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Indian Prime Minister Formally Announces Mars Mission

Posted by samzenpus on from the joining-the-club dept.

neo12 writes in with the news that India plans on being the 6th country to launch a mission to mars. "Making the first formal announcement on the country's Mars mission, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said India will send a mission to the Red Planet that will mark a huge step in the area of science and technology. 'Recently, the Cabinet has approved the Mars Orbiter Mission. Under this Mission, our spaceship will go near Mars and collect important scientific information,' he said addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the occasion of the 66th Independence Day."

7 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Pool ressources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I am always surprised to see so many countries going at it by themselves, if we pooled resources, we would be maybe a couple of steps forward, instead of sending orbiters and robots.

    1. Re:Pool ressources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There is a balance to be had between R&D, exploration, and economic development. If every country in the world waited until they solved all of their social problems, then there would be no R&D or exploration. Additionally, R&D and exploration are related to economic development.

      The fact that India is planning on being serious about a space program implies that they are becoming serious about R&D. And with R&D comes economic development which will help out their social problems.

    2. Re:Pool ressources by lister+king+of+smeg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If only our govenment would realize that a space program is more than a galactic pissing contest, that it is a investment ito new knowledge and technology. War isn't the only thing that brings with it new tech, space travel brings new tech because of the never before encountered situations and challenges. The tech developed there can be applied elsewhere as well and with technology comes a raised standard of living.

      --
      ---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
    3. Re:Pool ressources by interkin3tic · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Call me cynical, but I think government types realize the value of technology and research far more than your average citizen. Many voters seem to like NASA, but they don't get as excited as they do about the prospect of tax cuts, even ones that don't apply to them.

  2. Re:Priorities! by Jade_Wayfarer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sadly, it's not "Funny", it's "Informative".

    --
    Absence of proof != proof of absence.
  3. So much uninformed crap in this thread... by dell623 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Slashdot has interesting and informative posts on many topics, but I don't know why everything goes to hell the moment India is mentioned..

    1) It doesn't take a hugeass rocket to send an unmanned probe to Mars. The amount of energy needed once you're in the right orbit to escape earth's gravity is minimal. So it's not that crazy to imagine India doing it given that they already got a probe to reach the moon. It's the next step, not a massive leap. Putting a lander on the moon or Mars, or manned spaceflight would be a much bigger step. So the figure of 100 million is not outlandish and it's very possible and a logical progression given the current technical capabilities of the Indian space program. In fact, India may well be able to use one of their existing rockets for this, the hard part is making sure interplanetary probes get captured into the orbit of the target planet, instead of missing it completely (something that's not that hard to do and multiple countries have aimed and missed in the past, I remember a Mercury probe that ended up orbiting the sun).

    2) Yes, India has overwhelming amounts of corruption. The space program is one of the better run organizations though.

    3) Even though India is a poor country, due to the sheer size of the population the amount of money the government controls is huge. Not USA/China huge but at least the size of large European economies. 100 million is pocket change. And not spending it on a research mission to Mars that can help advance technology in the country doesn't mean it would go towards feeding hungry people. Just like reducing 100 million of the defence budget in the US won't put that money into schools or universities or healthcare or whatever.

    4) It has little to do with the slowing Indian economy (even if it grows at 5% that's far more than most other countries in the world right now).

    5) Talk of burning cars or powerless villages is just bigoted racist arrogant illogical bullshit.

  4. Re:All for $100 million ? by Patch86 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Mars Climate Orbiter (a NASA mission) cost $330 million and failed completely. Sometimes these things happen in space exploration. One year out of a two year mission isn't awful for a fledgling space programme like India's, and for that sort of cost.