The paper published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) demonstrates the scope of frugal innovation: for countries that have not ventured into space or fully reaped the benefits of space activity because they are held back by notions of extreme expense, these Indian examples chart a practical way forward.
Other recent achievements by India’s space include reaching Mars orbit in 2013 for $74 million, or about one-seventh the cost of NASA’s MAVEN orbiter, while the moon landing cost $75 million – figures that challenge the assumption that meaningful space activity must begin with billion-dollar budgets.
“These examples do not imply that high-investment programmes such as Artemis or MAVEN are inefficient, nor that lower mission cost is always preferable,” says the paper. “Instead, they illustrate how frugal innovation can be effective when mission goals and risk tolerance permit. Here, ‘frugal’ refers to disciplined mission scoping, reuse of proven designs, and procurement choices that reduce cost while making risk trade-offs explicit.”
