After a 298-day transit, the Mangalyaan finally accomplished its path into Mars’ orbit. Launched on Nov. 5 the satellite entered the Martian orbit on Sept. 24. according to BBC News.
This accomplishment makes India the first Asian country to reach Mars’ Orbit, marking an important landmark in space history. Countries such as China have recognized the effort and achievement of the Asian country to be part of the space industry.
Walter Medrano, cinema major at John Brown University, said India’s accomplishment will soon become one of the most important issues this year.
“The Indian’s Mars mission is a sign of development in a country that historically has suffered challenges economically, politically and socially. It is evident that conquering outer-space is a sign of richness and being a first world country,” said Medrano.
Medrano also believes that the contributions of Mangalyaan to the scientific community will be more than people think.
The planet Mars has been a focus of attention for many first world countries such as Japan, the United States and even Russia. All of these countries tried to become closer to the Martian planet without success.
“The benefits for the scientific community would be getting to know more about this planet and how life might have existed in the past in other countries,” Medrano said.
The mission will not only benefit the scientific community but also the citizens of India. Professor of electrical engineering, Tim Gilmour said that many Indian children would be excited about the achievement of their country and they would be motivated to study science.
However, challenges concerning the mission are evident as India is very young in the space industry. Professor Gilmour explains that because India does not have a vast space program such as NASA, Indian engineers face greater economic and technical challenges.
Also another problem that Gilmour emphasized is that Indian Engineering should work harder with the solar panels, which are used to provide energy to the satellite.
“They need to be careful with the dust in the solar panels and make sure it works well” said Gilmour.
Jin Xu, professor of renewal energy and mechanical engineering at the University, said that another challenge that Indian engineering must face is self-motivation.
“The success of the mission would bring an excess of confidence inside the community,” said Xu.
He also emphasized that making wise use of the information received by the mission could help to improve biomedical research, logistics, material science and more. The success of the mission will improve scientists understanding of Mars.
The positive and negative opinions about the Mission are inevitable but the successful mission to the Mars’ Orbit will mark history of the space industry.
“They are in the right path to continue with their research and achieving their goals,” said Medrano.