India's Mars Orbitor Mission-Salient Points

India's first Mars orbiter successfully began a 400 million-km long journey to Mars, making it the first Asian country and the fourth in the world to undertake a mission to the red planet.

Important Points.

1. Dr. K. Radhakrishnan – ISRO Chairman
2. Mylswamy Annadurai is the Director of Mar’s Mission.
3. India's MOM is the cheapest inter-planetary mission, costing of Rs 450 Crore ($671 million) entered the Martian orbit on 24 September 2014. 
4. The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan, is India’s first interplanetary mission to the planet Mars.
5. India becomes the first country in the world to insert a spacecraft into the Martian orbit in its very first attempt.
6. Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, India's first interplanetary probe, was launched by PSLV-C25 on November 5, 2013 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
7. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) becomes the fourth space agency to reach Mars after Roscosmos (Russia), NASA (USA) and ESA (European).
8. The first Chinese mission to Mars, called Yinghuo-1, failed in 2011.
9. The project was approved by the government of India on 3 August 2012 and costs Rs. 450 crores.
10. MOM is the cheapest and lowest-cost inter-planetary mission ever to be undertaken in the world. It cost us all a mere Rs 4 per person
11. The mission successfully completed its 100 days in space on February 12, 2014.
12. The satellite has carried a compact science experiment instruments, totaling a mass of 15kg to study the Martian surface, atmosphere and mineralogy.