Google on Thursday night put out a special doodle on its home page for India, marking Mangalyaan's one month in Mars orbit. The doodle which is static, unlike a few dynamic ones that Google puts out on some occasions, shows the Mangalyaan in outer space with a portion of the red planet in the background.
It is an illustrated image, fashioned in the style of space-related images that often used to adorn school notebooks in the late 80s and 90s.
Mangalyaan, which was blasted off into space on November 5 last year, entered the Mars orbit on September 24. It has been one of the biggest scientific achievements for India, putting ISRO, India's space agency, in the select group of four space agencies that have successfully sent a probe to Mars orbit.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the Mars mission as a major achievement. "History has been created today. We have achieved the near impossible. I congratulate all ISRO scientists and all my fellow Indians on this historic achievement," he said on the day Mangalyaan entered the Mars orbit. "The odds were stacked against us. Of the 51 missions attempted across the world so far, a mere 21 had succeeded. But we have prevailed."
After getting up-close with Mars, Mangalyaan had sent several pictures of the planet. One of the images, which showed the red planet in its entirety, was widely shared and used across the world. In fact, taking an inspiration from NASA in the US, runs a Twitter account -- @MarsOrbiter - through which it shares the mission related news with the world.
The last tweet from the account was made a few days ago. "Phew! Experience of a lifetime. Watched the #MarsComet #SidingSpring whizzing past the planet. I'm in my orbit, safe and sound," it said.
The account has over 1,68,000 followers.
