Indian space programme created history as Mangalyaan entered Mars orbit successfully

On 24th September 2014, India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, Manglayaan successfully entered the Martian orbit.

To insert the spacecraft into the Mars orbit the operation, Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) was fired for 24 minutes 16 seconds on scheduled time 07:17:32 am. 

After the entry of MOM in Mars orbit, India created the history of becoming the first country to insert the spacecraft of the mission around the Mars in first attempt.

Apart from this, India also came one step closer to its cherished dream of landing on Mars and this success of Mars orbiter Mission in the very first shot will boost India's global standing in Space.

Earlier on 22 September 2014, ISRO test-fired the crucial Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) of the Mission’s main engine successfully.

Till date various countries has sent 51 missions to Mars of which only 21 were successful. India’s leading space agency ISRO has become the fourth space research organisation in the world and first in Asia to reach Mars after after the Soviet space program, NASA, and the European Space Agency.

Mangalyaan is primarily a technological mission and it has been configured to carry out observation of physical features and the atmosphere of Mars. 

On 5 November 2013, MOM was launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

The mission was executed within 15 months at the cost of 450 crore ($74 million) after the Union 

Government gave its approval for the mission.

Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM)

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 22^nd September 2014 successfully conducted the crucial test fire of Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) of Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) or Mangalyaan.

The test was conducted at the ISRO's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bangalore.

On 21^st September 2014, ISRO team conducted the crucial Trajectory Correction Manoeuver (TCM) as the LAM had not been used for nearly 300 days after the initial orbit raising manoeuvers and Trans Mars Insertion process conducted on 1 December 2013.

Team of scientists had a perfect burn for 4 seconds using 0.5 kg of fuel to slow the spacecraft down by 2.4 metres per second so as to correct the trajectory of MOM.

The Liquid Engine (LM) on the MOM, also called the 440-Newton Liquid Engine, is a modified version of the Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) used on earlier missions that required orbit rising, such as Chandrayaan.

ISRO's first liquid rocket motor, developed in the early eighties, was 50 kg powered by red fuming nitric acid (oxidizer) and hydrazine (fuel).

Pressurized gas was used to push the propellants from their tanks into the combustion chamber.

The need for a more powerful liquid rocket motor arose with the Insat-2 program, the first operational communication satellites to be designed and built within the country. (Insat-1 satellites were built and launched by the US).

LAM develops 45-kg thrust and uses monomethyl hydrazine and a nitrogen tetroxide as propellants and pressurized helium gas is used to force the propellants into the combustion chamber.

The LAM-thruster combination was also adopted for the Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter mission and its upgraded version LM (Liquid Engine) is used for Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM). 

During the Chandrayaan-1 mission, the LAM was operated ten times in the course of three weeks to take the spacecraft from Earth orbit to its operational path around the Moon.