Indian Mars Probe's Orbit-raising Maneuver Falls Short

Indian Mars Probe's Orbit-raising Maneuver Falls Short (mind the word-
wrap on the link)

http://www.spacenews.com/article/lau...n-mars-probes-
orbit-raising-maneuver-falls-short

From above:

Mangalyaan, a 1.3-ton orbiter launched Nov. 5 atop an Indian
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, successfully completed three
orbit-raising maneuvers prior to a Nov. 11 attempt that was
cut short by a propulsion glitch. As a result, the spacecraft
picked up an additional 35-meters-per-second of velocity
instead of the intended 130 meters-per-second gain and raised
its apogee ?the highest point of its highly elliptical orbit?
some 6,600 kilometers to 78,276 kilometers, well short of the
day?s 100,000-kilometer target altitude.

Doh!

Further reading of the article, and official statement from ISRO
indicates that this was a glitch found during testing of various
(redundant) propulsion system components. It's good to test these
things now, while in earth orbit, than later when the craft needs to
perform a very precise, and timely, Mars orbit insertion burn. This
should give the team time to make changes to software needed to work-
around any issues found during testing.

Jeff
--
"the perennial claim that hypersonic airbreathing propulsion would
magically make space launch cheaper is nonsense -- LOX is much cheaper
than advanced airbreathing engines, and so are the tanks to put it in
and the extra thrust to carry it." - Henry Spencer

On 11/12/2013 8:56 AM, Jeff Findley wrote:
Indian Mars Probe's Orbit-raising Maneuver Falls Short (mind the word-
wrap on the link)

http://www.spacenews.com/article/lau...n-mars-probes-
orbit-raising-maneuver-falls-short

But a subsequent attempt was successful.
http://www.firstpost.com/india/succe...e-1224229.html

Vaughn

In article ,
says...

But a subsequent attempt was successful.
http://www.firstpost.com/india/succe...e-1224229.html

Because they avoided this issue (quoted from the article above):

During the fourth orbit raising operations yesterday, the 440
Newton liquid engine stopped, while both primary and redundant
coils were energised together, however the thrust level
augmentation logic, as expected, came in and the operation
continued using the attitude control thrusters and the
spacecraft was ?normal? and ?100 per cent safe,? according to
ISRO.

As I said in my prior post, they were testing redundant components and
determined that a particular configuration (detailed above) did not work
as expected. So, that configuration will be avoided in the future.

Jeff
--
"the perennial claim that hypersonic airbreathing propulsion would
magically make space launch cheaper is nonsense -- LOX is much cheaper
than advanced airbreathing engines, and so are the tanks to put it in
and the extra thrust to carry it." - Henry Spencer