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MISSION TO MARS
MANGALYAAN Mars spacecraft
Lyman Alpha Photometer: To study relative abundance of hydrogen and deuterium in Mars' upper atmosphere
Medium gain antenna
Methane sensor: Measures gas in Mars' atmosphere and map its source
Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser: To study Martian atmosphere
Colour camera: To beam images and data on surface features and composition of Mars, also to probe Martian satellites, Phobos and Deimos
Thermal infrared imaging Spectrometer: To map surface composition and minerology
High gain antenna
Launcher: Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle XL, 45m
Launch weight: 1,350kg
Launch site: Satish Daiwan Space Centre, Sriharikota, India
MISSION: To study the Martian surface and its mineral composition. Search for methane in Mars' atmosphere.
BLAST OFF: The satellite launch vehicle carrying the Mars orbiter blasting off from Sriharikota.
READY TO GO: Scientists working on the Mars orbiter vehicle at the Indian Space Research Organisation's satellite centre in Bangalore.
Indian security personnel standing guard inside the control station before the launch of India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, carrying the Mars orbiter, at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
Technical staff standing next to satellite launch vehicle before its launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
India's mission to orbit Mars, launched successfully on Tuesday, re-ignites the long-standing debate on whether the money could be better spent on the poor
India's sky-high ambition to be a world space power turns a blind eye to its down-to-earth problems.
That is what critics of India's Mars Orbiter Mission, which took off from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, are saying.
"I think it's so strongly symbolic of an extremely unequal society," Mr Harsh Mander, director of New Delhi's Center for Equity Studies and a former adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on social issues, told the Los Angeles Times.
"We continue to have something like 230 million people who sleep hungry every night, and millions die because they can't afford healthcare. Yet these are not issues that cause outrage."
Prominent scholar and economist-activist Jean Dreze, who had conceptualised and drafted the first version of MNREGA - a rural aid scheme - is critical of the mission to orbit Mars, maintaining that it "seems to be part of the Indian elite's delusional quest for superpower status".
Mr Jason Burke, writing for The Guardian, also questioned the purpose of the mission.
He said: "A plunging currency, ailing economy and the state's seeming inability to deliver basic services have led many Indians to question whether their nation is quite as close to becoming a global superpower as it seemed in the heady years of the last decade, when economic growth pushed the 10 per cent (mark)." But scientists have defended the flight.
They said that it costs only a little more than 6 US cents per capita in a nation with a population of 1.2 billion, roughly the same as an aircraft, and brings pride to the country, reported The Los Angeles Times.
"There are social benefits", including weather satellites that save lives, Mr Ajey Lele, a research fellow with the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, a think tank, told the newspaper.
It will also promote the capability and affordability of India's commercial satellite-launching service. So far, India had launched 35 satellites for other countries, Mr Lele said, and is eager to do more.
A top government official told the BBC the arguments against rocket launches are not new.
He said: "We have heard these arguments since the 1960s, about India being a poor country not needing or affording a space programme. If we can't dare to dream big it would leave us as hewers of wood and drawers of water! India is today too big to be just living on the fringes of high technology."
Yesterday, the spacecraft completed its first stage. The launch vehicle will now stay in Earth's orbit for nearly a month, building speed to break free from our planet's gravitational pull, reported NDTV.
It will then begin the second stage of its nine-month journey to orbit Mars.
BY THE NUMBERS
US$73 million India's Mars Orbiter Mission
US$2.5 billion Nasa's Mars Curiosity mission in 2012
US$671 million Nasa's upcoming Mars Maven satellite
US$1.5 billion Nasa's 2020 Mars rover
SOURCE: WALL STREET JOURNAL/LOS ANGELES TIMES
SOURCE: REUTERS, INDIAN SPACE RESEARCH ORGANISATION, THE TIMES OF INDIA
ADAPTED FROM REUTERS
MISSION TO MARS
MANGALYAAN Mars spacecraft
Lyman Alpha Photometer: To study relative abundance of hydrogen and deuterium in Mars' upper atmosphere
Medium gain antenna
Methane sensor: Measures gas in Mars' atmosphere and map its source
Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser: To study Martian atmosphere
Colour camera: To beam images and data on surface features and composition of Mars, also to probe Martian satellites, Phobos and Deimos
Thermal infrared imaging Spectrometer: To map surface composition and minerology
High gain antenna
Launcher: Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle XL, 45m
Launch weight: 1,350kg
Launch site: Satish Daiwan Space Centre, Sriharikota, India
MISSION: To study the Martian surface and its mineral composition. Search for methane in Mars' atmosphere.
BLAST OFF: The satellite launch vehicle carrying the Mars orbiter blasting off from Sriharikota.
READY TO GO: Scientists working on the Mars orbiter vehicle at the Indian Space Research Organisation's satellite centre in Bangalore.
Indian security personnel standing guard inside the control station before the launch of India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, carrying the Mars orbiter, at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
Technical staff standing next to satellite launch vehicle before its launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
India's mission to orbit Mars, launched successfully on Tuesday, re-ignites the long-standing debate on whether the money could be better spent on the poor
India's sky-high ambition to be a world space power turns a blind eye to its down-to-earth problems.
That is what critics of India's Mars Orbiter Mission, which took off from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, are saying.
"I think it's so strongly symbolic of an extremely unequal society," Mr Harsh Mander, director of New Delhi's Center for Equity Studies and a former adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on social issues, told the Los Angeles Times.
"We continue to have something like 230 million people who sleep hungry every night, and millions die because they can't afford healthcare. Yet these are not issues that cause outrage."
Prominent scholar and economist-activist Jean Dreze, who had conceptualised and drafted the first version of MNREGA - a rural aid scheme - is critical of the mission to orbit Mars, maintaining that it "seems to be part of the Indian elite's delusional quest for superpower status".
Mr Jason Burke, writing for The Guardian, also questioned the purpose of the mission.
He said: "A plunging currency, ailing economy and the state's seeming inability to deliver basic services have led many Indians to question whether their nation is quite as close to becoming a global superpower as it seemed in the heady years of the last decade, when economic growth pushed the 10 per cent (mark)." But scientists have defended the flight.
They said that it costs only a little more than 6 US cents per capita in a nation with a population of 1.2 billion, roughly the same as an aircraft, and brings pride to the country, reported The Los Angeles Times.
"There are social benefits", including weather satellites that save lives, Mr Ajey Lele, a research fellow with the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, a think tank, told the newspaper.
It will also promote the capability and affordability of India's commercial satellite-launching service. So far, India had launched 35 satellites for other countries, Mr Lele said, and is eager to do more.
A top government official told the BBC the arguments against rocket launches are not new.
He said: "We have heard these arguments since the 1960s, about India being a poor country not needing or affording a space programme. If we can't dare to dream big it would leave us as hewers of wood and drawers of water! India is today too big to be just living on the fringes of high technology."
Yesterday, the spacecraft completed its first stage. The launch vehicle will now stay in Earth's orbit for nearly a month, building speed to break free from our planet's gravitational pull, reported NDTV.
It will then begin the second stage of its nine-month journey to orbit Mars.
BY THE NUMBERS
US$73 million India's Mars Orbiter Mission
US$2.5 billion Nasa's Mars Curiosity mission in 2012
US$671 million Nasa's upcoming Mars Maven satellite
US$1.5 billion Nasa's 2020 Mars rover
SOURCE: WALL STREET JOURNAL/LOS ANGELES TIMES
SOURCE: REUTERS, INDIAN SPACE RESEARCH ORGANISATION, THE TIMES OF INDIA
ADAPTED FROM REUTERS
