Still, Mangalyaan has many challenges ahead
The successful entry of India's Mars Orbiter into the red planet's orbit is a once-in-a-generation achievement. As the country's first inter-planetary mission, it marks a rare success in the field of space exploration. Mangalyaan, as the Mars Orbiter Mission is known, also places India is an elite club of super-powers — up until now, only three space agencies had conducted successful probe missions to Mars. America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration paved the way in 1964 with the Mariner 4 fly-by; the Soviet Union followed suit in 1971 but was only partially successful as its spacecraft entered the Martian orbit but failed to complete probe missions; in 2003, the European Space Agency made it to the big league with the Mars Express. India is the fourth nation to join the club, but it also has three major firsts to its credit. It is the first Asian nation to complete this historic feat — in the process, India has beaten regional powers like Japan and China, both of whom are technological giants in their own right, who invest heavily in science and innovation. India is also the only nation to have put a spacecraft in the Martian orbit in the first attempt. All credit goes to the Indian Space Research Organisation for the achievement.
Finally, Mangalyaan is the least expensive of all Mars missions. With a tag of just $70 million, it costs less than the 2013 Hollywood space adventure film Gravity — an oft-quoted fact that gladdens the heart of every budget-conscious Indian. This fact is also possibly the best response to end the hackneyed debate on whether a country that still can't feed all its people should spend money on supposedly fanciful space programmes. Investing in science and technology is one of the best poverty-alleviation programmes, and there should be no two ways about it. If anything, Mangalyaan is proof that with optimal utilisation of resources, it is possible to deliver even cutting-edge space technology on a shoe-string budget. There is an important lesson here for our leaders who use financial crunch as a convenient excuse for their inability to deliver public goods.
Mangalyaan's success has also silenced its many critics. When the mission was launched on November 5 last year, they had written it off. This included the likes of a former Isro chief, who had described Mangalyaan as a “half-baked, half-cooked mission being attempted in undue haste with misplaced objectives”. His views were echoed by a secretary of the Delhi Science Forum, who thought the mission was “highly sub-optimal”. Both men had insisted that the Polar Satellite launch Vehicle used for Mangalyaan would not be good enough, and that Isro should focus on delivering the Geosynchronous Satellite launch Vehicle. Some had even insinuated that Mangalyaan was being glamourised to divert attention from the GSlV. In this context, Mangalyaan's success is an especially sweet victory for Isro. Over the years, the organisation has persevered against all odds — from Western sanctions in the 1970s that hobbled its progress to budget crunches today — to now emerge at the top of its game. Mangalyaan has fired the imagination of a nation. However, there is a lot that the mission is yet to accomplish, and we must keep our fingers crossed.