Head-to-head

Mangalyaan vs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) arrived at Mars on 10 March 2006, giving it over eight-years more experience than Mangalyaan. It arguably has a more impressive instrumental suite than the Indian spacecraft.

MRO carries six scientific instruments, having one more than Mangalyaan, but it is the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera which has continued to provide spectacular highresolution images of the Martian surface.

Although MRO seems to be better in terms of quality, Mangalyaan is significantly cheaper, being roughly ten-times less expensive than the MRO.