ISRO Launches Astrosat, India's First Dedicated Space Observatory

vasanth writes with a link to the Hindu, which reports: A few days after it celebrated the successful completion of a year around the Red planet by its first inter-planetary mission — the Mars Orbiter, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday launched its first dedicated multi wavelength space observatory into space, besides six satellites for Canada, Indonesia and the United States. Though the national space agency has launched satellites for Indonesia and Canada earlier, this is the first time ISRO is launching satellites for the United States. ASTROSAT's sensors will provide coverage in optical, Ultraviolet, low and high energy X-ray ranges, rather than the concentrating on a narrower range. Major institutions all over India will take part in the new craft's observations.

Comments

Well done India

[Chrisq]

This really is an achievement to be proud of.

Re:Well done India

[ComputerGeek01]

If you mean the PSLV? Then hell yes I am 100% behind you on that one. That SOB is a modern marvel and it isn't getting anywhere near enough attention for its success rate.

But the satellite seems rushed, almost like that wanted to get an MVP up into space to prove some point. First of all, no one is saying why we are launching 300 Kg of meat into space along with everything else. But given that fact that everything else is described as a "micro-satellite" I can only assume that assembly and deployment of the Astrosat are the reason. Second, it is only projected to last 5 years; is that even worth the trouble? Why not take that time, hammer out the kinks and build something that lasts?

Re:Well done India

[KGIII]

While you do, certainly, have a valid point - I'd submit that there's a nicer way to state it. When you address things like an asshole people will treat you like an asshole. Then worse, they'll be prejudiced and ignore your views simply because of how you stated them and will discount others who do back up your points regardless of their merits. You've not only done yourself a disservice but have affected others as well, albeit trivially in this case.

Re:Well done India

[Lobachevsky]

Interestingly, the largest problem facing India isn't lack of food or money (there's a surplus of food, and gives what are the equivalent of food stamps in the U.S. but called ration cards in India) and there the fiscal budget is healthy (despite India receiving aid, it is a net donor of aid, not receiver; India gives a lot to Africa, more than the world gives India. This is why statements like "stop aid to India!" get me to chuckle, because it's not punitive against India. India can easily just lower its aid to Africa and not affect its own budget. Besides, aid doesn't work the way people think it does. It's not a blank check. It's a contract earmarked for certain projects, and certainly not for space research. Does aid potentially free up money? Possibly, if it were for a project India was going to spend its own money on, then yes, it will free up that capital for something else. Often, the aid is not done this way. Aid is ear-marked for underserved areas and projects, and by definition of "underserved" it means India wasn't spending its own money in those areas to begin with.).

It might seem odd that India gives more aid than it receives, and begs the question why India receives aid at all. This is because aid, despite the name, is not free, it's not charity, it's technically a loan and like any investment requires to be paid back with interest. It's like student loans, the interest is low relative to the high risk population of high school students. This low interest relative to the high risk is subsidized, that's the part that's free, not the entire value of the loan. India is one of the safest places to give aid because the risk is relatively low. It's like giving a student loan to a kid who already is paying for his classes with part-time jobs. It's more complicated than this, of course, but this basic analogy should at least elevate the discussion above "Durr, poor country gets aid and spends it on rockets". But I doubt people want to elevate their discussion above what they're comfortable with.

Re:Well done India

[Lobachevsky]

I briefly alluded to the largest problems facing India and while I mentioned food and money aren't them, I didn't really go into the problem of what they are. These are the largest problems, which food and money on their own do not solve:

1. Corruption. There is massive amounts of corruption, mafia-mob style with politicians either in their pockets or the crime syndicates getting their own patsies elected. This leads to goliath levels of black market subterfuge. That food abundance? Yes, India has enough food to feed everyone, nearly twice over. However, almost half of all its food is stolen en route to the recipients. This food is either diverted by crime syndicates and then sold for a profit elsewhere, or they use color printers and lamenators and print fake ration cards. Throwing more food and more money at the problem just lines the pockets of their crime syndicates. The only solution is Big-Brother style surveillance, rfid tracking, and other technological solutions to make crime not worth it. One of the solutions India is trying is wifi-enabling the ration card depots so the serial id of the ration card can be scanned and the computer will authenticate the id and display the photo from the central database.

2. Tax evasion. Next to no one pays taxes in India. Most of that is legal, since the tax code in India only affects top 10% of India's population. However, less than 1.5% actually pay taxes. The federal budget of India can quintuple overnight if it can actually enforce taxes on even 8% of the population. That means five times the resources on education, food, roads, etc. The reason for the piss-poor tax collection was that their equivalent of the IRS did everything by hand with paper. Again, Big-Brother style surveillance and auditing has helped. They've started computerizing all their taxes, and banks and large employers are required to report all balance over $10k USD (which for Indians puts them in the top-10%). India even signed an agreement with the U.S. where their banks now share information to each others' tax agencies. This means Indians have fewer places to hide their wealth (and similarly, Americans who were trying to hide wealth in India). This automation, surveillance, and reporting has just begun and already tripled the tax collection abilities from 0.5% to 1.5%. So far, the Indian govt. has been giving amnesty and forgiveness if Indians come clean now about their tax malfeasance in the past, but this window will expire at the end of 2016 and penalties will begin.

3. Oil subsidies. If anyone cares about money not going to schools and food, focusing on the space program and not oil subsidies is laughable. The space program is $0.3bn. The oil subsidies is 100x bigger, at $30bn. This money is mostly going to UAE, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, countries India doesn't particularly enjoy giving money to. The reason for the oil subsidy is that people in India need to work, unemployment is a huge problem, and they can't do work if they can't get to work on their scooters, motorcycles, and compact cars. But many cannot afford the cost of gasoline, at least they couldn't when oil was $120/barrel. Similarly, higher gasoline puts stress on shipment and trains, which results in higher prices of food and all retail goods. As a result, (and not a good idea if you ask me) India put subsidies on gasoline to make it cheaper. This is the exact opposite of what the U.S. and Europe do, where they actually tax gasoline at extortionist rates (30% in some cases), rivaling the taxes on cigarettes, and use all that extra money for roads and other transportation projects. This was a huge problem, but their fiscal-conservative party is in power and took the opportunity of falling oil prices. When oil fell to $60/barrel, they removed all oil subsidies. There's no special gasoline /tax/ like in the U.S. and Europe, but at least there's no subsidy.

The reason I point all this out is the irony that on the one hand, we deplore surveillance, tracking, Big-Brother-esque tactics, but on the other hand, it has been the most effective tool to grow the federal budget and expand schools, roads, and food subsidies.

Re:Well done India

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't see much Big-Brother-esque there to be honest. A healthy bureaucracy is a must for any large organization and is a cornerstone in ensuring real freedom, it can't fix bad legislature but legislature doesn't matter if the rules aren't implemented neutrally and efficiently. It just so happens that technology (a lot of it) is necessary to have a healthy bureaucracy servicing over a billion people.

Re:Well done India

[Anonymous Coward]

This really is an achievement to be proud of.

Really Kumar?
Nigeria has a few satellites in orbit.
India doesn't make semiconductors, never mind multi spectral detectors.
Congratulation India in joining the we just bought a satellite club.

USA outsources again

[turkeydance]

Merica!

Re: USA outsources again

[Anonymous Coward]

Capitalism at it's finest.

Take that, you European commies!

Re:USA outsources again

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

American start-up space companies that pay taxes and buys parts made in American, gives jobs to Americans who also pay taxes, etc.

This? This may "save" money but it's also less money in the USA and more money in India. That's making the USA poorer.

Re:USA outsources again

[LifesABeach]

Congrats India. I cannot help but also enjoy looking out into space. And lets face it, looking at the Ganges river and declaring it sacred while hanging a duke in it at the same time sends conflicting messeages.

Re: USA outsources again

[Anonymous Coward]

Apostrophe misuse at its finest.

It's means "it is".

How about Russia?

[Anonymous Coward]

What stops the Russians from providing the same level of successful launches?

Re:How about Russia?

[Anonymous Coward]

Lack of technical competence.

Re:How about Russia?

[Anonymous Coward]

But how come, they won the space race?

Re:How about Russia?

[Anonymous Coward]

India wasn't competing then.

Re:How about Russia?

[invictusvoyd]

What stops the Russians from providing the same level of successful launches?

Faulty fuel tank seals

Re:Seriously India?

[OzPeter]

Your country is a smelly shithole of poverty, sexism, corruption, and superstition

I see that you are familiar with the majority of the southern states in the US.

Re:Seriously India?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok. Let us take world's largest economy.
Poverty --> Loads of it. 1% and 99% debate
Sexism --> Please follow the election news coverage.
Corruption --> Car pollution levels are checked and rigged...all with technology.
Superstition --> Tarrot reading is *not* a business, but hobby.

So what's the point?

ISRO's message to Canada, Indonesia and the USA

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Thank you! Come again.

Re:ISRO's message to Canada, Indonesia and the USA

[invictusvoyd]

It's more like "Thank you! but we don't need your cryogenic engines anymore ! ".

Re:ISRO's message to Canada, Indonesia and the USA

[KGIII]

The first data bits returned where, when deciphered, "Do the needful."

Re:Seriously India?

[Anonymous Coward]

OK, so which country would you live in? You seriously compared the gang-rapes and honor killings to people saying things on TV?

Nice job, India!

[Anonymous Coward]

And you only have to deal with this:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-34376988

So glad...

[Anonymous Coward]

...that my taxes are going into India via my country's foreign aid programme. Feels good to help feed those hungry people.

This one is purely astronomy

[Anonymous Coward]

ISRO defines the scientific objectives of ASTROSAT mission as:
* To understand high energy processes in binary star systems containing neutron stars and black holes.
* Estimate magnetic fields of neutron stars.
* Study star birth regions and high energy processes in star systems lying beyond our galaxy.
* Detect new briefly bright X-ray sources in the sky.
* Perform a limited deep field survey of the Universe in the Ultraviolet region.

Unlike most other satellite launches by India used for commerce and weather forecasting, this one is purely astronomy (hence the name).

40% of slashdot visitors are from India

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/slashdot.org
Just an interesting factoid.

Re:40% of slashdot visitors are from India

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but their English is mediocre at best so they likely just lurk and read and never post.

Re:40% of slashdot visitors are from India

[Anonymous Coward]

Indian with mediocre English chiming in: I'd bet most of of ALL slashdot users are lurkers, not just Indians.

Re:Seriously India?

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's face it, school shootings here in the U.S. are honor killings. It's always some geek or nerd who feels they're being disrespected by their classmates and teachers and wants to defend their pride.

We also have plenty of parents killing children and children killing parents, all stemming from feeling disrespected. We have kids killing their parents because their xbox saved games were deleted as punishment. But like 'ethnic' foods and 'ethnic' clothing, where we reserve that name for non-western stuff, we use "honor killing" only if it's a non-western dude feeling disrespected, and we give them more pathological names like bipolar/schizo/ptsd/(insert psycho-analysis label) when it's a homegrown nutcase who goes postal. Heck, we have "going postal" as a catch phrase.

Do you consider it odd that these non-western places have zero bipolar/schizo/ptsd killers or folks "going postal"? It's not that they don't exist, it's not like the only folks who need meds are in the west. It's just that when these folks who need meds go postal in a non-western place, it's a problem "all of them" have. If you find zero article about people "who need meds" from country X, odds are those people you think are "normal" committing crimes in country X actually need meds.

Re:Seriously India?

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, there are crimes that vary depending on wealth. The U.S. has a problem with sex slave dungeons. I've come across WAY too many stories of creepy dudes kidnapping 8-15 yr olds and keeping them as their sex slaves in their basement. If those same creepy dudes couldn't afford a house and lived with their parents and cousins, they'd probably find dark alleys and other places to commit their crime. All those "have you seen this kid?" ads on milk cartons should creep you the fuck out over the potential number of dungeons here in the U.S. For every one or two teen girls who manages to escape from one f'd up couple, how many don't?

This is similar to the drug problem in the U.S. where blacks are more likely to be arrested than whites despite equal drug abuse rates, because blacks are poorer and live with their parents and likely do drugs in public places with heavy police presence while whites can do drugs in private.

Re:Seriously India?

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, so you admit that internal problems don't mean you can't have a space program?

Has to be said:

[Anonymous Coward]

Pleased to be seeing the launch of the satellite, now if you could just to describe for me the version of Windows it is running?