Slashdot Mirror
Indian Moon Mission to Have Landing Component
Anil Kandangath writes "Last month, it was announced that the Indian moon mission Chandrayan I would have a component that would land on the moon to function as an impactor. For all those who complain about India spending big bucks on its space program, The Scientific Indian has a list of updates about the space program's plans for this year which includes two cartography satellites, a satellite based 'total disaster management system', a few communication satellites and a satellite launch for the European Union."
Why is EU paying india to do it when they could use the Arianne rockets in france and keep the money at home..
Believe it or not, it's cheaper, India is the outsourcing heaven. Seriously though, the reasons are political, EU vs. the US:
Declining to make an India-specific statement, Juster said parties buying US-made satellites would in general not be allowed to get them launched by countries such as India.
And I'm sure you're gonna be modded up for saying something as silly as this. Never underestimate a good conspiracy theory to get karma here...
NASA won't "outsource" anything, they'll partner with India perhaps, like they partnered with Russia to have access to Baikonur. That means the US would have access to more space facilities at comparatively little extra cost, and on the political scale, India would become a closer US ally.
But does it mean people in Houston or Cape Canaveral would get sacked because their jobs would be taken over by some Indian workers? of course not, silly. Especially since these guys are highly skilled, and because they're paid with tax dollars, which means they're kind of protected against the forces of free market. Not to mention the sensitive aspect of NASA politically.
So stop your karma-whoring and go back into your troll box...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I don't know what method they will be using to choose the impact spot for the impactor.. I hope they wait until the data has been gathered by the onboard instruments and choose a spot where there is likely some water-ice.
This way when the impact happens hopefully their spectrometer would be able to detect the vapor and finally(hopefully) confirm that theory.
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This article talks about plans to introduce telemedicine through satlellites. This move , if successful could have far-reaching effects in India , especially since even basic healthcare facilities are out of reach for many in rural India. What is also commendable is that organisations using this for social good would not be charged for the service
And if you think India is under-industrialised and that this is an opportunity for the EU to buy cheap. India has far more wealth than you realise.
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USA: home of the world's largest terrorist training camp.
Personally I think space exploration is a worthy cause for mankind and see no wrong in diverting a reasonable level of funding toward it
I disagree a little with this; We know more about space that we do about the depths of our own oceans, and I think that some funding funding for space projects should be reduced a little, and we should put the same amount of effort into deep sea exploration.
Saying that though, at the end of the day, I think that all research is good, no matter what it's about. The more we can do to expand out knowledge of the universe and our world, the better.
Just my £0.02.
Not for a long time... India and the UK had a bit of a rocky divorce, true, especially with the whole partition thing, but they've got on very well since then. Have you seen how many fighter jets the Indians buy from the UK? And how many vindaloos the English devour?
ESA is separate from Arianespace, so European missions fly on rockets of all nations. Mars Express was launched on a Russian rocket, Huygens piggybacked on an American probe... A lot of European satellites do fly on Ariane rockets, Ariane being a very cost-effective option, but there's no exclusive contract going on.
You're probably right that the EU and India might be interested in closer cooperation, though... India wants to become rich, and an increase of trade with the EU would certainly help; meanwhile, the EU is already enormously rich, but doesn't have the global influence to go with it in the way the USA does. Alliance between Europe and India would certainly help both.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
It is time you all woke up to and figured out that USA is as bad as any other country.
Of course it is. Every country works in its best interest.
We may have more illiterates than any other country in the world, but you forget that India also has the largest number of engineers. More Indians can speak English than there are people in the entire USA. Think about that.
That's not a very big feat when you consider that India breeds out of control and has the 2nd largest population on Earth. It is nobody else's responsibility to feed your children when you keep reproducing beyond your means.
We are not poor due to our stupidity. We are poor by design. Just a 100 years ago, we were the richest nation on earth.
No you weren't.
Then we were split up into two countries and made to go at each other's throat. The Indo-Pak cold war has cost us an entire civilization
Yeah, the US has never had to deal with that... cough, Civil War, cough. That destroyed us, but we got back on our feet and were a major player in less than 30 years.
Our political system is bankrupt. Most politicians are plain goons. But we also have the vision to elect a woman to rule us.
So is ours. But in a democracy, you need to elect someone that can do the job. Just because you elected a woman doesn't mean that she's not a goon. Maybe you just elected a female goon.
Every second President of India is from the minorities. How many black presidents, how many women presidents has USA had? How about a Jew for the Prez?
That's nice, but electing a minority doesn't really address the problem that you have. You should concentrate instead on electing the best person, namely someone who isn't a goon. You guys are just voting for majority goons, minority goons, male goons, and female goons. It's not helping you.
I'd vote for the best person for the job, regardless of what they look like. I'm not going to simply vote for a minority just because they're a minority, the "underdog".