RAS question
Mangalyaan (Mars Orbiter Mission) cost approximately:
Correct answer: (C) $74 million.
Mangalyaan, ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission, cost approximately Rupees 450 crore, or about $74 million.
Explanation
Mangalyaan, officially the Mars Orbiter Mission, was India's first interplanetary mission to Mars. ISRO's mission page records that India realised this complex Mars mission in its first attempt in a cost-effective Rupees 450 crore, approximately $74 million. That is why option C is the only figure aligned with the official cost. MOM is often contrasted with NASA's MAVEN and the film Gravity to underline the exam point: Mangalyaan is remembered not only as a Mars mission, but as evidence of ISRO's cost-effective approach to space exploration.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) $500 million is far above the MOM cost of about $74 million and does not match ISRO's Rupees 450 crore figure.
- (B) $200 million still exceeds the approximate MOM budget, so it overstates the mission's cost.
- (D) $750 million is not the MOM cost; it is far above the Rupees 450 crore, about $74 million, figure supported for Mangalyaan.
Concept
This tests Indian space technology, especially ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission and its cost-effective mission model. RAS repeats such facts because space missions combine science, national institutions and achievement-based current affairs.