Mars Mission goes halfway

 

Chennai: Cruising towards a historic feat, the Indian space mission to Mars on Wednesday crossed half the total distance to the red planet from Earth and was very much along the designated helio-centric trajectory.

 

At exactly 9.50 am, the Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft crossed the mid-point of its path to Mars. It has travelled 337.5 million km in its elliptical orbit around the sun, Isro sources said. It took four minutes and 15 seconds for a message to reach the spacecraft and return, they said.

 

Incidentally, the spacecraft is crossing half the total distance on its way to Mars, a day after Earth was at its closest to Mars in their respective orbits. The mission will explore presence of Methane in the red planet.