Mars Orbiter Mission, the Indian spacecraft going around the red planet, has been functioning in a basic, silent mode for the past few days preparatory to an impending two-week-long signal blackout.
MOM faces a communication outage during June 8-25, when Sun will be in the background of Mars with respect to Earth and disrupt communication. Mars will be flanked by Earth on the other side.
For almost a month from May 27, its payloads will remain shut down and only stored telemetry signals or a health report will be sent for three hours a day, ISRO Satellite Centre Director M.Annadurai told The Hindu. Information on the remaining 21 hours was being stored and sent in those three hours.
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Think of Sun being behind an object that you are photographing, he explained. The satellite is `silent’ and it has been programmed to operate the basic maintenance on its own for about a month, he said, adding DTH operations on ground periodically face such situations. ISRO Satellite Centre Director M.Annadurai told The Hindu. Its five instruments will not work during this period.
MOM, launched in November 2013, has been orbiting Mars since September 2014, making India the first country to reach Mars in the first attempt. It has outlived its planned time of six months. Dr. Annadurai said it could go on for some more time at the current rate as "Fuel on the spacecraft is not an issue."
The images, chemical and topographical data that it has sent are being collated by scientific teams. A primary search is for any hint of methane from its surface - which can indicate ancient life on Earth's neighbour.
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It goes round Mars in an ellipse almost once in three Earth days, closest to Mars at about 450 km and farthest at 72,000 km.