__________________________________

CASE STUDY ON MANGALYAAN ISRO (2014)

- Shradha Ghosh, Akash Patel ________________________________________________________

University Of Petroleum And Energy StudiesDehradun, Uttrakhand, India

Index1. Introduction…………………………………………

2.Objectives of Mangalyaan………………………...

3.Interplanetary journey and Obstacles…………

4.Entry into Mars Orbit……………………………..

5.Unsuccessful Mars Missions…………………….

6.Geographical Factors………………………………

7.Political Conditions…………………………………

8.Economic Factors and Contribution…………...

9.Conclusion……………………………………………

10.Refrences…………………………………………….

Structure: Brief Introduction Cases Solution Brief conclusion

CASE STUDY: MANGALYAAN By: Shradha Ghosh, Akash Patel

IntroductionMars Orbiter or Mangalyaan, after 15 months of manufacturing at a cost of Rs.454 crores using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket C25 at 09:08 UTC on 5 November 2013 set out to cover the distance of 225 million km by travelling 670 million kms between Mars and Earth. Successfully undergoing India’s first interplanetary mission.

ISRO became the fourth space agency in the world after National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US, Russian Federal Space Agency (RFSA) and European Space Agency to have successfully undertaken a mission to Mars. Costing only Rs.4 per Indian citizen!

The study discusses the objective of Mangalyaan and distinguishes its objectives from that of other missions of its kind.

The study describes the interplanetary journey of Mangalyaan and its obstacles in brief.

The study analyses the Orbiter’s entry into Mars orbit and its phases, It walks through the technology used in propulsion and detecting

instruments and the reason for its cost effectiveness. The study discusses the common hurdles faced by 24 of previous

unsuccessful mars missions and how Mangalyaan overcame them. It explains the geographic, political and economic factors, that

influenced Mars Orbit Mission and its contribution to economy. It concludes with the outcomes of Mangalyaan.

This study is based on my research from the sources on internet and journals that will be mentioned in the reference section.

Discussion#1 (Objective of Mangalyaan)

Mars Orbiter missions, is on a quest to fulfill dual objectives Technological and Scientific.

Technological Objectives: Design and realization 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.

Incorporate autonomous features to handle contingency situations.

Scientific Objectives: Exploration of Mars surface features, morphology, mineralogy and

Martian atmosphere by indigenous scientific instruments.

In addition to Mangalyaan there are five other ongoing missions. They are – Mars Odyssey(NASA), Mars Express(EU), MRO(NASA), MAVEN(NASA), ExoMars Trace Gas(EU/RFSA).

Each mission has a slightly different objective, though all indicating towards scientific exploration on the planet Mars in one form or another. Mangalyaan however, has a broader objective of making interplanetary explorations convenient for future in terms of Propulsion, navigation, communication, payload and cost.

Below is a table comparing objectives of the above mentioned six operational orbiters.

Comparison of MOM with other operational orbitersSno. Orbiter Agency Objective1. Mangalyaan ISRO Designing, planning, management and

operation of interplanetary mission. To explore Mars surface feature and

atmosphere.

2. Mars Odyssey

NASA Determining Mar’s habitability.

3. Mars Express

EU orbital (and originally in-situ) study of the interior, subsurface, surface and atmosphere, and environment of the planet Mars

4. MRO NASA to map the Martian landscape with its high-resolution cameras in order to choose landing sites for future surface missions.

5. MAVEN NASA to find scientific proof that Mars once sustained an atmosphere.

6. ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter

EU/RFSA Detection of Trace gasses on Mars surface.

Discussion#2 (Interplanetary Journey and Obstacles)How did going to mars take just as much fuel as going to moon, although its 100 times the distance of moon?

ISRO has used the method of Hohmann Transfer Orbit or Minimum energy transfer orbit between Earth and Mars. When an object is moving in an orbit it does not require additional energy. Hohmann demonstrated that the lowest energy route between any two orbits is an elliptical "orbit" which forms

a tangent to the starting and destination orbits. The more elliptical the orbit the higher is the speed of satellite.

The following describes the beginning and interplanetary part of Mars Orbiter’s journey:

The spacecraft is injected into an elliptical parking orbit by the launcher, with pergee of 248km and apogee of 23,500km.

According to the first principle the speed of the spacecraft is highest at the perigee, so a little tangential force, could make it cover a large distance. All the engine burns to raise the orbit were done at the perigee.

A total of six main engine burns were carried out for several seconds to raise the orbiter through five orbits at apogee 28,825km, 40,000km, 71,650km, 100,000km, and 192,000km respectively.

With a seventh prolonged burn of a 440 Newton engine, the orbiter escapes earth’s sphere of influence and enters the sun- centered or heliocentric orbit at a velocity of more than one lakh kilometer per hour.

The orbit coasts around sun for nine months before being captured into Martian orbit of influence.

At the time the space craft reaches the closest approach to Mars, it is captured into planned orbit around Mars.

Obstacles tackled during interplanetary flight

1. Failure of fourth orbital raising According to ISRO, the fourth orbital raising attempt on 11 November failed after a premature shut down of the main engine and the spacecraft’s back up logic triggered thruster firings instead.  The result was that the spacecraft’s velocity increased 35m/s rather than the 130m/s expected and undershot its planned for apogee (orbital high point) of 100,000km by nearly 22,000km.

Solution: an additional unscheduled burn was performed on 12 November 2013 that increased the apogee to 118,642 km (73,721 mi), a slightly higher altitude than originally intended in the fourth maneuver.

2. Communication Black out Although this glitch in the journey was anticipated, there was no tellingwhether the Round-trip Light Time (RLT) from Earth to Mars can vary anywhere between 6 to 43 minutes, it would be impractical to micromanage a mission from Earth. Due to this communications delay, mission support personnel on Earth cannot easily monitor and control all the spacecraft systems in real-time basis.

Solution: The configuration includes the use of on-board autonomy to automatically manage both the nominal and non-nominal scenarios on-board the spacecraft. 

3.RadiationOnce a vehicle leaves low Earth orbit and the protection of Earth's magnetosphere, it enters the Van Allen radiation belt, a region of high radiation. As a result of such effects, various physicochemical processes occur in spacecraft materials and equipment components and lead to the deterioration in their operating parameters.

Solution: The main frame bus elements and payloads are basically designed for interplanetary missions capable of operating in Earth Burn Maneuvers (EBN), Mars Transfer Trajectory (MTT) and Martian Orbit (MO) environments.

Discussion#3 (Entering into Mars Orbit)

Following are the phases encountered by MOM while entering Mars Orbit:

Reorienting the Spacecraft MOM is reoriented to align the thrust vector- before firing the engines to reduce the velocity.

In the shadow of Mars Because of the Mars-Sun-Earth geometry, the orbit insertion is destined to happen while MOM is in ellipse. MOM enters eclipse 5 minutes before Burn Start.

Engine Firing The main liquid Engine and eight smaller thrusters fire, imparting braking velocity of 1098.7 m/s.

The communication blackout The radio link between MOM and ground station blocked my Mars and MOM executes all operations autonomously.

Resuming Communication The burn is terminated when the required braking velocity is achieved and MOM id in Martian Orbit. The spacecraft is reoriented to point its Antenna towards Earth to resume communication.

Factor’s considered before entering Mars Orbit: Thermal Environment

The Orbiter needed to cope with a wide range of thermal environment, from Near Earth conditions with Sun and Earth contributions (hot case) to Mars conditions where eventually eclipses and reduced solar flux give rise to cold case issues. 

The average solar flux at Mars orbit is 589 W/Sq.m, or about 42% of what is experienced by an Earth-orbiting spacecraft. As a result of the eccentricity of Mars orbit, however, the solar flux at Mars varies by +/- 19% over the Martian year, which is considerably more than the 3.5% variation at Earth. 

Communication Systems

The communication systems for the Mars mission are responsible for the challenging task of communication management up to a distance of 400 million km. It consists of Telemetry, Tracking and Commanding (TTC) systems and Data transmission systems in S-band and a Delta Differential One-way Ranging (Δ-DOR) Transmitter for ranging. The TTC system comprises of coherent TTC Transponders, TWTAs (Travelling Wave Tube Amplifiers), a near omni coverage antenna system, a High Gain Antenna system, Medium Gain Antenna and corresponding feed networks. 

The High Gain Antenna system is based on a single 2.2 meter reflector illuminated by a feed at S-band. 

Power System

One of the major challenges in the design of power system is due to the larger distance of the satellite from the Sun. The power generation in Mars orbit is reduced to nearly 50% to 35% compared to Earth’s orbit. 

The power bus configuration comprises of a single wing of solar array with 7.56 m2 area generating about 840 W during sunlit and normal incidence in Martian orbit, and a 36 Ampere-Hour Lithium-Ion battery supports the power load during launch phase, initial attitude acquisition, eclipse, Earth burns, MOI, safe mode and data transmission phases.

Propulsion System

Propulsion System consists of one 440N Liquid Engine and 8 numbers of 22N thrusters. The propellant tanks have combined storage capacity up to 852 kg propellant. The 22N thrusters are used for attitude control during the various activities of the mission like, orbit raising using liquid engine, attitude maintenance, Martian orbit maintenance (if any) and momentum dumping. 

As the critical operation of Martian Orbit Insertion with Liquid Engine burn occurs after 10 months of launch, suitable isolation techniques are adopted to prevent fuel/ oxidizer migration issues.  

Discussio#4(Unsuccessful Mars Mission: Causes of Failure)Out of the 29 failed missions, 11 never left the lower earth orbit, and 13 missions failed just before or immediately after entering Mars orbit.

The following table illustrates the failed missions and their reason for failure.

Space Crafts Reason1M No.1,1M No.2,2MV-4 No.1, 2MV-3 No.1,Mariner 3,2M No.521,2M No.522,Mariner 8,Kosmos 419,(3MS No.170), Mars 96(M1 No.520)

Launch Failure

Mars 1(2MV-4 No.2), Zond 2(3MV-4A No.2), Mars 2 lander(SA 4M No.171), Prop-M Rover rover(SA 4M No.172),Mars 4(3MS No.52S),Mars 5(3MS No.53S),Mars 6(3MP No.50P),Mars (3MP No.51P), Fobos 1(1F No.101),Fobos 2(1F No.102),Mars Observer, Nozomi(PLANET-B),Mars Climate Orbiter,Mars Polar Lander,Deep Space 2,Beagle 2,Fobos-Grunt,Yinghuo-1.

System Failure

Mars 3(4M No.172),Mars 3 lander(SA 4M No.172) Other

The failure to orbit was mostly due to leakages, or early stage engine failure of the inability of payload to detach. MOM solved this problem with a simpler design, with light weight payload and a safe engine.

The second problem was the communication being lost, ISRO was already prepared for it, by making all the systems post eclipse (when the orbiter looses communication) autonomous. It also included a high gain antenna on the Orbiter to keep communication strong. (see discussion 2)

Discussion#5(Geographical Factor)The one geographical factor that influenced Mangalyaan the most is the location of Shriharikota, it’s the second best spaceport in the world next to Kennedy space center in U.S

Sriharikota is ideal for eastward launches. SHAR’s location on the east coast ensures that it gains an additional velocity of 0.4 km/s due to Earth’s rotation to easily launch rockets.

Being a coastal islandic area with no habitation proves advantageous for Sriharikota because it is on National Highway (NH-5), 20 KM away from nearest Railway Station, and 70 KM (Chennai) from nearest International Ports by air & ships.

Shriharikota has a safe distance for impact from the landing site.

Discussion#6 (Political Factors)There are two types of political factors 1.Negative 2.Posititve, while the former drives the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to produce cheaper missions the latter motivates it to increase the number of missions while maintaining its authenticity.

These two factors are closely explored below:

1. Negative factor – Lack of Government Support

Although it might sound cliché at first the lack of government support has caused slower execution of projects by the organization, between 2007 and 2012, Isro accomplished only about half of its planned 60 missions, government data showed. The government cited "development complexity" as the reason for the delay in some missions.

Between 2012 and 2017 the target is 58 missions. The agency has completed 17 missions so far, and ISRO did not say why the number remained low.

Some company executives and experts do not see that changing any time soon, with the absence of heavy rocket launchers, too few launch facilities and bureaucratic delays hampering growth.

2. Positive Factor- Competition with other Nations

Asian space race with china Japan and South Korea-

With the many successes of the Chinese space program, through its Shenzhou human spaceflight program and Chang’e robotic lunar program, India has been left looking like one of several distant “also ran” competitors in the Asian space race.

 Given that space exploration has traditionally carried with it significant technology leadership implications India could not allow China’s regional space leadership to go uncontested.

Going to the Moon wouldn’t do it, but going to Mars would. China had attempted a Mars mission with Yinghuo-1, launched in 2011 by Russia. But the mission failed. That failure provided India with an open spot in the space record books, and the geostrategic influence that accompanies those coveted spots.

Bureaucratic Politics -

An agreement had been signed in 2007 between India and Russia for Chandrayaan-2 to be a joint mission, with India supplying a lunar orbiter and rover, and Russia the lander.  In 2009, however, it began to be clear that Russia was experiencing hardware development delays. Russia cancelled its participation and India was left to complete the mission on its own terms and its own time. And it left India with a nearly completed Chandrayaan spacecraft in 2009-2010.

However the contribution of K. Radhakrishnan(chair of ISRO in 2009) for Chandrayaan-2 could not have been remembered as prominently as that of his predecessor, G. Madhaven Nair for chandrayaan-1. Mars

Mission presented for Radhakrishnan an opportunity to create an even bigger legacy.

Discussion#7(Economic Factors & Contribution)How did Mangalyaan cost India just $76 million, and Maven cost U.S $671 million, for more or less the same outcome?There is a large cost difference between the two missions mainly because of the different objectives, payloads, and expected operating lifespan

Factors that make Mangalyaan Economic yet accurate:1. Objective: MAVEN is out to perform specialized research that involves

studying the atmosphere of Mars while MOM is a technology demonstrator, more focused on taking the first step towards a successful space program -- putting an orbiter successfully into Martian orbit and perform maneuvers. This detail significantly reduces its cost of manufacturing.MAVEN is armed with eight scientific instruments whereas MOM has five scientific instruments, one of them being methane sniffer.

2. Manufacturing : Two-thirds of Mangalyaan’s parts such as motor casings and the antenna were manufactured by domestic firms such as Godrej & Boyce and India's largest engineering company, Larsen & Toubro as oppose to international companies like companies like lockheed martin, which substantially controlled costs.

3. Propulsion technique : Mangalyaan used a series of smaller engine burns in place of one powerful burn like the heavy powerful upper stage l Centaur in MAVEN, it used a smaller Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) and the relatively small amount of fuel it was able to carry to orbit. The reduced payload and a simpler propulsion system efficiently minimized the costs.

4. Life Span : MAVEN is expected to function for 8.5 years while MOM is expected to function for ten months. Hence the fuel content in both the space crafts are filled accordingly, making MOM much cheaper and yet functional.

5. Labor costs: Engineers cost much less in the India then they do in U.S. The annual income for an aeronautical engineer in the United States is $105,000.In India it is around $ 20,000 ,for equal or more work.

Economic Contribution of Mangalyaan

1. Attracting foreign investment : Mangalyaan has improved the chances of foreign giants to launch satellites and work with ISRO.ISRO has already launched them and has made huge profits.Until now in 2014-15. Through ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix by virtue of various activities India has earned about $ 100 million launching 45 foreign satellites till date and revenue from its commercial space missions is poised to grow with another 28 foreign satellites planned to be put into orbit between 2015 and 2017.

2. Growth of Domestic Firms : The success of Mangalyaan has opened doors to other commercial opportunities for domestic companies like, Godrej & Boyce and Larson & Turbo that manufactured two-third components of Mangalyaan. Godrej plans to shift focus from space technology to the aviation export industry, catering to the likes of Boeing Co and Airbus and trimming Isro's contribution to their aerospace business to 40 percent from 70 percent currently.

ConclusionMangalyaan has put India back in the space race with other countries. While it’s a one of its kind opportunity, it has attracted a lot of attention and foreign investment, which might help lifting India’s GDP in the near future. Along with that it has the rare opportunity to test Mar’s atmospheric configuration with its unparalled instruments.

MOM also shows that longer inter planetary space flights are possible in future with lesser payload. It demonstrated innovative communication systems and automation that was the major cause of failure of Mar’s missions in the past.

It did all this without hampering the country’s economy and overcame obstacles that most agency couldn’t, with simpler mechanisms.

Although the scientific outcomes of the Orbiter including the methane content has not yet been released, ISRO has released some pictures from the surface of Mars that may lead in profound discoveries.

References1. L. S. Novikov*, V. N. Mileev, E. N. Voronina, L. I. Galanina, A. A.

Makletsov, and V. V. Sinolits L. S. et.al Radiation effects of spacecraft material (August 07 2008).

2. Zunhui Zhao, Haibin Shang, Pingyuan Cui, Xiangyu Huang, (2013) "Solution space research for interplanetary trajectory", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 85 Iss: 2, pp.150 – 16

3. Haibin Shang, Pingyuan Cui, Enjie Luan, (2008) "Design and optimization of interplanetary low‐thrust trajectory with planetary aerogravity‐assist maneuver", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 80 Iss: 1, pp.18 – 26

4. http://www.isro.gov.in

5. http://www.planetary.org

6. http://www.emeraldinsight.com

______________________________________________________________________________