But the biggest advantage may have been a tolerance for risk that simply wouldn’t fly in the US space programme—which launched its own $671 million Mars probe days after the Indian one.
The Indians, rather than going the traditional route of building multiple models (including a spare) took a direct, go-for-broke route and built the final probe outright, skipping the other expensive, time-consuming (but risk-averting) steps. So far, that seems like a good gamble. But even if the probe fails, the Indians can claim that at least some of their technical goals were accomplished at a relatively cheap price.
Could NASA take similar risks? It would take a big cultural shift in an institution that does things such as building a multi-billion dollar rocket system that has no planned mission except, perhaps, as a jobs programme. Likewise, speeding up development and reducing costs like the Indians may be acceptable for robotic probes, but it’s simply not going to be acceptable for human space missions where lives are at stake.