India’s Mars orbiter craft Mangalyaan is no longer in contact with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as it has run out of propellant and its battery is drained beyond the safe limit. According to news wire agency IANS, the scientists of ISRO, at a national meet to commemorate the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) on Monday said that the Mars Orbiter has no fuel now and they were not able to change the flight path of the spacecraft.
They also added that the spacecraft was not able to get its solar battery charged as the shadow of Mars fell on it for a long period of time. The spacecraft had around 2 or 2.4kg of fuel which is not sufficient to make any manoeuvres.
The INR 450 crore MOM was credited with the discovery of 'suprathermal' Argon-40 atoms in the Martian exosphere and it has helped get a better understanding of the Martian surface features, morphology, and the Martian atmosphere and exosphere. This spacecraft also captured 1000 images and published a Mars Atlas.
On November 5, 2013, Mangalyaan was launched onboard PSLV-C25 on and from September 24, 2014, the spacecraft started orbiting Mars.
