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Why India's Mars Probe Was So Cheap

Posted by timothy on from the maybe-nasa-did-the-currency-conversion dept.

schwit1 (797399) writes "Alan Boyle has some interesting thoughts on why it cost India so little, less than the budget of the movie Gravity, to build and send its probe Mangalyaan to Mars: 'The $74 million Mars Orbiter Mission, also known by the acronym MOM or the Hindi word Mangalyaan ("Mars-Craft"), didn't just cost less than the $100 million Hollywood blockbuster starring Sandra Bullock. The price tag is a mere one-ninth of the cost of NASA's $671 million Maven mission, which also put its spacecraft into Mars orbit this week. The differential definitely hints at a new paradigm for space exploration — one that's taking hold not only in Bangalore, but around the world. At the same time, it hints at the dramatically different objectives for MOM and Maven, and the dramatically different environments in which those missions took shape.' Read it all. It gives us a hint at the future of space exploration.

2 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I'm gonna go with by geekoid · · Score: 4, Informative

    hahahhahahaha.. Oh man. You are hilarious.
    Anyone who thinks American bureaucracy is over bearing and paralyzing clearly hasn't dealt with other government.
    My experience with the India's bureaucracy was that it is the worst. Sudden fees(Bribes*) , being shuffled to other family members fr more sudden fees*. It's realy bad.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...
    http://www.bbc.com/news/102276...

    I have good news for you** the American Bureaucracy is pretty damn efficient and honest.

    *really bribes as in, it's going into this guys pocket.

    **sadly, like most Americans these, you won't like facts and just ignore this good news it it's counter to you belief.

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    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  2. Re:US Government by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Informative

    Perhaps we spend a lot per probe relatively speaking, but NASA has had a great track record since giving up the "cheapo" approach of the 90's. The NASA/JPL Mars rovers and orbiters have done wonderful science.

    In fact, the USA is the only country to land a working probe(s) on Mars. Both UK and USSR have attempted. (The Soviets came close, but it's debatable whether a certain attempt actually sent usable measurements back.)

    Even if you deem it expensive, at least we got our money's worth, unlike some expensive Military boondoggles.

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    Table-ized A.I.