India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) had a perfect lift off at 2:38 pm on Tuesday from the Sriharikota spaceport. The PSLV-C25 carrying five scientific payloads will travel for almost 300 days.

Set to leave earth orbit on 12/1 and arrive at Mars on 9/24/14.

The mission carries on board five instruments to conduct experiments. Two instruments on the Orbiter will take 360 degree pictures of the Martian surface and look for minerals. One instrument will study the Mars atmosphere, another will map just how much water, if any, is present. The fifth instrument will check for the presence of methane which could indicate if life ever existed on Mars. ISRO is also hoping to make discoveries that previous Mars missions may have missed.

India will be the 4th country to send a spacecraft to Mars. What’s amazing is that it took only 18 months to build everything, including tracking stations. Haven’t confirmed the cost, but I think it is embarrassingly low compared to NASA cost.

Video of launch and excellent discription of mission here.