India's Mars orbiter has sent a picture of regional dust storm
activities over the northern hemisphere of the Red Planet, Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Monday.
"Regional dust storm
activities over northern hemisphere of Mars - captured by Mars Color
Camera on-board Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)", Bangalore-headquartered
ISRO said on its official Facebook page with a picture.
It said the image was taken from an altitude of 74,500 kms from the surface of Mars.
MOM
spacecraft had sent its first images of the planet on Thursday, a day
after creating history by becoming the only such endeavour so far to
have met with success on the maiden attempt.
MOM aims to study the Martian surface and mineral composition and scan its atmosphere for methane, an indicator of life.
The
spacecraft is equipped with five instruments, including a sensor to
track methane or marsh gas, a colour camera and a thermal-imaging
spectrometer to map the surface and mineral wealth of the planet
The Rs.450-crore MOM is the
cheapest inter-planetary mission. India is the first country to reach
Mars in the very first attempt. European, American and Russian probes
have managed to orbit or land on the planet, but after several attempts.
The
orbiter will keep moving in an elliptical path for at least six months
with its instruments sending their gleanings back home.
The
spacecraft was launched on its nine-month-long odyssey on a homegrown
PSLV rocket from Sriharikota in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh
on November 5, last year.
It had escaped the Earth's gravitational field on December 1 and was placed in the Martian orbit on September 24
.
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