The Mars Orbiter Mission MOM, sometimes called Mangalyaan, is Indias first mission to

Mars set for launch aboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in November 2013 for an
arrival at Mars in 2014.
The mission is a "technology demonstrator" project to develop the technologies for design,
planning, management, and operations of an interplanetary mission.
It is India's first interplanetary mission

and ISRO has become the fourth space agency to
reach Mars, after the Soviet space program, NASA, and the European Space Agency. It is also
the first nation to reach Mars orbit on its first attempt, and the first Asian nation to do so.

The MOM mission concept began with a feasibility study in 2010, after the launch of lunar
satellite Chandrayaan-1 in 2008. The government of India approved the project on 3 August
2012,after the Indian Space Research Organisation completed 125 crore (US$20 million) of
required studies for the orbiter.
.
The total project cost may be up to 454 crore
(US$74 million).The satellite costs 153 crore (US$25 million) and the rest of the budget has
been attributed to ground stations and relay upgrades that will be used for other ISRO
projects.
The space agency had planned the launch on 28 October 2013 but was postponed to 5
November 2013 following the delay in ISRO's spacecraft tracking ships to take up pre-
determined positions due to poor weather in the Pacific Ocean.Launch opportunities for a
fuel-saving Hohmann transfer orbit occur every 26 months, in this case, 2016 and 2018.The
Mars Orbiter's on-orbit mission life is six-to-ten months.
Assembly of the PSLV-XL launch vehicle, designated C25, started on 5 August 2013.
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The
mounting of the five scientific instruments was completed at ISRO Satellite Centre,
Bangalore, and the finished spacecraft was shipped to Sriharikota on 2 October 2013 for
integration to the PSLV-XL launch vehicle.The satellite's development was fast-tracked and
completed in a record 15 months.Despite the US federal government shutdown, NASA
reaffirmed on 5 October 2013 it would provide communications and navigation support to
the mission.During a meeting in 30 September 2014, NASA and ISRO officials signed an
agreement to establish a pathway for future joint missions to explore Mars. One of the
working group's objectives will be to explore potential coordinated observations and science
analysis between MAVEN orbiter and MOM, as well as other current and future Mars
missions.
The ISRO plans to send a follow-up mission with a greater scientific payload to Mars in the
20172020 timeframe; it would include an orbiter and a stationary lander.
Cost
The total cost of the mission was approximately 450 Crore (US$73 million), making it
the least-expensive Mars mission to date. The low cost of the mission was ascribed
by Kopillil Radhakrishnan, the chairman of ISRO, to various factors, including a
"modular approach", a small number of ground tests and long (18-20 hour) working
days for scientists.BBC's Jonathan Amos mentioned lower worker costs, home-
grown technologies, simpler design, and significantly less complicated payload than
NASA's MAVEN.An opinion piece in The Hindu pointed out that the cost was
equivalent to less than a single bus ride for each of India's population of 1.2 billion.