The more the merrier? 

I read both MAVEN and MOM would be studying Mars' atmosphere from orbit which did seem redundant. What's the difference in their missions?

I also read that India was gloating a bit about beating China to Mars as a joint China-Russia effort recently failed along with its gloat about its mission costing less than the movie Gravity.

What besides proving they can compete in a new space race is the point of it?  Possibly to provide an alternative to Russia for launching commercial space missions?

Rosetta is a far more impressive space news story even if its harpoons fail to establish a zip line for Philae to explore the comet's surface. Successfully plotting and completing a ten-year intercept course boggles my mind.

In Quest To Harpoon A Comet, A Spacecraft Stalks Its Prey : The Two-Way : NPR - August 5, 2014

The Rosetta spacecraft began its journey way back in March of 2004.

First it swung past Earth to gather speed. Then it catapulted out to Mars, for a boost from that planet's gravity field. Then in 2007, it came back to Earth for another push — then back out to an asteroid, and back to Earth.

And then it traveled way out to deep space, so far out its solar panels couldn't give Rosetta enough power. Mission controllers shut its systems down and from June of 2010 it traveled silently through the darkness toward the comet.

In January, it got in back in touch with Earth.

"I was relieved; everyone was very relieved," says Matt Taylor, the Rosetta project scientist at the European Space Agency. For the past six months, the spacecraft has been putting on the brakes, easing it into the comet's orbit around the sun.

"We've had other cometary missions before — the difference now with Rosetta is, we're going to escort the comet for over a year," Taylor says. "That's going to unlock so much more information."