Saturday, January 4, 2014

ISRO’s Mars orbiter sent first pictures of earth



The Mars Orbiter Mission also known as Mangalyaanhas beamed back the first set of pictures of Earth on 21 November 2013 that was captured by Mars Color Camera fitted on Mars Orbiter spacecraft. The picture of earth has captured the Indian subcontinent and parts of Africa.
The camera has also captured the cyclonic storm Helen that is heading towards Andhra Pradesh coast. The Picture was taken on 19 November 2013 from an altitude of 67975 km with a resolution of 3.53 km. This is the first time after launch that an instrument on board has been checked for its operation.
Earlier, ISRO had performed all five orbit raising manoeuvres planned on the Mars Orbiter and raised the apogee of the spacecraft to over 1.92 lakh km.