ISRO has been closely monitoring the spacecraft and its five scientific equipment, and authorities have stated that scientific study of the data obtained from the MOM spacecraft is now underway.
India's Mars Orbiter spacecraft has been in orbit for seven years, far longer than its six-month mission duration.
“Indeed, a fulfilling feeling,” said K Radhakrishnan, who headed the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM, now known as Mangalyaan) team as Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at the time. MOM is ISRO's first interplanetary mission.
The probe was launched on November 5, 2013, and on September 24, 2014, it was successfully placed into Martian orbit for the first time.
What is red, is a planet and is the focus of my orbit? pic.twitter.com/HDRWjOcPus
— ISRO's Mars Orbiter (@MarsOrbiter) September 24, 2014
According to authorities from India's national space agency, which is located in Bengaluru, MOM is essentially a technological demonstration project with all mission goals accomplished. According to them, the most important lessons learned were in the areas of system and subsystem design, launch for interplanetary missions, insertion into other planet's orbit, and operation of spacecraft and scientific equipment around Mars orbit.
The lessons learned have given ISRO scientists more confidence in undertaking future interplanetary missions. ISRO has been closely monitoring the spacecraft and its five scientific equipment, and authorities have stated that scientific study of the data obtained from the MOM spacecraft is now underway.
M Annadurai, the MOM's Program Director, stated the spacecraft's "moving parts are encountering some difficulties and some of the redundancies we have to swap over" in regards to its health. “Considering that we are in the seventh year, the spacecraft's health is fairly good,” Annadurai told PTI. He estimates that the spacecraft will have a mission life of at least another year.
Annadurai explained that ISRO has made changes after learning lessons from the Chandrayaan-1 mission, including redesigning the spacecraft and optimizing fuel management, among other things. He said it was a very rewarding occasion for India to prove that a spacecraft can remain in operation for such a long length of time orbiting Mars, noting that Earth remote-sensing satellites generally have a mission life of seven to nine years.
Annadurai responded to accusations that the MOM's scientific output was "poor," saying it was more of a technology demonstration mission. He noted that the spacecraft was launched by PSLV since the GSLV was not in working order at the time.
ISRO was only able to allocate around 15 kg for scientific instruments, and scientists only had 18-19 months to create them. Annadurai stated, "I don't think we could have done better than what we've done."
The spacecraft has already traveled three Martian years, according to ISRO officials (one Martian year is about two earth years). “We've observed how changes occur on Mars from one season to the next, one Martian year to the next,” they explained.
“We have strong information on seasonal effects on Mars atmosphere...surface,” Annadurai added. The mission has also produced useful data.”