BANGALORE: Saluting India’s space scientists after its Mars mission created history, an elated Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the country has achieved the “near impossible” and prevailed though the “odds were stacked against us”.
Calling the “spectacular” success of the country’s space programme after today’s Mars feat as a shining example of what it was capable of as a nation, Modi said it has dared to reach out into the unknown and gone beyond boundaries of human enterprise and imagination.
“The odds were stacked against us. Of the 51 missions attempted across the world so far, a mere 21 had succeeded.
But we have prevailed!,” Modi said in his speech announcing the success of Mars Orbiter Mission(MOM) ‘Mangalyaan’.
“Today MOM has met Mangal (Mars). Today Mangal has got MOM. The time this mission was short named as MOM, I was sure that MOM won’t disappoint us,” Modi, who wore a red-coloured jacket, told the scientists at the ISRO command centre here.
As the orbiter was placed in the orbit of the Red Planet, Modi patted the back of Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman K Radhakrishan after watching the critical final moments with space scientists.
“India has successfully reached Mars, congratulations to all of you, congratulations to countrymen. History has been created today. We have dared to reach out into the unknown.
And have achieved the near impossible,” said Modi, as India became the first country to succeed in the mission to Mars in the very first attempt.
“Travelling a mind-boggling distance of more than 650 million, or 65 crore kilometres, we have gone beyond the boundaries of human enterprise and imagination. We have, accurately navigated our spacecraft, through a route known to very few,” he said, showering compliments on ISRO scientists.
Modi told the scientists that through their brilliance and hard work, “you have made it a habit of achieving the impossible”.
“No one represents this zeal for exploring the unknown more than our space scientists here at ISRO,” he said, adding, “These are all accomplishments that will go down as landmarks in history.”
India’s Mars orbiter, the Prime Minister noted, had been built indigenously, in a pan-Indian effort, stretching from Bangalore to Bhubhaneshwar, and Faridabad to Rajkot.
He noted that the spacecraft had been put together in a record time with a mere three years of studying its feasibility, which was matter of pride for Indians.
“India is the only country to have succeeded in its very first attempt,” Modi stressed, adding that, with today’s spectacular success, ISRO joins an elite group of only three other agencies worldwide to have successfully reached the red Mars.
He said the success of India’s space programme is a shining symbol of “what we are capable of as a nation”.
“Let today’s success drive us with even greater vigour and conviction. Let’s set ourselves even more challenging goals–this too must become a base for challenging the next frontier,” he said.
Modi said Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s “vision had inspired us to reach for the moon. The successful Chandrayan mission in turn led to the Mars Orbiter Mission.”
The Prime Minister said, “We also have a great legacy and responsibility to live up to. Our ancestors had helped the world understand the mysteries of the heavens.
“Grasp the idea of Shunya or nothingness. Map spatial knowledge; such as the rotation of the earth, motion of planets and occurrence of eclipses. Modern India must continue playing this leading role of ‘Jagad-Guru Bharat’,” he said.
Modi said, “We have done so, from a distance so large; that it took even a command signal from Earth, more time to reach it, than it takes sunlight to reach us.”
Uncertainty, he said, is a part of the journey of every explorer who seeks to push boundaries and the hunger of exploration and the thrill of discovery are not for the faint-hearted.
Modi said innovation, after all, by its very nature involves risk; as the scientists are trying to do something which has not been done before.
“It’s a leap into the dark. Humanity would not have progressed, if we had not taken such leaps into the unknown.
And space is indeed the biggest unknown out there.”
He said no one represents this zeal for exploring the unknown more than the space scientists here at ISRO and they have developed self-reliance across critical domains, often in the face of hostile circumstances.
“Every generation of your scientists, has groomed the next home-grown lot. Through your achievements, you have honoured our fore-fathers, and inspired our future generations! You truly deserve all the love and respect you get from a grateful nation!”
Noting that the space programme has been an example of achievement, which “inspires the rest of us to strive for excellence ourselves”, the Prime Minister said moreover, space exploration requires cutting-edge expertise across diverse disciplines.
A successful space programme thus generates applications across multiple domains, Modi stressed.
In his concluding remarks, he said, “In contrast with the linear nature of Western philosophy; there is no absolute ‘beginning’ or ‘end’ in our Eastern understanding of the cosmos. There is only a continuous, unending cycle of dispassionate, detached perseverance.
“Let today’s success, only drive us with even greater vigour and conviction. Let’s set ourselves even more challenging goals. And strive even harder to achieve them. Let us push our boundaries. And then, push some more!”
Quoting Rabindranath Tagore, Modi said, “Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action … Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”
Eearlier, India created space history by successfully placing its low-cost Mars spacecraft in orbit around the Red Planet in its very first attempt, catapulting the country into an elite club of three nations.
ISRO scientists successfully ignited the main 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) and eight small thrusters that fired for 24-minutes from 7:17 AM and slowed down the speed of Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft ‘Mangalyaan’ for it to slip into a smooth orbit around the Red Planet after almost an year-long voyage.
” Scientists broke into wild cheers and congratulated each other after the 1,350 kg spacecraft was manoeuvred into its designated place, capping a 666 million km journey that began on 5th November last.
With the success of “Mangalyaan”, India has become the first country to go to Mars in the very first try. European, American and Russian probes have managed to orbit or land on the planet, but after several attempts. The first Chinese mission to Mars, called Yinghuo-1, failed in 2011. Earlier in 1998, the Japanese mission ran out of fuel and was lost.
At just 74 million USD, the mission less than the estimated 100 million USD budget of the sci-fi blockbuster “Gravity”.
India’s MOM is the cheapest inter-planetary mission, costing a tenth of NASA’s Mars mission Maven that entered the Martian orbit on 22nd September.
It aims to study Mars’ surface and mineral composition, and scan its atmosphere for methane, a chemical strongly tied to life on Earth.
Given the high rate of failures –only 21 of the total of 51 missions sent to Mars by various countries being successful, the success of MOM has given a boost to India’s global standing in Space.
With the success of ‘Mangalyaan’, India also becomes the first Asian country to have sent a mission to the Red Planet.
Mars Orbiter Insertion was carried out automatically by commands loaded onto the spacecraft after its velocity was slowed down from 22.1km per second to 4.4km per second to enable it to be captured by the Martian orbit.
The spacecraft had entered the Martian neighbourhood on Monday.
At the time of MOM’s orbital insertion, its signals took about 12 minutes and 28 seconds to reach Earth where it was received by NASA’s Deep Space Network Stations in Canberra and Goldstone which relayed the data in real time to ISRO’s station in Bangalore.
The first sign of success on the very last leg came when ISRO announced that the burn of engines on India’s Mars orbiter had been confirmed.
“All engines of Mars orbiter are going strong. Burn confirmed,” ISRO said as it signalled history in the making.
Igniting the main engine was critical as it had been lying dormant for about 300 days and was only woken up briefly for four seconds on Monday.
It was a tricky, make-or-break manoeuvre given that the slightest error could have pushed the Orbiter into the deep depths of space.
Much of the spacecraft’s manoeuvre took place behind Mars as seen from Earth. That means that from a point four minutes into the burn being employed till three minutes after the scheduled end of the manoeuvre, teams on Earth had no view of the spacecraft’s progress.
The Orbiter will keep moving in an elliptical path for at least six months with its instruments sending their gleanings back home.
The 1,350 kg spacecraft is equipped with five instruments, including a sensor to track methane or marsh gas — a possible sign of life, a colour camera and a thermal imaging spectrometer to map the surface and mineral wealth of the Red Planet.
The spacecraft was launched on its nine-month long odyssey on a homegrown PSLV rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on 5th November, 2013. It had escaped the earth’s gravitational field on 1st December, 2013. (PTI)
