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ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission: Spacecraft successfully enters Martian Orbit
- skbohra123 12y agoWebcast of the event can be seen here http://webcast.isro.gov.in/ http://webcast.isro.gov.in/
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- suprgeek 12y agoWhat is even more commendable is that it was done pretty cheaply [1]. Granted the capabilities of some of the other craft are different - but not THAT different. Add to this the fact that this was a success in the first shot - getting a craft from the Earth to to Mars Orbit correctly in one shot on a meager budget is indeed a stunning success for ISRO. [1] https://twitter.com/WSJIndia/status/514591179363864578/photo/1 https://twitter.com/WSJIndia/status/514591179363864578/photo...
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- fragsworth 12y agoIt cost them $74 million. I'm going to predict it now - in about 10-20 years, wealthy hobbyists will be sending probes to other planets, eventually creating a worldwide community of amateur planet probers.
- dtparr 12y agoUnless it somehow advances to the point of being foolproof, that seems a little worrying from a Kessler syndrome standpoint.
- adrianN 12y agoWith my limited understanding of orbital mechanics, it seems pretty hard to get something into a stable orbit around earth, especially if you're aiming for Mars. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
- wcoenen 12y agoI think interplanetary missions usually start by reaching low earth orbit, and only then burning at the right time to start the interplanetary transfer. So getting stuck in LEO is not that unlikely. For example, the Russian Fobos-Grunt[1] mars mission got stranded in LEO. Though indeed not in a stable orbit; it did re-enter and burn up two months later. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fobos-Grunt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fobos-Grunt
- InclinedPlane 12y agoIt's not big satellites in controlled orbits that are a major problem from a space junk standpoint. Mostly it's the smaller fragments that are the problem, which outnumber satellites by a huge margin. Besides which, the easier it would be to launch satellites into orbit the easier, and cheaper, it would be to launch programs for cleaning up debris and abandoned satellites.
- InclinedPlane 12y agoIt's not big satellites in controlled orbits that are a major problem from a space junk standpoint. Mostly it's the smaller fragments that are the problem, which outnumber satellites by a huge margin. Besides which, the easier it would be to launch satellites into orbit the easier, and cheaper, it would be to launch programs for cleaning up debris and abandoned satellites. In fact, if launch were significantly cheaper then Earth orbiting satellites could be equipped with special sub-systems designed to deorbit them if the main satellite became inoperable.
- Cthulhu_ 12y agoI read an article forever ago that a de-orbiting system could be as simple as a bunch of wires being shot from the satellite to the earth; gravity would tug on the wires and slowly pull the satellite out of orbit.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- reitzensteinm 12y agoAlong similar lines, here's my prediction: the first successful crowdfunded visit to another planet will happen by 2030.
- enupten 12y agoWhat's even more fascinating is that ISRO survived at all, through the cold war. The fact that India has a fledgling space program, despite its problems, strikes me as rather inspiring. The fact that it was done cheaply stems partly from the fact that there is a factor of ~5-10 between the purchasing-power and corresponding USD value (which is why engineers in India seem to be paid lower in dollar terms).
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- th3iedkid 12y agoone more surprise : despite the amount of rampant corruption at top-levels in places like ISRO , its still working out excellent!
- gnurag 12y agoCitation needed, or I call BS on this.
- th3iedkid 12y agothis one on spectrum allocation to help generate revenue: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Another-spectrum-scam-hits-govt-this-time-from-ISRO/articleshow/7445139.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Another-spectrum-sc...
- gnurag 12y agotell me, did you google for "isro scam" or do you actually understand spectrum pricing and antitrust laws?
- nkoren 12y agoI've done a lot of work with the Indian government, and yes it can be very corrupted. But from what my friends at ISRO have told me -- and I believe them -- it is a meritocracy of the highest order. Its consistently excellent performance over the years is further testimony to this. ISRO should be an inspiration to the rest of India.
- mendort 12y agoIt does have less than 1/4 of the payload (by mass) of NASA's MAVEN. So it's not like NASA's much higher budget didn't buy them anything. Still, it is a wonderful thing to show that you don't need NASA sized budgets to do interesting things in space.
- tjradcliffe 12y agoIt reminds me a bit of Rutherford's famous quip about experiment design, "We don't have any money... we shall have to be clever!" Indian's ability to come together, organize and execute this mission is a huge credit to them. I hope other space agencies will take a careful look at what they've done and how they've done it, so they can learn from them. As a Canadian, this makes me realize that Canada could just as well have done this. $75 million is less than our government spends on subsidizing our local film industry: http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/ems-sgd/me-bpd/20142015/me-bpd02-eng.asp#toc2-124 http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/ems-sgd/me-bpd/20142015/me-bpd02-en...
- zkirill 12y agoIt is so incredibly inspiring to listen to a PM speak about space, science, research and exploration for more than an hour. Does anyone know if this is broadcast on Indian national TV?
- skbohra123 12y agoYes, indeed it's broadcasting live on our National TV here in India
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- beenpoor 12y agoI felt mixed about his speech (I listened to it fully). I think it lacked bit of finesse considering it was addressed to country's eminent scientists. But then, perhaps therein lies his genuineness.
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- realrocker 12y agoNot only did Mom reach Mars, she also got a pretty good bargain on it. So Indian :)
- maskedinvader 12y agoI cant think of a better way to put that. well said. I wish I could upvote this twice.
- adityab 12y agoMy Mom is an engineer working at ISRO designing satellite components and this line totally fits! She's vacationing so I just called and gave her the good news. :-D
- realrocker 12y agoCongratulations! You guys must be extra happy.
- chatman 12y agoPlease convey my salute to her! She made me a proud Indian today.
- govindkabra31 12y agomany congrats. i got curious what you do.. visited your site, browser threw a security exception. http://cl.ly/image/263R2V1o100F http://cl.ly/image/263R2V1o100F
- nmridul 12y agoTitle should be "India's mars orbiter ..... "
- silver1 12y agomore on this is here: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-creates-history-keeps-date-with-Mars/articleshow/43296484.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-creates-histo...
- bane 12y agoAbsolutely amazing, congratulations India!
- pdevr 12y agoTwitter handle of ISRO's Mars Orbiter: https://twitter.com/MarsOrbiter https://twitter.com/MarsOrbiter First tweet: "What is red, is a planet and is the focus of my orbit?"
- cscurmudgeon 12y agoISRO is awesome. :D
- swatkat 12y agoMOM spacecraft was launched last year (5th Nov 2013) and today it entered into Martian orbit. Here's the twitter handle of spacecraft: https://twitter.com/MarsOrbiter https://twitter.com/MarsOrbiter Mars Orbit Insertion was covered live on ISRO webcast (http://webcast.isro.gov.in/ http://webcast.isro.gov.in/), Doordarshan National TV and other channels. Here's the complete coverage of MOI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZL_Vwy0JqI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZL_Vwy0JqI MOI sequence of events: http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mom/status.html http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/mom/status.html MOM carries five scientific payloads: http://www.isro.org/mars/payload.aspx http://www.isro.org/mars/payload.aspx Expecting first set of colour pictures from MOM by today evening (IST) :)
- adityab 12y agoAnd it's already getting friendly with the Curiosity Rover. ;-) https://twitter.com/MarsOrbiter/status/514618412417302528 https://twitter.com/MarsOrbiter/status/514618412417302528
- swatkat 12y agoThis just in: first photograph has been taken using MCC payload (Mars Colour Camera) and will be released soon[1] :) By the way, here's the picture taken by MCC when MOM was orbiting Earth: http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/earth/mom-first-image-earth.html http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/earth/mom-f... [1] http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=29440.msg1261644#msg1261644 http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=29440.msg12...
- alphakappa 12y agoThe odds were against them, and yet they managed to pull this off on the first try. Congratulations ISRO! http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-29307123 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-29307123
- jpatel3 12y agoIts a proud moment!
- akbarnama 12y agoSome good information here - http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-youngworld/four-things-to-know-about-mom/article5365325.ece http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-youngwor... http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/journey-to-the-red-planet/article6429902.ece?homepage=true&ref=relatedNews http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/journey-to-the-red-...
- general_failure 12y agoCongrats India! In other news, http://isro.gov.in/ http://isro.gov.in/ has a <blink> tag :) Some parts of ISRO aren't catching up with technology :))
- SoulMan 12y agoGiven that HN is a more intellectual and educated group and there are no one here who is criticizing about the money spent . But the were skeptics who did criticize initially . It basically represents the sample of the population who probably never understood the meaning of space exploration. Most of them are partially educated or educated with a faulty system. It does not just apply to India, there are people sitting in US congress who thinks NASA is waste of money. Same people would have blamed ISRO for INSAT , GSLV & PSLV back in the days where there were bunch of satellite already doing the similar work. Its only because of those ISRO efforts today we have own geo-censing and satellite communication without having to buy from external agencies or compromise our security .
- swatkat 12y agoOne of the most recent examples on the need of space technology in India: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/isro-revived-kashmir-valleys-communications-links-during-floods/articleshow/43235419.cms http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation...
- cmdkeen 12y agoI think many of the criticisms were around the issue of aid. Pretty much as a result of this mission the UK announced in 2012 it was going to phase out foreign aid to India by 2015 (and replace it with technical assistance).
- 7952 12y agoINSAT = The Indian National Satellite System GSLV = Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV = Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
- gordon_freeman 12y agoGreat news for India's space program especially considering INR4.54 billion (US$74 million) cost for an interplanetary mission like this, it should be a crash course in frugal space engineering. I really believe ISRO can form a close partnership with NASA in future to launch supply to ISS and much more.
- swatkat 12y agoYes. Chandrayaan-2 (second Moon mission) consisting of a lander and rover is already in the works. Also, with the qualification of GSLV Mk3 medium-heavy lift vehicle and re-entry capsules[1], ISRO would be able to contribute more to "space transportation" missions. [1] http://www.isro.org/rep2014/STS.html http://www.isro.org/rep2014/STS.html
- gordon_freeman 12y agoTrue. I do believe that by doing close collaboration with NASA, ESA etc. India can help accelerate space missions all over the world. It will certainly be a win-win partnership because these Space agencies will save lots of money and India will gain expertise in executing complex missions.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- shashikant52004 12y agoCongrats team india!!!
- girvo 12y agoWhat an amazing achievement! And what a retro looking website! Congrats to the team, this is something to be proud of.
- sidcool 12y agoI remember when in 2012, the then PM of India had declared this project. The entire internet community came together to deride this, saying it's not possible in a couple of years and that India had better feed its hungry etc. I am a very proud Indian today. This achievement, like other by humanity (LHC in particular), will encourage me to push myself towards greatness.
- induscreep 12y agoIs this really an achievement when someone else could do it in 1965? Is it an achievement when other countries can land rovers on mars? India should be a leader, not follow others' footsteps. EDIT: 1971, not 1965
- Ankaios 12y agoOf course it's an accomplishment, even if others did it long ago. If I successfully run my first marathon (unlikely), it'll still be an accomplishment even though someone else first did it 2500 years ago. Getting a spacecraft into Mars orbit takes skill and careful work. I think it clearly warrants congratulations. Also, by the way, the first Mars orbiter wasn't in 1965—that was the first successful flyby. The first successful orbiter was Mariner 9 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_9) in 1971.
- induscreep 12y agoMaybe I should rephrase. Is this mission a scientific achievement? It could be a economics/accounting/marketing/HR/logistics achievement, but what is new scientifically?
- sean_the_geek 12y agodo you understand enough "science" to fathom "scientific achievement"? If the people behind the mission explained to you "science" in it and what are the "scientific achievement", would you understand them?
- nitin_flanker 12y agoI really want that people around the world should stop saying that this is a cheap mission. Instead you can say that this one is economical mission. Saying it cheap is derogatory remark. ISRO was thrifty while spending funds on this mission.
- pavanred 12y agoWhether intended as a derogatory remark or otherwise, the economical mission cost is a direct consequence of very creative and clever engineering solutions. I remember following the launch, the series of orbit raising manoeuvres to slingshot the craft into a heliocentric orbit to begin the journey towards Mars, there by limiting the costs and enabling to work around mission constraints, was extremely impressive. I wonder if the success of this mission would spark a priority to optimize costs in missions across space agencies around the world.
- rhino42 12y agoNASA actually had a rather successful program called "better, faster, cheaper" where we cut back on testing rigour in exchange for 1/2 - 1/3 mission cost http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2012/April/Pages/Faster,Better,CheaperWhyNotPickAllThree.aspx http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2012/April/Pa...
- vs4vijay 12y agoHollywood movie Gravity costs more than this space mission.
- vs4vijay 12y agoISRO's Mars mission is the cheapest so far, just 450 crore i.e Rs 12 per km, equivalent to Auto fare .Truly Indian
- sean_the_geek 12y agoT-h-a-t is awesome if it is true. Soon spacex will outsource satellite building to india as well :P
- mirchibajji 12y agoAuto fare may be a bit more, because they charge 1.5 times the metered cost when running at night :P
- howtodoinjava 12y agoAwesome comment.. LOL
- jpatokal 12y agoNote for non-Indian readers: "Auto" here is "autorickshaw", the ubiquitous (and cheap!) rickety three-wheelers that zoom about in all of India's cities. And the current official starting fare in Delhi is indeed Rs 25 for 2 km! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw
- Cthulhu_ 12y agoOur government (NL) wastes more money on failed IT projects than this space mission cost, :D.
- nagarch 12y agoSimply Amazing...
- seesomesense 12y agoGood practice for ICBM development. India's current IRBMs can target all of China. The goal is to be able to target all of the mainland United States.
- interesting_guy 12y agoAbsolutely!
- murukesh_s 12y agoNASA - Do you want to Outsource? ;-)
- arc_of_descent 12y agoCongratulations!
- jamesmalvi 12y agoProud to be indian.. Well Done India... I hope we get the best out of this trip
- mukundmr 12y agoI hope events like this will help rekindle the interest in science and that ISRO gets a budget boost.
- lmm 12y agoDoes anyone maintain an up-to-date version of the Mars Scorecard? What's Earth's average for this decade?
- gauthamilango 12y agoCongrats ISRO!!!!!
- prithvitheprime 12y agoIt was lowest priced spacecraft ever sent to Mars; Congrats India (big move on creating low priced space shuttles)
- digifire 12y agoI just wish ISRO was a privately held like spacex and giving it a run for its money. You would get the students in India really inspired to learn real engineering.
- cherylpatti 12y agoI'm impressed that anybody able to make $7397 in 4 weeks on the computer . this link www.swipebuck.com
- roywiggins 12y agoThis is massively inspiring. Huge PR boon for India, and they obviously deserve it. Super happy about this. Welcome to the interplanetary club!
- bharath28 12y agoRespect. For sheer aplomb & perseverance. It is moments like these that make me want to put my head down and march on no matter what.
- gude 12y agoThat's one giant interplanetary leap for India
- pranayairan 12y agoAwesome achievement, go go go.
- kamakazizuru 12y agocue haters talking about lack of toilets/education/too much rape/other random social issue that exists in India they heard about that one time in the news - and how India should fix that instead of developing technology...in 5..4..3..2..1
- jacko0 12y agoWell Done! But $74 Million could have been spent giving toilets to Indians, so that don't have to shit in the streets.
- ceejayoz 12y agoI'd count employing them in a high-tech space program counts as doing that indirectly, and with good long-term benefits.
- Cthulhu_ 12y agoWell Done! But the $700 billion US defense budget could have been spent giving basic health care to Americans, so that don't have to go bankrupt whenever they fall ill. [/comparison]
- ranran876 12y agoBoth statements ring true... what's your point?
- return0 12y agoI 'm surprised it's not discussed here ... but the ones who should be worried here is SpaceX, not NASA.
- chdir 12y agoPrevious discussion on the budget : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7964261 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7964261
- corford 12y agoSuccessful Mars orbit for 0.42% of the price Facebook paid for Whatsapp. Awesome job and glad ISRO doesn't seem to suffer from the same bad luck the Russians do when it comes to Mars!
- noisy_boy 12y agoPeople who keep making the (nonsense) point of space vs. better roads keep harping on how the money will be better spent on infrastructure. I looked up the Indian planning commission's budget for 2013-14 road development. Planning Commission provided an annual outlay of Rs.37,300.00 Crore for 2013-2014 for development in road sector[1]. That is more than 6 billion USD - just for improving roads, for a year. The budget of the Mars Orbiter mission was around 75 million USD[2] i.e. less than 1.5% of [1]. [1]: http://www.performance.gov.in/sites/default/files/departments/road-transport/2013-14.pdf http://www.performance.gov.in/sites/default/files/department... [2]: http://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2013/11/07/how-indias-isro-launched-its-mars-mission-at-cut-rate-costs/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2013/11/07/how-indias...
- shiven 12y agoThanks for providing some "hard data" and backing it up with references! It always irks me when people make such armchair-social-economist claims (which IMO, are ultimately only populism driven). As to ISRO: you've made me feel proud to be an Indian! Ad Astra!!!
- Arjuna 12y agoAs to ISRO: you've made me feel proud to be an Indian! I'm "sort of" Indian... by way of marriage ;) I get really excited when rockets go up, by generally spending too much time on telemetry [1]. I have been excited about this mission as well; admittedly, I can't help but feel a little emotional about it. I think your sentiment will be echoed across India, in the sense that it brings science, technology and astro-dynamics even further to the forefront. It will kindle a fire in young people to look even more toward understanding and exploring these fields. Regarding the mission, I thought it was interesting how Amul (a dairy company in India) used their "Amul Baby" in this little congratulatory ad [2]. The words are transliterated from Hindi. It basically translates to, "ISRO eat! This Mars thing is pretty cool!" इसरो खाओ! यह चीज़ बड़ी है मस्त मार्स! (Native speakers: please forgive me if I'm not quite right, and correct me if so.) Along those lines, the kid in me wishes we could see rockets showing up on cereal boxes, with blazing exhaust plumes, launch telemetry and explanations of how events must be planned in order to reach their precise window of opportunity in space. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7609781 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7609781 [2] http://s4.firstpost.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/amul-mars.jpg http://s4.firstpost.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/amul-mars.... Edit: Thank you viksit and vkjsub for the linguistic details. I didn't realize the "pun" with regard to इसरो and इसे रोज़ खाओ until it was explained!
- kjs3 12y agoCongrats, India. Welcome to the club. Hopefully you'll have many more successes.
- r0muald 12y agoI didn't see anyone compare this success at first attempt with the (partial) failure of Jade Rabbit https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7226307 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7226307 however that seems a more interesting comparison between newcomers to space exploration rather than, say, NASA missions.
- andystannard 12y agoAmazing well done! Sounds like they chose very wisely the scope of the mission and came up with a useful goal that they could archive with the limited resources. Lets hope they get some useful data from the methane detector
- vivekchand19 12y agoCongrats ISRO :)