India’s Mars Orbiter Mission: Triumph of Frugal Engineering

With the success of its Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan, India became the first country to succeed in its maiden attempt to reach Mars. However, what captured the attention of the international media was the shoestring budget in which the mission was accomplished. At US$74 million, the budget was less than what was spent on the Hollywood movie ‘Gravity’, released the same year.

ISRO was established in the year 1969 under the chairmanship of Dr Vikram Sarabhai (Sarabhai), regarded as the father of the Indian space research initiative. India’s space program, when it was began, came under a lot of criticism. There were many who felt that as a developing nation, India’s priority should be to deal with issues like poverty. However, Sarabhai convinced the government that there was no ambiguity in ISRO’s purpose and it was not competing with economically developed nations in the exploration of the moon or any other planet.