India's Mars Orbiter Mission: Triumph of Frugal Engineering

Case Code: BSTR473 Case Length: 11 Pages Period: 2011 - 2014 Pub Date: 2015 Teaching Note: Available

Price: Rs.300 Organization: ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) Industry: Space Technology Countries: India Themes: Innovation, Frugal Innovation

Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts

Introduction

On September 24, 2014, India's the Mars Orbiter Mission (MoM) or Mangalyaan successfully entered the Mars orbit. With this, India became the first nation to succeed in its maiden attempt to reach Mars and India's primary space Agency, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization), became the first space organization of Asia to do so.

After travelling for 300 days and accomplishing a journey of 420 million miles, Mangalyaan reached Mars and started orbiting successfully. However, what grabbed the attention of the international media was the mission's shoestring budget of $74 million, which was one ninth of NASA's Maven mission to put a spacecraft into the Mars orbit. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, said, "Our program stands out as the most cost-effective, here is this story of our Mars mission costing less than the Hollywood movie 'Gravity' ... Our scientists have shown the world a new paradigm of engineering and the power of imagination."

The mission to Mars gained the reputation of being a difficult space exploration as only 21 out of the 51 attempted missions turned out to be successful. ISRO's success was hailed by the international media. The BBC, The Guardian, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Economist mentioned that India had succeeded in becoming the first country to put a satellite into the Martian orbit in its first attempt. However, the mission had its share of critics with concerns being raised about the need and affordability of space exploration given the high levels of poverty in the country....

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