The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is likely to make an announcement regarding extended life in the coming days. However, how much longer MOM will live will be known only after a solar eclipse in April-May.
An Isro official told TOI last week that MOM's fuel consumption has been minimal.
Confirming this on Saturday, a senior scientist said: "As we speak, only about a kilogram of the 40 kg fuel it had after insertion into the Martian Orbit has been used up. So yes, MOM will live longer."
On the launch day (November 5, 2013), MOM had 852 kg fuel, of which 338.9kg was used during the launch and about 190 kg during the crucial trans-Mars Injection manoeuvre on December 1, 2013. Following this, there were a few other operations and as on September 23, 2014, the day before it was put into the Martian Orbit, roughly 300 kg of fuel was left.
After the insertion into the Mars orbit, MOM was left with 40 kg of fuel and now it has about 39 kg. Scientists had predicted that will all uncertainties accounted for MOM would need 20 kg of fuel for six months, but it had more than that.
Solar Eclipse
Scientists can't estimate how much longer MOM will live. For, it all depends on how much fuel MOM uses during a solar eclipse expected to occur in the Martian Orbit in April-May 2015.
"As of now, MOM is being maintained by ground stations. We have control over how much fuel to expend, whether a manoeuvre is required or not and other specifics. But during the eclipse, MOM will get into an autonomous mode and we will have no control over it," a senior official said.
Explaining that solar panels on MOM currently power a lot of sub-systems and fuel is only being used for small auto-corrections, he said: "During the eclipse, MOM may expend fuel to turn the panels to position it towards the Sun, or even use some for repositioning itself in the orbit and so on; we really cannot guess how much fuel it may use."
Therefore, he said, an accurate guess of how much longer MOM can stay can only be made after the eclipse.
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