Read also: Mangalyaan
Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) posted in its Twitter account, "Earth orbiting phase of the #Mangalyaan ended and now is on a course to encounter Mars after a journey of about 10 months around the Sun."
In order to meet the required speed to pass beyond Earth's orbit, the rocket's main engine was revved up for almost 30 minutes before it took off.
K Radhakrishnan, the Head of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that the MOM left Earth's orbit just fine. It is expected to reach its destination on September 24, 2014.
The $72 million lunar mission will be performing tests and will be probing he atmosphere of the Red Planet for signs of the greenhouse gas methane. The Earth's atmosphere also has methane content in the form of CH4 or atmospheric methane which is given off by living creatures. Previous data collected by telescopes and orbiters provide earlier evidence that methane may also be present in the Mars' atmosphere.
NASA Curiosity rover has reached the planet in August 6, 2012 and so far been unsuccessful in detecting methane from its quantitative observations of Mars' atmosphere. Most of its focus now is in searching for signs of ancient water.
Should Mangalyaan be successful in detecting methane, it is possible that the CH4 comes from microbes that live below the Martian surface. Another possibility could be methane-producing processes of the geological characteristics of the planet such as volcanic activity.
According to ISRO, they have made contingency preparations to guarantee the success of the Mars mission. ISRO's Scientific Secretary V Koteswara Rao said in an interview with NDTV, "We have planned right now four mid-course corrections; first one will be around December 11 - plus or minus a couple of days depending on the deviation."
