MOM to live for long, Saarc Sat up by Dec ’16

Having survived a 15-day blackout during the recent solar eclipse, India’s Rs 450-crore Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft will now live on for years, Isro chairman A S Kiran Kumar said on the sidelines of the IISc conference.
“We’ve got 45kg of fuel which is a lot and we are yet to use any of the redundant systems, which means everything is going well and we see MOM living on,” he said.
TOI was the first to report that MOM will have an extended life and also about it going into a completely autonomous mode during the said eclipse.
Kiran Kumar said: “Now, the signals have resumed and in the next three-four days we will also see data coming.”
Among the unplanned things that MOM can explore because of this extension is the different seasons of Mars and also the various periods. A satellite project, with support from all Saarc nations, is also taking shape. “We are looking at a December 2016 launch of the Saarc satellite. ,” he said. He added that the participation from all countries, especially Pakistan was great. “We had invited five scientists from each of the seven countries but Pakistan brought nine, a reflection of the interest.”
“While the Saarc s at e l l i t e w i l l b e launched by India, possibility of forming a consortium as exists in Europe was also discussed,” he said.