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Mars Orbiter Mission : Does developing country like India afford

such space missions ?

“Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a

thing to be achieved.” 

―  William Jennings Bryan 

Like every other indian, for me mom was a prestigious and awaited event that took place today. But once this

mission is done, we rack our brains to think whether it was worth the investment. i think yes it is. We are aiming

to be a developed nation and not be stagnant as a developing nation. we need progress on every fronts and this

particular progress is appreciable and surely not questionable

he $75 million spent on the Mars mission – one commentator compared it with the budget of four big Bollywood movies – is a relatively trifling amount compared with

the other four countries‟ missions which cost billions of dollars. (Meanwhile, critics

have deemed such an expense unwarranted in a country dogged by poverty.)

India is becoming known for low-cost innovation in diverse fields such

as healthcare and education. The Mars mission is being cited as an

example of the ingenuity that produces technology at stupendously

low prices. The price tag on Mangalyaan has stirred the global space

community.

In a conversation with Forbes, Kopillil

Radhakrishnan, chairman of ISRO, explained how the

agency made Mangalyaan the world‟s least-expensive

Mars endeavour. Excerpts:

1. “I don‟t like the phrase „frugal engineering‟. ISRO‟s

general philosophy is cost effectiveness. The Russianslook for robustness and the Americans go after

optimization. Our aim at ISRO was how do we get to

Mars on a budget.” 

2. “We adopted a modular approach. Take the launch

 vehicle, for instance. We acquired the technology for

the Vikas engine in the 1970s by working with the

French. There was no money transaction. We havesince produced 120 such engines with Indian materials

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and fully fabricated here. For every successive launch,

 we have taken the base of our previous, proven launch

technology, modified and built on it. Here, we had to

add the cryo to the previous module as we needed

higher engine power. We used the same modular tactic

 with our payload as well. The modular approach gave

us cost and schedule advantages.” 

3. “When we conducted ground tests – which are time

consuming and expensive – we kept the number of

tests small but wrung out the best out of each. This is

our way, historically.” 

4. “For transferring Mangalyaan from the earth‟s orbit

to Mars‟ orbit, we used a couple of strategies to bring

down fuel consumption drastically.” 

5. “We are schedule-driven to the extreme. This

prevents cost over-runs. The mission has taken 15

months from the time our Prime minister announced

it in August last year to the liftoff.In parts of  Europe, even space scientists have a 35-

hour workweek. For us here, 18-hour days are

common. During the launch period, many of our

scientists were working 20 hour-days. Being time

effective makes us cost effective.” 

It's not just worth it's more than worth.

 We will be the first Asian country to send an orbiter to Mars. Only three other agencies

have managed to do this - NASA, ESA and RKA.

Out of the 51 missions that have been sent towards Mars by various countries, only 21

have been successful. Japan and China failed in their missions.

). After that we can compete in the international space market (satellite manufacturing,

launching, satellite services and ground equipment), currently pegged at around 300

 billion dollars a year. If we manage to get a quarter of this market, then it will be our

 biggest industry after IT.

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 We will be one of the biggest players in this market. Remember we completed the

mission in 14 months (time, cost) this will attract many developing countries towards

India for the help in the space missions.

 A successful Indian mission will have the effect of "positioning the emerging Asian giant

as a budget player in the latest global space race".

 We'll be one of the few countries that have reached Mars when we are successful, this is

 what ISRO chief said after the launch, "450 crore is a cheap price for national pride", we,

hopefully when the investment hits off will learn and earn more for the future of India.

completely ignores the benefits of investment in science and technology. Study after

study has shown that this only BENEFITS an economy.

The rocket industry is worth $450 billion worldwide. Private spaceflight is due to take off

in a massive way over the next few decades. If India can grab a piece of this industry, the

 benefits to its economy and people could be massive.

Invest in science, invest in technology and invest in education.

QUESTION TOPICS

ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) 

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) 

Mars (planet) 

Government of India 

Space Exploration 

Politics of India 

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  Latest activity: 25m ago

 

 

Is the cost of Mangalyaan - India's Mars Mission - of Rs.450 crore, or $ 71 million justified?

 

Some have argued that this money should be spent on feeding the poor, economic

stimulus, higher education.

  Others have argued that the intellectual talent should be used only for projects of

direct immediate benefit - not long term projects such as this.

  Still others have argued that national pride and confidence are not important to growth

and development.

What is your take on this?

Mangalyaan - design / build, and launch

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Follow Question139  

Comments7+ 

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Prashant Singh Edit Bio • Make Anonymous 

Write your answer, or answer later. 

217 ANSWERS

ASK TO ANSWER 

Aakaash Narayanan, Indialligent

3k upvotes by Prashant Mittal, Shubham Agarwal, Charles Sabbithi, (more) 

This letter was received by ISRO (you can verify it in ISRO's official MOM Facebook

page).

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NASA is where it is today because of the inspiration it stirred in its citizens through

Gemini and Apollo Missions. It wasn't merely NASA which got more ambitious, but anawe and a new fervor towards science and technology was injected into the whole

country's veins. It is undoubtedly, at the end of the day, science and technology that

takes a country forward. And it is now India's turn to inspire its citizens, for ISRO is one

of the few from which real inspiration can be drawn (amidst scandals and corruption)

and take the country forward. Aditya Verma, of class V, will take the country forward. A

hundred more Aditya Vermas will take the country forward. So, to answer your question,

 was the money worth it? Yes, totally! 

Updated 23 Apr. Asked to answer by Anonymous.

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Aarush Nandal, Learning From My Grandfather328 upvotes by Samarth Kumar, Ankit Kumar Verma, Charles Sabbithi, (more) 

 A2A .

If Our Mission Mars is Successful then

It's not just worth it's more than worth.

 We will be the first Asian country to send an orbiter to Mars. Only three other agencies

have managed to do this - NASA, ESA and RKA.

Out of the 51 missions that have been sent towards Mars by various countries, only 21

have been successful. Japan and China failed in their missions.

 We will be the fourth country in the world to achieve this milestone. Cost of Mangalyaan

is 454 crore (US$69 million against NASA's $671 million). After that we can compete in

the international space market (satellite manufacturing, launching, satellite services and

ground equipment), currently pegged at around 300 billion dollars a year. If we manage

to get a quarter of this market, then it will be our biggest industry after IT.

 We will be one of the biggest players in this market. Remember we completed themission in 14 months (time, cost) this will attract many developing countries towards

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India for the help in the space missions.

 A successful Indian mission will have the effect of "positioning the emerging Asian giant

as a budget player in the latest global space race".

 Not related to answer but I want to add - If you got an offer from a

company like Google of 100k and you still decided to work for ISRO; hats

off! 

We have completed the first stage. Let's pray for it's success. 

Updated 21 Nov, 2013. Asked to answer by Anonymous.

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Suraj Patil, न  न            

151 upvotes by Ouditchya Sinha, Nilaya Thote, Rishabh Gupta, (more) 

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Sure it is; I don't understand people, when India is doing something, they have a

problem, when India doesn't do anything, they still have a problem.

 We'll be one of the few countries that have reached Mars when we are successful, this is

 what ISRO chief said after the launch, "450 crore is a cheap price for national pride", we,

hopefully when the investment hits off will learn and earn more for the future of India.

and if you still have issues then ISRO can't help it;

Let the scientists do their Job, at least they are actually doing something for the country,

than the useless concern some people have about the reckless spending, still don't

understand as to how they can categorize this spending asreckless.

Updated 12 Nov, 2013. 

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Kriti Saxena, Mirage!

134 upvotes by Nishant Kukreja, Bhargav Hegde, Anirudh Sylendranath, (more) 

Because this:

 Yesterday India launched a mission to Mars. This led to many complaints, even on this

page, about their spending money on space missions while such a large number ofpeople in India live in poverty.

However, this completely ignores the benefits of investment in science and technology.

Study after study has shown that this only BENEFITS an economy.

The rocket industry is worth $450 billion worldwide. Private spaceflight is due to take off

in a massive way over the next few decades. If India can grab a piece of this industry, the

 benefits to its economy and people could be massive.

Invest in science, invest in technology and invest in education.

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I don't often ask you to share something, but please SHARE this to show your support

for investment in science and technology!

Credits: I fucking love science FB page

Written 7 Nov, 2013. 

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Syed Ibtisam Tauhidi, Man of Carbon

926 upvotes by Balaji Viswanathan, Prashant Mittal, Rahul Bhatia, (more) 

No.

The Rs. 4.54 billion can be used to give Rs. 4.54 to each one of us - a billion Indians, and

that might (hypothetically) feed us all a single meal for a day (it wouldn't). But after that

single meal has been consumed and excreted out, we are back to square one.

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But expenditures in these kinds of science has long-term benefits. It builds infrastructure

and knowledge-base to carry out more complex experiments in the future. In these

missions, we don't just buy stuffs from a store and courier them to Mars through DTDC.

 We have to actually invent stuffs. These inventions impact our day-to-day life here on

Earth and have the prospects of introducing entirely new industries.

 Water purifiers, safe flight maneuver systems, several medicines and robotics systems

are by-products of space research. Remember... we don't always need to stay behind

 Westerners in every field. We too can produce things. We can sell products that we

invent and earn money through it. But in order to earn money we need to invest money.

 And to put matters into perspective, we spent Rs. 11500 crore (US$ 1.8 billion) on the

Commonwealth Games in Delhi. We have nuclear bombs worth more than Rs. 10000

 billion (US$ 150 billion) at our disposal.

If we can spend that kind of money on sports and fun, or for procuring weapons that can

 wipe out civilizations, then we can sure as fuck spend the Rs. 4.54 billion (US$ 69

million) for science, education and exploration of the Universe.

Firstly, 450 crore($69 million) translates to 4 rupees(5.75 cents!)

per capita expenditure on the mission(population of 1200 million)to be spent over a period of two years.

The total project cost may be up to 454 crore (US$69 million). However, the actual

satellite costs only 153 crore (US$23 million). The rest of the budget has been attributed

to ground stations and relay upgrades that will be used for other ISRO projects.

So, the actual expenditure on the project is barely $23 million(1.92 cents per

capita).. just over 1.19 rupees per person