Bengaluru: India's momentous Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), which is set to mark its first anniversary in the Martian orbit on Thursday, September 24, will last for many years, according to ISRO.
Mangalyaan still has 35kg of fuel left as the consumption of the spacecraft is quite low.
Initially, scientists estimated the MOM to last for six months, but the spacecraft has outperformed and due to surplus fuel, the mission will last for many years.
“Mars (mission) is expected to last for many years now, because it has gone through solar conjunction also; so we don't see much of a problem,” ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of Prof Satish Dhawan Commemoration on 20 September in Bengaluru.
He said that all other subsystems are working fine and so far they have not had any failures.
Earlier in March, MOM's life was extended for another six months due to surplus fuel.
On September 24, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will mark the first anniversary of Mars Orbit Insertion by releasing an atlas containing photos taken by the colour camera on board the spacecraft.
Then on November 5 - the day Mangalyaan was launched into orbit – the Indian space agency will also bring out a book 'Fishing hamlet to Mars'.
ISRO launched MOM on a PSLV rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on 5 November 2013. India's MOM probe was succesfully inserted into Mars orbit on September 24, 2014.
With this, India became the first country in the world to send a probe on Mars on its first attempt.
The Indian space agency is also launching its first space observatory 'Astrosat' aimed at studying celestial bodies on board a PSLV rocket on September 28.
