After an amazing run at Mars, India says its orbiter has no more fuel

One of the more notable successes of the modern spaceflight era is India's Mars Orbiter Mission.

India proved that a Mars craft could be developed on a small budget. The process for developing the Mars mission was described by Indian officials as "frugal engineering."

The Indian space agency announced this weekend that the mission was non-recoverable. The update came a day after a one-day meeting to discuss the fate of the vehicle, which lost contact with it during the eclipse.

The space agency said that the desired attitude pointing could not be achieved because the propellant must have been exhausted. The spacecraft was declared non-recoverable and ended its life. The mission will be considered one of the greatest technological and scientific feats in the history of planetary exploration.

Expectations were certainly exceeded by the orbiter. It took data back to Earth for nearly eight years.

Regular images of the full disk of Mars were one of the scientific contributions. Most of the time, the spaceships in the vicinity of Mars look down at the surface. Valuable data about the thin Martian atmosphere was provided by the Mars Orbiter Mission. More than 7,200 people have registered to download data from the mission.

Scientists and engineers talked about the challenge of surviving long eclipse periods during the meeting. The vehicle had to be moved five years ago to make sure enough sunlight was reaching its solar panels.

The success of the Mars Orbiter Mission led India to commit more resources to lunar and Mars missions. The country is planning a number of missions to the moon. The second half of the 2020s will see the arrival of a rover on the red planet.