The World | 02.12.2013 at 3:46 p.m. • Updated 02.12.2013 at 17:19 |
betting is more risky than the mission had to be prepared in record time – five months against thirty-six to forty-eight for similar missions of the European Space Agency or NASA – and that the failure rate of missions in March is around 60%.
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countries do not have a powerful enough pitcher to directly send the probe on the Red Planet, it was first put into Earth orbit, where it needs to pick up speed before joining Mars, for arrival in September 2014.
Why does India desperate to explore Mars? The first arguments are scientific. “The mission will help us to detect the presence or absence of methane on Mars” says Mayank N. Vahia, professor at the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay. The probe Mangalyaan embarks five instruments, including a photometer to better understand how water evaporates from the surface of the planet, a mass spectrometer to analyze the composition of particles in the atmosphere and methane detector.
TOO AMBITIOUS
“But this mission is primarily technological rather than scientific” , tempers Francis Rocard, head of Solar System exploration programs at the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES). It is for the Indian space agency to test the new technology it has developed for this mission, as instruments of communication or the autonomy of the probe.
In an article published in The Indian Express , Amitabha Ghosh, a scientist at NASA fears that India, being too ambitious, leapfrog its conquest of space. Other projects are underway, such as the lunar exploration or development of more powerful geostationary launchers, and they are all far from successful. In scattering in multiple programs, the agency may only repeat the experiments conducted by other space powers for decades. Or “India must chart its own unique path with discoveries leading that will leave a mark in space technology and science” , insists Amitabha Ghosh.
mission to Mars is as much diplomatic than scientific. There was a great opportunity to enter for India. A few months before ISRO unveils its mission China had just failed to launch a probe into Mars orbit, a few years after the defeat of Japan. If Mangalyaan mission is successful, India may become the first Asian country to succeed his conquest of Mars.
voices were raised in India to criticize these costly ambitions for the country, while 32% of the population lives on less than $ 1.25 a day. ISRO their replies that the budget launch Mangalyaan is one of the lowest in the world. Some observers took the opportunity to celebrate the Jugaad (“innovation at lower cost”), thanks to tests, far fewer than in Europe or the United States. “You do not build a satellite like a car. In space, it is more the specifications scientific or technological expenses that cost reduction program guide “, shade Francis Rocard. ISRO has mostly low-wage engineers and can count on a budget in constant progression. But with $ 1.1 billion, but it remains far from the $ 17 billion U.S..
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