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Indian Mars Probe Successfully Enters Sun-Centric Orbit
New submitter palemantle writes with this excerpt from The Hindu, updating our earlier mention of the successful launch of India's Mars-bound probe: "In a remarkably successful execution of a complex manoeuvre, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) fired the propulsion system on board the spacecraft for a prolonged duration of 23 minutes from 0049 hours on Sunday. In space parlance, the manoeuvre is called Trans-Mars Injection (TMI). ISRO called it 'the mother of all slingshots.' Celebrations broke out at the control centre of the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore from where the spacecraft specialists gave commands for the orbiter's 440 Newton engine to begin firing. The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also known as Mangalyaan, is designed to demonstrate the technological capability to reach Mars orbit. But the $72m (£45m) probe will also carry out experiments, including a search for methane gas in the planet's atmosphere."
Our chief engineer is trying to deploy a make shift solar sail.
I could do a TMI with an oddly shaped rock and a slingshot..... amateurs.
Countdown to a flood of unfunny, racist Indian call center jokes...
We shall not just send probes, we shall send many many QUALIFIED people to satisfy all the IT needs on the Sun.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Seriously, my humble congrats to the team on their success so far. We need more players in the space game, and knowledge gained will hopefully benefit everyone.
On a more philosophical note, I'd love to see this benefit India as a whole by pointing out to everyone just how insignificant we ALL are in the grand scheme of the universe. While they've "officially" abolished the caste system, it's still there in a lot of ways. The more people realize that Earth is but a tiny speck, the more people will (hopefully...I can dream, right?) begin to treat each other better, especially those deemed to be in a "lower class" by some arbitrary rules that nobody alive has any connection to anymore. Actually, it would be nice if we could all work toward that, not just Indian society.
"So after all this, you make my case for me. To end this stalemate, you must die..."
While I congratulate them on the outstanding technical achievement of this and other feats of their space program, it is a country where any and all available funds need to be going towards resolving the massive poverity, corruption and inequality issues. Over half of the nation's population is poor, 21% of their diseases are water-related,and only 33% even have access to what would be considered normal sanitation facilities. Charities exist by the dozens to deal with a variety of issues in India in trying to clean up these problems, and here is their government spending millions on space missions. To me, that just seems grossly irresponsible. :/
I propose the following be applied to posts predicting racist posts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatulence_humor#Assigning_of_blame
Incidentally, this was a new one for me: "Whoever thunk it stunk it."
India's Mars probe finally leaves Earth-bound orbits on the 1st of December 2013.
On the very same day, China is set to launch its first lunar lander.
Both India and China are from Asia.
Where are the Europeans ?
Where are the Americans ?
What the heck happened to the usually technologically more advanced societies of the Western countries ?
Asia is playing catch up very very fast, and before long, they might even get ahead of you guys !
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
India is like another planet. I had the opportunity to live in India in 1996-1997 and work heavily with Indians. They are such a pleasure to work with (I was working in agriculture) and things go by so softly over there (in Chennai - Manapakkam - at least). I remember thinking that, it felt how I assume it felt in America back in the 40's. I hope that India is able to weave itself into a respectable position with other first-world countries, even if only for the first-world country's sake - for the sake of remembering how to work together as a team for a noble cause.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
I don't think that's what GP said.
GP asked "where are the Europeans and Americans?", perhaps pointing out that lately the US and EU countries are only in the news for fail of various kinds.
In the fifties and again from about 1985-2000, all the big space and science news, the big new machines, etc. were all coming mainly from the US and the UK. About 15 years ago, something happened such that the US in no longer the leading nation it once was. Perhaps that's what GP is referring to.
> Asia is playing catch up very very fast, and before long, they might even get ahead of you guys !
Who do you think is financing all of these new government programs in the US? That's China's money we're living off of. The US is spending WAY more than we make, racking up insurmountable debt to Asia. "The borrower is slave to the lender", as the saying goes. Meaning, a larger and larger portion of our earnings are paid to China in the form of interest. The "great American companies" are largely owned by Asian owners now. They don't have to "get ahead of us", we work for them.
Excellent work by our scientists and engineers at ISRO.
Mangalyaan is thus far proving:
1. How reliable PSLV series is for commercial space-launch.
2. How far India has come in mastery over orbital mechanics - witness the precise application of Oberth effect. This isn't just your granddads Hohmann slingshot. At least not yet.
3. Setting benchmark pricing for Mars transit at USD 70 Mn. for 485 Kg payload viz. 144K USD per Kg.
4. Generating huge impact among school kids. Visits to Nehru planetarium are no longer about US this and Russia that... even though we owe them for being pioneers.
I look forward to the next logical extension viz. manned-mission with the Indian flag atop Olympus Mons.
Varun
When I think of the Sun and science, I can't help but think of the James Bond movie Moonraker where the opposing teams of astronauts / space marines are killing each other in Earth orbit with space lasers, one guy gets hit, and he starts to fall into the Sun.
ISRO called it 'the mother of all slingshots.'
In my head I read that in an Indian accent.
to India, and to ISRO. Excellent engineering. I am genuinely glad for them to have succeeded here. The more countries master this, the better it is for the exploration of space, for technology, and maybe even for peace: engineers employed at carrying out TMI are not working on, say, ICMBs and their ballistics. Goes true also for China, Russia, the US.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
NASA launched the MAVEN probe for Mars on November 18. Now, this probe is India's first Mars probe, so it is special in that regard. It was launched on a rocket weaker than the Delta II. Given all the hoopla Iran has been getting for its rocket development, I wonder when it will launch its first probe outside of the Earth system.
That's completely wrong. In fact, we are spending a larger and larger portion of our budget on social programs:
http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/Hist/BudGDP.jpg
http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/infographics/2012/10/SR-fed-spending-numbers-2012-p2-2-chart-3_HIGHRES.jpg
Science, infrastructure, and other spending that benefits everyday citizens is being squeezed out by ineffective welfare programs.
Gee, your post was sent from 'dem dang ol' lec-tronics thingums and chances are you didn't access Slashdot from the public library as your only means. Put that in your pipe and schmoke it down. So chill out there Slick 50. You better checcck -ch ch check out what the world is nowadays. I think your argument predates a few current realities such as - those electronics now provide vast amounts of exploitable real time intelligence and that there are profits gained in the shadows from aforementioned exploitation by "vast enterprises", (while people either defend their denial while they secretly plead to the universe that they don't get ganked by a black hat). - hard work is the devil, (no shit), because to work hard nowadays means to surrender your integrity at a job that fucks you on your wages and that limits your hours so as to duck having to consider you as a full time employee to side-step having to give you any damn benefits as your body wears down and you grow older. Long gone are the days where new accomplishments ring the bell of the future because the people have either gotten used to being exploited or rot away faster as the bile eats them away on the inside because they feel powerless to change things to where pride and integrity have been restored. Dig around and find how much modern technology there is that will never see the light of the market because it clashes with the financial forecasts of corporations unwilling to adapt to thriving in a new jungle while people like me have to navigate across the broken economic engines and greed to find enough to pay my debts while avoid being turned into another damned sharecropper filling their role as a tool in another misguided corporate strategy implementation. It's hard enough to find a job or niche in your field while the economy collapses all around you wile bafoons are at the helm in D.C. running around like chickens with their heads cut off babbling rhetoric that insults all but the most basic forms of intelligence. And it would actually mean something to people if your statement about businesses building stuff if they would take responsibility and clean up the toxins that result from "building stuff" - but oh hell no! Just keep on providing us with cheap plastic junk that we don't need even if we are willing to buy it. how the fuck do you expect us to cure cancer when businesses knowingly and willingly keep cramming carcinogens down our throats? And if you even had a farm, you have to deal with shit from Monsanto - not the poor little undesirable kid playing his video games because it's the only way he can pay attention for any length of time because the ADD and fucked effects of his meds because he was exposed to endocrine disruptors while in the womb. So, give consideration to bitching about the shit that businesses do to fuck us over, better yet do something about it. For starters, you have mother fuckers with PhD's working in convenience stores if they are lucky enough. They might be a good pool to work with to do something worthwhile and don't try to exploit them. Try to provide a solution rather than seek a shady profit. After that, if you have people unwilling (not unable) to get off their asses exploit those fuckers. Shitcan media that is nothing more than weird spinoffs of sesame street for adults that has us hurdling towards idiocracy and out of control. Quit thinking in terms of survival and realize a course of action where money and industry are a side effect of perseverance. Lead our generations with integrity and wisdom so that they can know the same for themselves. Turn the surveillance camera on yourself, watch the playback and try to be honest with yourself with what you see. Be humble enough to do the right thing.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it in a "Sun-centric" orbit before it even left the launchpad?
Just saying.
Is it just me, or does anyone else need a screen shot of the path in a Kerbal Space simulation?
They I hear the term "slingshot" (from TFS), I imagine a multi-pass loop around earth making a gravitational slingshot out part Earth's sphere of influence.
What a remarkable ignorant comment. It's amazing how much milage people get out of distorting the fact that China is the largest foreign holder of American debt. First of all, they're not the largest holder, America is -- the majority of money owed by the US Gov is owed to Americans. Secondly, of the portion of the debt that is owed to foreigners, the list is over a hundred countries. Like many long lists, the #1 position does not imply majority (consider the a list of 25, 22, 20, 19, 17, 16 -- the first entry does not contain the majority of the sum, and that list is only six long). In fact, only about one sixteenth of US debt is owed to the Chinese.
"That's China's money we're living off of"? That's not even China's dime out of every dollar we're living off of. I know, Sarah Palin said otherwise, but Sarah Palin is notoriously bad at math...
Nonsense, the American space program is far ahead of the rest of the world. Who has rovers on Mars? who has done massive inventory of planets around other stars? who has craft half way to Pluto? Who has craft orbiting Mercury to map the planet, that discovered ice and organics at its poles?
The Apollo program was an interesting beast. It coupled a quasi government agency up with private industry to produce the hardware and software necessary to land us on the Moon and return us safely. A lot of people don't realize that the Apollo program had pieces in almost every single state in the union. My uncle worked designing the seals for the spacecraft and space suits here in Rhode Island.
And inside every State House in the Union there's a piece of Moon rock. Yeah, that's where they went.
It's better than that. Although there is a deficit, the US still collects more revenue than it borrows. When you sum it all up, out of every dollar we're spending, less than cents of it is money borrowed from the Chinese. To claim "that's China's money we're spending" when over 98 cents out of every dollar isn't is just patently absurd.
Plus the U.S. is heavily involved in the International Space Station and in another project which I find more interesting and while terrestrial it's basis is in the stars. It's the ITER project. The U.S. is one of the sponsors of that project too. Fusion my friend - or commercial fusion.
"less than two cents of it"
Just a few facts in brief:
Over two thirds of the money spent by the US government is collect from revenue, not borrowed.
Of the money that is borrowed, the majority of it is borrowed domestically.
Of the money that is borrowed from foreigners, less than a quarter of it is borrowed from the Chinese.
Very little of the money we spend is "China's money".
A slingshot speeds up a projectile. Planets slingshot space probes, making them travel much faster than propellants alone could accomplish. Do you play catch with a slingshot? In this case, the probe was slowed down by a planet. A reverse slingshot, if anything.
I come here for the love
Ghosh, Rosie, I'd love to surf on over there, but my nurse is leaving, so no more channel flipping tonight for me. I'm sure that once there whatever fee might be involved in pursuing my life's dreams would be most nominal and certain to be applied only to defray necessary expenses.
Speaking of which, I could well be in a most wonderful position to make a substantial investment in this regard, as I've been left a rather embarrassingly large stack of old treasury notes in a safe deposit box which belonged to my dear recently departed uncle, a most kindly gentleman who entrusted these bonds to me in the hopes I might better myself.
Unfortunately what with my rather extensive life-support needs and their attendant, er, attendants, I'm unable to get across the country to pick them up - a task which may not be delegated according to the bank's officers. There is a possible solution, in that a professional friend at one of my city's consulates (which I fear must remain nameless out of respectful discretion) has most generously offered me the free use of the embassy's private jet if only I can provide for the small cost of the fuel needed. For the pittance of but $74,000USD then the task is complete. (Needless to say, whomever was instrumental in providing such a trifling investment would be generously rewarded; I was thinking a, um, finder's fee, shall we call it? on the order of 1/3 that amount might be a proper gesture of gratitude, don't you? - plus expenses, of course. If you could but help in this time of need against what promises to be a large windfall, I would truly be most thankful in a remunerative fashion.
Please respond to lynchspammers@upthine.org. I anxiously await your no doubt kindly, generous, and humbling missive.
Nonsense, the American space program is far ahead of the rest of the world. Who has rovers on Mars? who has done massive inventory of planets around other stars? who has craft half way to Pluto? Who has craft orbiting Mercury to map the planet, that discovered ice and organics at its poles?
And the Chinese are starting to reach for the planets. With humans. We're redoing versions of what we have done before. And while the Chinese are playing catch up, as well as the Indians, we are not going any further than what we are now.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
the USA is the only country to send men to another world. the Chinese talk of walking on the moon in 2025.
the USA is the only country to send men to another world. the Chinese talk of walking on the moon in 2025.
So far. So in a few years, you'll be able to say "Well, yeah - but we were first!" BFHD
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
first let's see them up their launch payload capacity by a factor of 30 from their current biggest rocket
Maybe you've forgot how those people like JP Morgan and Carnegie would likewise destroy people that had great ideas like Nikolai Tesla or prey on the scientists that moved from war-torn Germany/Europe to the 'land of opportunity' (eg. Wernher von Braun)
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
It doesn't matter. If you think Tesla was the big loser who was somehow "destroyed" by JP Morgan, the fact remains that the age of the great industrialists was way back then. The claim was that today is the period of the great American industrial empires. To anybody with any idea of American history, that idea is preposterous. Today's companies are primarily owned by millions of grandma's via their 401K.
I happen to disagree with the assertion that Tesla was destroyed - we both know his name, despite the fact that he was more talk than action.
A parallel /. article is 'Millionaire Plans Mission To Mars In 2018'.
It is very sad to see such extremities; each of the 1.237 billion (1.237E9 or 1.237E12 depending on your persuasion but either way many more than this now) Indians lobs in an average of 5.8c whilst one millionaire (ie one person) can attempt a similar sort of Mars expedition.
This...was beautiful.