ISRO's Mare Orbiter Mission - Mangalyaan's scintillating success was recognized across the globe as a feat in itself. Now the ISRO Mars Mission team gets another international recognition in the form of National Space Society's 2015 Space Pioneer Award in the science and engineering category.

This award will be presented to an ISRO representative during the National Space Society’s 2015 International Space Development Conference the 34th ISDC, to be held in Toronto, Canada, at the Hyatt Regency Toronto (downtown). The Conference will run from May 20-24, 2015.

The Space Pioneer Award consists of a silvery pewter Moon globe cast by the Baker Art Foundry in Placerville, California, from a sculpture originally created by Don Davis, the well-known space and astronomical artist. The globe, as shown at left, which represents multiple space mission destinations and goals, sits freely on a brass support with a wooden base and brass plaque, which are created by Michael Hall’s Studio Foundry of Driftwood, TX. NSS has several different categories under which the award is presented each year, starting in 1988.

About the National Space Society:

The National Space Society (NSS) is an independent, educational, grassroots, non-profit organization dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring civilization. Founded as the National Space Institute (1974) and L5 Society (1975), which merged to form NSS in 1987, NSS is widely acknowledged as the preeminent citizen’s voice on space. NSS has over 12 thousand members (and more supporters) and over 50 chapters in the United States and around the world. The society also publishes Ad Astra magazine, an award-winning periodical chronicling the most important developments in space.

In Brief on India's Mars Mission:

Mars Orbiter Spacecraft captures its first image of Mars. Taken from a height of 7300 km; with 376 m spatial resolution.

Taken using the Mars Color Camera from an altitude of 8449 km, this image has a spatial resolution of 439 m and is centered around Lat: 20.01N, Lon:31.54E

Regional dust storm activities over Northern Hemisphere of Mars - captured by Mars Color Camera on-board Mars Orbiter Spacecraft from altitude of 74500 km on Sep 28, 2014

First image of the Earth by Mars Color Camera (MCC) of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft taken on Nov 19, 2013 at 13:50 hrs (IST) from 67975 km altitude with a resolution of 3.53 km

THY IMAGES SPEAK THY SUCCESS - INDIA'S MANGALYAAN

The mission was launched on Nov 5, 2013 and went into Mars orbit on Sept 24, 2014. This mission has achieved two significant mission firsts. (1) An Indian spacecraft has gone into orbit around Mars on the very first try (on Sept 24, 2014). No other country has ever done this. (2) The spacecraft is in an elliptical orbit with a high apoapsis, and has a high resolution camera which is taking full-disk color imagery of Mars. Very few full disk images have ever been taken in the past, mostly on approach to the planet, as most imaging is done looking straight down in mapping mode. These images will aid planetary scientists. The Mars Orbiter programme team located in Bangalore, India, is headed by Dr. Mylswamy Annadurai.

The most significant feature of this mission is the price tag at Rs 450 Crores - which our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi quips to be cheaper than Auto Richksaw Fare (per KM basis) in most of the Cities.