UPDATE 1-India's Mars mission enters second stage; outpaces space rival China

Reuters ^ | Dec 1, 2013 | Reuters

[James C. Bennett]

NEW DELHI, Dec 1 (Reuters) - India's first mission to Mars left Earth's orbit early on Sunday, clearing a critical hurdle in its journey to the red planet and overtaking the efforts in space of rival Asian giant China.

China's Mars probe rode piggyback on a Russian spacecraft that failed to leave Earth's orbit in November 2011. The spacecraft crumbled in the atmosphere and its fragments fell into the Pacific Ocean.

India's mission showcases the country's cheap technology, encouraging hopes it could capture more of the $304-billion global space market, which includes launching satellites for other countries.

India's low-cost Mars mission has a price tag of 4.5 billion rupees ($73 million), just over one-tenth of the cost of NASA's latest mission there, which launched on Nov. 18.

Homegrown companies - including India's largest infrastructure group Larsen & Toubro, one of its biggest conglomerates, Godrej & Boyce, aircraft maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and Walchand Nagar Industries - made more than two-thirds of the parts for both the probe and the rocket that launched it on Nov. 5.

India's probe completed six orbits around Earth before Sunday's "slingshot," which set it on a path around the sun to carry it toward Mars. The slingshot requires precise calculations to eliminate the risk of missing the new orbit.

India's space agency will have to make a few mid-course corrections to keep the probe on track. Its next big challenge will be to enter an orbit around Mars next year, a test failed in 2003 by Japan's probe, which suffered electrical faults as it neared the planet.

India launched its space program 50 years ago and developed its own rocket technology after Western powers levied sanctions for a 1974 nuclear weapons test. Five years ago, its Chandrayaan satellite found evidence of water on the moon.

[James C. Bennett]

"Beijing says its space program is for peaceful purposes, but the U.S. Defense Department has highlighted China's increasing space capabilities, saying it was pursuing ways to keep adversaries from using space-based assets during a crisis."

[Farnsworth]

Sorry, your not going to find red curry on Mars, it’s iron oxide...maybe it’s the same thing

[henkster]

It’s great to see how India and China’s muslim outreach programs have dramatically improved their space capabilities.

[SIRTRIS]

Fatwa forbids Muslims from traveling to Mars Examiner.com Nov 1, 2013 Muslims are forbidden from traveling to Mars: Islamic cleric issues a fatwa against any manned mission to Mars. Sheikh Ali al Hemki, a member of Saudi Arabia's board of religious scholars, has issued a fatwa forbidding Muslims from traveling to Mars, according to a news report published Oct. 31. The fatwa is a result of concerns and criticisms coming from Islamic scholars about Mars One, an ambitious attempt to organise a manned mission to the Red Planet. The mission has drawn applications from more than 200 thousand people worldwide. 477 Saudi citizens have applied for the mission, and six have so far been accepted. Sheikh Ali al Hemki claims the mission does not conform to "responsible Muslim" practices. "These experiments will lead to the destruction of those who try, and so should be done with animals, not people," he said... You can not make these stories up... uncanny!!!

[sickoflibs]

China says they now own Mars and that any approaching spacecraft must ID themselves and ask for permission to orbit there.

[henkster]

Mars is made of bacon? Who knew?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks James C. Bennett.