Indian satellite reaches Mars

The Indian satellite Mangalyaan has reached Mars. India is the first country to succeed in its first attempt to reach the planet. In addition, no other Asian country has successfully carried out such a mission.

In three hundred days, the unmanned satellite has almost seven hundred million

miles, reports the BBC. India is the first country to actually succeed in its first space mission to Mars. The US, Russia, China and Japan all saw their first mission to Mars fail. The US and Russia did manage to reach the planet at a later stage.

The Mangalyaan, the name is Hindi for ‘Marsship’, took 24 minutes to slow down and thus enter orbit around the planet. Reducing speed was a risky act. If the satellite slowed down too quickly, it could eventually crash on Mars. If, on the other hand, he would slow down insufficiently, there was a chance that gravity would not get a hold of the system, which would end up lost in space.

The Indian space mission to Mars is the cheapest space mission ever, according to the Indian Space Research Organization. The project has cost about $74 million, according to the ISRO, or 57 million euros. In comparison, the Hollywood movie Gravity reportedly cost $100 million. The price of the probe that NASA put into orbit around Mars a few days ago is almost seven hundred million dollars.

The satellite will use several cameras to explore the planetary surface of Mars and help investigate why and how Mars lost its water, which was once present on the planet. There are already four satellites orbiting Mars, one of which is European.