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Report just in that the Indian Mars Orbiter has successfully test-fired its engine and has entered the Martian gravitational sphere of influence: http://www.isro.org/mars/updat... http://indianexpress.com/artic...

Will it have time/fuel to "duck and cover" by getting to the far side of the planet before the close approach of the comet and the potential of a cometary dust storm that could wreck it?

While this is a non-zero probability event, it is a low probability event. I doubt that the mission planners are particularly worried about it.

Maybe if there's a mission-compatible way of sequencing things that will reduce this low probability even further, at little cost (which is what Hubble did during a predicted Leonid meteor shower ; but the Hubble Deep Field South was already planned, and the only real change was when the exposures were scheduled. Which by coincidence pointed the HST away from the radiant of the meteor shower.)

Incidentally I note that the mission is being monitored by the Indian Deep Space Network. Which either operates for a few hours a day (per mission, depending on direction to the spacecraft), or indicates that India has done some significant multi-national diplomacy to get their ground stations into a number of countries.

LMGTFY. There's a Wiki page that says it's one site near Bangalore. And that mentions the use of steerable antennae to " improve[s] the visibility duration". But this site says there are a number of other tracking sites. "ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) [...] has a network of ground stations at Bangalore, Lucknow, Sriharikota, Port Blair and Thiruvananthapuram in India besides stations at Mauritius, Bearslake (Russia), Brunei and Biak (Indonesia). " So, maybe several different organisations, with overlapping missions and facilities. Like Topsy, it's probably something that "just growed".

The ISRO Mars orbiter was in an eliptical orbit of Earth and a burn at the lower (close to Earth) end of that orbit injected it into a heliocentric transfer orbit. The spacecraft has more kinetic+potential energy now than it did before the burn.

http://www.isro.org/mars/mission-profile.aspx (they just completed step 1)

Also on the PSLV-C20 launch are the Canadian military satellite SAPPHIRE, and the twin spacecraft BRITE-Austria and UniBRITE, developed in Canada for TU Graz and University of Vienna respectively. ISRO put out a pretty good brochure describing the launch.

You can find some good photos of the stacking and launch vehicle integration here, here, and here. You can watch the launch live on Monday morning here.

Needless to say, we're all pretty stoked around here ^__^

Also on the PSLV-C20 launch are the Canadian military satellite SAPPHIRE, and the twin spacecraft BRITE-Austria and UniBRITE, developed in Canada for TU Graz and University of Vienna respectively. ISRO put out a pretty good brochure describing the launch.

You can find some good photos of the stacking and launch vehicle integration here, here, and here. You can watch the launch live on Monday morning here.

Needless to say, we're all pretty stoked around here ^__^

Also on the PSLV-C20 launch are the Canadian military satellite SAPPHIRE, and the twin spacecraft BRITE-Austria and UniBRITE, developed in Canada for TU Graz and University of Vienna respectively. ISRO put out a pretty good brochure describing the launch.

You can find some good photos of the stacking and launch vehicle integration here, here, and here. You can watch the launch live on Monday morning here.

Needless to say, we're all pretty stoked around here ^__^

I'm an Indian and will try to answer this without any jingoism.
a. Yes there have been cost over-runs. And these usually happen when in environments that are laid back and with high bureaucracy. And we have enough and more of these.
b. ISRO http://www.isro.org/ has usually been pretty much on the ball. Our launch to success ratio has been pretty high. We're now pretty much self sufficient in terms of satellites etc., These have been extraordinarily helpful in managing agriculture, forestry, border monitoring etc., It is high time we also started adding value to the world. Chandrayan 1 was a step in that direction. I know the Mars shot has been in the works for a long time.
c. Yes I think the costs will be low. Antrix Corp. http://www.antrix.gov.in/ is ISRO's commercial branch. It offers satellite launch services at much much lower price points as compared to others like Ariane Space etc.,

3 out of 7: http://www.isro.org/launchvehicles/gslv/gslv.aspx

No. They had an earlier malfunction which was corrected by pulling the satellite up from a lower orbit. They were flying fine at 100 Km altitude earlier, and they moved it up to 200 km to be safe. They were actively studying gravitational perturbations of the surface, so it is unlikely that they did not plan for such an eventuality.
The Official press release seems to indicate that it was a communications failure this time. The contact was lost abruptly this time. If it was falling I would assume that there would be a good quarter an hour before losing control at 200Km and slamming into the ground.

No. They had an earlier malfunction which was corrected by pulling the satellite up from a lower orbit. They were flying fine at 100 Km altitude earlier, and they moved it up to 200 km to be safe. They were actively studying gravitational perturbations of the surface, so it is unlikely that they did not plan for such an eventuality.
The Official press release seems to indicate that it was a communications failure this time. The contact was lost abruptly this time. If it was falling I would assume that there would be a good quarter an hour before losing control at 200Km and slamming into the ground.

There's an interesting (for many reasons) video on the Chandrayaan site:

http://www.isro.org/chandrayaan/htmls/resources_videoCrater.htm

In it, they allude to India as having the second highest number of scientists in the world.

Overall, a successful mission, given the difficulty and chance of failure (Item 20 in their FAQ):

http://www.isro.org/chandrayaan/htmls/faqs.htm

There's an interesting (for many reasons) video on the Chandrayaan site:

http://www.isro.org/chandrayaan/htmls/resources_videoCrater.htm

In it, they allude to India as having the second highest number of scientists in the world.

Overall, a successful mission, given the difficulty and chance of failure (Item 20 in their FAQ):

http://www.isro.org/chandrayaan/htmls/faqs.htm

And then there are other countries which might be doing achieving much cheaper and much more efficiently http://www.isro.org/chandrayaan-1/announcement.htm

http://www.isro.org/pslv-c11/photos/moon_images.htm

Found these... thought they might be of interest.

ISRO Press Release
http://www.isro.org/pressrelease/Nov14_2008.htm

Pictures fro Chandrayaan Moon Impact Probe
http://www.isro.org/pslv-c11/photos/moon_images.htm

The Hindu Article (with diagrams of ISRO Chandrayaan probe)
http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/15/stories/2008111550580100.htm

I'd be curious to know how what percentage of their staff are PR guys (probably way less than NASA), rather than engineers etc...

Found these... thought they might be of interest.

ISRO Press Release
http://www.isro.org/pressrelease/Nov14_2008.htm

Pictures fro Chandrayaan Moon Impact Probe
http://www.isro.org/pslv-c11/photos/moon_images.htm

The Hindu Article (with diagrams of ISRO Chandrayaan probe)
http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/15/stories/2008111550580100.htm

I'd be curious to know how what percentage of their staff are PR guys (probably way less than NASA), rather than engineers etc...

Here are the first images from MIP.. Image 1 Image 2

Here are the first images from MIP.. Image 1 Image 2

Chandrayaan-1 is an orbiter that will be in operation for some time. The Moon Impact Probe just rode along. One purpose for the impactor was to serve as part of a dress rehearsal for a later soft landing mission. From the source announcement: "Weighing 34 kg at the time of its launch onboard Chandrayaan-1, the box shaped MIP carried three instruments â" a video imaging system, a radar altimeter and a mass spectrometer. The video imaging system was intended to take the pictures of the moonâ(TM)s surface as MIP approached it. The radar altimeter was included to measure the rate of descent of the probe to the lunar surface. Such instruments are necessary for future lunar soft landing missions. And, the mass spectrometer was for studying the extremely thin lunar atmosphere."

The size of the craft, at over 1300 kg, is a big honking'* thing.

Yes!, it is, and for a reason. It's carrying the largest number of payloads ever carried by a lunar mission - 11.

5 (TMC, HySI, LLRI, HEX, MIP) - ISRO
2 (C1XS, SARA) - ESA + ISRO
1 (SIR-2) - Max Planck, Germany
1 (RADOM) - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
1 (Mini-SAR) - NASA
1 (M3) - Brown University & JPL

More info here on ISRO page.
So it's kinda an international mission :-)

The ISRO site has a page on how the orbits look like in the Mission Sequence page.

And to anybody still complaining about India spending money on its space mission when 500 million people are in poverty, you are not the first.

ISRO generates Rs.1.5 to the economy for every Rs.1 that it uses in funding. This is the immediate return alone. The sustained returns (improvement in education and agriculture through remote sensing), and commercial application of its inventions are not included in this figure. The goal of ISRO is to promote space research to benefit as much of the population as possible.

ISRO is also selling commercial launch and remote sensing and imagery services through it's commercial division - Antirix corp which is making a profit.

More references:
http://www.isro.org/citizencharter.htm
http://www.isro.org/international.htm
http://www.isro.org/commercial.htm
http://www.isro.org/rrssc/img_ser.htm
http://www.isro.org/training_facilities.htm

ISRO generates Rs.1.5 to the economy for every Rs.1 that it uses in funding. This is the immediate return alone. The sustained returns (improvement in education and agriculture through remote sensing), and commercial application of its inventions are not included in this figure. The goal of ISRO is to promote space research to benefit as much of the population as possible.

ISRO is also selling commercial launch and remote sensing and imagery services through it's commercial division - Antirix corp which is making a profit.

More references:
http://www.isro.org/citizencharter.htm
http://www.isro.org/international.htm
http://www.isro.org/commercial.htm
http://www.isro.org/rrssc/img_ser.htm
http://www.isro.org/training_facilities.htm

ISRO generates Rs.1.5 to the economy for every Rs.1 that it uses in funding. This is the immediate return alone. The sustained returns (improvement in education and agriculture through remote sensing), and commercial application of its inventions are not included in this figure. The goal of ISRO is to promote space research to benefit as much of the population as possible.

ISRO is also selling commercial launch and remote sensing and imagery services through it's commercial division - Antirix corp which is making a profit.

More references:
http://www.isro.org/citizencharter.htm
http://www.isro.org/international.htm
http://www.isro.org/commercial.htm
http://www.isro.org/rrssc/img_ser.htm
http://www.isro.org/training_facilities.htm

ISRO generates Rs.1.5 to the economy for every Rs.1 that it uses in funding. This is the immediate return alone. The sustained returns (improvement in education and agriculture through remote sensing), and commercial application of its inventions are not included in this figure. The goal of ISRO is to promote space research to benefit as much of the population as possible.

ISRO is also selling commercial launch and remote sensing and imagery services through it's commercial division - Antirix corp which is making a profit.

More references:
http://www.isro.org/citizencharter.htm
http://www.isro.org/international.htm
http://www.isro.org/commercial.htm
http://www.isro.org/rrssc/img_ser.htm
http://www.isro.org/training_facilities.htm

ISRO generates Rs.1.5 to the economy for every Rs.1 that it uses in funding. This is the immediate return alone. The sustained returns (improvement in education and agriculture through remote sensing), and commercial application of its inventions are not included in this figure. The goal of ISRO is to promote space research to benefit as much of the population as possible.

ISRO is also selling commercial launch and remote sensing and imagery services through it's commercial division - Antirix corp which is making a profit.

More references:
http://www.isro.org/citizencharter.htm
http://www.isro.org/international.htm
http://www.isro.org/commercial.htm
http://www.isro.org/rrssc/img_ser.htm
http://www.isro.org/training_facilities.htm

The 690kg CARTOSAT and the 83kg IMS-1 are both remote sensing satellites, equipped with panchromatic (B&W) and Spectral cameras to image earth at visible and infrared frequencies. Many, if not all, indian satellites are for remote sensing/meteorological - because in a country where agriculture is the primary industry, it is paramount to track the movement of rainfall, particularly the seasonal monsoons. These weather predictions are vital for farmers to ensure a good harvest. A good harvest leads to lower food prices - in effect, this launch has a very close relationship to feeding India's poor, contrary to many trolls here.
The focus of India's space program has, thankfully, been always about peaceful purposes while making money on the side by providing a cheap option for launching amateur radio/science project satellites built by students and universities (such as the other 8 in this launch). More info about the launch here.

This is a great opportunity for both countries to share the best scientists on both sides. This mission http://www.isro.org/chandrayaan/htmls/about_chandrayaan.htm is very critical and challenging for Indian scientists. They need every help they can get to pull this. In the past, when US denied supercomputing facilities, Indian went and reinvented the wheel http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2906865.stm (although the effort was worth it).With relations improving between two countries, it will be foolish and immature not to accomplish.

This effort will NOT face any opposition like the Nuclear deal. The nuclear deal went down the drain because the stupid "left" politicians played the "Indian congress government is surrendering to US" card. They also threatened to withdraw their support which would have collapsed the Congress ruling party http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/wm1688.cfm. This time, they will make sure this deal is made and take the bragging rights for landing India on the moon. Yes, the Indian politics is screwed up. But they are not fools to let this deal go away.

The high launch cost could be because they also launched one of their own satellites along with the Italian satellite. It was an Advanced Avionics Module satellite weighing 185 Kgs.

http://www.isro.org/pressrelease/Apr23_2007.htm

Launch what 1500kg? The contract was for a 530kg satellite, and no other payload was needed to be launched with this vehicle (except for an avionics test package). Should they hump up 1000kg of ballast just so that they could use the strap ons? PSLV is a configurable launcher, and of course they are going to use the optimal configuration for a given mission.

Did you try even try to read ISRO's PSLV-C8 mission page?

So before you tell me what a strap-on costs vs a first stage, could you first give any evidence of your claim that PSLV is a "failed launcher"? I guess nine successive successful launches (including one that launched four satellites on the same mission) isn't good enough.

And, BTW, foolish ISRO is planning to use the same "detritus" of a PSLV to launch India's moon mission Chandrayaan-I. Quick ... send them email and tell them what fools they are.

The countries with space programs are the ones big enough and rich enough to afford it, and the desire to impress one's neighbours. First it was the USA and the Soviets. Then it was the Europeans, Japanese, and Chinese (no, the Europeans and Japanese don't have their own crewed launch vehicles, but the Europeans are planning to build one). The Indians are in the advanced stages of a moon probe. Key common factors: big economies. Key differences: almost everything else.

Just what makes you think poverty alleviation and a viable space program are mutually exclusive? Atleast for India, they are not. Several of the satellites that India built indigenously are being used for teleeducation, telemedicine in the remotest and poorest regions of India. Check this article:
http://www.isro.org/newsletters/spaceindia/janmar2 004/webpgs/pg06.htm

India did not start its space program for one-upmanship with other countres. We are trying solve huge problems that still exist in our country and our space program is geared to provide a technological base for that.

http://www.isro.org/

I bet those 'high school nerds' better research their comments rather than propagate speculation rooted in inherent bias.

This and only this will spur NASA out of safety/budget land and go back to the cock&balls manned flights of yester-century.

Hell, the Bush administration would simply outsource our space program to India to reduce that huge budget deficit they built up.

http://www.isro.org/pressrelease/May05_2005.htm

My Rupees 2 on this on
a) Why this is such a big deal
b) Why at all do this
ISRO deserves all the praise it can get. During these moments, its important to not look just at the success - but view them in the context of our failures.
ISRO did have a few bad starts with our Augmented/Advanced Satellite Launch Vehicles (ASLV) http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/aslv.htm which went crash and burn often enough to earn the title Another Sea Loving Vehicle. This could have very well crippled any space program. But we got it right - and now we get it right most of the time.
In India, the news on Indian channels also focus as much on the reusability of the launch vehicle itself and the loads we are able to ship, thereby making us less reliant on Ariane etc.. Forex is precious, we need to preserve it.
And regarding our priorities - hunger, education etc. Look, India is huge. We get hit bad by disasters, if you look at it most of the objectives of the satellites relate to basic needs - communication, weather, water resource management, land development, disaster management - http://www.isro.org/pressrelease/May01_2005.htm these objectives are of relevance to most of India.
Any country worth its salt must be self reliant, we maybe poor, but I dont believe investing in such technology is wasteful. India may appear to drag its heel more than others - because its big. Our political establishment is pretty bad - but credit where its due - though its messy in the details, there is consensus on the larger issues of development.

http://isro.org/Cartosat/images/onpad-1-May-1.jpg
http://isro.org/Cartosat/images/onpad-2-May-1.jpg

http://isro.org/Cartosat/images/onpad-1-May-1.jpg
http://isro.org/Cartosat/images/onpad-2-May-1.jpg

Maybe not as significant but the same rocket will also be launching a HAM satellite for the south asian region.

At last south asian HAM operators can rejoice.

Link: http://www.isro.org/Cartosat/Page5.htm

Welcome to the new world my son. The Indian Space Research Organization has been in the business for quite a while. Check out the milestones of diferent programmes of the ISRO here . We in the U S of A, need to have our news channels disspiating more science information as headlines than having Runaway brides dominating it. Especially nowadays, with student enrollment in Science declining. Not healthy for a nation's future in this competitive global climate.

1. The Indian economy happens to be the 12th largest in terms of GDP and 4th largest when adjusted for PPP (Purchasing Power Parity). I quote from the Wikipedia article:

With a GDP of 568 billion (B$) ($3.096 trillion (T$) at PPP) India has the world's 12th largest economy (and the 4th largest when adjusted for PPP). However, the large population means that per capita income is quite low. In 2003 the World Bank ranked India 143rd in PPP per capita income and 160th in real terms, among 208 countries and territories.

2. India has (through the Indian Space Research Organization) pursued a pretty widespread (and largely non-military space program) since the 60's. From this relevant Wikipedia article:

# 1962: Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR); formed by the Department of Atomic Energy, and work on establishing Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) near Trivandrum began.
# 1963: First sounding rocket launched from TERLS (November 21, 1963).
# 1965: Space Science & Technology Centre (SSTC) established in Thumba.
# 1967: Satellite Telecommunication Earth Station set up at Ahmedabad.
# 1972: Space Commission and Department of Space set up.
# 1975: First Indian Satellite, Aryabhatta, launched (April 19, 1975).

It's also fruitful to note that India was a British colony till 1947. IMHO, starting a space program in about 1.5 decades after gaining independence is a laudable achievement. The major problem which India faces today is it's large population, which pretty much negates all the economic advances, and causes it's perception as a "thirld world country" to continue.

It is also worth noting that India seems to be spending substantial amounts of money to improve it's people's lot and advancing education, science and research, rather than spending it instead on aggressive military tactics, which seems to be the trend nowadays. If you read up the history of the nation, you'll see that it's one of the few countries that has never pursued invasion/colonialism, and has instead been frequently invaded by conquerers (Mughals, British, etc) who looted the wealth of a formerly rich region and left it in a state that it's trying to dig itself out of now.

PS: Posted this because I perceived a derogatory slant in the Parent's use of the term "third world country". I find the practice of using wealth to rank nations (especially so when used to diss poor nations) quite abnoxious. I have nothing against using the term in a scientific/neutral sense.

some technical details on the ISRO website: http://www.isro.org/Cartosat/Page3.htm

I don't catch the point here, but EDUSAT is an Indian Educational Satellite.

The specific areas of study for India's moon mission listed here seem not to be aiming to do anything that has not been attempted or studied in detail in the past.
Therefore the arguement that the money being spent is for scientific advancement doesnt hold.

There are a lot of people working at this level that would like an opportunity to double or triple their annual salary for a year by doing something they love anyhow. So, where's the category for us?

ISRO.

you're a stupid idiot and have no idea that ISRO http://www.isro.org/ is probably the only goverment space agency in the world making profit!!!

and $450 is aprroximately Rs. 20,000 and you can live a decent life in a metro for that kind of money.

Of course being an Indian and having worked with ISRO I feel strongly about it. The space is definitely the next frontier. So far India has done incredible projects related to weather, remote sensing, etc. It's definitely time to venture into this. And this is not just showing technological superiority (and I definitely will see more posts on NASA outsorcing) but that's the proud thing that India can launch vehicles in space at much much lower costs. Putting this in perspective helps in going through further projects like star wars (when US is already thinking about making it a reality). Besides India also faces competition from its neighbor China in space frontiers.

In fact Werner von Braun took some interest in the Indian space programme, in the 60s.

India's first satellite was launched 30 years ago, called Aryabhata-I named after the 6th century Indian mathematician, Aryabhata.

Also, the launching station at Thumba is right on the Magnetic Equator. A story covering this can be seen here. Also,

A map of the world's space centers is available.