In 2013, India launched a Mars orbiter that cost just $75 million, a fraction of any other space program. Many called it a “cheap well”, some joked, others said that India should first solve its poverty problems. The Mangalyaan probe has done a lot for India and now the command center has lost touch with it. Why will he go down in history? How could it cost only that much?

How India cut costs “to the blood”

The probe was launched in November 2013 and in nine months covered 780 million km to reach the orbit of Mars. Mangalyaan was launched from India on an Indian-made rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on the country’s east coast.

The probe weighed 1,340 kg, of which 852 kg was fuel.

Since 2008, work has begun on the mission to put the probe into the Martian orbit, and the Indians have adopted a number of strategies to minimize costs.

ISRO – the Indian Space Research Organization – has proven to be an adept organization in harnessing the IT talent that the country is known for around the world, especially in the Bangalore metropolitan area.

Indians started with the experience of creating the cheapest things in the world: ten years ago, they created a car for $2,500 and a tablet for $49. The new task was to launch a Mars mission with the lowest possible costs. A super cheap mission, but one that can accomplish something.

The cost was $74 million, with the most common comparison being that 2013’s Gravity cost $100 million. Another comparison is that the mission cost ten times less than an equivalent mission done by the Americans.

How did India do it? Labor is very cheap compared to engineers in developed countries, and the 2,500 people working on the project were young people with an average age of 27. Salaries started at the equivalent of $1,000 a month, while in the U.S. a similar job would pay $4,000 a month.

Interestingly, many engineers willingly worked many hours of overtime without asking for additional money, very proud to be a part of this program.

Another way to reduce costs was the use of short schedules: the construction of the well lasted not 5-6 years, but 18 months, a period that even the leaders of the mission considered the limit of what was possible. . In addition, there were no multiple prototypes, no separate tests with different components, and this required a lot of risk, but also a lot of savings.

In addition, India has made considerable savings by using old technology and old components, helped by the fact that the country has experience in launching satellites.

This tactic really worked, and India managed to launch a probe into Mars orbit for the first time in September 2014. To do this, a complex change in trajectory was achieved within 24 minutes, just before entering orbit.

What is India doing on Mars when millions of people are starving

Many exclaimed in surprise when they heard that India, a country famous for its very poor areas, wanted to send a probe to Mars. There were calculations that showed what India could do with $74 million: how many schools could be built, how many toilets could be installed in villages, how many kilometers of railway could be repaired.

Others said the probe was technically modest and provided images similar to those sent by American probes 45 years ago. There were also those who said that the probe would not stay there for long and would not do anything else. They were wrong.

But many supporters of the mission said it was not just a matter of national pride, but proof that Indian engineering is formidable and cost-cutting doesn’t mean low quality.

India’s space program has created jobs and has big plans for the future. In addition, such a mission even has the power to inspire young people to work in the field. India has 1.4 billion inhabitants, and it is enough that “only” a few thousand young people were inspired by the Mars mission and chose research work. At least a few dozen could be brilliant and find solutions for a space program after 2030 or later.

Five instruments were installed to make measurements related to the planet’s surface, morphology, atmosphere, and exosphere. He provided data on gases in the Martian exosphere, as well as dust storms on the surface of the Red Planet.

The probe also aimed its instruments at the sun’s corona.

The Indian mission showed that even with small funds, a probe can be sent into space and then work for a long time and do its job.

Sources: CNET, India Today, New York Times