CHENNAI, June 14: Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft has successfully come out of a ‘whiteout phase’ between May 18 and 30.
Whiteout phase was a phenomenon that occurs when Earth is between the Sun and Mars. The planets continuously in motion can align with the sun causing ‘whiteout’ or ‘blackout’ causing communication disruptions. During this phase too much solar radiation might make it impossible for the Mars Orbiter to communicate with the Earth.
The maximum duration of ‘whiteout’ is around 14 days. However, MOM spacecraft is built with full autonomy to take care of itself for long periods without any ground intervention.
The entire planning and commanding for the ‘whiteout’ was completed 10 days before the actual event. No commanding was carried out on the satellite in the ‘whiteout’ period. Payload operations were suspended. Fault Detection, Isolation and Recovery were kept enabled, so as to take care of any contingency on the spacecraft. Master Recovery Sequencer was programmed, to acquire the attitude of the spacecraft and ensure communication with earth even in case of loss of attitude ISRO said in its website.
The spacecraft came out of ‘whiteout’ geometry successfully on May 30, 2016 and has been normalised for regular operations. It may be recalled, MOM went through a communication ‘blackout’ as a result of solar conjunction from June 2, 2015 to July 2, 2015. Telemetry data was received during most of the conjunction period except for 9 days from June 10-18, during superior conjunction. MOM was commanded with autonomy features starting from May 18, 2015, which enabled it to survive the communication ‘blackout’ period without any ground commands or intervention.
The spacecraft emerged out of ‘blackout’ period with auto control of the spacecraft systems successfully. This experience had enabled the mission team to program a spacecraft about one month in advance for all operations. (UNI)
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