The Mars Orbiter Mission or Mangalyaan launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation was successfully inserted into the Mars orbit today. With the success of this mission, India has accomplished a phenomenal achievement - of becoming the first country in the world to have successfully sent its spacecraft to Mars in its first attempt. India has also become the first country in Asia to reach Mars.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present at ISRO today morning to witness the historic moment. He congratulated the scientists and said that they had through their hard work and dedication, stretched the boundaries of human enterprise and imagination. He commented, "History has been created today. We have dared to reach out into the unknown and have achieved the near impossible."
The Mangalyaan has many notable achievements to its credit. It is the most cost effective Mars Mission till date, made at a cost of around Rs 450 crore. The golden satellite is approximately as large as a Nano car, and ISRO developed it in a record time of 15 months and took around 300 days to traverse the distance of around 650 million km to reach Mars. The project, on an overall basis, has taken just three years from preparation of the feasibility report to execution. Notably, out of the 51 missions sent to Mars so far from across the world, only 21 have succeeded.
Mangalyaan will now proceed to explore the surface of Mars, as well as the planet’s morphology, mineralogy and atmosphere. It has five solar-powered instruments on board to help ascertain the weather systems on Mars and also look out for signs of life and presence of water. It will capture images on the surface through the Mars Colour Camera (MCC) and ISRO has also sent the first dedicated methane sensor to Mars to ascertain the presence of methane on the planet.