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Indian Moon Mission Launched
hackerdownunder writes "India's maiden lunar mission (Chandrayaan-1) got off to a flying start today. Describing the launch as 'perfect and precise,' the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), G Madhavan Nair, said that it would be 14 days before the satellite would enter into lunar orbit.
Chandrayaan carries eleven payloads: five designed and developed in India, three from the European Space Agency, one from Bulgaria and two from NASA."
The Third World is exploring space, developing scientists and engineers, and developing their economies.
Here in the US, we're developing our military, discouraging the study of science and engineering, discouraging all rational thought (God did it!), spending resources on some nebulous terrorist threat the will come some day (or so we're told), and developing industries based on chance and moving money around.
I wonder which society has better long term prospects for its people, economy, and Government?
At around Rs. 400 Crore / USD 80 Million, it must be the cheapest unmanned moon mission and.... 1st post
"This is Chandrayaan-1 we have a problem."
"You have reached mission control. Your call is very important to us. Please hold and the next available representative will be with you shortly."
"This is Chandrayaan-1 we are losing thrust and are off course."
"Remember, mission control is here for you. Have you heard about our latest service pack upgrades and special licensing agreements? Press one now if you'd like to hear more. If not, continue holding and your call will be answered in the order recieved. Thank you for calling mission control!"
About 18.2 minutes later, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair declared the launch successful which sent over a 1000 space scientists into a bout of jubilation. ( Watch )
Yeah that party sounds like it would be 'off the hook'!
www.purevolume.com/martyd
Our current knowledge of moon is infinitely superior than the knowledge of our own ocean. They say, Grass is always greener on the other side or may be it is the quest to build more powerful missiles in the guise of moon missions. Not blaming India, six others did that too.
But also take into account that the cost of the mission is a really tiny fraction of what the Indian Government spends on Poverty Alleviation programs. Also, ISRO's programs have also had an enormous role to play in some of these objectives, specially by providing weather forecasting and communication facilities. In other words, any criticism of India's space program on the basis of its other economic or social problems does not seem to hold water.
The reason why I think this is progress is because India is a developing country. Their situation may be insightful due to their perspective on the situation. The materials they use, the way they manage it, the funding, the management, etc. Consider it a huge, multi million dollar case study for the world. Another example of this, the Tata Nano, is a revolutionary vehicle IMHO due to the audience it appeals to - developing countries. Another one I'm waiting on is mobile devices. These will, in many ways, will drive innovation (probably not compete) in developed countries.
I will bend like a reed in the wind.
So? What are you trying to say? That India should wait until their problems are all solved? And for the rest of the world to move on?
And did you know that India is now a serious emerging player in the satellite launch market? If money is all you understand, please be informed that they will MAKE more money than they have spent on this mission. The reputation that the Indian Space Research Organization will gain from this will get them more launch orders. And that means more money.
And don't forget the technological spinoffs that will help make them better. And they have said they will share this knowledge with other industries.
I was watching the launch today, and they interviewed school kids about what they thought, and you know what? There's a whole horde of young people that have been inspired to pursue careers in space science, just because of this. The intangible benefits are far too many to enumerate here.
Grow up, man.
India's economy has turned around due to technology outsourcing to India by the rest of the world. This outsourcing started happening when Indians began showing the outside world that Indians aren't just the hungry clamouring mobs always shown on TV. As the world realized this, they began to see value in sending work to India. By accomplishing things like Chandrayaan, or building the Tata Nano, etc, Indians demonstrate to the world their talents and abilities, which increases the world's willingness to trade and work with India, creating jobs and economic growth in the country. Some Indians commenting here are unfortunately the backward navel-gazing types, who will never understand the basis for economic growth and alleviation of poverty. They still think in the most primitive backward terms about how to bring development, prosperity and relief to the masses. The lost opportunities and economic stagnation of the past 50 years under the social welfare state show how such narrow mindsets can wreak havoc on a country. The answer lies in Indians showing each other and the world how to be achievers, instead of just beggars forever clamouring with their palms outstretched.
I think they need to take a step at a time to get the funding. They may well do a Mars mission in the next decade, but if they had asked for 15+ years funding before any visible results were seen it would be hard to justify to the electorate.
Then how are you going to help those poor people? Give them free money and food so they'll continue to do nothing and further your poverty problem?
How about actually setting up a sensible education system, then a sensible industrial sector, and then a sensible R&D sector for future industries; so that people can be productive and build wealth for your country?
Doesn't that sound a lot like what India is trying to do?
Yes, in the nineties maybe. And you might get this spirit back through a future president. For now though, I feel like the world is a bit fed up with the USA trying to be the World's Knight in Shining Armor of Morale. It's also a bit weird: Everybody has guns and violence is abundant on television, but God forbid (pun intended) that a breast is shown on tv.
And don't forget doing a single 15-year project means you're going to put 15 years worth of mistakes into a single project, which means the project will most probably fail after all the hype and fanfare.
It is much more sensible to go in small steps first, so that any problems will be solved before the big project.
Just about all of those studies are rather vague in their definitions, and appear to stretch some things. Here's the problem - a VAST majority of people in this country eat enough, have jobs, and can be educated. Period. There's an EASY formula to follow - graduate high school, don't get pregnant before marriage, and hold a job for two years. You WON'T be poor and you WON'T go hungry. This is a social/motivation/parenting problem, NOT a money problem in America.
This is one huge leap forward for India!
India's space program is different from those in US and other "developed" countries. India has always focused on the practical uses of space science. Communication, weather forecasts, delivering payloads etc. (instead of sending probes to pluto)
Elsewhere "space programs came as spinoffs of military programs, so the things the space program was expected to deliver were things that could be used in defense," says S.K. Das, a former ISRO official.
you have failed to create social welfare state. europe has succeeded.
you sound like a holistic economist, even a neocon republican. those days are at an end.
this recent crisis have shown us how dangerous unwatched, ungoverned, unregulated capitalism can be. entire world economy brought down by a handful of rogue megacorporations juggling funds in united states.
that wont happen again.
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The PSLV-XL itself costs only 80 crore rupee (800 million rupees) or less than 20 million USD
Nasa missions took three days. But life support was important.
The slowest moon mission was an ESA moon mission that took 14 months to reach the moon via ion-drive. It cost very little in fuel.
Launch video 1/4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZbGXrxR4U4 2/4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S3GeL8AjEQ 3/4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEg-uWjPDFI 4/4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT9SpPJvHck
India showcased its low-cost space technology. Project cost only $79 million, considerably less than the Chinese and Japanese probes. Now world can outsource space projects to India. Another outsourcing industry started :)
This project also shows India's partnership with 14 other countries and sharing data and technology together.
it first.
1.000.000 people unable to pay for their mortgages nets to a loss around $300 bn, if the houses were bought from $600 k by the bank and their values now $300 k.
thats only 1/3 of the cash us had prepared for its banks, its also around 1/10 of the cash that europe has provided.
you see, the funds provided had already covered approx 20 times that loss, if you count in what japan, korea and other nations have readied.
you should have understood by now that this is nothing related to unpaid mortgages or poor people, or fannie mae freddie mac. this is the bullshit that republican bastards are feeding you to get off the hook.
the real problem is this :
banks are allowed to lend approx 10 times the total assets they have. because its logical - money turns slow, so it doesnt create a problem. its all valid liquidity wise. this ratio is a healthy ratio and its checked by government regulation.
but, due to the lawless environment republicans and holistic economists have created by yelping 'hands off business' 'government out' 'government bad for economy, youll cost jobs to people', government regulation was totally hampered in that sector since reagan era.
then what happened ? in this unregulated environment, some bastards realized this ; if they show those mortgages as assets, and then create DERIVATIVE assets over them (called hedge funds in general because they accept all kinds of 'assets'), they can sell/trade those assets !!!
and they proceeded to do that. they created assets linked to those mortgage assets, then started trading them. attracted investors. those funds have inflated in value, disproportionately. imagine the funds value becoming $ 20 trillion instead of the mortgage value of $ 200 bn. this is round one.
in round two, they went further. they showed those DERIVATIVES as assets. meaning, despite they had $200 bn worth of mortgage assets, they now had $20 trillion worth of hedge funds/investments tied to those mortgages !! and they started lending by showing their total assets as $20 trillion plus $200 bn !!! see the point ? they started lending money THEY DONT HAVE !
see the issue now ?!
someone should have stepped in, checked their books and said 'hey, you dont have that much assets. what you are showing me as assets are actually derivative papers tied to OTHER assets. these are NOT real, and they are OVERvalued !!' and stopped them in their tracks.
but noone did. because a lot of poodles were yelping 'hands off economy !!'. so it went like this, those banks lent to countries, governments, megacorporations, traded those investment funds SO widely around the world that every bank in the world got infested by those funds.
then it was discovered. and today we are here.
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