Compare ISRO with NASA

*Anjan Karjigi*
How One Can Compare ISRO with NASA as ISRO Is Growing Faster Than NASA ?

Let me ask you all one thing why we compare Our ISRO with NASA all the time?

Let me clear this first.

ISRO’s budget is 1.8 billion USD in 2019 (highest in history).
NASA’s budget in 21.5 billion USD in 2019 (Which is way lower than their highest in history- in time of Cold war space race). American space lovers often say that it’s a severe budget crunch.

[Although it should be adjusted to purchasing power parity and ISRO does things very economically but the difference should still be very big]

ISRO’s primary motto was using space technology for national betterment. Except in recent past, ISRO has never given much importance to planetary exploration.
NASA’s primary purpose was planetary exploration. USA has spent hundreds of billions of dollar in NASA for space exploration.

ISRO was born in a filthy poor India.
NASA was born in a superpower USA.

Why people are comparing ISRO and NASA without thinking about all these? ISRO has NOT become more successful than NASA. NO ONE has become more successful than NASA. NASA is the most successful space agency in the world by a big margin and will remain so in the foreseeable future.

Please don’t get me wrong. ISRO is one of the top 5 space agencies in the world excluding NASA and is making many firsts now-a-days. Rest 4 (Russia, China, Japan, Europe) are also very competitive and are also doing big projects so surpassing them will not be easy. Still, with planned missions, ISRO can become one of top 4 in next 10–15 years although such ranking and competition don’t exist in real world of space science. These are childish things to do.

Why NASA is considered the best?

Just look at their achievements: [showing the successful missions]

Unmanned:

Moon:

Ranger 7, 8, 9 (Impactors)

Lunar orbiter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (Orbitors)

Surveyor 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 (Soft landers)

Explorer 49 (Orbiter)

Clementine (Orbiter)

Lunar Prospector (orbiter)

Artemis P1 and P2 (orbiters)

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

LCROSS (Impactor)

GRAIL A and B (Orbiters)

LADEE (Orbiter)

Mars:

Mariner 4 (Fly by)

Mariner 6, 7 (fly by)

Mariner 9 (Orbiter)

Viking 1, 2 (Orbiter+Lander, Orbiter+Lander)

Mars Global Surveyor (Orbiter)

Pathfinder (Lander)

Sojourner (Rover)

Mard Odessey (Orbiter)

Spirit (Rover)

Opportunity (Rover)

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Phoenix (Lander)

Curiosity (Rover)

MAVEN (Orbiter)

MarCo (Flyby)

InSight (Lander)

Mercury:

Mariner 10 (observed Mercury while orbiting Sun)

Messenger (Orbiter)

Venus:

Mariner 2, 5, 10 (Flyby)

 

 

Pioneer Venus Orbiter

Pioneer Venus 2 Multiprobe (5 spacecrafts together, atmospheric entry)

Magellan (Orbiter)

Jupiter:

Pioneer 10, 11 (Flyby)

Voyager 1, 2 (Flyby)

Galileo (Orbiter, Atmospheric, some other objects including asteroids also)

Juno (Orbiter)

Saturn:

Pioneer 11 (Flyby)

Cassini-Huygens (Orbiter, studied Saturn, its ring system, several Moons, Huygens landed on Saturn Moon Titan)

 

Uranus, Neptune, Interstellar space:

Pioneer 10, 11 (Interstellar space)

Voyager 2 (Uranus, Neptune, Interstellar space)

 

 

Pluto, Kuiper belt

New Horizons (Pluto, its Moons, Kuiper belt object Ultima Thule)

Asteroid belt:

Dawn (protoplanet Vesta, Ceres)

OSIRIS-REx (asteroid 101955 Bennu)

Comet:

ICE (comet Giacobini-Zinner)

Deep Space 1 (comet Borrelly, flyby)

Deep Impact (comet temple 1 study, impactor, comet Hartley flyby)

Stardust (comet Wild 2, comet temple 1, Asteroid Annefrank, Sample return from Wild 2 and cosmic dust)

Sun:

Genesis (sample return)

SOHO

STEREO A and B

SDO

Parker

Human:

NASA has successfully launched over 200 crewed flights

Some notable ones are:

Mercury program (first human spaceflight for USA)

Gemini program (missions to practice space rendezvous and Extravehicular activity)

Apollo (Human missions to Moon)

 

Space shuttle (first human-rated vehicle which was partially re-usable)

Space stations:

Skylab:

International Space Station:

Space telescopes:

NASA has launched over 50 space telescopes. Few notables are:

Hubble

Chandra

Spitzer

Swift

Fermi

WISE

Kepler

NuSTAR

IRIS

TESS

etc.

NASA (and USA) has developed the most powerful rockets in history including Saturn V.

 

NASA has Deep Space Network covering entire sky.

 

NASA is first to develop GPS.

I am tired so I am not including numerous spacecrafts NASA has launched to study Earth. You can get the names here: List of NASA missions - Wikipedia

So I think the reader gets a feel why NASA is considered the best space agency in the world.

I am very very happy that our beloved ISRO has come a long way to become self-sufficient, become one of the top space agencies in the world and are now collaborating with the giant NASA. Such collaborations are very fruitful for both agencies and also for the mankind.

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