This story is from September 23, 2014

Can MOM have a longer life?

Going by the fuel consumptions pattern so far, MOM will be left with close to 60 kg of fuel of the 852 kg it is carrying after it is inserted into the Martian Orbit on Wednesday.
Can MOM have a longer life?
BANGALORE: Going by the fuel consumptions pattern so far, MOM will be left with close to 60 kg of fuel of the 852 kg it is carrying after it is inserted into the Martian Orbit on Wednesday. But it needs only 20 kg of fuel to survive for 6 months, which Isro has claimed will be its life expectancy.
Isro Scientific Secretary V Koteswara Rao told TOI that 240 kg of fuel will be required for Wednesday’s operations, while it used a little over half a kilo on Monday.
By the end of November last year, MOM had used 338.9 kg, including fuel used during the launch on November 5.
During the crucial trans-Mars Injection manoeuvre on December 1, 2013, it used about 190-kg of fuel to gain an incremental velocity of about 650 metre/second.
Following that and after all the other manoeuvres, roughly 300 kg of fuel is left in MOM as of Tuesday. “It is has used a total of 552-kg of fuel as of today and another 240-kg is expected to be used tomorrow,” a scientists said. This means that of the 852 kg of fuel it carried, it would have used about 792-kg of fuel at the end of Wednesday’s operations, leaving it with extra fuel.
And as scientists gear up for the big day in Bangalore, their Australian counterparts will also have a role to play.
Hotline from Canberra:
After the main liquid engine is burnt for the desired time and even if everything goes as planned, scientists in Isro Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (Istrac) in Peenya have to wait for a confirmation call from their Australian counterparts tracking MOM from Canberra. The call that will determine if MOM is a success or not is expected at 8.10am through a hotline.
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