Mars spacecraft completes 80% of journey

India's maiden mission to the Red Planet, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has completed 80 % of its 54.6 million kilometers to Mars. The MOM has now traveled a distance 540 million kilometers on its helio centric arc and the Mars Orbit Insertion will be carried out on September 24.

"The Mars Orbiter Spacecraft has travelled 540 million kilometers on its helicentric arc. Radio Signals from earth now take 15 minutes to reach MOM and return," the space agency said. Launched on November 5 the MOM is carrying compact science experiments, totaling a mass of 15 kg. The five pay loads of the Layman Alpha Photometer (LAP), Methane Sensor for MARS (MES), Martian Exospheric Composition

Explorer (MENCA), MARSColour Camera (MCC) and TIR imaging spectrometer (TIS). The Rs 450 crore expedition seeks to reveal whether there is methane, considered a precursor chemical for life, on the Red Planet.

Prior to the Mars Orbit Insertion on September 24 Isro has planned the last Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM) of the spacecraft which is likely to be was conducted in August.