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Space Science

India Joins Galileo Consortium 67

Posted by michael from the bandwagon dept.
ghoul writes "Yahoo! is reporting that both India and China have joined the Galileo Consortium as part of an effort at building a Multipolar world. Of note is the fact while China is giving money (200 Million Euros) India is giving 350 million Euros(almost half a billion dollars) in parts and services as Indian satellite makers are considered world class. Makes you think with all the outsourcing and stuff maybe America's century is coming to an end and this century will belong to India or China. After all one of them is 1/6th of the world and the other 1/5th."
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India Joins Galileo Consortium More

India Joins Galileo Consortium

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  • Global cooperation.

  • Indiana Jones Galileo Consortium (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    wha? ... ohhhh.
  • Makes you think with all the outsourcing and stuff maybe America's century is coming to an end

    Not sure about the outsourcing but you're bang on about the "stuff". It'll bring down any civilization.

  • Wrong "Galileo" link. (Score:5, Informative)

    by dbirchall ( 191839 ) on Friday November 28, 2003 @06:43PM (#7584354) Journal
    Galileo.com [galileo.com] is, despite the image on its homepage that looks for all the world like a GPS mesh, a Central Reservation System in the travel industry. (It competes with best-known SABRE and also with WorldSpan and possibly others - it's been a little while since I worked for a division [cheaptickets.com] of the folks [cendant.com] who own Galileo, so my memory's fading.)

    The European satellite navigation project Galileo is at http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/energy_transport/gal ileo/index_en.htm [eu.int].

    That's what India and China are getting involved with. Airlines, not nations, get involved with Galileo.com.

  • Heh (Score:5, Funny)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Friday November 28, 2003 @06:51PM (#7584403) Homepage Journal
    "India Joins Galileo Consortium"

    I haven't had enough sleep today. I read that as "Indiana Jones and the Galileo Consortium." I just had this image of Harrison Ford saying with that ever so famous smile on his face "The old fool was right, the Earth does orbit the sun."
    • I haven't had enough sleep today. I read that as "Indiana Jones and the Galileo Consortium."

      Same here, except I read it as "Indiana Jones in the Galileo Coliseum." I had the image of Harrison Ford fighting off lions with his whip as the Emperor gave the thumbs-down.

      As it slowly dawned on my very fuzzy brain that there was something very wrong with this image, I had the added bonus of "watching" the Roman Emperor morph into Emperor Palpatine with Darth Vader by his side.

      No, I haven't been toking on the w
  • Makes you think with all the outsourcing and stuff maybe America's century is coming to an end and this century will belong to India or China.

    I don't think so. Both of these countries have political issues that interfere with their reaching their economic potential.

    Both countries have severe educational, economic and political problems. India has a deeply entrenched bureaucracy and strong Marxist political elements. India has an illiteracy rate about 70%.

    China has similar problems, perhaps even worse in

    • Re:India & China (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) on Friday November 28, 2003 @08:40PM (#7584930) Homepage Journal
      Our American political, educational and economic problems, never insignificant, are starting to counterbalance our original advantages of unspoiled resources, strategic position, and freedom. In Confucian China, complacency is a sin; in America, it's a way of life.
      • What have *you* done to make yourself proud to be an American? Or Indian, Chinese, or Brazillian, for that matter?

    • Re:India & China (Score:5, Informative)

      by fault0 ( 514452 ) on Saturday November 29, 2003 @12:13AM (#7585715) Homepage Journal
      > India has an illiteracy rate about 70%.

      Erm, that hasn't been true since around 1970.

      Indian Literacy Rates:
      1951 - 18.33%
      1961 - 28.31%
      1971 - 34.45%
      1981 - 43.56%
      1991 - 52.21%
      2001 - 65.38%

      Assuming another 13% Jump in literacy, India will be at western standards in less than twenty years. It might even be faster than that, because between 1991 and 2001, there was greater change in India as a whole in terms of economic reforms than the whole fifty years since Indian independence before that. In any case, there is already more literate people in India than in the US.
      • India will be at western standards in less than twenty years.

        You are extrapolating in a linear fashion based on the highest growth rate recorded this century. That is VERY unlikely to be valid. It is much more likely that the rate of change will decrease as literacy increases due to the difficulty of inclusion of all groups.

        My guess would be something like:

        2011 - 74%
        2021 - 81%
        2031 - 86%
        2041 - 89%
        2051 - 92%
        2061 - 94%
        2071 - 95%

        Western Europe and the US have literacy rates circa 95%. Some relatively homog

        • Re:India & China (Score:3, Informative)

          by fault0 ( 514452 )
          > You are extrapolating in a linear fashion based on the highest growth rate recorded this century.

          No, as I started, there was a large amount of economic and social reforms put in place after 1991 (when the Rao government took power, and instituted massive reforms in not only education, but the economy-- moving from post-Gandhist "lets leave most Indians as farmers", to a different post Cold War reality. Much like China did in 1978, but in a perhaps more accelerated manner)

          > Western Europe and the U
      • Those are official figures. I would take them with grains of salt.
        My mom worked in the social sevice dept. of Maharashtra state in India. Part of the Depts duty is to help increase literacy.
        Eager officials will add anyone who can draw something resembling signatures to the literacy list. Or simply say "X district (county) added 1000 people to the literate list".. whos to verify ? They conduct literacy campaigns for adults in the same fashion... in 15 days taech them to draw signatures.
        This is not a

    • Re:India & China (Score:3, Insightful)

      by zungu ( 588387 )
      Indian economic potential will be witnessed in few years. Despite the Asian currency crisis, India fared very well. Indian economy is booming right now. Indian space program is painfully put together with many setbacks. Let's give credit to a developing nation that has built it's own launch vehicles and satellites that are very good.
      • Indian space program is painfully put together with many setbacks. Let's give credit to a developing nation that has built it's own launch vehicles and satellites that are very good.

        What sort of objective statement is this...????

        "You know, that guy has had some real trouble passing the exam. Lets give credit to that guy that has passed the exam on his own, and has written some very good answers."
      • The simple logic is that every person (country) which takes the exam (technological achievement) get grades that it deserves. American space program was an amazing achievement, where the NASA put man on moon using elementary computing at its disposal. That was America's A+ grade. India also went the 50 year development route from sounding rockets to Geo-stationary launch vehicles. That is India's A+ grade in its test. I am just saying let's give India due credit for doing its exam ok too. One country's
        • The credit usually goes to those who did something first. India and China have the benefit of standing on the shoulders of those who did it before. The USSR/CCCP and the USA deserve credit for being the inventors...India gets not as much credit because it duplicated the efforts of those that came before. Who remembers who the second person was that noticed what gravity was? Everybody sure remembers who did it first (Newton).
          • You are right the pioneers get the top credit. That is the right of USSR/CCCP and USA in the field of space exploration. However, neither ISA or USSR have given India space technology on a platter. Agreed, Ford Aerospace built the first Indian communication satellites, and Russia is giving India is first cryogenic engines for its Geo-synchronous launch vehicle. However, Indian space program is not exactly "standing on the shoulders" of giants. India has to paintstakingly do its own research and spend t

  • Article has some misleading numbers (Score:5, Informative)

    by notyou2 ( 202944 ) on Friday November 28, 2003 @06:59PM (#7584456) Homepage
    At present, the only global satellite system available to civilians is GPS, but it is accurate only to 100 metres (325 feet) for civilians, or 22 metres (71 feet) for the military, and is under the control of the Pentagon.

    What the hell are they talking about? With off-the-shelf equipment and a clear sky, you can easily get under 10-foot accuracy (I do on a very regular basis). With averaging and/or fancy equipment you can easily exceed that, too.

    If they're talking about accuracy while the military has implemented that signal degredation stuff, it's misleading not to mention that fact. But either way, the military would still be able to do a hell of a lot better than 71-foot accuracy... that's ridiculous.
    • the garmin GPS i've used claims to get about 16t ft accuracy, and starting at the long/lat numbers while i walked around in my back yard seemed to verify that.
    • Indeed, President Clinton cancelled selective availability, as it was called, in May of 2000. This order effectively stopped the intentional degredation of satellite signals (which might aid the enemy). Apparently, the benefits outweighed the potential costs.

      http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/gps/selective_availab ility.htm


    • A friend of mine had a GPS Unit in Chile, and he said it didn't work the entire time he was there, but in the United States it worked fine. This was several years ago.

      Is there less coverage in the Southern Hemisphere?
      • There isn't supposed to be. I believe the military does have the ability to selectively block or degrade the signal based on rough geographic location, though... so depending on the exact timing of your friend's travel, it's possible something was going on in the world that made the U.S. choose to degrade things in Chile (or perhaps all of South America).

        Additionally, most GPS units come with a basemap for only one continent. In particular, most sold in the US only have a north american basemap. If you too
  • The U.S.'s domination as a world power and as a leader in whatever field (in this case, aerospace) will end at one time or another. Perhaps that time is dawning. I don't know, but for certain, looks like others are starting to pull ahead.

  • more articles (Score:4, Informative)

    by jubalj ( 324624 ) on Saturday November 29, 2003 @02:35AM (#7586136) Homepage
    okay the story doesnt really have that much information, if you want to find out more, try:

    http://www.spacetoday.net/Summary/2003
    http://w ww.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2F news%2F2003%2F10%2F31%2Fwspace31.xml
    http://www.s pacedaily.com/2003/031030141843.79tqo7 1o.html
    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articl eshow/293 953.cms
    http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,478 9-184676_ W_1017248,00.html
    http://english.peopledaily.com. cn/200310/28/eng200 31028_126977.shtml

    that should quench your thirst!
    • this should save u some cutin' n pastin'..

      http://www.spacetoday.net/Summary/2003 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2 F news%2F2003%2F10%2F31%2Fwspace31.xml http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/031030141843.79tqo7 1o.html http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/293 953.cms http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,4789-184676_ W_1017248,00.html http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200310/28/eng200 31028_126977.shtml

  • *texan voice*So what? we have the other 19/30 of the world dont we?

  • "After all one of them is 1/6th of the world and the other 1/5th."

    http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/pr i nt /us.html

    "about half the size of Russia; about three-tenths the size of Africa; about half the size of South America (or slightly larger than Brazil); slightly larger than China; about two and a half times the size of Western Europe"

    "world's third-largest country by size (after Russia and Canada) and by population (after China and India); Mt. McKinley is highest point in North America and

    • Re:USA is pretty damn big its own-self (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ghoul ( 157158 ) on Saturday November 29, 2003 @05:52AM (#7586485)
      Actually in todays service oriented world what matters is more the no of skilled people you have to do the work than the amount of land. For example Japan is much more densely populated than India and is a rival to a United States 50 times larger.
      Till now Indias population was that while it had the population the population was not skilled which made it a liability instead of a resource but now the trickle down effect of the nuclear and space programs is being felt in higher levels of education and competency at all levels
      • Ahem, well you should have stated you were speaking of "world population in terms of service oriented skilled labor".. ;-p

        My comment stands and to clarify I will state that USA may be the next 'sleeping giant' but it still has the best overall infrastructure and political climate for massive economic growth... if we'd all just get off our collective ass (or else we'll end up the way China has been for the last century or two, remembering the golden days).

        The recent generations and several following simply
    • Mt. McKinley is highest point in North America and Death Valley the lowest point on the continent

      So what? In my newly independant country of backyardia, Mount Mccompostheap is the highest point and The Big Ditch the lowest.

  • what the (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Wow, how many pro Europe, anti-American hints could be found in that post alone?

    * Throwing out the world "Multipolar". It's also capitalized for extra emphasis.
    * Referencing the money values in euros, even though the world standard is dollars. (Even the Yahoo article did it right. But the article writer decided to switch them around).
    * Of course, the final sentence that says "perhaps America's day is past" stuff

    Of course, when I saw this biased piece of crap article, I immediately knew it was m
    • While it's obvious that there is some strong bias in the oritinal post, your knee-jerk reaction also doesn't really help to paint a nicer picture of the US and its people...

      * Throwing out the world "Multipolar".

      Before Gallileo, the US was the sole provider of a GPS system. Now there'll be another player. I don't see how the term "multipolar" is inappropriate. About the capital M... come on now, how many posts on slashdot are spelled correctly?

      * Referencing the money values in euros, even though the


  • The world is sick of hearing the same old song: "We will save your behinds for your own sake".
    No one is dupe to the fact that US military behavoir is only market expansion
    so that multi-nationals can do business without risking their own behinds.

    US military presence is the private police force of US big business.
    But India and China are to big to be intimidated by US military presence.
    See TIBET and CASHMIRE.
  • http://www.newamericancentury.org/

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