated for 700 Orbiter orbits

Viking 2 NASA 1975 Lander Successfu Deployed Lander from Viking 2 orbiter, operated for 1281 sols

Corresponding Author: Nayama Valsa Scariah 68 Taurian Innovative Journal/Volume 1/ Issue 1

Phobos 1 USSR 1988 Orbiter Spacecraft Communications lost Failure before reaching Mars; Lander failed to enter orbit USSR 1988 Orbiter Partial Orbital observations Phobos failure successful, Lander communications lost before landing NASA 1992 Orbiter Spacecraft Lost communications failure before orbital insertion. Mars Global NASA 1996 Orbiter Successful Operated for seven Suveyor years

Mars 96 Rosaviak- 1996 Orbiter Launch Never left LEO osmos Penetrators failure NASA 1996 Lander Successful Landed at 19.13°N 33.22°W on 4 July 1997 NASA 1996 Rover Successful Operated for 84 days

Nazomi ISAS 1998 Orbiter Spacecraft Ran out of fuel before failure reaching mars

Mars climate NASA 1998 Orbiter Spacecraft Approached Mars too Orbiter failure closely during orbit insertion attempt due to unit conversion error and burned up in the atmosphere Mars Polar NASA 1999 Lander Spacecraft Failed to land Lander failure NASA 1999 Penetrator Spacecraft Deployed from MPL, failure no data returned Mars Odyssey NASA 2001 Orbiter Operational Expected to remain operational until 2025 ESA 2003 Orbiter Operational Enough fuel to remain operational until 2026 ESA 2003 Lander Lander Deployed from Mars failure Express. Successful landing, but two solar panels failed to deploy, obstructing its

Corresponding Author: Nayama Valsa Scariah 69 Taurian Innovative Journal/Volume 1/ Issue 1

communications Spirit NASA 2003 Rover Successful Landed on January 4, 2004. Operated for 2208 sols Opportunity NASA 2003 Rover Operational Landed on January 4, 2004. Operated for 2208 sols ESA 2004 Gravity Successful assist Mars NASA 2005 Orbiter Operational Entered orbit on reconnaissance March 10, 2006 Orbiter NASA 2007 Lander Successful Landed on May 25, 2008. End of mission November 2, 2008 NASA 2007 Gravity Successful assist Fabos-Grunt Roskosm 2011 Orbiter Spacecraft os Phobos failure sample Yinghuo-1 CNSA 2011 Orbiter Failure Curiosity NASA 2011 Rover Operational Mars Orbiter ISRO 2013 Orbiter Operational Mission MAVEN NASA 2013 Orbiter Operational ExoMars Trace ESA 2016 Orbiter Operational Gas Orbiter Roskosm os Schiaparelli ESA 2016 Lander Partial EDM lander failure InSight NASA 2018 Lander En route

2. Spacecraft classification Spacecrafts are the machine or vehicle designed to and enter into orbit is known as orbiter spacecraft fly in outer space. There are different types of (Figure 1.). Atmospheric spacecraft are designed for spacecrafts are available such as flyby spacecraft, a relatively short mission to collect data about the orbiter spacecraft, Atmospheric spacecraft, Lander atmosphere of a planet or satellite. Lander spacecraft spacecraft, Rover spacecraft, Penetrator spacecraft, (Figure2.) are designed to reach the surface of a Observatory spacecraft and communication planet and survive long enough to telemeter data spacecraft. The Mars flyby is a movement of back to Earth. Surface penetrators have been spacecraft passing in the vicinity of the planet Mars, designed for entering the surface of a body, such as a but not entering the orbit or landing on it. comet, measuring, and telemetering the properties of A spacecraft designed to travel to a distant planet the penetrated surface. Rover moves (Figure 3.)

Corresponding Author: Nayama Valsa Scariah 70 Taurian Innovative Journal/Volume 1/ Issue 1 across the surface of a planet. An observatory spacecraft does not travel to a destination to explore it. Instead, it occupies an Earth orbit or a solar orbit from where it can observe distant targets free of the obscuring and blurring effects of Earth's atmosphere.

Figure 3.Curiosity rover moving in Gale crater, Mars 3. Indian Mars Exploration The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) also called Mangalyan mission launched on November 5th Figure 1. Mars Orbiter Mission Spacecraft 2013 by PSLV C-25 got inserted into Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 in its first attempt. Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft orbiting Mars in a highly elliptical orbit characterized by nearest point to Mars (periapsis) at around 300km and farthest point (apoapsis) at 7000km. It has five payloads such as LAP (Lyman Alpha photometer), MSM(Methane Sensor for Mars), MENCA(Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser), TIS(Thermal Infrared ), MCC(Mars Color Camera). LAP is used to measure the relative abundance of deuterium and hydrogen in the upper atmosphere. Deuterium/hydrogen ratio will allow an estimation of the amount of water loss to the atmosphere. MENCA is used for analyzing the neutral composition of particles. MSM is used to measure methane in the Martian atmosphere. MCC gives images and information about the surface features and composition of the Martian surface. Figure 2. Viking Lander Temperature and emissivity can be measured by using TIS data.

Corresponding Author: Nayama Valsa Scariah 71 Taurian Innovative Journal/Volume 1/ Issue 1

4. Mars color camera (MCC) of Methane in Martian atmosphere will provide Mars Color Camera operates in the visible range of clues about the presence of . 0.4 to 0.7μm with varying resolution of 20m to 4km. 7.2 Lyman Alpha Photometer MCC payload provides data in true colors of Mars Lap used to determine Deuterium to Hydrogen(D/H) (Fig:4) covering red, green and blue in Bayer abundance ratio of Martian exosphere. Comparison of pattern. The main science objectives of MCC are past and present D/H ratio helps to determine the studying morphology of land forms, wind streaks, hydrogen content in the atmosphere which gives the and study related to dust storm and dust devils in evidence of presence water in Martian atmosphere. different seasons. 7.3 Mars exospheric Neutral composition Analyzer 5. Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (MENCA) (TIS) MENCA is used for the in situ study of the composition TIS is used to observe thermal emission from of the Martian neutral exosphere. Martian surface. It operates in the thermal region of 7-13μm. The main target of the TIS payloads are to determine surface temperature and thermal inertia of Martian surface and used to analyze dynamic climatic variation over different seasons. 6. Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM) MSM used to determine the amount of columnar

methane (CH4) in the Martian atmosphere at several parts per billion (ppb) levels. The possible finding Figure 4. MCC image of Gale crater, Mars

7.4 Morphological Analysis of Mars 7. Major findings through different Mars Missions Different Martian landforms have been analyzed and 7.1 Evidence of Life on Mars mapped by using different datasets such as MCC, The serious hunt for organics on Mars has long CTX, HiRISE etc. complicated history. It starts with NASA’s twin Viking lander, which spotted two chlorinated chemicals, 7.5 Mineral exploration chloromethane and dichloromethane. After analyzing the results from Viking lander scientists thought that red Different minerals have been explored by using planet was dead planet. NASA’s Phoenix lander found different data sets. Two types of phyllosilicates were chorine containing chemicals called perchlorates in the identified by using OMEGA datasets. Gamma Ray Martian soil. Perchlorates can destroy organics in a Spectrometer of Mars Odyssey Mission is used to heated sample. The Curiosity rover launched on 2011 determine the chemical elements such as hydrogen in and was landed on Gale crater, Mars. From Curiosity Martian environment rover data, scientist found that Gale hosted a long-lived, potentially habitable lake-and-stream system billions of Conclusion years ago. In most of the Mars missions have planned for identifying the possibility of habitable world in Mars and also help to understand how geologic, climatic and process have worked to shape Mars and its environment over time. NASA has planned to send to Mars and return back to earth safely.

Corresponding Author: Nayama Valsa Scariah 72 Taurian Innovative Journal/Volume 1/ Issue 1

ISRO plans to Mission on 2020 with orbiter and rover spacecraft with great scientific payload

References

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[3] Fenton K.L, Joshua L. Bandfield and A. Wesley Ward (2003), Aeolian processes in Proctor Crater on Mars: Sedimentary history as analyzed from multiple data sets, Journal of geophysical research, vol. 108, no. E12, 5129

[4] Hobbs W.S. , David J. Paull, Mary C. Bourke (2010), Aeolian processes and dune morphology in Gale Crater, Icarus, vol.210, 102-115

[5]Singh R. P. (2015), Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer for Mars Orbiter Mission, Current Science, Vol. 109 Issue 6, p1097-1105

[6]Tanaka and Hayward (2008), Mars’ north circum-polar dunes: distribution, sources, and migration history, Planetary dunes workshop

Corresponding Author: Nayama Valsa Scariah Institution: BIT, Mesra, Ranchi E-mail id: [email protected]

Corresponding Author: Nayama Valsa Scariah 73