Following the Curiosity rover's steps and in full Wall-E fashion, India's Mars satellite gets a new Twitter account only hours after reaching Mars' orbit. The personified satellite will be taking pictures of the red planet; this is the first India Mars satellite ever put into orbit. This marks the first time any country reaches Mars on its first attempt, and the first time any Asian country leads a successful mission to the planet.
As scientists behind India's Mars satellite attempt to turn the spacecraft into a pop culture phenomenon of the likes of the famous Curiosity rover, the satellite has officially entered the micro blogosphere through popular social network Twitter. Its bio in the page reads: "India's first mission to Mars. Orbiting the Red Planet since Sep 24, 2014. Explorer. Loves science, photography and long cruises." Its first tweet poked fun at its location: "What is red, is a planet and is the focus of my orbit?"
In its short stay circling Mars, the satellite has already sent its first pictures of the red planet to Earth. Earlier this week, NASA's newest probe, MAVEN, also arrived to the planet and began snapping pictures. Both MAVEN and ISRO (a common name used for India's Mars satellite) were greeted via Twitter by pioneering rover, NASA's Curiosity. To ISRO, it tweeted: "Namaste, @MarsOrbiter! Congratulations to @ISRO and India's first interplanetary mission upon achieving Mars orbit."
The successful arrival of India's Mars satellite is a huge step for the country's space program, which had never seen a mission of that nature. The satellite is called Mangalyaan, which according to the Wall Street Journal translates to Mars craft in Hindi. The spacecraft entered Mars orbit early Wednesday, after being launched in November 2013 - it's a long way from home, having left Earth 10 months ago.
