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India's satellite approaches Mars

The mission cost a tenth of what a similar NASA mission, orbiting Mars since Sunday, cost.

By Ed Adamczyk
Artist's conception of India's Mars Orbiter Mission (CC/ wikimedia.org/ Nesnad)
Artist's conception of India's Mars Orbiter Mission (CC/ wikimedia.org/ Nesnad)

SRIHARIKOTA, India, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- India's mission to Mars is nearing completion, with its satellite, launched 300 days ago, poised to go into orbit around Mars Wednesday.

The 1,350-kilogram (3,020-pound) satellite, named "Mangalyaan," or "Mars Craft," will be slowed to enter orbit around the planet, instead of crashing into it or traveling past it. First attempts by the United States and Russia at getting caught in orbit were not a success, and about half of all satellites sent to Mars experienced unsuccessful resolutions.

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"India will become the first Asian country to have achieved this and if it happens in the maiden attempt itself, India could become the first country in the world to have reached distant Mars under its own steam in the first attempt," said K. Radhakrishnan, chief of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

India's Mars Orbiter mission is groundbreaking in another way, costing only $74 million, compared to NASA's MAVEN project, a climate research satellite which entered Mars' orbit Sunday and cost NASA $671 million. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted the Indian effort to reach Mars cost less than the filming of the Hollywood space film Gravity.

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The mission has great patriotic significance for India, and can be regarded as a triumph over the space aspirations of its rival, China, as well as an example of India's technological advancement. Radhakrishnan said the orbiter is a "technology demonstrator" that will photograph the surface of Mars and conduct measurements of the planet's atmosphere.

ISRO's plans include the launch, in several weeks, of a geosynchronous satellite which, although unmanned, can seat three astronauts.

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