Mangalyaan is the first interplanetary orbiter ever launched by India, and the vehicle is facing a do-or-die maneuver that will determine if orbit insertion around the Red Planet is successful.
The Mars Orbiter Mission, as the craft is officially known, has spent 300 days traveling 422 million miles to Mars. The vehicle launched from the Earth on Nov. 5, 2013.
Three hours before orbital insertion of the vehicle, a medium-gain antenna will be turned on, providing a communication link with the Earth that will remain active throughout the maneuver. The spacecraft will then be turned around, reducing the velocity of the observatory. A liquid apogee motor will be fired, placing the spacecraft into orbit around the Red Planet. The engine has only been fired once during the flight, during a test firing on Sept. 22 that lasted four seconds.
The planned orbital fire will last for 24 minutes, and will take place while the spacecraft is behind Mars, prohibiting communications with ground controllers back on Earth. If the engine fails to start, or if orbital insertion is not successful, mission planners will attempt to start eight thrusters, each delivering just five pounds of thrust, in an effort to enter orbit around the planet. Mangalyaan is due to begin circling Mars on Sept. 24.
If successful, India will become just the fourth nation in the world -- and the first in Asia -- to reach the Red Planet. The vehicle was designed and flown by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). This is the primary space agency for the world's second most populated nation, and one of the largest such agencies in the world.
Maven, the new Mars probe designed and managed by the United States, arrived at the Red Planet on Sept. 21. Due to the relative orbits of the Earth and Mars, the quickest and easiest travel times between the worlds are limited. Therefore, ships from various nations are likely to arrive at nearly the same time as each other.
Like Maven, Mangalyaan is designed to study the atmosphere of Mars and also take pictures of the surface of the world. Unlike the NASA-designed mission, the Indian spacecraft was built with economy foremost in mind.
"The total cost has been put at 4.5bn rupees ($74m; £45m), which makes it one of the cheapest interplanetary space missions ever. On a visit to Sriharikota in June, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went so far as to say that the '[making of the] Hollywood movie Gravity cost more than our Mars mission,'" the BBC reported.
