Following in the footsteps of the Mars Curiosity rover, India's Mars orbiter, Mangalyaan, has joined Twitter and is now tweeting updates and photos from the red planet.
India made history this week by not only becoming the fourth country to successfully enter Mars' orbit, but the first country to do it successfully on its first attempt.
So, obviously, the spacecraft's first tweet was:
What is red, is a planet and is the focus of my orbit? pic.twitter.com/HDRWjOcPus
— ISRO's Mars Orbiter (@MarsOrbiter) September 24, 2014
Soon after entering orbit, Mangalyaan quickly got to work and started snapping photos of the red planet, the first images of its mission. Calling the view "nice," the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) tweeted the photos, which feature a close-up shot of the planet's surface, as well as an image of Mars' atmosphere.
The world cheered for Mangalyaan when it successfully entered orbit around Mars on September 23 after a 24-minute engine burn that slowed the spacecraft down and maneuvered it into orbit.
Getting into Mars' orbit is no small feat. Only about half of all Mars missions actually make it to the planet. Even China, one of India's neighboring countries, failed to send a spacecraft to Mars in 2011. That mission never made it past Earth's orbit.
"We have gone beyond the boundaries of human enterprise and innovation," says India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "We have navigated our craft through a route known to very few," Modi said, congratulating the scientists and "all my fellow Indians on this historic occasion."
Most impressively, Mangalyaan's mission cost about $74 million, much less than the cost of Hollywood blockbuster film "Gravity" and far less than NASA's MAVEN, which cost $672 million.
Mangalyaan's six-month mission includes using its scientific instruments to collect data about Mars' weather systems, as well as study its atmosphere. It will also search for methane, a key component for life on Earth. Scientists hope the data will unveil more about the mysteries of planet formation and habitability.
Mangalyaan joins three other spacecraft also orbiting Mars: NASA's Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance and MAVEN, as well as the European Space Agency's Mars Express. On the ground, NASA's rovers, Opportunity and Curiosity, are studying the planet's surface.
