Mangalyaan captures images of biggest Martian moon Phobos

Orbiting the red planet for nearly six years, the Mangalyaan Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is still going strong. Proving its endurance yet again, the Mission's Mars Colour Camera (MCC) onboard captured images of Phobos, the closest and biggest moon of Mars on July 1.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Saturday splashed images captured when MOM was at an estimated altitude of 7,200km from the Martian surface. The Phobos was about 4,200km from the Mission. The composite image was generated from six MCC frames and colour-corrected.

Phobos is largely believed to be made up of carbonaceous chondrites. “The violent phase that Phobos has encountered is seen in the large section gouged out from a past collision (Stickney crater) and bouncing ejecta. Stickney, the largest crater on Phobos along with the other craters (Shklovsky, Roche & Grildrig) are also seen in this image,” Isro explained.

When the Mangalyaan Mission was launched from Sriharikota by a PSLV rocket on November 5, 2013, Isro’s expectation of its life was a conservative six months. However, Isro later announced that MOM had enough fuel to last several years. The spacecraft was placed on the Martian orbit on September 24, 2014, nine months after launch.

Designed to study the Martian surface and mineral composition, atmospheric processes including dust storms and cloud formations, the Rs 450 crore Mission is also tasked with scanning the red planet’s atmosphere for Methane. Isro says this could be an indication of life on Mars.

To accomplish this, the Orbiter is equipped with a Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM), Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP), Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA), Mars Colour Camera (MCC) and Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS).

Two years after the launch, Isro had made available the data from the Mission to the national scientific community. The space agency had invited research proposals as part of an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for the five instruments onboard. The research was expected to pave the way for future scientific studies linked to subsurface water on Mars.