The Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft, or Mangalyaan (which means "car of Mars" in Hindu) turned on its engines at the end of a ten-month journey, and entered the coffee orbit around the planet
What the Russians and the Japanese failed to do, and the Americans also failed in the past, India managed to do this morning in the first attempt - to put a spacecraft of its own into orbit around the planet Mars.
This is only three days after the American spacecraft Maven also entered orbit around Mars.
The Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft, or Mangalyaan - which means "car of Mars" in Hindu - turned on its engines at the end of a ten-month journey, to enter the coffee orbit around the planet. It is not supposed to land, but only to explore from the air the atmosphere of Mars, its weather and the surface, in flights at variable altitudes - between 365 km and 80,000 km. "India is very active in all areas of space exploration, starting with satellite launchers, remote sensing satellites for photographing the UAV and other bodies in space, and this step towards the exploration of Mars positions India at the forefront of the countries sending spacecraft," says Tal Inbar, from the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Research .
updating: First photo of Mars from the Indian spacecraft that cost less than a movie
India also boasts that the spacecraft to Mars cost only seventy-five million dollars, about a tenth of the price of the American spacecraft MAVEN, which entered orbit around Mars earlier this week. With the Indian spacecraft, the number of satellites currently flying above the Red Planet will reach five, alongside two probes operating on its soil. "We definitely already control Mars in a certain sense," says Inbar, but there is still a lot to do there. There are plans for the next few years even before humans get there, to land more spacecraft, to bring back soil samples from there. The main work is still ahead of us."
long way
Although the research missions on Mars are currently mainly scientific, in recent years they are increasingly oriented towards gathering information necessary for the landing of humans. The head of NASA, Charles Bolden, spoke this week about landing humans on Mars in the 30s as one of the agency's goals. Many space experts agree that in order to achieve this goal, extensive cooperation between many countries will be required. One big step towards This collaboration is now taking place in the skies of Mars, with the US and India sharing information and coordinating the research missions conducted 700 million km from here.
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Miracles: accepts. I only visited there once. And really, the corruption bothers me more here than there.
Herzl
Trust me, you have no idea how wrong you are. The violence in India is an order of magnitude greater than in Israel. Corruption, two orders of magnitude. I have far too much experience in India, working with private companies and also with the army. If you think this is at all similar to what is happening in Israel, you are so wrong.
I agree with you that the situation in Israel is intolerable. Believe me, the situation at Ashdod Sugar port compared to India...
Miracles:
So we don't have a democracy either. There is a small difference: with us, the ratio between wealth and poverty is smaller. But corruption is the same. Capital/government relations - the same. Single families taking over the entire economy - same thing (in India the economy is bigger, therefore these families are richer). On the other hand, we have more violence, there are criminal organizations with ties to government and law.
All in all, India is a democracy like ours. Far from utopia but democracy.
Herzl
India is not exactly a true democracy. There is a lot, a lot, of corruption there. There are classes there. There is violence there. There is indescribable poverty and indescribable wealth.
The money doesn't trickle down, absolutely not.
There are many good things in India, but many more bad things.
I will say it gently - India is not a good example of what we call democracy.
Well done to the Indians. A wise and honest people, unfortunately most of them are too poor. Also real democracy.
Regarding the cost - most of the money went to the salaries of the engineers, who bought at the grocery store, who bought the vegetables from a farmer, etc. I mean to say that the investment was largely dispersed among the population. I assume that about 1/4 of the investment went to importing components - mainly electronic components - and that is the amount that came out of India.
The experience acquired by the engineers + the proof that the experience is real will allow the flow of knowledge to other industries, and here is the great achievement.
Kudos to them it definitely shows India's progress and in addition it will be an inspiration to millions of Indians,
There is criticism that this money should have been invested in the poor, but it is likely that if it had not been invested in the space industry, the poor would have seen nothing of it, there is a greater chance that in this way it will stimulate knowledge and the economy in the long run
Through this, the poor will also be able to enjoy the improvement of India's economic system, which is not only in the space industry,
A country needs a vision and this is definitely part of the vision that India needs to move forward, it will not solve all the problems
their internals but this is a kind of ray of light for the ability that can bring India to a better place.
I wish we could deal more in this field than we do today but because of our security situation
We will probably have to continue to focus on security development, which in part is like science fiction but in the security field.