Our Mars ride cost us less than a Budget required for a “Hollywood
Movie”.
India’s Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi on Sunday at
Madison, Amercia used the metaphor of cost of travel by auto in Ahmedabad,
Gujarat, India to the expenditure incurred in the landmark Mars Orbiter Mission
which India accomplished in the very first attempt.
A km auto rickshaw ride in Ahmedabad takes Rs 10 and India
reached Mars at Rs 7 per km which is really amazing," the Prime Minister
said while talking about India's talent pool and potential to become one of the
top most countries in the world.
Modi said a cost of Rs 7 was incurred per kilometre in
covering the 650 million km distance to Mars by the unmanned spacecraft.
Everything about Mangalyaan is indigenous. We reached Mars
at a smaller budget than a Hollywood movie," he said adding "India is
the only country to reach Mars on its first attempt. That’s what we called a
talent.
India had on September 24 created space history by
successfully placing its low-cost Mars spacecraft in orbit around the Red
Planet in its very first attempt, catapulting the country into an elite club of
three nations.
At just $74 million, the mission costed less than the
estimated 100 million $budget of the sci-fi blockbuster "Gravity".
India is the first country who achieves success in the first attempt to Mars.
India's MOM is the cheapest inter-planetary mission, costing
a tenth of Nasa's Mars mission Maven that entered the Martian orbit on
September 22.
With the success of "Mangalyaan", India became the
first country to go to Mars in the very first try. European, American and
Russian probes have managed to orbit or land on the planet, but after several
attempts.
Modi had witnessed the operation along with the space
scientists in ISRO headquarter in Bangalore.
