Indian space agency scientists had set out on a one of a kind mission to design the Chandrayaan-3. This was their last chance to show their capability and create history with a landing on the unchartered lunar south pole after the first attempt that was four years prior.
They had to recreate this mission on a meagre budget and ended up spending only Rs. 6.15 billion on the mission. Right from cutting down their costs on rockets to developing a built-in-India supply base, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) success with the Chandrayaan-3 moon landing shows how it had formulated a system of doing an infinite amount of work for less according to the officials, suppliers and analysts. ISRO’s time and tested record for low budget creative innovations would be further tested by upcoming missions, including a project to study the sun set to launch next month and a plan to put astronauts in orbit. India’s government has already allocated the equivalent of $1.66 billion (nearly Rs. 13,700 crore) for the department of space for the fiscal year ending in March, it spent around 25 percent less. The final budget for this fiscal year is $1.52 billion (nearly Rs. 12,560 crore. No one in the world can do it like we do,” said S Somanath, ISRO chairman and a veteran aerospace engineer, who was celebrating Chandrayaan’s successful touchdown on Wednesday
A great example of how ISRO contained all the costs on Chandrayaan-3: it decided to choose a long route to the moon therefore allowing it to use less powerful , less energy consuming ,cheaper – propulsion systems. Chandrayaan-3 took more than the set 40 days to finally land on the moon, gliding through widening orbits to use the Earth’s gravitational force akin to a slingshot.
