News / Brèves Space / Espace Back to previous selection / Retour à la sélection précédente India’s Mars spacecraft leaves earth’s orbit 2 December 2013 (EIRNS)—The critical maneuver to place India’s Mars Orbiter Spacecraft in the Mars Transfer Trajectory was successfully carried out in the early hours today. The spacecraft is now on a course to encounter Mars after a journey of about 10 months around the Sun, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced. The Mars project plans to study the planet’s surface and mineral composition as well as search the atmosphere for methane, a chemical strongly tied to life on Earth. The Mars orbiter, named Mangalyaan (Mars or Goodwill vehicle), which was launched on November 5, has now embarked on a 470 million-mile journey towards Mars. It is scheduled to arrive in its designated orbit next September. "While Mangalyaan takes 1.2 billion dreams to Mars, we wish you sweet dreams!", ISRO said in a tweet soon after the event, referring to the citizens of the world’s second most populous country. India’s probe completed six orbits around Earth before Sunday’s "slingshot," which took it into a path around the Sun to carry it towards Mars. The slingshot requires precise calculations to eliminate the risk of missing the new orbit. "Getting to Mars is a big achievement," said Mayank Vahia, a professor in the astronomy and astrophysics department of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai. "If the spacecraft is half a degree out in its direction, or if the velocity is a few kilometers too fast or slow, the slingshot will not work." India’s space agency will have to make a few mid-course corrections to keep the probe in its new path. The mission’s next big challenge will be to enter an orbit around Mars next year, a test failed in 2003 by Japan’s probe, which suffered electrical faults as it neared the planet. Homegrown companies — including India’s largest infrastructure group Larsen & Toubro, one of its biggest conglomerates, Godrej & Boyce, state-owned aircraft maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and Walch and Nagar Industries — made more than two-thirds of the parts for both the probe and the rocket that launched it. [RMA]