Updated 12:53 AM EDT, Tue, Mar 19, 2024

India Mars Mission Cheaper Than Hollywood Movie Budgets

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India becomes a country of three notable feats, all in one successful goal that stretches beyond the earth's atmosphere - to get into Mars.

Apparently, India is now the first Asian country to get within the Red Planet's orbit; the first country to reach it in first attempt and the nation to accomplish the mission with the least financing.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the $74 million satellite Mangalyaan, as reported by The Christian Science Monitor. The Prime Minister compared the mission's cheaper cost against Hollywood blockbuster "Gravity," which took a $100 million budget.

Mangalyaan's success was all over the country - children had to watch the operation in school early, media coverage was viral and temples were filled with prayers.

BBC reported on the events that took over the Indian Space and Research Organization (ISRO) in the morning of the expedition. The outlet noted an atmosphere of excitement and tension. Scientists had to monitor incoming data. The Mangalyaan was reported to be out-of-sight for about 20 minutes - until the spacecraft landed on the elliptical orbit surrounding Mars.

Prime Minister Modi applauded, "Today, all of India should celebrate our scientists. Schools, colleges should applaud this." He added, "We have gone beyond the boundaries of human enterprise and human imagination."

In another report, BBC noted India to be the fourth nation to get in touch with anything Martian. The West Asian country joins U.S., Russia and Europe.

Previously, China and Japan attempted to launch their own Mars missions, but both failed. When asked if India is up for some space race, ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan denied, "First and foremost, what we are trying to do is reach there... We are not in any race with anyone."

Now India, a country stricken with poverty and hunger, as some reports noted, has changed history.

ISRO explained that Mangalyaan, formally called the Mars Orbiter Mission, consisted of three phases:

Geo Centric Phase. In this stage, the spacecraft escapes the Earth's Sphere of Influence (SOI). ISRO aimed to send the spacecraft into Mars with the least possible fuel. Mangalyaan was launched on Nov. 5, 2013 from the Sriharikota spaceport on the coast of the Bay of Bengal.

Helio Centric Phase. In a tangent direction, the spacecraft flees from Earth and meets Mars in its orbit. ISRO discussed that it will eventually intersect the orbit of Mars precisely when Mars is there too.

Martian Phase. This is the final phase when the spacecraft reaches the Mars Sphere of Influence following a hyperbolic trajectory.

Meanwhile, NASA's Curiosity Rover congratulated India in a tweet, "Namaste, @MarsOrbiter! Congratulations to @ISRO and India's first interplanetary mission upon achieving Mars orbit."

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