At Rs 450 crore, MOM accounts only 7% of Science budget of Department of Space
At Rs 450 Crore, the Mars Mission accounts only 7% of Science budget and 0.34% of national expenditure
Bengaluru: For Indian space scientists who used a bicycle to transport a sounding rocket or a bullock cart to ship a satellite during nascent years of the space programme, their ingenuity to economize on cost without compromising on quality is there to see even in their latest outing to Mars.
At Rs 450 crore, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) accounts for only seven per cent of the Science budget of Department of Space (DOS) and 0.34 per cent of the national expenditure. Other countries have ended up spending ten times more on similar expeditions to the Red Planet because of their prohibitively expensive launch vehicles and use of additional fuel by the probes.
The cost factor came into the picture when a team of 20 space scientists drew up the feasibility report in 2011. They worked on a good mission design involving ISRO’s workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), and a modest scientific probe to circle Mars—the nearest point being 500 km and the farthest, 80,000 km. When the report was presented to scientists from across the country, they were excited as the Red Planet could be observed from a fairly close point as well as a distant position.
“To start with, these scientists wanted 20 instruments onboard but Prof. U.R. Rao (former Chairman of Isro) picked only five for most critical observations,” Dr V. Adimurthy, who headed this committee, told Deccan Chronicle. So, this team suggested that a modified, yet powerful version of PSLV (which incidentally was used to launch Chandrayaan-I) hoist the probe into space to reach the Mars through an egg-shaped trajectory with minimal use of the fuel onboard.
( Source : dc )
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