back to article MOM: CHEAP Mars ship got it right first time. Nice one, India

India has become the first nation to achieve a successful insertion to Mars orbit on its first attempt, after an epic 10-month trek by its cunning Mangalyaan (aka Mars Orbiter Mission, or MOM) spacecraft. The mission that marked India as a genuine deep-space power is also a miracle of low-cost space exploration, setting the …

Page:

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    India delivers to Mars

    And I can't get a reliable vindaloo delivery from my local take away.

    </casualracism>

    1. Zog_but_not_the_first
      Unhappy

      Re: India delivers to Mars

      I was thinking about something along the lines of "they forgot the naan" but you beat me to it.

      BTW, is such a comment racist these days? If Virgin had done it and we made a joke about beards or Tubular Bells would that be "corporatist" of "Bransonist"?

      Confused in the minefield of modern "ists".

    2. Martin Budden Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: India delivers to Mars

      I always get a reliable delivery after a vindaloo.

  2. The Vociferous Time Waster

    Haw haw

    ...and the Russians used a pencil! Snort!

    </urban Legends>

  3. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    1st time out with a significant science payload is *very* impressive.

    I think the mission trajectory was a key part of keeping the rocket size (and hence cost) down. IIRC it was quite tricky. The other option might have been a solar sail.

    However as readers of the Mythical Man Month know a strong early success (and this is very strong indeed) can lead to the oh-so-difficult 2nd mission. They had better watch out for that.

    Thumbs up for this which I think beats India's greatest rivals (China and Pakistan) to the post by a long margin.

    1. Anonymous Cowerd

      Re: 1st time out with a significant science payload is *very* impressive.

      Presumably, they learnt from the previous errors of other nations...

      1. Raj

        Re: 1st time out with a significant science payload is *very* impressive.

        We didn't really get a chance to learn much more than that many of them failed many times. The ISRO was under international sanctions until 3 years ago, which meant zero collaboration. They did this all by themselves.

        Since the PSLV wasn't capable of lofting the payload with as much force as the MAVEN was by its launcher, they used the Oberth effect to generate the necessary momentum. There was not much margin for error - they needed to calculate the necessary fuel to do the Oberth rings, get catapulted to transfer orbit, and then have enough fuel to capture Mars orbit.

        Despite a couple of early glitches, they still arrived in Mars orbit with twice the fuel originally calculated, which means the mission will be much longer than planned.

  4. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

    Top Skills

    Well done India.

    1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

      Re: Top Skills

      I'm not entirely sure why someone felt the need to downvote me for that. Perhaps my congratulations were somehow offensive to someone who thinks that this isn't an impressive technical achievement by those in charge of the Indian space program, or perhaps the down-voter thinks that India doesn't deserve to have a space program. On the other hand, perhaps they believe that doing this sort of thing is a waste of resources and are too blinkered to see the benefits to be had to the people of India, from gaining the technical expertise involved in pulling this off. Or maybe they're just racist thugs, and don't like Indians?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh come on, it's not rocket science!

    Oh, wait it is...

    While they're obviously standing on the shoulders of giants, it is still an impressive achievement.

    The weatlth divide in India is massive, but this could be seen as an attempt to establish India as a player in the aerospace market, which in turn could lead to business going their way and so generating wealth for all.

  6. ItsNotMe
    FAIL

    What a country.

    "India: 600,000 die annually from 50% open-defecation rate

    "India, a nation with one foot in the present and the other in the past, suffers from a certain kind of pollution largely associated with undeveloped nations.

    The populations of entire villages in India still defecate in common-area fields that surround their communities, according to a Bloomberg report out Monday.

    The government of India, a world nuclear power, is trying to control disease by potty training rural populations who return to nature when nature calls, even after the government has installed toilets at their homes."

    http://www.digitaljournal.com/life/health/india-600-000-die-annually-from-50-open-defecation-rate/article/394639#ixzz3EF4ptJWf

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What a country.

      There we go. I was wondering what happened to our DailyFail reading commetards. :D

  7. madeof5tardust

    Now shut the fuck up all you naysayers. Oh and make to sure plop something into Martian orbit before saying something stupid..

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wow.. Congratulations India for pulling this off in the first attempt. Now, post some selfies!

  9. Trainee grumpy old ****
    Flame

    Priorities

    Priorities 1: India spends roughly 45 million (in Sterling) sending a satellite to Mars and hopefully inspiring a future generation of scientists. In the mean time we will be spending upwards of 30-40 BILLION to get from London to Brum a few minutes quicker. How many kids will HS2 inspire?

    Priorities 2: It costs more to get some footballers to pledge temporary allegiance to a team!

  10. Chris G

    बधाई हो

    Congratulations India!

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    MOM - $74 Million (Satellite, Indian ground stations and software upgrades) (15kg payload)

    MAVEN - $671 Million (Mars Scout program which MAVEN is part of) (65kg payload)

    MOM is a demo unit for India that included a science payload. MAVEN was built to collect Mars specific data as its primary function. Service life and scientific instruments are also rolled up into the cost of each.

    Both are of value to science for different reasons and their cost reflects that.

    I'm happy that money is being spent on expanding knowledge rather than regional/global conflict for a change.

  12. Mussie (Ed)

    Well Done But...

    You cant tell me that all the work done before hand did not help with this mission, it an impressive feat yes and Kudos to the indian space agency, but all the first time comments well its like telling me that a commercial airline pilot is better than a test pilot cause the commercial pilot never bailed and crashed an aircraft...

Page:

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like