India in Orbit on Social Media

NEW DELHI: India’s low-cost maiden mission to Mars culminated in success Wednesday morning, when satellite Mangalyaan entered Mars’ orbit at 7:41 AM local time. Indian Space Research Organisation’s mission control in Bangalore received the news 12 minutes later, with the message needing to traverse the 400m miles (650m km) to Earth.

With the mission’s success, India became the first country to send a satellite into orbit around Mars on its first attempt, and the first Asian nation to manage this feat. Even more significantly, the mission cost India $74 million, which is a fraction of the cost of other missions to Mars. For instance, the United States’ Maven probe cost $671 million.

The news led to #MarsOrbiterMission, #MarsMission, #ISRO and #Mangalyaan all trending on social media platforms.

The fun began with a Twitter exchange between NASA’s Curiosity Rover and ISRO’s Mars Orbiter, leading to comments on a budding romance between the two:

Others, however, encouraged the two to take things slowly:

Not to put a damper on India’s Mars Mission success, but still others questioned skewed priorities:

However, who cares about employment, education or healthcare, India has even more pressing concerns -- statues!

Before we all join a dharna to protest the astronomical (no pun intended) cost of the mission, here’s something to help put things in perspective:

And if that doesn’t cut it as a good example, the mission’s Rs. 450 crore cost for 740 million km comes down to about Rs. 5.77 per km. That is cheaper than what most auto-rickshaws charge!

Cost aside, most revelled in the mission to take a dig at India’s neighbours:

China’s repeated attempts, have in fact, never been successful:

Of course, the Indian mainstream media was interested in the mission for other reasons:

And we join this Twitter user in waiting with bated breath to watch The News Hour tonight: