After Successful Launch, India's Mars Orbiter Is On Its Way

neo12 writes "India has successfully launched a spacecraft to the Red Planet — with the aim of becoming the fourth space agency to reach Mars." As our previous mention of the launch notes, getting to Mars by rocket is a long haul: if all goes well, it will be about 10 months until Mangalyaan reaches orbit.

Comments

0.37% of India's total budget

[Anonymous Coward]

That is the cost of India's entire space program. The Mars mission is obviously a much smaller percentage of that. So, to the inevitable critics about how poor India should not be investing on a space program, 0.37% of the total budget will not solve poverty problems. Rather, it benefits India more than being a drag on the economy.

Re:0.37% of India's total budget

[RaceProUK]

PR stunt that leads to being paid to launch commercial satellites at cheaper rates than the US/EU/Russian alternatives. As their market share grows, the profit increases, and that can be invested in the country itself, either directly or via tax on employees' wages.

That's one possibility anyway.

Re:0.37% of India's total budget

[gstoddart]

It puts India on the list of space-capable countries instead of a tech support jobs stealing country?

India isn't stealing anything. It's your corporate overlords who are moving the jobs away to be done more cheaply.

Don't blame India for that.

Re:0.37% of India's total budget

[_Shad0w_]

Poor India with it's 1.842 trillion USD GDP. It's a G20 member with the 9 largest economy in the world, ffs.

Re:0.37% of India's total budget

[MightyMartian]

If they can pull it off, it tells Pakistan, "We can land a nuke on Islamabad just as easily as we send a probe to Mars." This is exactly how the US-USSR space race played out. The Apollo and Soyuz programs were all about demonstrating the capacity of missile technology.

Re:0.37% of India's total budget

[gstoddart]

you could blame india for the horrendus poverty levels that enable an american corporation to pay slave like wages to india and be considered a salvation

I certainly can't blame then for wanting to fix it. And since America also has horrendous poverty levels in some places ... I wouldn't recommend falling off that moral high ground.

But I can blame corporations for what they do -- if an American corporation wants to cut American jobs so they can be done cheaply elsewhere, why would Americans keep buying from them? Loyalty? Pride? Stupidity?

Americans are fond of talking about 'the market' -- this is just that. For better or worse, this is the globalization everyone has been crowing about for years, and is pretty much exactly what we've been told to expect.

Someone is willing to do it cheaper than you are -- and the race to the bottom continues.

Re:0.37% of India's total budget

[MightyMartian]

Basic research is the cornerstone of pretty much all technological developments of the last two centuries. Do you seriously imagine that our materials technologies would be anywhere near where they are now without basic research into chemistry and physics?

Let me guess, you're one of those people who thinks that all development is just a series of Eureka! moments.

Re:0.37% of India's total budget

[Immerman]

Are you disingenuous on purpose? 1.8 trillion isn't exactly a huge GDP, much less for a nation the size of India. Let's look at a few examples

___GDP (USD)...population...per-capita GDP
US.......15.68T......313M.....$49,965
UK.........2.44T.......63M.....$38,514
China.....8.23T...1,351M.......$6,091
Nigeria....262b......168M......$1,555
India......1.82T...1,237M......$1,489

So basically India has an economy the size of Brasil, spread across 6x as many people, or alternately a population the size of China, but with 4x less money. I'd call that pretty poor unless you're using Africa as your measuring stick.

Re:0.37% of India's total budget

[petes_PoV]

if an American corporation wants to cut American jobs so they can be done cheaply elsewhere, why would Americans keep buying from them? Loyalty? Pride? Stupidity?

No, none of the above (although that doesn't preclude people from having those qualities). Americans buy from companies that offshore (american) jobs because those companies have lower prices as a result.

You must realise that patriotism comes in a very poor second when the alternative is 5 cents off.

Re:0.37% of India's total budget

[petes_PoV]

it tells Pakistan

You don't need a Mars misson for that. All of India's (and China's, too) neighbours are very well aware that the space-faring nations already have the abillity to drop anything they please on them.

No, this mission is an advertising campaign to promote India's already successful space launch industries. The fact that this mission is so much cheaper (if not yet successful: a major factor in the cost of american missions is employing all those 1,000's of staff at western rates of pay. And if the mission does make it to Mars, and continues to run to well past it's planned failure date then the mission just costs more) is part of the "we can launch your satellites AND we have much lower costs" message that the world will hear and take note of.

It might even do some science, too.

Re:0.37% of India's total budget

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

First of all, American poverty doesn't compare to Indian poverty. Anyone would give an important body part to be upgraded from Indian poverty to American Poverty.

Second of All, consumers usually act in their own immediate self interest when making a purchasing decision. Where a product was made does not usually factor into that.

Beleive it or not, its not a zero sum game. There are winners and losers, and the profits of the winners seem to be rather concentrated.

Re:0.37% of India's total budget

[Anonymous Coward]

That's true; immigration fraud is not the same thing as stealing.

Right. Greedy douchebag corporation skirts around rules to act like greedy douchebag corporation ... following the template well established by greedy douchebag American corporations. Film at 11.

Sorry, but America perfected this particular kind of capitalism. That they're now victim to is is neither surprising, nor sympathy inducing.

Re:0.37% of India's total budget

[rickb928]

India has used satellites to improve weather and crop forecasting, fisheries management, and just plain ol' land use data gathering and other metrics. Their space program largely serves their people by making government and commerce more productive and efficient.

This mission will further develop their technical capabilities, and if it leads to more commercial paid-for launches, they will probably piggyback their own birds on these, saving more money and letting India further exploit space technology to their benefit.

There may be more examples. I just hit the easy ones.

Re:0.37% of India's total budget

[K. S. Kyosuke]

People have tried to quantify the benefits of basic science but have largely failed – but that does not mean it is not important.

1900: "Electrons? Quantum physics? Can you eat that?"

1948: The transistor.

2013: Hell, look around yourself...

Good Lord!

[kaatochacha]

Can't anyone just say "Good Job India, well done, best of luck on your launch and let's hope everything goes OK, welcome to the club"?
Slashdot is the last place I'd expect huge amounts of "Well, if we can't fix all our problem on Earth, we should never go into space".
Because YOU WILL NEVER SOLVE ALL YOUR PROBLEMS ON EARTH.
Sigh.

Mod racist parent down.

[fiannaFailMan]

There's only one answer to that question. Fuck you, you racist piece of shit.