This picture became viral these past two weeks, as it showed a collective group of Indian female scientists congratulating one another on a mission success. It is truly a rare occurrence to see a third-world country with such a capable space program, but India shattered the convention last month when their Mars orbiter spacecraft successfully entered the Mars orbit after a nearly 10 month journey. The world watches with exuberance and awe, as the arrival of the space age for India is a sign of it becoming a first-world country. (advocate.jbu.edu)
The spacecraft (Mangalyaan) was launched on Nov. 5, 2013 to much criticism and doubt. A developing nation such as India surely is not need of a space program, when it has crippling poverty to tackle. Nonetheless, the 74 million orbiter was launched into an elliptical orbit with Earth, where it gained enough momentum to launch itself towards Mars.
Despite the low budget, the spacecraft will perform a variety of tasks while orbiting Mars during its 10-month mission. This includes measuring Mars’ atmosphere for traces of methane, as it is an important indicator of life. Methane is a main component in waste produced by micro-organisms, but it would escape Mar’s atmosphere relatively quickly due to it being rather thin. This means that if the Mangalyaan does detect any methane, it could indicate that it had to have been produced recently, serving as evidence to signs of life on Mars. (collectspace.com)
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) received overwhelming praise from around the world for its ingenuity. The ability to not only send a spacecraft to Mars with a relatively low budget, but to also have it successfully orbit the planet, could open doors for India to lucrative space deals with U.S. and Europe. Other Asian countries, including China, has recognized India’s achievement in their effort to be a part of the space industry. To put ISRO’s mission budget of $74 million in perspective, a normal U.S. Mars scouting mission cost around $500-$600 million; and the movie “Gravity” had a budget of $100 million. The ISRO had also matched the U.S. in terms of speed. Mangalyaan was launched on Nov. 5, 2013, and arrived on Sept. 24, 2014, and took 324 days to make the trip; while the U.S. MAVEN mission to Mars launched on Nov. 18 2013, and arrived on Sept. 22, 2014 took 309 days.
All in all, India has set a milestone in space exploration. Not only did they reach Mars on their first attempt, but the amount of resources they had poured in this project were limited. India has proved that one day, actually travelling to space will cost less than making a movie about space. One day, space travel will not be economically possible, but achievable. For India, that day is within reach.