India's Mangalyaan Probe Reaches Mars

Three days after NASA's MAVEN probe reached Mars, India's Mangalyaan probe went into orbit around the red planet. India's first interplanetary mission, and the first successful Mars probe launched by an Asian nation, has a total project cost of nearly $600 million less than MAVEN's.

This important milestone in space history was reached on September 24, 2014. In November 2013, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)'s Mangalyaan probe was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on the island of Sriharikota, in the coastal state of Andhra Pradesh.

The decision to send an Indian space probe to Mars had its genesis after India's successful Chandrayaan moon mission in 2009, which discovered the first evidence of water on the moon. After an initial study period, the project was officially approved by the Indian government in 2012. The probe, also called the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), was completed and ready for launch in fewer than 600 days. By contrast, building and testing NASA's MAVEN probe took nearly three times as long.

Not only is India the first Asian nation to reach Mars, it's also the first nation in the world to get there on its first try. The Soviet Union launched the world's first Mars mission in 1960, but didn't successfully reach the red planet until its 10th attempt, more than a decade later. The United States got a somewhat later start, but had better luck: the first US Mars mission -- Mariner 3, launched November 5, 1964 -- was a failure. However, Mariner 4, launched three weeks later, was a success, sending back the first images of the Martian surface.

Mars has always been a difficult target. Forty-five missions have been sent: 20 from the US, 19 from Russia and the former Soviet Union, two from the European Union, and one each from Japan, China, and India. Of those, only 19 have been successful. With Mangalyaan, India appears to have broken the so-called "Mars curse."

Mangalyaan carries five scientific instruments. The Mars Color Camera (MCC) will provide high-quality images of the planet, as well as its moons, Phobos and Deimos. The Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS) will measure the temperature and emissivity of the planet's surface as it varies from day to night, making it possible to identify minerals and soil types. The Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer (MENCA) is a mass spectrometer, which can identify chemical compounds in the planet's outer atmosphere. The Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP) will measure the ratio of deuterium to hydrogen, which will help to explain how Mars has lost its water over time.

The Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM) is intended to help answer one of the biggest mysteries about the red planet. In 2004, NASA's Mars Express Orbiter detected trace amounts of methane in the Martian atmosphere, a measurement that was verified by multiple ground-based stations. However, the Curiosity rover failed at finding any methane when it arrived in 2012. If there really is methane on Mars, scientists will need to explain where it is coming from. Some think it might be released as a result of geological activity, while others think it might form as a result of photochemical reactions in the atmosphere. A tiny minority of scientists even think that it could be a sign of life on Mars. Mangalyaan's methane sensor may help to resolve this enigma.

The ISRO has an annual budget of about $1.1 billion, which is about three weeks' worth of NASA's budget. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is fond of pointing out that Mangalyaan's budget of $74 million was less than the approximately $100 million budget of the space-themed Sandra Bullock movie, Gravity.

What's next for the ISRO? The agency has plans for a second moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, scheduled to launch in late 2016 or early 2017. Chandrayaan-2 will include a solar-powered robotic rover. ISRO officials have hinted at a second Mars mission, but so far, there has been no official announcement.

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