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Indian Rocket Blasts into Space
Quacking Duck writes "Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully launched it's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C7) rocket from the Srikharikota launch-pad. The rocket carried 4 satellites into space, 2 Indian and one each from Argentina and Indonesia. Interestingly, one of ISRO's payloads, Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1), expected to return to Earth 13 days after launch, will be the first test of its re-entry mechanism. This is a step towards ISRO's ambitious goal of designing and building a cheap reusable launch vehicle. ISRO is also planning a manned mission to the moon, Chandrayan-1, which is expected to use a modified PSLV rocket which was used for this launch. This successful launch comes close on the heels of the failed July 2006 GSLV lauch which had ended in an expensive fireworks display over the Bay of Bengal. Another GSLV launch is planned for later this year."
Do you only think of other countries as threats or something? What have India, China or Pakistan ever done to you apart from invent awesome food and provide cheap labour due to their developing economies?
Though I do think they'll be dropping nukes faster than anyone can say Srikharikota. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue!
which is totally what she said
I wonder if this would spur the USA and Russia to speed up their space programs. I'm not sure about Russia anymore but at least the US has stated that they want to go back to the moon and put some dude up in Mars sometime on this half of the century if memory serves.
+Raider of the lost BBS
HIS book (not HES book)
HER book (you have it wrong - it is NOT "hers book")
ITS book
MY book
John's book
See the pattern? His, her and my are inflected, not formed by adding an S onto he,she and me respectively.
To form a possessive by addition, we add apostrophe s
So what do we do with "it"? "its" is not at first an inflected form. It appears to be formed by adding an S onto "it", and by the usual rules would therefore be "it's". Applying the same rule backwards to the other forms would give hes,shes and mes books respectively.
This is an example of a case where the uneducated thinks one thing, the partly educated thinks another (because they were taught a half-understood rule at school) whereas the highly educated professional (like my English teacher, a first in English from Cambridge) with a deeper understanding of grammar, points out that the rule in use is arbitrary and you could do things either way.
Grammar Nazis. Sheesh.
Pining for the fjords
Chandrayan-1 (the correct spelling is Chandrayaan-1) isn't a manned mission.
There's a hidden treasure in Python 3.x: __prepare__()
well, let me tell you some facts why India or china haven't done anything substantial if u r comparing with USA. India or China were under the colonies until around 60 years ago and during those time, they were not able to produce even a nail by their own because they were not allowed to. After that, freedom came (thanks to Mahatma Gandhi for his excellent non-violent leadership against the Britons and also thanks to Japanese and Germans for initiating the WW2), these countries started everything of their own from very scratch and after a course of 60 years, India and China both are doing exceptionally well and will continue to do to in future as well. Look at China, they sent their guy to space without any help from outside (and USA has regretted of their decision not to include China in their International Space Station project). Very soon, China will be standing in front of USA in every aspect, including space technology. Time has come that few people like you should wake up. Similar to China, India is also doing too good. Indians have proved themselves that they have capabilities. They are launching their satellites by their own rockets with exceptional success rate. The failure of GSLV (to put the satellites in Geo-Synchronous orbit, 36000Km away from the Earth) six months ago also didn't go in vain. They learned many things from that failure and have pin-pointed what went wrong and you will see a successful GSLV launch by mid of this year. You talked about nukes....the devices what India detonated in 1998 (includes two thermo-nuclear devices) was developed completely by their own (after the 1st nuke test in 1974, India was put under sanctions forbidding any help on nuclear issue). India is also planning to launch their first unmanned moon mission until 2005 and manned mission until 2020. Again, I would like to remind that this is only after 60 years of independence. Can you remember what USA were doing after their 60 years?!! They were searching gold in California and killing each-other on the issue of racism and slavery. India and China are in much better position. As far as dropping nukes are concerned, India has already a policy of not-first-nuclear-attack. Also, history says who used first nuclear bomb....it's USA killing thousands of innocent people in Japan. You should be ashamed of suggesting others on nuclear things. Others are not going to be as arrogant and barbarous as USA were. One free suggestion at last....think a bit before speaking anything!!
The purpose of a re-entry capsule (for maned flight) is slightly different from a ICBM re-entry vehicle. The capsule is supposed to land at speed ~= 0 The ICBM re-entry vehicle impacts Earth or is detonated at a speed of Mach 10 or 15 . It's definitely not the same thing.
with 9 launches the rocket has quite proven itself, but why would they design a rocket with 4 stages? Or does that figure include the strap-on boosters? I would expect with material weight going down, it would be more economical to design a rocket with less stages, as 3 stages instead of 4 means 25% less points of failure. Or is life expectancy of their motors so low they need 4 sets to get into orbit reliably?
This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
Actually I didn't first suggest nukes, I was replying to someone else. I also am not racist, I don't think that Indians or Chinese people are dumb, in fact all (well.. most :p ) humans have capacity for intelligence, and India and China really have people who are motivated, and also just plain a LOT of people, which helps to boost their productivity.
:)
Note that India and China wouldn't have had rockets at the same time America was just growing, even if they had been free. That's entirely to do with how much knowledge and technology humanity as a whole has developed. Especially since the advent of the internet, anyone can build a nuclear reactor or send a rocket into space if they really wanted to (well, obviously only if they have access to the required resources and funding as well as the information on how to build a rocket, etc). In a day when kids are building nuclear reactors in their back yard, I'm not too surprised to hear that India and China are sending rockets into space! Not to say that it isn't quite an achievement in-and-of itself, even if it means diddly-squat to me. Congratulations India
which is totally what she said
We can outsource NASA!
My impression is they've become arrogant and bloated over the years. A little low-cost competition shouldn't hurt them too bad.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Space exploration is often cited as providing a country a tangible goal. Something to aim for, boost national pride, focus industry, provide technological spinoffs (whether product - Teflon etc.) or industrial capacity, and provide a sneaky way of subsidy through government contract. You can well imagine that India, looking to the US (and even some extent the USSR's program) would want in on that.
Of course, this leaves out the fact that any country that wants to launch satellites into orbit - whether for commercial, military or espionage reasons is at the mercy of the few nations with launch capability, both in terms of cost and possible political veto.
I, for one, can well understand why any nation might want a space program. (See the recent muttering about the UK's fairly timid approach to this.
the PSLV is quite different from GSLV. If am not wrong, the PSLV is powered by Cryogenic Engine developed ingeniously after Russia declined the technology transfer.
Eclipse PDE and Me
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
well, if u r talking about firecrackers and those stupid Gilbert U-238 toys, u r correct....but not otherwise, otherwise Osama Bin Laden would have used some nuke rather than air-planes to strike the twin-tower. It is same as you know every thing how to make, say, a petrol engine from book....but when u start putting things together to achieve a real engine, u need to have a lot of expertise and book-knowledge simply doesn't help beyond an extent. Same thing with weapon grade uranium...even a kid knows that U235 can be obtained after processing U238 in centrifuges but how many countries are able to get U235....I would say, very few!
Don't forget to use capital letters when congratulating India next time on the occasion of successful launch of GSLV scheduled after 6-7 months ;)
This is such a great example of what is going RIGHT with the world.
Political decisions led the US to cut off certain space tech transfers to India, and instead of whining about it and complaining that the US was keeping them down, India developed their own space program, filling in the gaps of their technological capabilities as required. They worked hard and made it happen without relying on handouts or whining about how tough their life was.
Now the political realities have changed, but instead of India once again relying on US, UK, or Russian technology, they can compete and relate with the other space powers on a much more equal basis. They have their own capability, they don't owe anyone for it, and they have their national pride instead of being a nation of victims whining about how the US isn't giving them enough candy.
WTG India, the aerospace technology success story of the century. Way to be a winner, not a whiner. As an American sick and tired of every little country bitching about how the US doesn't give them enough money/respect/tech/whatever, I wish more countries would do this, even though it would result in the US ultimately having less influence in the world.
Why is everyone having a dig at the Indians over telemarketing and Call Centres? The Indians are only providing the service that is paid for by Western companies, in other words we only have ourselves to blame.
...
People were patronising and cynical about Japanese attempts to industrialise and develop technologies in the 1950's and 60's, say no more
Art is the mathematics of emotion
The thing is, the people who matter already respect India. The aviation and space industry has looked at India as an up-and-coming power for quite a while now. Yea they're not quite at the truly "graduate level" stuff yet like the US and Russia, but they're working hard at developing their own capabilities and that's what matters.
Plus they're not sitting on their butts whining about how nobody respects them or threatening to kill everyone who doesn't go to their church. That helps a lot.
The US built LTV Scout used for stages, all solid motors. If you use lower Isp engines you tend to need more stages to loft the same payload.
an ill wind that blows no good
I tell you what, you stand under the launch pad and then decide whether a rocket blasts off or lifts off.
I'm sorry, I have to take issue with some of this. Firstly, India did not start everything from scratch after the British left. Anyone who has attempted to negotiate the beaurocracy (for example negotiating the release of a container from customs or getting a telephone line installed) can see the shadows of the British establishment that were left behind. The entire Indian system of Government is a very close mirror of the British system - the dual house system for starters.
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mean to belittle the accomplishments of the Indian people since Independence, far from it, but to impy that they threw everything away and started again from scratch is just nonsense, and devalues the efforts of all the political leaders who worked so hard to make sure a country so large and chaotic CAN be effectively governed.
And as for "Others are not going to be as arrogant and barbarous as USA were" are you intending to gloss over the recent period of BJP-dominated politics which was, in my opinion, one of the darkest moments of Indian political history and saw aggression against Pakistan increase SIGNIFICANTLY? Fortunately, unlike the USA, the voting public in your country realised their mistake and voted them the hell out. By the way, that very creative piece of political manouvering by Congress/Sonia Gandhi and associates was quite a joy to watch.
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
Yes the UK struggles along with the worlds 6th largest GDP, it's hell here in the second tier.
Why does everyone assume that every nation on Earth wants to start a nuclear war?
Maybe we should all sitdown and watch Wargames + When the Wind Blows and then ask ourselfs if anyone would want to use nuclear weapons in anger.
I for one would like to see India and China working alongside ESA and NASA establish future for humanity in orbit, on the moon and mars.
In the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D.
Thank you come again!
There was this Indian joke:
Q. What do you call one Pakistani on the moon ?
A. Problem
Q. What do you call two Pakistanis on the moon ?
A. Problem
Q. What do you call all Pakistanis on the moon ?
A. Problem solved
Good - you shouldn't be. There's always room for improvement. What are you doing to improve Mankind's lot?
The world of today is a much better place to live than the world of 400, 100, or even 10 years ago. I don't know how old you are, but in my 44 years I've seen a considerable amount of progress in all areas of human endeavor. It's the optimists who moved us forward, and it's the optimists that will keep us moving forward.
Are you an optimist? I am.
What?
The mods seem to think yours was an attempt at levity, but I'll give you a serious response.
kuttaa in Hindi certainly means 'dog'. That's 'ku' as in "Kumar" as in "Kumar's at No 42", that rather popular British sitcom with British-Indian characters. The 't' here is a soft 'th', as in 'thalidomine'. Additionally, it is actually a conjunct-consonant; meaning, two 'th's combine together to form an extended 'thth' sound. Finally, the vowel at the end is a long 'a', and is pronounced as in 'fake', thus forming the word, 'kuttaa'.
The word kooTa, on the other hand, comes from a completely different language altogether. It is from Telugu, the predominant tongue in the region around the launch site. To a native South/South East Asian speaker, 'kuttaa' and 'kooTa' are quite distinct, not just for the first vowel-sound ('u' versus an elongated 'oo'), but also for the second consonant ('th' versus a hard 'T', as in 'Tango') and for the second vowel-sound (an elongated 'aa' versus a shorter 'a').
Greetings from your friendly vyákaraNa nazi. :-)
More than mere navel gazing.
"Firstly, India did not start everything from scratch after the British left. Anyone who has attempted to negotiate the beaurocracy (for example negotiating the release of a container from customs or getting a telephone line installed) can see the shadows of the British establishment that were left behind."
Yes, but bureaucracy is not exactly progress, is it? The real and meaningful progress that India has made has been in the last 10 odd years, after the economy was opened up and a lot of government controlled industries were privatized. Since then, India's economy has been growing by 8-10%. Before this, India was placidly chugging along at a 3-4% growth rate (and they called it the Hindu growth rate) which was taking the country nowhere. The only reason why China is way ahead of India today is that they had the foresight to liberalize and open up their economy a few decades before India has done.
"are you intending to gloss over the recent period of BJP-dominated politics which was, in my opinion, one of the darkest moments of Indian political history and saw aggression against Pakistan increase SIGNIFICANTLY?"
You're correct in the fact that the Gujrat riots were a blot on the country and more so on the party. However, "aggression against Pakistan" should be reworded "firm against Pakistan". Pakistan sends and funds hardcore terrorists, and their intelligence wing, the dreaded ISI (along with their armed forces) completely work hand in hand with the Al Qaeda. They train thousands of terrorists along the border areas and these terrorists camps are well documented and imaged. Most of these terrorists land up in India, and these terrorists kill more people in India every year than the 9/11 attacks.
Unfortunately, the leadership in India has been too weak to take a firm stand on this issue and the USA turns a blind eye on this issue, as these terrorists do not kill americans (yet) and because they need Pakistan to gain access to neighbouring Afghanistan. Note that these terrorists almost fomented an India-Pakistan war a few years ago and when the Indian army retaliated, the terrorists captured or killed were roughly 50% Pakistani soldiers and 50% terrorists.
Oh, by the way, what I've said is not a biased point of view, and can very easily be verified on the internet, if you dig around for facts and impartial writings on the India-Pakistan situation.
So, the BJP was not exactly aggressive against Pakistan but was simply being firm. In fact, BJP went out of its way to mend relationships with Pakistan and introduced bus services between the two countries. Some of the good things about the BJP are their firm leadership, liberal and capitalistic economic policies, and good external affairs. The only reason why they lost the previous election was because their campaign (so-called India Shining campaign) did not connect with the poor Indian at all. Their campaign ended up alienating the poor farmer and poor labourer, who are the ones that actually vote in India, and instead focused on the middle and rich class who like to crib more and rarely vote. Their election loss had no other reason. So many people die in India every year that the average Indian stopped giving a shit about the Gujrat riots after a year or so, even though a few thousands died. Heck, more farmers commit suicide every year because of chronic indebtedness and because of hunger. And see, religion (and casteism and what not) IS the opiate of the masses, especially when the masses are chronically hungry and stare at despair every night.