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

Posted by timothy on from the david-bowie-on-high-alert dept.

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.

5 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. 0.37% of India's total budget by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:0.37% of India's total budget by RaceProUK · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
    2. Re:0.37% of India's total budget by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    3. Re:0.37% of India's total budget by petes_PoV · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
  2. Good Lord! by kaatochacha · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.