The first day of the New Year saw a milestone being achieved. Mangalyaan which has been orbiting the planet Mars has successfully completed 100 days of its orbit.
This achievement makes India the first country in the world to do this on its very first attempt.
ISRO said that the satellite is functioning well. Later in the day ISRO will be conducting a seminar to analyse the achievements and also the lessons learnt so far from this mission.
Former chairman of ISRO, K Radhakrishnan, said that MOM which has been powered by satellites has paved the path for the rest of the world to get things done differently without necessarily sacrificing on the quality of the mission.
This is India’s very first interplanetary mission to this planet and is actually just a technical one. India happens to be the first country in Asia to send a satellite to Mars making ISRO the fourth space agency in the world.
This craft has been specifically designed to facilitate its orbit around the Red Planet in an elliptical orbit. Developing the technology which is required for a mission like this was one of the main reasons for carrying it out. It was to know the requirements in the field of planning, design, management and also the operations.
India has grabbed the attention of the world by successfully completing this mission at just $74 million which is just a quarter of what was required by the NASA. This may mean that other countries might just turn to India for help in their missions as well.