Google doodle celebrates Mangalyaan's one month in Mars orbit

In a tribute to India's space-technology prowess, Google is celebrating with a doodle today the completion of one month by Mangalyaan in an orbit around Mars. India's Mars Orbiter Mission, or Mangalyaan (Sanskrit for Mars craft), started orbiting Mars on September 24.
Given that Google normally comes up with doodles to mark anniversaries, that is, annual events, this gesture of the search giant is rare.The doodle will be visible only in India.
READ ALSO: India becomes first nation to have successful Mars mission in maiden attempt
Mangalyaan is world's cheapest Mars mission
India was the first Asian country and the fourth space power after the US, Europe and Russia to send a spacecraft to Mars. It was the first country to succeed in the first attempt.
At about $74 million, the Indian Space Research Organization's mission is the cheapest Mars mission to date, a fraction of the $671 million spent by Nasa to send its latest probe, Maven, which started orbiting Mars just three days earlier on September 21. MOM also cost less than the Hollywood movie Gravity, which had a budget of $100 million.
One of the ways used by Isro to hold down costs was to save on fuel by using a smaller rocket to put the spacecraft into an Earth orbit first to gain enough momentum to slingshot it towards Mars.

Through its journey since November 5, 2013, when PSLV-C25 lifted off from Sriharikota with the spacecraft in its nosecone, MOM has had a perfect journey. It left the Earth orbit on December 1, 2013.
As it goes around Mars in an elliptical orbit with the closest point around 420km and the farthest around 80,000km, MOM employs five sets of equipment that collectively weigh 15kg to do scientific studies.
Its Lyman alpha photometer measures the relative abundance of deuterium and hydrogen in the upper Martian atmosphere to understand previous presence of water on the red planet. A methane sensor is looking for sources of the gas. While the Mars colour camera clicks away, a thermal infrared spectrometer studies heat emission, minerals and soil on Mars.
For many months — if not years — MOM will remain a satellite of Mars, clicking pictures and sniffing out details on the atmosphere and morphology of the red planet.
Before India, various countries have launched Mars missions, but out of the 51 attempts, only 21 have been successful.