Slashdot Mirror
Communication Lost With Indian Moon Satellite
stoolpigeon writes "All communication links with the only Indian satellite orbiting the Moon have been lost, India's space agency says. Radio contact with the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was lost abruptly early on Saturday, said India's Bangalore-based Space Research Organization (ISRO)."
They will at least find out what happened. The more efficient space agencies we have exploring, the better overall for the planet.
Makes the game more fun.
[http://it-tastes-so-good.blogspot.com] Are you hungry?
If the needful had been done, this would not have happened.
Watchdog.
People who dislike China tend to mention Tiananmen Square a lot, but they always forget the Tank Man is also a Chinese.
A more detailed discussion - from the Indian viewpoint. http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4395&start=1440
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
Before this thread fills up completely with cynical wisecracking Americans, let me be the first to say, as a cynical wisecracking American, go India!
Seriously. You guys have a very solid set of rockets, a good broad focus (China's too focused on manned missions), and the technical skills to make it happen.
Also, I found it a little strange that the BBC article didn't mention this, but the Chandrayaan-1 had already been in successful operation for 312 days and had completed all of its primary mission goals. It had already collected plenty of scientific data, distributed to not just Indian scientists but also collaborators in Europe and the US. Of course, another year would be nice, but I'd consider the project a stunning success by just about any reasonable definition, especially since it was India's first ever lunar probe.
I look forward to India's Chandrayaan-2, which is planned to land a robotic rover on the Moon in 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-1#Completion_of_primary_objectives
I wish that ppl would stop trying to assign DOLLAR figures to China, Indian, or any other country that ties their money to a certain money. Saying that it cost 75 million is plain wrong (most estimates in India show it to be in the $90-95 million). Right now, the Rupee is FORCED by India to trade at 48 rupee to a dollar. According to most economist, it should be around half of that, or possibly less (more difficult to pin this down, than say the Chinese games with Yuans). As such, the missions is around $150-200 million. But, that is STILL not the full truth. The majority of expensive instruments on the sat are from different countries. Basically, the LAUNCH is what costs about $100-150 million, with the sat being less than $50 million. And at a 100 million per launch, they are on par with America, Russia, and EU.
I am not trying to belittle their efforts. In fact, far from it. I applaud them and hope that we will bring them into the ISS down the road. BUT, I still prefer that ppl are honest about what is going on.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.