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 worlds least-expensive
Mars endeavour. Excerpts:
1. I dont like the phrase frugal engineering. ISROs
general philosophy is cost effectiveness. The Russians
look 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 have
since produced 120 such engines with Indian materials
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 earths 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.
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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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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Prashant Singh
Edit Bio Make Anonymous
Write your answer, or answer later.
217 ANSWERS
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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).



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 an
awe 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 Grandfather
328 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 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".

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,

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



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 of
people 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.

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.

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