The Indian space agency has announced that its Mars mission has ended, after it lost contact with its spacecraft in April.
Officials at the Indian Space Research Organisation believe its Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft — known as Mangalyaan — ran out of fuel.
Isro said it lost contact due to a long eclipse. This made it impossible for mission control to reposition Mangalyaan so it could be recharged through its solar panels.
Mangalyaan entered the orbit of Mars in 2014 and was expected to have a six-month lifespan. However, it was operational for eight years.
“Isro deliberated that the propellant must have been exhausted, and therefore, the desired attitude pointing could not be achieved for sustained power generation,” the space agency said on Monday.
“It was declared that the spacecraft is non-recoverable and attained its end of life.”
At $74 million, Mangalyaan is the least expensive mission to Mars. In comparison, Nasa spent $2.7 billion on its Perseverance rover, which landed on the Red Planet last year.
The UAE spent $200m to develop and launch its Hope spacecraft mission to Mars. Hope has been orbiting the planet since February last year.
Isro said that the Mangalyaan mission made many contributions to the science community.
Over the years, it studied the planet’s dust storms, its atmosphere and ice caps.
More than 7,200 users registered to download data from the spacecraft.
“Despite being designed for a lifespan of six months as a technology demonstrator, the Mars Orbiter Mission has lived for about eight years in the Martian orbit with a gamut of significant scientific results on Mars as well as on the Solar corona, before losing communication with the ground station, as a result of a long eclipse in April 2022,” the agency said.
India has spent billions on its space programme over the years and has plans to launch astronauts on a domestically built rocket.
Isro has also carried out lunar missions and reached the Moon with its Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008. The orbiter captured data for a year and gleaned vital information on water molecules on the lunar surface.
However, the country’s attempt to soft land on the Moon with its Chandrayaan-2 mission failed in 2019, when the Vikram lander crash-landed.
It has plans to launch its third mission to the Moon ― Chandrayaan-3.
India also plans to launch its Shukrayaan-1 orbiter to Venus later this decade.
The four-year mission will orbit the hottest planet in the Solar System, collecting data on its mysterious atmosphere.
West Indies v England ODI series:
West Indies squad: Jason Holder (c), Fabian Allen, Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Evin Lewis, Ashley Nurse, Keemo Paul, Nicholas Pooran, Rovman Powell, Kemar Roach, Oshane Thomas.
Fixtures:
1st ODI - February 20, Bridgetown
2nd ODI - February 22, Bridgetown
3rd ODI - February 25, St George's
4th ODI - February 27, St George's
5th ODI - March 2, Gros Islet
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
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T20 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER
Results
UAE beat Nigeria by five wickets
Hong Kong beat Canada by 32 runs
Friday fixtures
10am, Tolerance Oval, Abu Dhabi – Ireland v Jersey
7.30pm, Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi – Canada v Oman
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