Justifiably jubilant (Image: Manjunath Kiran/AFP/Getty)

“There is nothing symbolic about this,” says Sundaram Ramakrishnan of the Indian Space Research Organisation. The country’s success in putting its Mars Orbiter Mission(MOM) into orbit around the Red Planet was about testing technology and the skills needed to manage a complex mission, he says.

ISRO scientists passed that test with flying colours during the early hours of 24 September. When word came in that the craft had executed its burn for precisely 1388.67 seconds and slowed to enter orbit, staff were ecstatic.

“There was euphoria among people, hugging each other, shaking hands, and jumping,” Anil Bhardwaj, director of the space physics laboratory at ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, told New Scientist. “I can’t tell you in words the way we were feeling.”


Beyond the celebrations, and the celebratory headlines – “The first Asian country to reach Mars”, “India’s Mars mission cost less than the making of the movie Gravity” – is a space programme that is quietly gaining in confidence and competence to tackle lunar and interplanetary missions.

Making of a Mars shot

Getting to Mars on the first try was no mean feat, showing that ISRO is able to tackle a range of highly technical challenges in a coordinated way. These included modelling the precise trajectory to Mars, designing an intelligent craft that deals with problems autonomously when too far from Earth for real-time control, and building engines robust enough to function flawlessly after a year in the cold of space. “It definitely gives us confidence to plan such complex missions,” says Ramakrishnan.

And Mars was achieved at a low cost too: $74 million, indeed less than what it took to film Gravity , by some $26 million. Bhardwaj credits tight cost-control, founded on ISRO’s ability to do everything in-house – including building rockets, satellites, propulsion systems and sensors. ISRO does sub-contract some manufacturing to industry, but manages the entire process itself. This, says Bhardwaj, also helps the organisation keep to tight deadlines: from conception to rendezvous with the Mars, the mission took three years.

More in the pipeline

With one triumph under its belt, ISRO is not resting on its laurels. Having put the Chandrayaan-1 probe in orbit around the moon in 2008, the agency has India’s next lunar mission in the works, this time involving an orbiter, lander and rover. “This is another new technology that we’ll need for landing on any planetary surface,” says Bhardwaj.

The rocket for this second moon mission will be the heavy-lift Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV). It successfully flew earlier this year with a cryogenic engine that uses liquid oxygen and hydrogen for fuel – a vital technology for large payload missions – designed and built in India.

Another key mission in the pipeline is Aditya-1 (Aditya being the Hindu sun god). It will attempt to study the sun from Lagrangian point L1, which lies between Earth and the sun, about four times as far away as the moon.

In the meantime, ISRO is also building its own GPS system. It has already launched two satellites, with a third awaiting launch. The next generation of weather, remote sensing and communication satellites are also on the agenda.