India's Mars Mission

While the rest of the world was focused on the early days of the Curiosity mission, India's prime minister Manmohan Singh announced  the intent to build and launch a Mars orbiter in time for the November 2013 launch window. This is an insanely fast schedule, especially for a country's first spacecraft to be sent beyond the Moon. India builds and launches many Earth-orbiting satellites, so the necessary industry is in place. Following are the some facts about the mission :-

·  Spacecraft facts:

• Its main engine generates 440 Newtons of thrust.
• Launch mass: 1350 kg.
• It bears a single solar panel, 1.4 by 1.8 meters, producing 750W at Mars. [Note: This doesn't jibe with the single image that I have managed to find of the orbiter, posted below; that one appears to have a three-section panel, with each section possibly 1.4 by 1.8 meters. I can't explain the discrepancy.]
• For attitude control it has four reaction wheels, eight 22-Newton thrusters.

above is the artist design of the orbiter.  

Those are mostly pretty similar to Chandrayaan-1, except for the size of the solar panel. Chandrayaan-1 had a single 2.15-by-1.8-meter panel that generated 750W at the Moon. My guess is that the diagram below is correct and that the Mars spacecraft has a single solar array consisting of three panels 1.4 by 1.8 meters each, which would, together, manage to produce similar power at Mars that the single, larger panel did at the Moon. 

·  Five instruments have been selected, including:

• A color camera
• A Thermal Infrared Imaging System
• A Lyman-alpha photometer
• An Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer
• A Methane Sensor

·  The engineering model is complete, and the flight model should be completed in March.

·  ISRO expects instruments to be delivered in March for integration beginning in April.

·  Launch to Earth orbit will take place "some time in October."

·  The spacecraft will depart Earth orbit on November 26 and arrive at Mars on September 22, 2014

The mission is yet to be named formally  however it is being called “mangalyaan” by some newspaper following the “chandrayaan” convention.

If this mission is successful then india will become the fourth country in the world to do so.