We are in the space age! Where the Indian Budget plans have allocations to the tune of USD 7.4 bn1 towards the development of space related activities, and sponsored space explorations, we also proudly stand to have been able to make sustainable, cheap missions. India's first interplanetary mission has made us the first nation in the entire world, to reach the Mars Orbit in the very first attempt. In many of firsts, ISRO is only the fourth space agency to have successfully reached the red planet's orbit, only after the Soviet Space Program, NASA and the European Space Agency.2

Interestingly, the total cost of the mission was approximately 450 Crores (US $ 74 mn). In comparison with the missions sponsored by the other space agencies, this is the cheapest mission by far. The following figure gives a comparative sketch of the costs of all the missions conducted to reach the Mars Orbit, as of yet. Our mission into the mars orbit comes at a comparative cost of about 11% of the Maven Mission, impressive it is!

One of the main objectives of this mission is to "develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission." The technological objective of the mission envisages the design and realization of an orbiter which is capable of sustaining and performing earthbound maneuvers; deep space communication and navigation. The scientific objectives of the mission aim at exploring the surface features of the red planet, the Martian morphology, mineralogy and the atmosphere.3

This 1337 kg weighing satellite deemed for the purposes of 'science and exploration'4, has been successfully launched into the outer space at a budget even less than a few Hollywood movies about space. The latest movie on Space "Interstellar" released in 2014, came out with a production budget of $165 mn.5

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India's achievement has been made possible for a really small budget. And, when we compare the investments in our mars mission to that of the investments made in the films about outer space exploration, we find the inspiration to proceed on the space front with our low cost innovations and efficient launching facilities.

From where we started with writings on astronomical computations by Aryabhata, Brahmagupta and Bhaskara I, we have come to the point of funding mars orbiter missions on shoestring budget. The mission planning, manufacturing of the spacecraft, launching of the vehicles and fine tuning the support systems were all done in a constrained time frame, once India decided to go to Mars.7

The country is on its way to demarcate a niche for itself in the domain of space technology and high end technical, scientific missions. It is for these times that we will need a stringent and comprehensive framework for the protection of the Patent rights in the outer space.

Footnotes

1. The Space Economy at Glance 2014, available at: http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/download/9214061e.pdfexpires=1423394326&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=A6453B005F605213B25A7F83C941B9E7 , last visited on April 20, 2014.

2. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/india-launches-mars-orbiter-mission/story?id=20793860 , last visited on April 22, 2015.

3. http://www.isro.org/pslv-c25-mars-orbiter-mission/mission-objectives , last visited on April 22, 2015.

4. Ibid.

5. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=daily&id=interstellar.htm , last visited on April 22, 2015.

6. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/indias-mars-mission-was-cheaper-all-these-hollywood-movies-n214861 , last visited on April 21, 2015.

7. Supra n. 3.

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