Disney's Mars needs women $150 million India's Mars mission $74 million

[Ichingcarpenter]

India's spacecraft reaches Mars orbit ... and history

(CNN) -- India's Mars Orbiter Mission successfully entered Mars' orbit Wednesday morning, becoming the first nation to arrive on its first attempt and the first Asian country to reach the Red Planet.
"We have gone beyond the boundaries of human enterprise and human imagination," declared India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who watched from the space agency's nerve center in Bangalore. "We have accurately navigated our spacecraft through a route known to a very few."

The staff at the Indian Space Research Organization erupted into applause and cheers after learning that the Mars Orbiter Mission, also known as Mangalyaan, reached the planet's orbit and made history.
"The odds were stacked against us," Modi said. "Of the 51 missions attempted so far, a mere 21 had succeeded. But we have prevailed."
And India reached Mars with significantly less money.
With a price tag of $74 million, the Mars Orbiter Mission cost a mere fraction of the $671 million NASA spent on its MAVEN spacecraft, which arrived to Mars earlier this week. Some space observers noted that India's Mars orbiter cost less than the $100 million budget for the space thriller film "Gravity."

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/23/world/asia/mars-india-orbiter/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

In other words maybe the cost of our wars in a week.

[Scuba]

1. Subliminal messaging?

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. I wonder what the cost is for a day

for this Syrian military misadventure?

[Scuba]

3. Here's one estimate ...

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. Well...... I feel better now

that national priorities are explained so well........LOL.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. Technically I think the movie you're talking about is "Mars Needs Moms"

which doesn't make it any better.

Mars Needs Women was, indeed, a movie, although not a Disney one, and one hopes in 1967 it didn't cost 150 Mil to make.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. Moms.. Women....?

yeah got confused for a second on which crappy movie was a comparable reference

Anyway congratulations India.!!!!!



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1305591/

[Warren DeMontague]

7. Seriously! A terrific accomplishment.

Unlike Mars Needs Moms.

Only thing I remember about that movie was some speculation in a review that part of the reason it tanked - and it tanked hard, IIRC- was that little kids wouldn't really be expected to clamor to go see a movie where "Mom" gets abducted by aliens.

So what are there, now, 6 functional spacecraft at Mars? 2 working rovers - curiosity and opportunity... and 4 orbiters? i was under the impression we have Mars Odyssey, Mars Observer, now MAVEN, and the Indian orbiter. That's pretty cool!

[NickB79]

10. Wow, that rocket shooting up "there"

Wonder if there's a hidden meaning there?

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. UFO anyone? Picture of the India's Space Agencies Main launch Center

Newly inaugurated Control Center at Satish Dhawan space center.

[fbc]

9. Comparison to MAVEN is worthless without context.

If the goal of both MAVEN and Mangalyaan is to reach and orbit Mars then the cost comparison might be noteworthy, but I'd bet there's more to both missions than that. A cost comparison without more information is worthless and seems typical of the "science reporting" done by our major media outlets.

[Johonny]

11. +1

[Warren DeMontague]

12. True. The Indian Mars Orbiter is basically a demonstration of capability, not much more.

Sort of like how Sputnik didn't do anything except beep.

Still, putting something in orbit around Mars is an impressive accomplishment, don't get me wrong- but it's not designed to do a whole bunch of science once there.

[BrotherIvan]

13. Or $.05 labor