India’s one of the biggest achievement that made India enter in the list of biggest inventions of 2014 is the MOM named as Mars Orbit Mission. India is the 4th country in the world that have reached Mars after Soviet space program, NASA and European space agency and first Asian nation to reach there.
It takes 14 minutes for signals to reach from ISRO to MOM and same 14 minutes to instruct MOM by ISRO.
Aim of the Mission:
The main aim of sending Mangalyaan on Mars was to determine the quantity of water in the martian atmosphere and it will surely help the scientists to know the history of Mars. Mangalyaan will also determine the level of methane on Mars. MOM has just 5 onboard instruments that will help it to examine the atmosphere of Mars. Its researchers will help in exploring the existence of life on that planet.
Facts that makes India Proud:
- Cost – India’s Mangalyaan is the cheapest project among all other space agencies that successfully reached Mars. It cost just INR 454 Crore.
- Production Time- It took just 15 months by ISRO to make such a tough machine. ISRO got approval from the government regarding the Mangalyaan in August 2012 and it got finalized in November 2013.
- NASA’s Support- NASA’s futuristic Deep Space Network played a crucial role in navigating Mangalyaan as India’s own deep space network don’t have that long reach to navigate the mission. USA was going through a financial shutdown, but still NASA stick to his words and helped ISRO.
- Success in the 1st attempt- India showed its position on the international forum when India’s Mangalyaan got a successful propulsion and worked as per the plan. USA first time tried in 1960 but faced failure in its first attempt. After that, USA tried a lot and launched a successful mission in 1994. Total 51 missions have been launched, but only 21 have achieved success. Excluding Mangalyaan.
The Mars Orbiter Mission team won US-based National Space Society’s 2015 Space Pioneer Award in the science and engineering category.
In November 2014, Mangalyaan was mentioned in the best inventions of 2014 by Times Magazine. Mangalyaan was among the top 25 inventions of 2014, which cost less than the budget of award-winning movie “GRAVITY”.
Criticism of the Mission:
On one hand, the mission got appreciation but simultaneously faced some criticism also from other nations and even Indian media and people. People saw it useless for the nation as they required that money spent on mission, to be used for other purposes to speed up the development rate. These activities must be left for developed countries who don’t have to worry about their nation’s development.
Space research is also necessary for the development of a nation and it will open a new door for a new generation to brush up their talent and use it to for nation’s development. This mission made India proud and wrote India’s name in the history of space missions.
Why Recently in News:
MOM will be blocked from earth as Mars and earth will be interfered by the sun. The communication blackout will continue till 22 June, this year. It is the first instance when Mangalyaan will get disconnected from the earth surface. Scientists have said that it will have no effect on the mission at all.
