As our PM Narendra Modi rightly said, "we have dared to reach out into the unknown and have achieved the near impossible,"
We are the only nation so far to reach Mars on its first attempt. We are also the nation who have spent the least amount of money to do so. India’s Mars mission has a price tag of about $74 million, a fraction of the $671 million cost of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s latest Mars program, about three-quarters of the amount to make the Oscar-winning movie 'Gravity' about astronauts stranded in space.
NASA congratulated India in a Twitter message, welcoming Mangalyaan (Sanskrit for Mars-craft) to studying the Red Planet.
In its six-month life, the mission will study the atmosphere of Mars and search for methane gas while asking that eternal question that has dogged humanity: "Are we alone in the universe?"
Without faith and will, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible
Sankarsan Parida