India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, known as MOM, reached Mars orbit this week, and apparently it has a mind of its own—and a sense of humor. Or someone at India’s space agency does anyway. The Next Web spotted a Twitter account for the spacecraft.
Mars orbiter gives status updates from outer space
India managed to launch its very first Mars mission without a hitch, which is pretty remarkable considering the SNAFUs other countries have had in launching their first Mars missions. Officials at India’s space agency are apparently using Twitter to not only keep the public apprised of the mission but also put a smile on the faces of those who follow the MOM spacecraft.
What is red, is a planet and is the focus of my orbit? pic.twitter.com/HDRWjOcPus
— ISRO’s Mars Orbiter (@MarsOrbiter) September 24, 2014
I’ll be back after breakfast. Good ol’ sunlight. It’s good for your battery.
— ISRO’s Mars Orbiter (@MarsOrbiter) September 24, 2014
India’s Mars orbiter also tweeted at NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover, even managing to get the folks at NASA involved in the fun. NASA’s much more expensive Mars Curiosity rover got in on the Twitter fun, tweeting an answer to MOM’s tweeted greeting:
Howdy @MarsCuriosity ? Keep in touch. I’ll be around.
— ISRO’s Mars Orbiter (@MarsOrbiter) September 24, 2014
Namaste, @MarsOrbiter! Congratulations to @ISRO and India’s first interplanetary mission upon achieving Mars orbit.
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) September 24, 2014
MOM joins NASA’s Maven
The Curiosity Rover isn’t the only spacecraft NASA put in the vicinity of Mars. The U.S. agency recently sent its MAVEN orbiter to Mars, so India’s orbiter joins MAVEN. Interestingly, NASA blew a whole lot more cash on its MAVEN orbiter. The agency sunk $671 million into the spacecraft, compared to India’s $75 million.
Looks like India may have just demonstrated how much fat there may be to trim in the U.S. government’s budget. SpaceX has been pointing out the spending problems in the U.S. Air Force for some time, questioning why the U.S. continued to work with Russia even though the commercial spaceflight company claimed it could launch rockets much less expensively.
This month NASA finally awarded spaceflight contracts to SpaceX and also The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA).
