Despite India’s modest achievements, India’s Mars rover mission is one of the most remarkable in the era of modern spaceflight. Launched in 2013, it was the first Mars mission built by an Asian nation to achieve orbit around the Red Planet – only the United States, the Soviet Union and the European Space Agency have done so before.

And perhaps most importantly, India has shown that a powerful and capable spacecraft can be developed on Mars on a shoestring budget. Instead of costing hundreds of millions of dollars, the Mars mission was only developed for around $25 million, through a process Indian officials describe it In the name of “Economic Engineering”.

But all good things must come to an end, and this weekend India’s space agency, ISRO, declared the mission “irreversible”. The update comes after a day-long meeting to discuss the spacecraft and the possibility of saving it after contact with the rover was lost in April during a long eclipse as Mars moved between orbit and the sun.

“During the national meeting, ISRO explained that the thrust was definitely exhausted and therefore the desired position for sustainable energy production could not be achieved,” the space agency said. He said in an update released on Monday. “The spacecraft has been declared irreversible and has reached the end of its life. This mission will be considered an outstanding technical and scientific achievement in the history of planetary exploration.”

The probe definitely exceeds expectations. Originally designed for six months, it brought data back to Earth for almost eight years.

Among its scientific contributions is a plain image of the entire disk of Mars, in color, due to the spacecraft’s elliptical orbit. Most spacecraft orbiting Mars spend their time relatively close to the planet, looking directly at the surface. The Mars Orbiter mission also provides valuable data on Mars’ thin atmosphere and observed dust storms. Indian officials say more than 7,200 users have registered to download data collected by the mission for free.

During the meeting, scientists and engineers discussed the challenges of surviving a long eclipse period of up to seven hours. Much of the propellant aboard the spacecraft five years ago had to be spent repositioning the vehicle to survive this eclipse and ensure enough sunlight reached the solar panels.

After the success of the Mars Orbiter mission, India has allocated more resources to lunar and Mars missions. The country is planning several missions to the lunar surface, with the ultimate goal of returning samples. Another rover is planned around Mars in the next few years, followed by a rover in the second half of the 2020s.