Getting a spaceship successfully
Getting a spaceship successfully into orbit around Mars is no easy task. More than half the world's previous attempts — 23 out of 41 missions — have failed. India wanted this spacecraft, also called Mangalyaan, meaning "Mars craft" in Hindi, to be a global advertisement for its ability in designing, planning and managing a difficult, deep-space mission.
India has already conducted dozens of successful satellite launches, including sending up the Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, which discovered key evidence of water on the moon in 2008. And it plans new scientific missions, including putting a rover on the moon.
But India "is likely to be somewhat limited because we can't afford to spend that much money in pure science exploration and in an exercise of the imagination," said D. Raghunandan of the Delhi Science Forum, a group that promotes the study of science.
The space agency's focus will remain on developing technologies for commercial and navigational satellite applications — services that could bring in significant revenues from companies or governments seeking to place their own satellites or research equipment in space.
