Starting Monday, India's low-cost Mars mission that has been orbiting
the red planet will enter the "blackout" phase snapping all
communication with the satellite as the sun will block Mars from the
earth from June 8 to 22.Mars Orbiter Mission(MOM) during this period will go into "autonomous mode" and will take its decisions, a senior ISRO official told PTI. "This will be for the first time that there will be a communication break for such a long period of about 15 days. During this period, there will not be any communication with the satellite," he said.
Expressing confidence about regaining control over the satellite once the blackout phase is over, he said, "the scenario has been tested for earlier; line of communication will be established." Stating that the spacecraft has been "configured" for the blackout, the ISRO official said, "we are not sending any commands to the spacecraft now, till 8th(June) few hours of signals will be sent by the spacecraft-that will be for about two to three hours per day."
The spacecraft's life was extended for another six months in March due to surplus fuel.
In May next year, the mission will have to go through a similar phase once again when the Earth will come between the Sun and Mars, if the mission is extended again.
Scripting space history, India, on September 24 last year, successfully placed its low-cost MOM spacecraft in orbit around the red planet in its very first attempt, breaking into an elite club of three countries.
The ISRO spacecraft was launched on its nine-month-long odyssey on an indigenous PSLV rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on November 5, 2013 and had escaped the earth's gravitational field on December 1, 2013.
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