THE successful launch of the Mars Orbiter Mission last week may have triggered off a debate on the need for ‘expensive’ space missions in a country that is unable to meet the basic needs of millions of its people.

But the fact is that the project reflects India’s growing strengths in ‘frugal engineering’ and space technologies.

The 1,337kg orbiter, called Mangalyaan, is expected to reach the Martian orbit in September 2014, after traversing 780 million kilometres.

Martian missions have been notoriously difficult to undertake, and of the more than 50 such missions launched worldwide, about half have failed. Interplanetary space exploration is also a costly affair.

But thanks to India’s ‘frugal engineering’ expertise — which has, in recent years, seen the launch of the Nano (the world’s cheapest car), and Akaash (a low-priced tablet) — the country has been able to launch the orbiter at a rock-bottom price and in a record time.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), a state-owned agency, is spending less than $75 million on the mission; a similar venture, launched by America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) would be at least six times more expensive.

The ISRO was able to launch the mission in less than 18 months, whereas Nasa or some other international agency would need more than three years to launch such a project.

More importantly, the Mangalyaan mission has been developed indigenously by Indian space technologists and engineers, and was launched by ISRO’s polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) — its warhorse for launching satellites and other objects into space.

The Indian space agency was keen to launch the orbiter on its geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV), instead of the under-powered PSLV. However, the GSLV has had a lot of problems since its launch in 2001. Of the seven launches, only two have succeeded. The latest attempt, in August, also ended in failure following the detection of a leakage.

In fact, the ISRO has suffered several setbacks in recent years following the failure of the GSLV to take off. It has also led to bitter recriminations, with former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair accusing the incumbent chairman, K Radhakrishnan, of pursuing the Mars mission to cover-up the agency’s failure on the GSLV front.

Nair recently dubbed the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) as ‘useless’ and ‘a showpiece event’. According to him, the space agency should have utilised the $75 million on getting the GSLV up and about, which would have ensured it good returns.

“Instead of concentrating on practical missions, we are spending money to prove nothing,” says Nair. “It is claimed that the Mars mission will prove new technologies. As a person familiar with these technologies, I believe that there is no new technology involved.”

THE GSLV was developed by the ISRO to enable it to launch large satellites into geosynchronous orbits around the earth. And while the PSLV has been a huge success, it can only launch smaller satellites.

The PSLV has so far launched more than 60 satellites and spacecraft, including 35 foreign ones. It is capable of launching 1,600kg satellites into the 620km, sun-synchronous polar orbit, and 1,050kg satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit.

The GSLV would have given India the capability to launch heavier satellites in the 2,000-plus kilogramme category into geosynchronous orbit, besides launching interplanetary (or even lunar) spacecraft.

At present, it has to depend on other international space agencies for launching such satellites. The fate of India’s ambitious lunar mission, the Chandrayaan 2, depends on the successful launch of the GSLV.

The agency has been working on an indigenous cryogenic engine for the GSLV, but teething problems have persisted for years. The ISRO now plans to launch the GSLV next month.

Working on a shoe-string budget of about $1 billion a year, the Indian space agency has been forced to cut costs while developing new technologies. In the past, the agency had taken help from the former Soviet Union (and since the break-up of the USSR, with Russia). However, Russia has its own problems relating to the launch of spacecraft.

The ISRO is now increasingly seeking cooperation with Nasa. The American space agency is launching another Mars orbiter — the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission (MAVEN) — later this month.

The two spacecraft, Mangalyaan and MAVEN, will be collaborating during their sojourn around the red planet. Nasa will also extend communication and tracking services to the ISRO through its deep space network.

While India launched its space exploration project in the 1960s, much of it was focused on launching satellites, including those meant for communications, weather forecasting and agricultural purposes. Chandrayaan, its maiden unmanned lunar mission probe, was launched in 2008 to explore the moon.

Spurred by the success of the mission — which completed nearly 95 per cent of its tasks and led to the discovery of water molecules on the lunar soil — the ISRO embarked on MOM, hoping to join the exclusive club of nations that have launched interplanetary exploratory missions.

CRITICS have cavilled at the relatively ‘high’ costs of the mission and the need for ‘reinventing the wheel,’ especially as Nasa’s Mars exploration programme, including the Curiosity orbiter, has been sending extensive data on the red planet.

But the ISRO claims that Curiosity has been exploring only a certain part of the planet, and that there is room for Mangalyaan to search for evidence of methane in the harsh environments of Mars.

In the past, India had been extremely sensitive about its space and defence projects, keeping out private players from participating in these ventures. However, the ISRO has opened up of late, and many Indian technology and engineering companies — including Larsen & Toubro, Godrej & Boyce and Walchandnagar Industries — have been involved in the MOM project.

Nearly 500 firms have been working with the Indian space agency in manufacturing components for its launch vehicles and rockets. ISRO chairman Radhakrishnan wants to encourage both public and private sector companies to participate in India’s burgeoning space and commercial satellites sectors.

India plans to launch nearly 60 space missions during its 12th five-year plan (2012-17), and the government has allocated nearly Rs400 billion for these projects.

The global space economy, valued at $300 billion, is growing rapidly, and with the entry of private players — including the founders of Google, Eric Schmidt and Larry Page; filmmaker James Cameron and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos — the industry is expected to skyrocket over the years.

India’s telecommunications needs are soaring as demand for mobile phones, internet and data and direct-to-home television services is expanding at a frenzied pace. The needs of Indian telecom and DTH service providers are huge, and space on commercial satellites is limited.

And thanks to the relatively low cost of commercial satellite launches from India, many countries around the world are seeking rides on its PSLV spacecraft to place their satellites in space. If the GSLV project clicks, India would be able to launch more complicated communications satellites and even spacecrafts bound for outer space.

The spin-off benefits from space technology are also immense and cannot be measured in terms of short-term gains. Indian companies that work on some of these cutting-edge technologies would be able to offer competitive products and services to other global space agencies.

If Mangalyaan keeps its date with Mars next year, it would boost the confidence of the nascent Indian space technology sector, helping it navigate more challenging probes and missions in the future.