100 Days of Mangalyaan and 4 Stunning Facts

The Mars Orbital Mission (MOM) got successful on 24th September, 2014, a hundred days from today. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has undoubtedly made the whole India proud, not just for a successful launch, reach or completion of a hundred days but also for a blend of unbelievable facts like:

Stunning Fact no. 1

It was made in just $74 million, which was cheaper than NASA’s Maven mission, costing $671 million. Moreover, the most amusing fact recently got unveiled through the news that it was half the cost incurred in making of Hollywood’s movie.

Stunning Fact no. 2

Terrifically, it’s locomotion was cheaper per kilometer than that of an auto rickshaw.

Stunning Fact no. 3

Thirdly, it used an innovative technique that even US could not think of. The amount of thrust required for it to reach the orbit of Mars was incredible because Mars is a hundred times farther than the Moon. US had that in mind too, hence a lot of money was put in by them to build a powerful launcher. As far as ISRO’s Mangalyaan is concerned,  they used the technique of inter-planetary slingshot. In simple terms, ISRO mindfully made the use of Earth’s gravity to gather speed, the Sun’s gravity to travel and Mars’s gravity to get closer to it. That’s the secret of low cost and efficiency because nothing is as free and effective as the Earth’s gravity, when space operations are concerned.

Stunning Fact no. 4

America still utilizes Russian equipment, this time China used Russian equipment too and they couldn’t get off the launch pad, and Japan build their own equipment and their mission failed. But, Indian Space Research Organisation did all on it’s own.

After 100 Days of Mangalyaan, K. Radhakrishnan who serves as the chairman at ISRO is confident about ISRO’s upcoming space operations that consists of five foreign satellites, four navigational satellites and at least one communication satellite.

S. Arunan, Mangalyaan’s project director says, MOM in Mars orbit is expected to be for more 80 days. So, it will be a total of 180 days (6 months) of monitoring, mapping and analysing at the Mars orbit.

For sure, a lot of stunning facts we will come across as, soon as this precious little operation is winded up. In a layman’s language, maybe we find life at Mars, or some elements essential for life at Earth. Let’s wait and see what Mars has in store for us!

Video: Pictures taken by Mangalyaan