Chandrayaan-3 Less Expensive Than Previous Version: How ISRO Funds its Most Ambitious Projects

India’s ambitious Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft lifted off on Friday afternoon aboard its powerful new launch vehicle, the Mark-III or LMV3 launch vehicle, from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota. The spacecraft will likely land on the lunar surface on August 23. Despite the limited budget, ISRO produced effective missions without compromising the quality of its resources and supplies.

With this mission to the Moon, India has strengthened its position in space exploration – from the successful Mars mission to the Sun mission, Gaganyaan. As India plans major space projects in the coming years, the budget of the Ministry of Space (DoS), evaluation of space launches and the number of private players in space technology are becoming more important to fund ISRO projects.

In the current public finances, the space industry has received a smaller amount than in previous years, but funding for the space department has registered a significant rise in the past five years. The budget for the DoS was Rs.12,543 crore for FY2023-24, Rs.13,700 crore for FY2022-23, Rs.13,950 crore for FY2021-22 (the highest in the past five years), and Rs.13,480 crore. Rs for the financial year 2020-2021 and Rs 12,470 crore for the financial year 2019-20.

Spending on some of ISRO’s most important projects, such as missions to reach Mars and the Moon in the past 10 years, shows how effectively the space agency used resources to launch missions. For example, India’s first interplanetary Mars orbiter program – Mission Mangalyaan – was launched on November 5, 2013, with a budget of Rs 450 crore. It is the cheapest Mars mission in the world so far.

GSLV MkIII-M1 from Sriharikota successfully launched Chandrayaan-2 mission on 22 July 2019, at a cost of Rs 978 crore, including Rs 603 crore for orbiter, lander, navigation vehicle and ground support network and Rs 375 crore for GSLV heavy rocket with original engine cooling. Chandrayaan-3 was made on a lower budget than Chandrayaan-2, costing around ₹ 615 crore including all elements.

India will be the fourth country to land on the moon, after the United States, Russia and China. But India will be the first country to reach the moon with the lowest budget compared to the other three countries. It is estimated that the United States spent $25 billion on the moon mission – the Apollo 15 missions – which would have cost more than $100 billion now. According to a report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), China has spent $8.4 billion on its space programme, Chang’e 4 Lunar Craft and Asian Giant. Russia spent $20 billion in 1966 on an unmanned spacecraft.

How ISRO managed to spend less

• Low Labor Expenses and Infrastructure Costs: Compared to NASA and other international space agencies, ISRO has managed to control expenses by lowering the cost of hiring talent in India.
• Supply of critical materials from major private airlines at cheaper rates: Godrej Aerospace, a Mumbai-based private aerospace company, provided the core components for ISRO and made significant contributions to projects, including Chandrayaan-1, Chandrayaan-2 and Mangalyaan. For Chandrayaan-1, they provided the Vikas engine, satellite thrusters, critical parts for remote sensing, and the ground system antenna. They supplied the L110 and CE20 engines for the GSLV Mk III launcher, as well as the thrusters for the spacecraft, lander and DSN antenna components for Chandrayaan-2, which is also carried by Chandrayaan-3. “The collaboration began with the production of critical components for ISRO’s needs, and then expanded to liquid propulsion engines,” said Manik Bahrammaddin, Assistant Vice President and Head of Business, Godrej Aerospace.
• International cooperation with NASA and other space agencies: Chandrayaan-1 has been an example of international collaboration with its international payloads. It has also won numerous national and international awards and was instrumental in the joint ISRO and NASA detection of water molecules on the lunar surface, which had not been achieved by any of the previous missions of this type. Realization of a joint satellite mission called NISAR (NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) for Earth science studies. As part of the Indo-French collaboration, ISRO and CNES have completed a feasibility study on realizing an Earth observation satellite mission using an infrared thermal imager, named after Trishna. ISRO and JAXA scientists are conducting the feasibility study to realize a joint satellite mission to explore the lunar polar region,” said former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan CNN News 18 On ISRO’s upcoming cooperation with Japan, he said that it is good to have cooperation for glory as well as investment opportunities.
• trade mark: Over the past few years, ISRO has generated significant revenues through its trading business. According to information provided by Union Minister Jitendra Singh, the agency has launched missions for several private and foreign agencies, generating revenues of about Rs 288 crore between 2019 and 2021.