I don’t believe I’ve had a thread specifically on Mangalyaan yet.

The Mars Orbiter Mission, also called Mangalyaan, is the Indian Space Research Organisation’s first mission to another planet. This makes ISRO the fourth space agency to successfully send a craft to Mars (after NASA, the Soviet Union’s space program, and ESA). It is the first agency to have a successful Mars mission on its first try.

In terms of its hardware, there is nothing groundbreaking about it. It is an orbiter in a highly elliptical orbit. It’s primary purpose was to demonstrate and test the agency’s ability to launch and navigate the mission into Mars orbit. The scientific equipment includes a colour visible light camera, an infrared thermal imaging camera, a mass spectrometer, and sensors for hydrogen, deuterium and methane.

What is remarkable about this mission is that it was approved in August 2012, and launched in November 2013: research, testing, construction and launch preparation were all completed in 15 months. The total cost is also remarkable: 70 million USD. Less than half of this was for the construction of the probe itself, with the bulk of the cost being for the launch vehicle and upgrading tracking facilities.

ISRO’s main focus remains on earth monitoring satellites for planning, land use and environmental monitoring. Only 7% of ISRO’s budget is allocated for off-earth missions.

In order to use a smaller launch vehicle, the decision was made to use the craft’s onboard engine for the Mars transfer. Because its thrust was low, this meant using a series of perigee burns to raise the vehicle into higher-apogee elliptical orbits, before the long burn for the interplanetary transfer.

Mars Orbiter Mission website

Fun, illustrated book on the Mars Orbiter Mission

15 months is impressive, thumbs up to India

Cymek said:

15 months is impressive, thumbs up to India

Probably looking for coal.

PermeateFree said:

Cymek said:

15 months is impressive, thumbs up to India

Probably looking for coal.

Or tech support for the various other probes and landers there.

Have to wonder how seriously high population countries like India and China think about colonising Mars.

Postpocelipse said:

Have to wonder how seriously high population countries like India and China think about colonising Mars.

Unless you terraformed Mars you probably could never support a large population

Cymek said:

Postpocelipse said:

Have to wonder how seriously high population countries like India and China think about colonising Mars.

Unless you terraformed Mars you probably could never support a large population

Not sure you could stop the chinese if they got it in their heads it was what they were doing.

• Unless you terraformed Mars you probably could never support a large population

Domes…

furious said:

• Unless you terraformed Mars you probably could never support a large population

Domes…

Perhaps but if you were serious about mass migration from Earth even a few million people is a drop in the ocean.
I imagine once you had too many people all the negative things about how we treat each other would surface when going to Mars, it should be about a new start for the human race with respect for the planet and each other of paramount importance.

India and China are geographically large countries but not extremely population dense. England has a higher population density.

dv said:

India and China are geographically large countries but not extremely population dense. England has a higher population density.

Is that good?

PermeateFree said:

dv said:

India and China are geographically large countries but not extremely population dense. England has a higher population density.

Is that good?

I suppose it means more room for urban sprawl which isn’t necessarily a good thing

Colonising other planets will not reduce the pressure we are exerting on earth by our runaway reproduction.

Peak Warming Man said:

Colonising other planets will not reduce the pressure we are exerting on earth by our runaway reproduction.

It would give China something to do…….

Maybe move both India and China to Mars.

Balance out the population a bit.

Colonising other planets would of course be insanely expensive. Not a sensible option for countries where GDP per capita is currently $1,630 (India) or $7,593 (China).

On another note: the ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle is one of the cheapest and most reliable launchers around.

(Despite the name, it is capable of putting satellites into equatorial orbits as well.)

The current asking is 14 million USD for a throw to low earth orbit, with a LEO max of 3250 kg. $4307 per kg to LEO is quite cheap.

The first launch was in 1993. It has had 30 launches, 29 successful: the only failure was the very first launch, 22 years ago.