"An engineer is someone who can do for $1 what any damn fool can do for $2".
India has a ton of great scientists and engineers, and I agree this is a mission the nation should be proud of.
What's more the moon mission(Chandrayaan-1 http://www.isro.org/chandrayaan/htmls/faqs.htm) cost just $76 million.
Its sequel Chandrayaan-2 is budgeted to cost around 425 crores(News sources).
Here is one more link, ISRO's total budget is JUST 3% that of NASA - http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-03-03/india...
Next time around you will be hearing US government outsourcing its space projects to India :) [That was a joke, obviously]
I don't think the first man on Mars will want to go down in history as an American, personally. At least, if that is how it is pitched and sold - s/American/Indian/g - then I have to say that I am terrified of the sudden lurch of the species towards a planet of immense resources, bereft of any intervention of industry besides .. simply .. the technology to get there and do stuff.
It may be a sense of great national pride, but for no great pride ought this matter of human control over another planet be achieved!
Send Robots to Mars, not Men! Turn over the keys to the enter species, not one single brand/variant of it!
And
For those wondering what benefit this can possibly serve.
There is no cold war like situation here in India. Also US and Russia have already been there. There is also a huge problem of poverty, corruption and every other social evil known to man exists in India. So why go to mars?
For a country of India's size, you will never ever go to space if you wait till all other problems are solved. Because given the very size and population of India, problems are a given. Of course a mission of this importance will serve your usual technology and science benefits. Like ISRO's previous mission to moon, there will be important findings and discoveries. But besides this, its a matter of huge national pride.
Contrary to whatever you may think a lot of development and great work happens in India. So its not like we only have call centers, or IT services companies here. We have everything from Nuclear weapons development to Mars missions in India. And like every other country we would like to send out a message that we can do it too.
Sounds naive and childish?
No, if you think from an Indian's perspective. I find this project a worthy endeavor in many ways because it serves more than one purpose. Growth of technology and science, inspiring the youth to work further in this area, ensure India earns well deserved respect in the global space research community and also pave the for further space exploration.
Coming to budget, 454 crore spent for a project of this importance is chicken feed if you ask me. Besides if you can prevent one minor scam in our country you can run a project like this.
Overall I feel this is an amazing project, and I feel proud that my country is executing it.