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(Image: Indian Space Research Organisation)
INDIA LAUNCHES ITS first mission to Mars tomorrow, aiming to become the only Asian nation to reach the Red Planet with a programme designed to showcase its low-cost space technology.
A rocket carrying a 1.35-tonne unmanned probe will blast off at 02:38pm (09:08 GMT) from the Sriharikota spaceport off the southeast coast, beginning a 300-day journey to study the Martian atmosphere.
“The countdown is progressing well, as scheduled,” said Deviprasad Karnik, spokesman for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). “The weather is normal. Slightly cloudy but no problem.”
The Mars Orbiter Mission, known as “Mangalyaan” in India, was announced 15 months ago by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shortly after a Chinese probe flopped when it failed to leave earth’s atmosphere.
“In competition with ourselves”
The timing led to speculation that India was seeking to make a point to its militarily and economically superior neighbour, despite denials from ISRO.
“We are in competition with ourselves in the areas that we have charted for ourselves,” ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan told AFP last week. “Each country has its own priorities.”
The golden-coloured probe, about the size of a small car or very large refrigerator, has been hurriedly assembled and will be carried by a rocket much smaller than American or Russian equivalents.
Lacking the power to fly directly, the 350-tonne launch vehicle will orbit earth for nearly a month, building up the necessary velocity to break free from our planet’s gravitational pull.
Only then will it begin the second stage of its nine-month journey which will test India’s scientists to the full, five years after they sent a probe called Chandrayaan to the moon.
More than half of all Mars projects have failed, including China’s in 2011 and Japan’s in 2003. Only the United States, Russia and the European Union have successfully reached there.
Mars Orbiter Mission Spacecraft (Image: Indian Space Research Organisation).
“I have to be confident”
“I was very nervous during the moon mission, but after seeing the precision with which our people took Chandrayaan to the orbit I have to be confident,” top Indian space scientist Jitendra Nath Goswami told AFP.
The total cost of the project is just 4.5 billion rupees ($73 million), a fraction of foreign equivalents.
There have been recent setbacks for India, however, including when Chandrayaan lost contact with its controllers in 2009 and when a new larger launch vehicle blew up after take-off in 2010.
India has never before attempted an inter-planetary journey which has required the development of technology enabling the probe to run autonomously. Communication signals take 12 minutes to travel between Earth and Mars.
“The biggest problem is to understand the navigation issue from the earth’s orbit to the Martian orbit,” ISRO chief Radhakrishnan told AFP.
Panaromic view of First Launch Pad (Image: Indian Space Research Organisation).
The programme also has to contend with domestic critics who say a country that struggles to feed its people adequately and where more than half have no toilets should not be splurging on space travel.
“An improvement of basic social indicators should be the priority and then we can have many missions to Mars,” activist Shivani Chaudhry from the New Delhi-based Housing and Land Rights Network told AFP.
ISRO counters that its technology has helped with economic development through satellites which monitor weather and water resources, or enable communication in remote parts of the country.
The Bangalore-based organisation and its 16,000 staff also share their rocket technology with the state-run defence body responsible for India’s rapidly evolving missile programme.
(Image: Indian Space Research Organisation)
United States
The United States is the only nation that has successfully sent robotic explorers to land on Mars, the most recent being Curiosity, a nearly one-tonne vehicle which touched down in August 2012.
One of its discoveries appeared to undercut the purpose of the Indian mission which is to find evidence of methane which would lend credence to the idea of Mars supporting a primitive form of life.
A study of data from Curiosity published in September found that the rover had detected only trace elements of methane in the Martian atmosphere.
“Remember that it (Curiosity’s methane reading) is for a single spot. One point doesn’t make it a story for the whole planet,” said Goswami, who was lead scientist for the moon mission.
NASA, which will launch its own probe to study Mars on November 18, is helping ISRO with communications. Two ships stationed in the Pacific will also assist with monitoring.
- © AFP 2013.
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I’ve been to India. It’s disgusting that they have a space programme given the level of poverty and deprivation in that country.
I was just thinking the same thing, to be honest I’m a little conflicted as I can’t deny I love the science behind this and wouldn’t it be great if a nation like India were the ones to find some major discovery, probably on a fraction of the budget NASA spends.
The other side of that coin is that the Indian budget would still be enormous for a country with such vast poverty and in all honesty if they had their priorities right could be spent better elsewhere.
@ Lurfic.. You nailed it.. Was thinking the same.. Disgraceful..
Isn’t it a burn to all the rich guys when a ‘poor’ guy makes a break? All of a sudden it’s like the entire planet has become concerned about India’s ‘poverty’. Especially people from the west. tell u what- MIND YOUR OWN DAMN BUSINESS. you probably belong to the only country in the world guilty of detonating a nuclear bomb on civilian population and where banks steal people’s money and houses, so shut up coz THAT’S DISGUSTING. We may be ‘poor’, but that doesn’t mean we have to take your permission to do what we wanna do. Neither do you have the right to judge my country. Oh, and don’t come back here. shoo.
I wonder will there be a few hundred astronauts hanging onto the rocket!!!
Comment of the week. Tears in my eyes.
jake mansfield, great one there , very funny.
Answer them better to feed all the hungry people in the slums.
Safe journey in the name of humanity❗️
Allow millions to starve to pay for nuclear weapons, aircraft carriers and a mars mission. Humanity has little to do with it.
It’s not Rocket science to know that there’s millions of starving in India in need of government resources
Mumbai, we have a problem
Eh I think they should sort out the slums and starving people first.idiots.
Should Ireland sort out the homeless/jobless people and traveler community first, before they spend money on motorways and infrastructure projects… to avoid being labelled “idiots” ?
more than 2,000,000 people are homeless in america Grace. so should NASA stop working?? Or are you suggesting that there is a particular number of people whose starvation is acceptable?? sorry but.. you’re an idiot.
One small step for nan.
I don’t know why I found that so funny but thank you!
I wonder how long the astronauts will be on hold when they need to call in a problem. For oxygen leaks press 1, for a fire press 2…
Fly a rocket into space!!!…your one across the road cant even back the ’92 Micra out of the drive.
Good luck to them and here’s to a successful mission!
Millions of people living in abject poverty in India & they are wasting billions on a vanity project. Very sad to see.
SHOCKING NEWS….all the poor beggars will be able to stare up at the sky from the gutter, and celebrate this fantastic achievement.
hey meagher, put your sadness into your own pockets and get your disgusting nose out of my country’s affairs. you ain’t ever helped us on anything, so shut up.
Disgraceful, millions starving ad they invest in this.. Lack of education evident
Said by the man so au fait with spelling and punctuation.
Ya they’re no rocket scientists…oh wait…
If lack of education would lead a nation to develop technology for inter-planetary travel, then there’s something wrong with education..
Spelling and punctuation does not define your level of education or morality but going to mars over feeding starving millions defines your level of education and morality
If you include morality to be a part of education it is evident that there is a lack of education in India as they are not spending money on their own starving citizens
Sean, why not talk about the morality of the Catholic Church, that abused hapless children for decades? And what about the morality of those who ran Anglo & bought the entire nation to its knees? Did education play a part in this too?
” And what about the morality of those who ran Anglo & bought the entire nation to its knees? Did ” education play a part in this too? ” ha ha ha rightly commntd Mr.Kartic…. its not the problem of education but mindset…..25% of people ws blw th poverty line when US fired Appolo11 towards Moon… Forgive me if it hurts, can u answer from where & how the money for British Industrial Revolutn procured ? Who destroys our ancient handwritten manuscripts depictng vast knowledge? Y western people ignored Aryabhata’ s (lived in AD400′s) inventions but approved Galilio who says the same thing what Aryabhata says a 1000 years back ?? I thnk this looting / avoidance ws happend due to excess education….Its embarassing to see that its still going on in the 21st century also…. Can u say one can succeed or start a journey after setting off all his problems/debts in his life ? If so, show such a nation or a person u know . the mission may succed or fail..but we done the job with our brain, our skill & our money………We have it & had it….Simply its called Jealousy….
No. Lack of education is blowing up Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Lack of education is stealing people’s homes. Lack of education is spending $750 million on a project that someone else could do at just $73 million. Lack of education is having the citizens of the same country that you are insulting right now constituting 34% of Microsoft and 36% of NASA. Get your own people ‘educated’ first, we are getting your jobs son. Go to school idiot.
Interesting article. Hadn’t known about an Indian mission to Mars. Wish then luck.
I let off a rocket every time I have the butter tikka masala with pilau rice. My toilet is like mars, lack of oxygen and fatal gases!!!
The martians will love vindaloo
Wow a lot of journal readers are racist. Just read through the comments. Apparently India only does call centres and take always.
Daily Mail eat your heart out. I’m going to go and read the Irish Times now for some news.
Ahh lighten up, Irish are getting stick for years and still are, every nation and creed get it. Imagine the stick we would get if tried launch
Ing a rocket. , we can’t even build a tunnel for big trucks, and as for the Luas , thick drunk Irish paddies
I think, for some people, their own feeling of well being comes from seeing the world around them in bad light. They can temporarily take consolation that they aren’t worse of.
Conversely, they can’t stand if someone one else does well, as it makes them feel bad about themselves..
If India or indeed all nations used their money to fight poverty and have everyone in the third world taken care of……we would have no space technology. Most of the devices we use from computers, microwaves and cars have technology in them that NASA or other agencies developed through space programs.
Yes, which is why countries like the USA and agencies such as NASA should continue to invest in space travel. But for a country with the problems that India has to be blowing billions on going to mars is nothing short of sick and wrong. I’ve been there, it would disgust you too if you’d seen how the poor are forced to live in India.
That’s just it, the US and Russia didn’t have millions of people starving within their borders when they began their space programmes. India blows billions worth of US Dollars on aircraft carriers, modern jet fighters, nuclear weapons and now a race to Mars while a good portion of the country is below the international poverty line. It’s quite disgusting.
Over 2,000,000 people are homeless in America! -they don’t seem to care about poverty either!
Its quite a few words coming from a country that blew up civilian populations in the east.
Gilmore’s foreign aid at work…
India isnt one of the countries Ireland donates aid to.
Bet their next move is to open up call centres there..
I’ve a feeling it ain’t gonna reach Mars
I’ve a feeling you need a bath.
Irish space program:
Step one: wait for night
Step two: go outside
Step three: look up
We built Newgrange.
We’re also a contributing member of ESA, one of only three programmes to actually reach Mars. So our space programme is a little bit more complex than that.
Nice sense of humour there Jason.
Kwiki Mart on mars.
When’s the take away, I mean take off again?
I landed on Mars earlier…nasty fall and squashed it but at least I still have my Milky Bar
That’s hilarious! Do another one!
@$73? That is the cost of a road here
“Hello this is Jerry, I am calling from the business telephone headquarters here on Mars, do you require home insulation please?”
Hope the guy who keeps ringing me about my microsoft trouble is on that rocket or the guy who says im owed thosands in overpaid interest.hope hes driving
That’s the longest take away delivery ever
For most of the ignorant people here, 90% of the so called Indian takeaways are actually run by people from Pakistan or Bangladesh. They call it Indian, as it helps sell their product & the people here can’t make out the difference.. There are very few genuine Indian restaurants in Ireland.
And how many millions does Ireland send to India each year to feed it’s citizens.
Lazy farts like you should do some research before posting insensitive comments.
To know where Irish aid goes, look at the following link..
http://www.dci.gov.ie/what-we-do/countries-where-we-work/
With only 5 million people, Ireland is struggling to feed its 200000 people on dole.
For many of these people who have no intention to work,
procreation is their recreation, and they produce more young mouths to feed.
Do you seriously think you can help a country of 1.2 billion when you need EU
aid to help your own?
I hope it all goes well for them.
Largest employer in UK is an Indian company, TATA, they own Jaguar, Landover, Tetley, Corus Steel, the list can go on, look at your country before making bullshit comments.
This is a paragraph from the article, the space program saved thousands of lives in October due to accurate cyclone predictions.
India’s US$1-billion-a-year space program has helped develop satellite, communication and remote sensing technologies that are being used to measure coastal soil erosion, assess the extent of remote flooding and manage forest cover for wildlife sanctuaries. They are giving fishermen real-time data on where to find fish and helping to predict natural disasters such as a cyclone that barrelled into India’s eastern coast last month. Early warning information allowed Indian officials to evacuate nearly a million people from the massive storm’s path.
First, Ireland is not a part of the UK so telling us to look at our own country first and then talking about the UK isn’t exactly a smooth thing to do.
Secondly, what relevance does the amount of people employed in the UK by subsidiaries bought by a rich man have to do with anything? It doesn’t change the fact that India wastes billions every year on a nuclear programme and space programme while people in India starve on a daily basis. Lets not forget the vanity aircraft carrier project which is another multi-billion sinkhole while millions live below the international poverty line.
Neither did India ask the EU or IMF to bail them out. India lives within its own resources. People who live in glass houses should think twice before they throw stones at others..
Exactly Karic sir. People who need bailed out constantly are talking about india and poverty. what idiots!!! hahahahaha..
If they cannot provide toilets for half of their population, why do they think one of their rockets will leave the ground in one piece ?
Ireland couldn’t get an electronic voting machine to work and close to 100% of our population has access to a toilet.
Can’t bleedin flush them after 8 in Dublin though
coz we don’t live in trailer parks and booz away our day with prostitutes.
200 million people starving…Hey what the hell , lets spend a few billion and go to Mars..!!
‘our banks need to be bailed out.. what the hell let’s steal people’s homes again’.. TARDS..
I’d give the mission very little hope of success.
so would i give your fertility pills.
Irish space program:
Step one: wait for night
Step two: go outside
Step three: look up
Show those yanks how to do it India
This note is from the article, the Ignorant, comments, full of their superiority, while the USA is in record debt, a country sold out to the Arabs and China, and shitting on a country which is launching a mission on its own money and not borrowed. And for your information , each time you touch your computer or use a software, there is an Indian connection , technology alleviates poverty , not add to it. $73 million is peanuts for the country, it is massive corruption which costs trillions to it in the last decade , that needs to be resolved in India, and India is not alone, USA which is so powerful has municipalities bank corrupting and 50 million with no health insurance. Where do they go, when they don’t have health insurance INDIA, biggest medical outsourcer in the world.
India’s US$1-billion-a-year space program has helped develop satellite, communication and remote sensing technologies that are being used to measure coastal soil erosion, assess the extent of remote flooding and manage forest cover for wildlife sanctuaries. They are giving fishermen real-time data on where to find fish and helping to predict natural disasters such as a cyclone that barrelled into India’s eastern coast last month. Early warning information allowed Indian officials to evacuate nearly a million people from the massive storm’s path.
The US owns just as much debt in China as China does US debt, so in no way has the US been sold to them. Also the US gets most of its oil from domestic production and Canada with well over 60% of their demand coming from these two sources. The next largest partner after this is Venezuela and then Saudi Arabia. So the Middle East is nowhere near as influential on the US economy as people seem to think.
But sure those are facts and they’re not important for your rant, right?
and just to add … Indian spends Rs.5000 crore in Diwali crackers. Dnt be Jealous.. learn it frm us if u need….
Hope it is a success …. They might all move there .
All wishes prayers to ISRO …this mission is helping not only Indians but whole humanity …compare to other mission this one is low cost.
Why the hell are the government spending money on space missions when millions of people are living in slums?! So so so messed up.
India ,feed your hungry ,look after your sick, halt your nuclear programme and as for mars …f…k off
Why don’t they all just take their willies out, measure them and let that be the end of it. Sign O’ the times.
Are you sure Prince wrote those lyrics?
4.5 billion Rupee is not gonna help whole nation but if this can help technology then why not a mission to mars?
What India is doing is like giving dog food to dog not to the family members which is not bad.
A call centre on Mars?
First thing they’ll do is open a shop.
India have the best space providings, better than all the other space providings in the whole world! Your interested in signings?
Nice one, first Indian delivered from Mars
I’m sure if India had ordered $73 million worth of Guinness or Irish whiskey, nobody in this site would claim it could’ve been better spent on fighting poverty! Same with the US. CNN and others point out the poverty on this topic, but were conspicuously silent on India’s poverty, when the US got at $15 billion order for military aircraft. What a bunch of hypocrites! India isn’t using money borrowed from EU or the IMF, but it’s own and it know what’s best for its people. It’s the same space technology that gave advance warning 4 days ahead, enabling 1 million people to be airlifted before the recent cyclone hit the shores. Nobody mentions that!
India’s mission to Mars successfully completes the initial stage know more visit http://trendsakg.blogspot.in/2013/11/indias-mission-to-mars-successfully.html#.Unjlp_lgf_a
73 million , they could feed a few hungry mouths with that !!!
India spends only 0.3% of its budget on it’s space program. India successfully reached Moon’s orbit on it first attempt and found the traces of water. which is far better than many developed countries.
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