Naishal Patel

ISM 2A
10/30/15

Research Assessment #5
Sources
"Mission Objectives - ISRO." Mission Objectives - ISRO. Indian Government,
n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2015. <http://www.isro.gov.in/pslv-c25-mars-orbitermission/mission-objectives>.

"Indiau0027s Mars Orbiter Mission: Latest News, Photos and Video |

Space.com." Space. Purch, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
<http://www.space.com/topics/india-mars-orbiter-mission/>.

Amos, Jonathan. "Why India's Mars Mission Is so Cheap - and Thrilling - BBC
News." BBC News. BBC, 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
<http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29341850>.

Date
October 30, 2015
Analysis

On my last research assessment I looked at one of the most important

space missions and accomplishments in the most recent years. This time I
also looked at another scientific breakthrough as well as a cost and research
breakthrough. Mangalyaan, or the MOM (Mars Orbiter Mission) was launched
November 5th 2013 and was on its way to Mars. Research for the feasibility of
this project had begun just 2 years earlier after the launch of a moon
satellite. What is perhaps the most interesting thing about this project is the
cost. MOM cost 450 crore, or about 73 million usd. This is almost 1/10th of the

Naishal Patel
ISM 2A
10/30/15

cost of NASAs MAVEN satellite launched just 8 days after MOM. This satellite
was proposed, researched, built, and launched all by the ISRO. The Indian
Space Research Organization is a relatively newer space association that has
1/18th the budget of NASA. Still ISRO accomplishes big things with the little
money it has.
After the launch of MOM, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi jokingly
told the press that their actual mission to Mars cost less than it cost to film
the fictional movie Gravity. With this, news of MOM took the world.
Conducting an entire space mission for less than a film was a great
accomplishment. However, what research was going to be done and the
pictures taken was even more amazing when it came with such a small price
tag. MOM was to orbit Mars for 6 months while taking pictures and
measuring methane levels. By measuring methane levels, you could see if
there are any natural processes that happened on Mars, which could possibly
indicate the existence of living organisms. Though the mission objectives of
MOM were simple, its work was revolutionary and record breaking.
There are 2 sides to this mission, the positive and negative. The
positive looks at the positive implications of the mission, while the negative
looks at the downfalls of this mission. Beginning with the positive, MOM was
a huge success. It did the impossible with pocket change. It also represents
the huge shift of space research towards other countries besides US and
Russia. NASA can no longer be alone in its conquest to explore space,

Naishal Patel
ISM 2A
10/30/15

through the works of ISRO and ESA, the world can create a joint community
of national space organizations that work collaboratively rather than
competitively. This huge push for research in India and other developing
countries is a huge help to that. With countries like India, the future of space
research can be revolutionized.
Now there is a huge negative to this, especially when compared to
NASA. While having a really low cost, MOM was Sputnik compared to MAVEN.
Meaning that it was pretty much a piece of metal compared to a scientific
experiment. While saying that is taking it quite far and undermining the
whole mission, comparatively, MOM did very little. Alongside this, ISRO
engineers, laborers, and researches were payed very little compared to the
workers of NASA, so were they being unfairly paid. Technically no, their job
market warrants a lower pay. Yet for the work they were doing, they
definitely deserved more.
From this mission and articles, the biggest thing I take is how things
only look good comparatively, but when compared improperly. But this
mission was nonetheless a huge accomplishment and has many potential
applications, especially for the future of ISRO.

Naishal Patel
ISM 2A
10/30/15

India's space programme has succeeded at the first attempt where

others have failed - by sending an operational mission to Mars.
The Mangalyaan satellite was confirmed to be in orbit shortly after 0800,
Indian time. It is, without doubt, a considerable achievement.
This is a mission that has been budgeted at 4.5bn rupees ($74m), which, by
Western standards, is staggeringly cheap.
The American Maven orbiter that arrived at the Red Planet on Monday is
costing almost 10 times as much.
Back in June, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi even quipped that India's
real-life Martian adventure was costing less than the make-believe Hollywood
film Gravity.

Naishal Patel
ISM 2A
10/30/15

Even Bollywood sci-fi movies like Ra.One cost a good chunk of what it has
taken to get Mangalyaan to Mars.
India's Mars orbiter
$74m
Cost of India's Mangalyaan mission
$671m
Cost of Nasa's Maven Mars mission

Launched on 5 Nov 2013

Weighs 1,350kg

Closest point to Mars 366km

MANJUNATH KIRAN/AFP
So how has India done it? For sure, people costs are less in this populous
nation, and the scientists and engineers working on any space mission are
always the largest part of the ticket price.
Home-grown components and technologies have also been prioritised over
expensive foreign imports.
But, in addition, India has been careful to do things simply.

Naishal Patel
ISM 2A
10/30/15

Image captionNarendra Modi said the country had achieved the "near
impossible"
"They've kept it small. The payload weighs only about 15kg. Compare that
with the complexity in the payload in Maven and that will explain a lot about
the cost," says Britain's Prof Andrew Coates, who will be a principal
investigator on Europe's Mars rover in 2018.
"Of course, that reduced complexity suggests it won't be as scientifically
capable, but India has been smart in targeting some really important areas
that will complement what others are doing."
Mangalyaan has gone equipped with an instrument that will try to measure
methane in the atmosphere.
This is one of the hottest topics in Mars research right now, following
previous, tantalising observations of the gas.
Earth's atmosphere contains billions of tonnes of methane, the vast majority
of it coming from microbes, such as the organisms found in the digestive
tracts of animals.

Naishal Patel
ISM 2A
10/30/15

The speculation has been that some methane-producing bugs, or

methanogens, could perhaps exist on Mars if they lived underground, away
from the planet's harsh surface conditions.

Image
captionMangalyaan will measure methane in the Martian atmosphere - a
crucial question
It is a fascinating prospect.
So, even though Mangalyaan has a small payload, it will actually address
some of the biggest questions at the Red Planet.
Western scientists are excited also to have the Indian probe on station.

Naishal Patel
ISM 2A
10/30/15

Its measurements of other atmospheric components will dovetail very nicely

with Maven and the observations being made by Europe's Mars Express. "It
means we'll be getting three-point measurements, which is tremendous,"
says Prof Coates.
This will enable researchers to better understand how the planet lost the
bulk of its atmosphere billions of years ago, and determine what sort of
climate it could once have had, and whether or not it was conducive to life.
I have read a lot about the criticism of Mangalyaan and India's space
programme.
There's an assumption among many, I guess, that space activity is somehow
a plaything best left to wealthy industrial countries; that it can have no value
to developing nations.

Image captionStudents in Chennai saluted the country's space scientists

The money would be better spent on healthcare and improved sanitation, so
the argument goes.
But what this position often overlooks is that investment in science and
technology builds capability and capacity, and develops the sort of people
who benefit the economy and society more widely.

Naishal Patel
ISM 2A
10/30/15

Space activity is also a wealth generator. Some of the stuff we do up there

pays for stuff down here.
The industrialised nations know it; that's one of the reasons they invest so
heavily in space activity.
Consider just the UK. It has dramatically increased its spending on space in
recent years.
The government has even identified satellites as being one of the "eight
great technologies" that can help rebalance the UK economy and drive it
forward.
India wants a part of this action, too, and in Mangalyaan and its other
satellite and rocket programmes, the nation is putting itself into a strong
position in international markets for space products and services.