The placement of the Mars orbiter Mangalyaan into Earth's orbit marked the successful conclusion of the first 44 minutes of a 300-day journey. The next stage will use Earth's gravitational field in a slingshot effect to pick up speed. On December 1, the orbiter should head for a rendezvous with the red planet, which it is scheduled to reach on September 12, 2014. Once there, it must decelerate precisely to get into orbit before embarking on scientific experiments. Wild celebrations are, therefore, premature. More than 40 Mars missions have been launched, and fewer than half succeeded. Only the United States, Russia and Europe have reached Mars.
It is possible to argue that the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is taking on a very stiff task even before it has delivered a fully successful lunar mission or designed a stable cryogenic rocket engine. However, a postponement would have pushed the mission back by almost three years, and Isro deserves praise for the ambition and ingenuity it has displayed in working on a shoestring budget to very tight deadlines. The cost was just Rs 450 crore. That is less than 15 per cent of the average cost of Mars missions. The mission was put together in 15 months, whereas most Mars missions take more than three years. Finally, Isro had to suffer through the agonies of the US government shutdown, which affected the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), which is helping to manage communications. In the given time, Isro was unable to stabilise the geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV) rocket with its cryogenic engines. GSLV has ample power, but it has suffered several launch failures. So Isro used the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV), which is reliable but underpowered - hence the need to work out a slingshot path to reach required velocity. Given that the orbiter uses PSLV rather than GSLV technology, and its correspondingly small payload, questions have been asked about the scientific merit of the mission, and whether Isro should have focused instead on manned missions, for example, instead of "replicating" efforts being made by, say, the Nasa moon rover. However, this complaint misses a point: that it is not the destination that matters, as much as the journey. Then there's the challenge of precisely navigating 400 million-plus kilometres to reach the red planet. This is much more difficult than targeting a needle in a haystack. The orbiter will be on its own since signals from Earth take 20-odd minutes to reach Mars. Autonomous onboard robotic systems must calculate exact deceleration to put the vessel into the desired orbit around the red planet.
If all goes well, the orbiter is expected to spend at least four months in orbit to carry out experiments to test for methane and hydrogen, and to map the surface. The much less ambitious Chandrayaan mission logged an important discovery in confirming the existence of lunar water. Discovery of methane in serious quantities on Mars would be explosive since it would indicate a high probability of life. It is not fair to demand immediate tangible returns from pure science. Isro has already delivered huge "payloads" in developing satellite, communications and remote-sensing technologies. Indian TV, ubiquitous mobile communication, improved weather forecasting, forest cover and agricultural surveys, and so on are all founded on Isro-related technology. And an intangible return could come decades later, from the "capturing and igniting of young minds", as an Isro scientist put it. If some of the little boys and girls who watched the lift-off images opt for careers in science, the ultimate pay-off would be much higher.
