India reaches the Red Planet! So why is Britain giving £1BILLION in aid to a nation that can afford a mission to Mars?
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Britain's aid funding came under fire again last night after an Indian spaceship reached Mars.
The country, which is receiving £1.1billion from Britain over four years, entered an elite club of nations to have put a craft into orbit round the Red Planet.
India spends vast sums on defence and even has its own overseas aid programme worth £328million a year.
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Thumbs up: India's low-cost mission to Mars successfully entered the red planet's orbit on this morning. Pictured are Indian staff from the Indian Space Research Organisation celebrating the success of the mission
But despite rapid economic development, it became the biggest net recipient of British aid in 2010 when it received £421million.
Britain's overall aid spending will rise by 30 per cent this year as David Cameron hits his target of 0.7 per cent of economic output.
Spending on areas such as policing, prisons and defence have been slashed in recent years as part of efforts to cut Britain's £90billion annual budget deficit.
Big spenders: A comparison of how much countries have spent on their attempts to reach Mars. Both Russia and the US failed their first attempts to Mars, while the Chinese mission to Mars, dubbed Yinghuo-1 mission failed in 2011 and the Japanese mission to Mars ran out of fuel
Race to the red planet: The Mangalyaan spacecraft (artist's impression pictured) successfully entered orbit around Mars this morning, making India the first Asian nation to reach the red planet
Jubilant: Indian PM Narendra Modi is seen on a screen as he addresses scientists alongside a graphic of the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, after the spacecraft successfully entered into the Mars orbit, at the Indian Space Research Organisation's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bangalore on Wednesday
This graphic reveals the trajectory and plans for India's Mars Orbiter Mission. ISRO successfully ignited the main 440 Newton liquid engineand eight small thrusters that fired for 24 minutes and trimmedthe speed of the craft to allow smooth orbit insertion under Mars' shadow
MARS-VELLOUS FACTS
On average, it lies 141.6 million miles from the sun.
With a diameter of 4,222 miles, it's around half the size of the Earth and has an average temperature of -85F (-65C).
Gravity is much less powerful - slightly less than 40 per cent of ours.
The atmosphere is desperately thin – one per cent of Earth's pressure – and 95 per cent of it is carbon dioxide.
It boasts the solar system's biggest mountain – Olympus Mons, a dead volcano.
It measures 335 miles across and rises to a height of 88,000ft, which is almost three times higher than Everest.Mars has two cosmic sidekicks – the moons Deimos and Phobos.
Mars's red colouring comes from the iron oxide that coats its surface.
Mars has huge amounts of ice at its polar caps.If they melted, it would cover the whole planet in water 11-metres deep, according to Nasa.
But aid spending is spiralling and this year will reach £12.6billion a year – more than the £12.1billion spent on policing.
In 2012 International Development Secretary Justine Greening announced that Britain will stop aid to India after this parliament.
The spacecraft – Mangalyaan, which means 'Mars craft' in Hindi – blasted off from a small Indian island on November 4 last year.
It arrived on schedule yesterday after a 485million-mile journey. The £45million project will see the satellite search for methane gas in the planet's geology and atmosphere.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: 'We have gone beyond the boundaries of human enterprise and innovation. We have navigated our craft through a route known to very few.' But critics questioned why India spends so much on a space programme when so many of its people live in poverty. One economist condemned the space mission as a 'delusional quest for superpower status' at a time when half of Indian children are malnourished.
A poll last year found just one in four people supports Britain spending billions of pounds on foreign aid every year – and more than 60 per cent believe the cash is wasted. Jonathan Isaby, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'If India can afford this pioneering project then it is hard to justify sending a single penny of taxpayers' cash in overseas aid when they could be doing more to help themselves.'
A spokesman for the Department for International Development said: 'Not a penny of British taxpayers' aid money has gone on India's space programme.
'India's recent progress means that all financial grants from the UK to India will cease in 2015, after which we will focus on providing help in the form of private sector expertise and technical assistance that will also ultimately benefit British businesses and jobs.'
Tory backbenchers have urged Mr Cameron to abandon his aid target. But earlier this month, Downing Street backed a Lib Dem Bill which would enshrine the pledge in law.
Nasa's Curiosity Rover Twitter account tweeted a congratulations message to ISRO's Mars Orbiter, to which it replied 'Keep in touch. I'll be around'
Vigilant: Indian scientists and engineers from the Indian Space Research Organisation monitor India's Mars Orbiter Mission
Keen minds: Indian scientists and engineers of Indian Space Research Organization look at a model of the Mars Orbiter Mission at the tracking centre in Bangalore
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June endorsed the low-cost of the project, saying it cost even less than the budget 'Gravity' (pictured). The Hollywood blockbuster cost about $100 million to make
Having a blast: A rocket carrying the Indian Mars orbiter taking off from the east-coast island of Sriharikota, India, on November 5, 2013
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