Exploratory Odyssey: Deciphering Mars’ Enigmatic Terrain with Mangalyaan-2

Team Udayavani, Jan 5, 2024, 7:58 PM IST

Mangalyaan-2, also known as Mars Orbiter Mission-2 (MOM-2), is a forthcoming Indian mission set to orbit Mars, with a planned launch in September 2024. It will be sent into space using the LVM-3 rocket. This mission marks India’s second venture into interplanetary space and second journey to Mars. Mangalyaan-2 will solely be an orbiter, as the initially proposed lander component has been dropped. The orbiter will carry advanced equipment, including a hyperspectral camera, a high-resolution monochrome camera and radar. The proposed duration of the mission is one year.

The Mangalyaan-2 mission aims to explore Mars’s atmosphere and climate to determine the potential for life on the Red Planet. However, the spacecraft is not designed to land on Mars. MOM-2 will be equipped with four scientific instruments.

Mangalyaan-2 Payloads

1. Mars Orbit Dust Experiment (MODEX): This will study where Mars dust comes from, how much there is, where it is found and how it moves in the upper part of Mars’s atmosphere

2. Radio Occultation (RO) Experiment: Using a special microwave signal, this experiment will look at the different layers of Mars’s atmosphere and measure things like the number of particles and electrons

3. Energetic Ion Spectrometer (EIS): This tool will examine the energy coming from the sun and tiny particles moving fast in the space around Mars. It will help us understand how Mars lost its atmosphere a long time ago

4. Langmuir Probe and Electric Field Experiment (LPEX): This experiment will measure how many electrons there are in certain parts of Mars’s atmosphere, their temperature and the patterns of electric fields. This information will help us learn more about Mars’s plasma environment—a state of matter similar to that of gas, but with charged particles

Harsh Atmosphere of Mars

Mars is a rocky, terrestrial planet and resembles a cold, dry desert. Its average temperature hovers around -65°C, which is significantly colder than the freezing point. Known as the Red Planet due to its red soil, coloured by iron that resembles rust, Mars presents a harsh and unique landscape. While Earth is the third planet in the solar system, Mars is the fourth, making it more distant from the Sun than Earth.

Mars is about half the size of Earth. Its diameter is about 53% that of Earth’s, making it much smaller and it has a lower surface gravity. The gravity on Mars is only about 38% that of Earth. This means that if you weigh 100 kg on Earth, you would weigh only about 38 kg on Mars.

Mars shares some features with Earth—such as different seasons, ice caps at its poles, volcanoes, canyons (or deep, narrow valleys with steep sides) and various weather conditions. However, its atmosphere is quite thin—it has almost 1,000 times less pressure than the pressure at sea level on Earth—and consists mainly of 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen and 1.6% argon—a colourless, odourless, inert gas that does not chemically react with any substance and is commonly used in lighting and welding; and it is the third most prevalent gas in Earth’s atmosphere.

The Mars atmosphere is also marked by trace amounts of oxygen, carbon monoxide, water, methane and other gases, as well as dust. This means that the air on Mars is not breathable for humans. The light dust is easily blown around the planet by winds, giving the skies a rich tan colour.

A single day on Mars is 24.6 hours long, slightly more than one Earth day. One year on Mars is equal to 687 days on Earth—nearly double the length of an Earth year. Mars is has two moons orbiting it; they are known as Phobos and Deimos. Sunlight takes approximately 13 minutes to reach Mars, whereas it takes about 8 minutes to reach Earth.

India’s Mangalyaan-1 Mission

India’s first mission to Mars—the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)—was launched on a PSLV-C25 rocket on November 5, 2013. After a transit period of 298 days, it was put into orbit around Mars on September 24, 2014. With this mission, ISRO became the fourth space agency to successfully reach Mars’s orbit. Originally planned to last only six months, the MOM mission has impressively continued for over seven years. It stayed in touch with Earth until April 2022, when communications were finally lost, possibly due to an exhaustion of fuel resources. The mission cost ISRO approximately Rs 450 crore ($70 million).

The main goals of that mission were focused on technology. These included creating, building and launching a spacecraft that could independently travel to Mars, enter its orbit and operate there. MOM had five scientific instruments, or payloads, on board to examine the Martian surface, its structure, minerals and atmosphere.

Mangalyaan-1 Payloads

1. Mars Colour Camera (MCC): To capture images of Mars’s surface and help study its terrain and weather

2. Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS): To measure Mars’s surface temperature and help identify minerals

3. Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM): To detect presence of methane, important for understanding the possibility of life on the planet

4. Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA): To analyse Mars’s atmosphere and provide information about its composition

5. Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP): A tool to measure how much hydrogen and deuterium (a form of hydrogen) are present in the upper atmosphere of Mars and help us understand how Mars’s atmosphere is slowly losing these gases into space

The mission successfully met many of its scientific goals—including analysing Mars’s surface and atmosphere and investigating various planetary and solar events. Additionally, it captured some of the most breathtaking images of Mars seen to date.

Mars Missions over the Years

Since the 1960s, around 50 missions have been launched to Mars, but roughly only half have succeeded. NASA’s Mariner-4 was the first successful probe to reach Mars. On July 15, 1965, it flew past the Red Planet and transmitted images of its surface back to Earth, according to NASA’s records.

Between 1960 and 1962, the erstwhile Soviet Union initiated the earliest five missions to Mars—all of which were flybys, intended to orbit the planet and transmit pictures. However, each of these missions failed as the spacecraft either did not reach Mars, or disintegrated en route.

Numerous missions have circled, touched down on, or explored the surface of Mars—including InSight, MAVEN and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, among others. Mars is unique as the only planet where man has sent rovers. These rovers roam the Martian terrain, capturing images and gathering data.

By Girish Linganna
(The author of this article is a Defence, Aerospace & Political Analyst based in Bengaluru. He is also Director of ADD Engineering Components, India, Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany. You can reach out to him at: [email protected])

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