Data Lab | With a budget less than Hollywood's 'Interstellar', India's Chandrayaan-3 is a big success
Chandrayaan 3
The Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission, conducted by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), achieved a successful soft landing at 6:04 PM (IST) on August 23.India made a historic achievement, becoming the first country to land aspacecraft on the Moon's southern pole. This milestone comes days after a Russian probe, Luna-25, crashedin the same area onAugust 21.
Just a few hours before India's historic Chandrayaan-3's soft landing on the moon, Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO and the world's wealthiest, expressed his admiration for the project's cost-effectiveness. Responding to a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), which compared Chandrayaan-3's budget to that of the movie Interstellar, Musk stated that the mission is "good for India." The post on X highlighted that India's lunar mission budget amounted to a mere $75 million, while the creators of Interstellar had spent $165 million on the film.
ISRO has a real talent for achieving remarkable results without breaking the bank
Indeed, Chandrayaan-3's budget stands out for its frugality, a testament to the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) knack for achieving remarkable feats on a limited budget. This mission represents ISRO's third venture to the lunar surface, following the successful Chandrayaan-1 (2008), which contributed to the discovery of liquid water on the moon. However, Chandrayaan-2 (2019) faced a communication failure and ultimately crashed into the lunar surface.
Budget breakdown and global comparisons
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Reports on the day of Chandrayaan-3's launch, including one by Reuters, estimated the mission's budget at just under $75 million, roughly equivalent to ₹615 crore. Furthermore, an ANI report provided more specific details, indicating that the approved cost of Chandrayaan-3 was ₹250 crore (around $31 million), excluding launch vehicle expenses.
ISRO's impressive cost-efficiency in space exploration is strikingly evident when compared to other space agencies worldwide. In 2022, India's space programme budget ranked seventh globally, with government spending totalling $1.93 billion. Even in lunar missions, Chandrayaan-3's budget remains notably lower than its counterparts. For instance, Russia's Luna-25, which tragically crashed on the moon shortly before Chandrayaan-3's successful mission, reportedly had a budget ranging between $190-200 million.
NASA, the United States' space agency, is projected to allocate as much as $93 billion for its Artemis moon exploration programme by 2025.
Also read |‘India is on the moon’: ISRO chief S Somanath celebrates Chandrayaan-3's triumph on lunar landing
Despite limited resources, ISRO has cultivated an illustrious track record in space exploration. To date, the space agency has executed 124 spacecraft missions and 93launch missions.
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