BENGALURU: ISRO has successfully carried out orbital manoeuvres on Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft to avoid the impending long eclipse duration for the satellite.
The duration of the eclipse would have been as long as 8 hours in the coming days. As the satellite battery is designed to handle an eclipse duration of only about 1 Hour 40 minutes, a longer eclipse would have drained the battery beyond the safe limit.
The manoeuvres performed on January 17 brought down the eclipse duration to zero during this long eclipse period.
During the manoeuvres all the eight numbers of 22N thrusters were fired for a duration of 431 seconds, achieving a velocity difference of 97.5 m/s.
This has resulted in a new orbit for the MOM spacecraft, which completely avoids eclipse up to September 2017.
About 20 kg propellant was consumed for this manoeuvres leaving another 13 kg of propellant for its further mission life.
According to ISRO, the spacecraft health is normal. The next long eclipse period for MOM is expected in the year 2020. (AGENCIES)
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