The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Mars Orbiter is currently receiving commands ahead of entering mars orbit, which is scheduled for September the 24th.
ISRO have a press pack (pdf) available, which gives a brief background to the Mars Orbiter Mission (also called "Mangalyaan", which translates to "Mars-Craft") and the expected schedule of operations.
Regardless of the scientific outcomes this is a massive achievement:
One of the main objectives of the first Indian mission to Mars is to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission.
All built in 15 months for $75 Million (over 500 movies have had similar, or larger, budgets). It will arrive in orbit three days after Nasa's MAVEN.
Originally spotted via an article in Nature. there's also a good summary of the mission from the Hindustani times.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 17 2014, @08:18PM
> All built in 15 months for $75 Million
Is that metric or imperial months?
(Score: 2) by arslan on Wednesday September 17 2014, @10:36PM
Its Sanskrit you insensitive clod!
(Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Thursday September 18 2014, @01:55AM
That would be Āryabhaṭa, which as far as I can tell is fexible base [wikipedia.org].
In citing the values of Āryabhaṭa numbers, the short vowels अ, इ, उ, ऋ, ऌ, ए, and ओ are invariably used. However, the Āryabhaṭa system did not distinguish between long and short vowels. This table only cites the full slate of क-derived (1 x 10x) values, but these are valid throughout the list of numeric syllables.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday September 17 2014, @08:21PM
Just say "next wednesday"
I'm not trying to derail with off topic, honestly, but could someone with "power" put up a story Sunday night for the MAVEN orbit insertion?
This is one of those things I've been meaning to call ncommander out on the state of the site articles, there exist a whole class of interesting science stories where aside from giant asteroid collision or something we can pretty well guarantee there will be an orbit insertion for MAVEN this sunday night IIRC at about 10pm central. So as a site we should plan ahead and cover them. "We" did the spacex/boeing announcement fairly well yesterday.
Maybe rephrased we've got a story queue, we need a story calendar. You know, unless something happens, there's a spacex launch on saturday (afternoon?) and MAVEN orbit inserts on Sunday and Mangalyaan is doin its thing on wednesday, so you don't need a queue you need a calendar.
Some people are all like "F space travel" well I don't agree but I can still sympathize (sorta) and last weekend we could have talked about the ham radio VHF contest, or the Strange Loop computer conference is this weekend (more or less) so you can just assume a story exists based on the calendar not the queue.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by VLM on Wednesday September 17 2014, @08:31PM
"Strange Loop computer conference"
Oh and I hate replying to myself, but if you posted stories about cons before they happen, meetups just might happen, like happened at that other site at cons.
I really wish I was going to strange loop this year, but it just wasn't happening, scheduling and all that. Bummer. But its kinda on topic for the site, so aside from just one story about the con itself you could practically load the whole schedule as stories. Well maybe not a flood of all of them, not at once, but...
I missed HOPE this year too. Bummer. Almost as a public service IF you had a calendar of SN-type topics such as some cons that I like, putting up a story when registration opens might be interesting. Or stupid simple as this sounds, go on google calendar, make a shared calendar called "Soylent News Calendar" and put stuff like cons and space travel scheduled dates in there. I'd look. The editors probably should.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Gaaark on Wednesday September 17 2014, @09:02PM
YES! :)
A calendar that could receive submissions (or a calendar 'monitor' who can insert them) would be cool...
...it would be nice to see what others think is interesting, and could make for a nice vacation itinerary thing: 'oh, there is a comic-con in St. John's this August? Maybe we'll head east this summer, honey!'
Would be cool and also, very helpful.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 18 2014, @12:09AM
I agree! I really need a calendar to stop missing important dates like Towel Day, May the 4th, Pi day, and that approximation-to-pi day.
I'm not being sarcastic! I want to commemorate nerd holidays.
(Score: 2) by tonyPick on Thursday September 18 2014, @06:51PM
> Just say "next wednesday"
Submitter here - fair comment, but I had no idea how long this would sit in the submission queue (there's stuff in the queue about 10 days old, and I've had things sit for a few days), so "next Wednesday" might have become "this Wednesday" by the time the story went up... "Wednesday the 24th" might have been better...
> we need a story calendar.
This idea I like.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by subs on Thursday September 18 2014, @12:31AM
I intend in no way to dismiss ISRO's achievement here, but it's quite disingenuous to say that the project "only" cost $75 million. It's only a 1300kg (wet, 500kg dry) probe. By comparison modern geostationary comm satellites tip the scales at around three times that and only cost a "modest" $200 million (depending on installed equipment) including launch services, while having to provide a useful service life of 15 years or more (and GEO probes really aren't that substantially different from deep-space ones for orbits up to Mars). So this shows that the project itself isn't the steal it's made out to be.
Also, you need to consider that it's only an orbiter, not a lander or, heaven forbid, a rover, which are orders of magnitude more complicated. Yeah, MRO cost around 10x as much as Mangalyaan, but its scientific payload was about 10x larger and its planned mission duration was 4 longer (in fact, now it's pushing 9 years, over 4x of planned). The overall MAVEN mission cost is $670 million, but again the spacecraft's scientific payload is substantially larger (around 4x larger) and much more complicated. That is not to say that some NASA contracts couldn't do with a good diet - they certainly could (e.g. by switching out the notoriously overpriced Atlas V launcher for a Falcon 9 they'd probably be able to shave off at least ~$100 million off of each mission) - but for the science they deliver, it's pennies invested for dollars returned in valuable knowledge for the future of human space exploration. Now if we're talking about the bloat in SLS, then I'm 100% in favor of cutting that crap. It's a bridge to nowhere-type of project, a government kickback to space-shuttle contractors provided by their lapdogs in the senate.
So I applaud the ISRO for their success. They've chosen a good goal with a sensible budget and seem to be delivering on it (so far), though we'll only know for sure after the deceleration burn in a few days and when all equipment has checked out OK.
(Score: 1) by Virindi on Thursday September 18 2014, @04:31AM
The fact that a government can accomplish a cheap mission is in itself impressive! Think of how often government projects that are intended to be cheap end up with scope creep and turn into the biggest, most expensive project possible.
That is, I find it impressive in itself that a government can build a 'cheap' mission at a similar cost to what you might expect from the private sector. Usually governments try to spend as much as possible.
(Score: 2) by subs on Thursday September 18 2014, @09:11AM
It's not impressive at all. Just because something is a government project doesn't mean it automatically will be hugely expensive, even though I understand its a favored political narrative among libertarians. NASA, for example, is extremely cheap for the cutting-edge science it is delivering. NASA projects end up costing a lot because NASA is mostly doing new stuff that's never been done before by anybody on the planet and because they put safety first and foremost, so they over-engineer safety by a huge margin. For example, JWST will cost over $8 billion when it's done - but have a look at the thing, it's huge and complex and is doing stuff that's never been done before. By comparison, Mangalyaan's mission is an "old hat" on the global scope, plus they had decades of experience of NASA and Roscosmos to work with - it's not exactly like they're starting on a green field and completely alone. Nevertheless, it's important to ISRO to cut their own teeth on deep-space stuff and I'm glad to see another nation getting in on the science action, we the people of this Earth can only benefit from it.
(Score: 2) by geb on Thursday September 18 2014, @09:58AM
It's only very recently, as in 12 months ago with the Falcon 9 v1.1, that SpaceX could match the payload capacity of a mid-level standard Atlas V. Before that they had a throw weight too low for any interesting interplanetary missions. They still can't match the payload capacity of a fully upgraded heavy variant Atlas V.
Of course, once the Falcon Heavy arrives on the scene, the advantage goes to SpaceX in a big way.
(Score: 2) by subs on Thursday September 18 2014, @11:23AM
There's been established options on the market before Falcon 9 and you don't always need the biggest hammer to hit a small nail. PSLV, for example, which was used to launch Mangalyaan is small by comparison, only 3.5t to LEO. But NASA being a US government agency, has to deal with a great deal of NIH syndrome and national pride-induced douchebaggery, so they'd rather pay exorbitant prices to ULA than to try and get a good deal on a launch on an ILS Proton or an Arianespace Ariane 5 or maybe even a Soyuz-2. The Ariane 5, in particular, has had a flawless launch record since 2003, but it's a pretty substantial rocket, even larger than the heaviest flown Atlas V variant.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 18 2014, @10:41AM
Where are we going?
Planet Mars!
When?
Real soon!