Mangalyaan on right trajectory, first crucial manoeuvre on December 11

HYDERABAD: After the successful trans-Mars injection, MOM is steadily cruising through interplanetary space and is religiously following the desired trajectory.

In order to precisely steer MOM to Mars, Isro has planned four mid-course corrections using the 22 N thrusters on board.

"In line with our fetish for jargon, the fancy term coined for these operations is trajectory correction manoeuvre (TCM)!" Isro scientists said.

The first of this series of crucial maneuvers is scheduled one week from now on December 11, 2013. The subsequent TCMs are scheduled for April, August and early September next year.

Rakesh Patil who has been following the whole Mars affair, however, has a question for Isro scientists. "Is this the best possible shortest route?"

Scientists responded to his question. "It's not the shortest route," they said. The shortest distance between Mars and Earth is 54.6 million kilometres. Launching in the shortest route possible to Mars and then, decelerating to match the planet's speed, would require an extremely large amount of fuel," scientists explained.

Isro scientists said the route which requires least amount of fuel is an elliptical orbit which forms a tangent to the Mars' and Earth's Orbit around sun. This kind of transfer is called a Hohmann transfer.