Mangalyaan has been named among the best inventions of 2014 by Time
magazine which described it as a technological feat that will allow
India to flex its "interplanetary muscles."
"Nobody gets Mars right on
the first try. The US didn't, Russia didn't, the Europeans didn't. But
on September 24, India did. That's when the Mangalyaan... went into
orbit around the Red Planet, a technological feat no other Asian nation
has yet achieved," Time said about Mangalyaan, calling it "The
Supersmart Spacecraft."
Mangalyaan is among the 25 'Best
Inventions of 2014' listed by Time magazine that are "making the world
better, smarter and-in some cases-a little more fun."
Developed by
the Indian Space Research Organisation, the Mars spacecraft cost India
just US $74 million (roughly Rs. 457 crores), less than the budget for the multi-Academy Award
winning science fiction thriller film Gravity. Time said at that price,
the Mangalyaan is equipped with just five onboard instruments that allow
it to do simple tasks like measure Martian methane and surface
composition.
"More important, however, it allows India to flex its
interplanetary muscles, which portends great things for the country's
space programme and for science in general," Time said.
The list
also includes inventions by two Indians for developing an exercise space
for prisoners in solitary confinement and a tablet toy for kids.
Nalini
Nadkarni, forest ecologist and college professor helped develop the
'Blue Room' with Snake River Correctional Institution in Oregon for
inmates in solitary confinement, who for 23 hours a day see nothing but a
tiny, white-walled cell, an experience some research suggests heightens
mental illness and makes prisoners prone to suicide attempts and
violence.
Last year, officials began letting some of them spend their free hour in a first-of-its-kind Blue Room, an exercise space
where a projector plays video of open deserts, streaming waterfalls and
other outdoor scenes. Nadkarni says the imagery is designed to calm
prisoners, "much in the way we walk through a park" to relax.
Former
Google engineer Pramod Sharma developed 'Osmo', a tablet toy that gets
physical. Sharma got the inspiration when he saw his daughter playing
with the iPad, but did not want her to be glued to the tablet all day
long.
The toy, which debuted in October, has helped Osmo raise US $14.5 million (roughly Rs. 89 crores) in capital and is now being sold in the Apple Store.
The other inventions are a reactor developed by aerospace company Lockheed Martin that could realize nuclear fusion,
Apple's
smartwatch that besides telling time, can send messages, give
directions, track fitness and make wireless payments and Microsoft's
Surface Pro 3, a "hybrid" that bundles laptop into a 12-inch tablet and
can run desktop apps.
ISRO and IIT Madras Unveil Research Centre for Space Thermal Sciences26 March 2025
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