Efficiency of India’s low-cost space missions lauded by Cambridge Judge

The paper published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) demonstrates the scope of frugal innovation: for countries that have not ventured into space or fully reaped the benefits of space activity because they are held back by notions of extreme expense, Indian examples chart a practical way ahead, according to Cambridge Judge.

Other recent achievements by India’s space aces include reaching Mars orbit in 2013 for $74 million, or about one-seventh the cost of NASA’s MAVEN orbiter, while the moon landing cost $75 million – figures that challenge the assumption that meaningful space activity must begin with billion-dollar budgets.

“These examples do not imply that high-investment programmes such as Artemis or MAVEN are inefficient, nor that lower mission cost is always preferable,” says the paper.

“Instead, they illustrate how frugal innovation can be effective when mission goals and risk tolerance permit. Here, ‘frugal’ refers to disciplined mission scoping, reuse of proven designs, and procurement choices that reduce cost while making risk trade-offs explicit.”

For countries that have not ventured into space or fully reaped the benefits of space activity because they are held back by notions of extreme expense, these Indian examples chart a practical way forward.

The study in PNAS is co-authored by Luisa Corrado of the University of Rome, who is a Visiting Fellow in the Economics and Policy subject group at Cambridge Judge Business School; Soniya Gupta-Rawal, a PhD candidate in the Marketing subject group at Cambridge Judge; Paul Kattuman, Professor of Economics at Cambridge Judge; and Jaideep Prabhu, Professor of Marketing at Cambridge Judge.

Cambridge Judge Business School has been a pioneer in research on frugal innovation, in India and the West, including a recent focus on Frugal AI through a Frugal AI hub launched at the Centre for India and Global Business at Cambridge Judge.

“Frugal space missions do not replace flagships; they widen access and complement them,” the study concludes. “International bodies and space agencies, including UNCOPUOS (the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space), should embed scope discipline, reuse, and fit-for-purpose assurance into mission selection and procurement frameworks to support sustainable and inclusive space activity.”