DNA Explainer: Difference between NASA's Perseverance and ISRO's Mangalyaan

India's Mars Orbiter Mission also called Mangalyaan succeeded at the first attempt where many others failed. ISRO's Mangalyaan satellite was successfully sent to orbit. This mission that took place in 2014 was budgeted at 4.5 billion rupees or USD 74 million which, by Western standards, is staggeringly cheap.

The same year, the American Maven orbiter which arrived at the Red Planet cost almost 10 times as much.

So how did India do it?

India has been careful to do things simply says Britain's Prof Andrew Coates who was the principal investigator on Europe's Mars rover in 2018.

India has been smart in targeting some really important areas that will complement what others are doing, said Prof Andrew Coates.

The people costs are less in India and the scientists and engineers working on any space mission are always the largest part of the ticket price.

Home-grown components and technologies have also been prioritised over expensive foreign imports.

So, even though Mangalyaan had a small payload, it actually addressed some of the biggest questions at the Red Planet.

Perseverance mission cost

NASA's Perseverance spacecraft itself costs USD 2.2 billion while launch services for the Atlas V rocket came to USD 243 million. 

The mission is expected to cost USD 2.7 billion, rising to USD 2.9 billion when inflation is factored in.

Two years of prime mission operations are expected to cost a further USD 200 million.

Mangalyaan mission objective

Mangalyaan went equipped with an instrument that will try to measure methane in the atmosphere.

This is one of the hottest topics in Mars research right now, following previous, tantalising observations of the gas.

Earth's atmosphere contains billions of tonnes of methane, the vast majority of it coming from microbes such as organisms.

Some methane-producing bugs, or methanogens, could exist on Mars if they lived underground, away from harsh surface conditions.

This enables researchers to better understand how the planet lost the bulk of its atmosphere billions of years ago.

It also helped in determining what sort of climate Mars could once have had, and whether or not it was conducive to life.

Perseverance's mission objective

A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life.

The rover characterizes the planet's geology and past climate, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet.

Perseverance's Mars mission is also the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.

NASA missions send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission was part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach.

It included Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for the first human exploration mission to the Red Planet.

About ISRO's spacecraft

The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan is a space probe orbiting Mars since September 24, 2014.

The lift-off mass was 1,337.2 kg (2,948 lb), including 852 kg (1,878 lb) of propellant.

The spacecraft bus is a modified I-1 K structure and propulsion hardware configuration, similar to Chandrayaan-1, India's lunar orbiter.

The satellite structure is constructed of an aluminum and composite fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) sandwich construction.

Electric power is generated by three solar array panels for a maximum of 840 watts of power generation in Mars orbit.

Electricity is stored in a 36 Ah Lithium-ion battery.

About NASA's spacecraft

The NASA mission includes Perseverance, a 2,200-pound rover, and Ingenuity, an experimental Mars helicopter.

Perseverance is a robotic six-wheeled car-size vehicle designed to look for signs of past life on Mars.

Perseverance carries a couple of devices that are more fun than scientific including an experimental helicopter.

Perseverance rover carries cameras to record various views as the spacecraft zooms through the atmosphere.

Perseverance has two microphones to record the first-ever sounds from Mars as the rover lands and performs some of its duties. 

It has two Raman spectrometers - science instruments that shine ultraviolet light on a rock or soil patch.

It then reads the reflected light signature to determine what chemical compounds are present.