Indian Moon Mission Launched 305
hackerdownunder writes "India's maiden lunar mission (Chandrayaan-1) got off to a flying start today. Describing the launch as 'perfect and precise,' the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), G Madhavan Nair, said that it would be 14 days before the satellite would enter into lunar orbit.
Chandrayaan carries eleven payloads: five designed and developed in India, three from the European Space Agency, one from Bulgaria and two from NASA."
Re:How things are turning out. (Score:0, Informative)
India still also has a huge problem with poverty. There's still disease, unclean water, etc.
From my limited understanding, that has to do with the Indian Caste System, [wikipedia.org] and doesn't represent the overall economic well being of India.
The only cure for the poverty in India is a social revolution similar to the one in the US during the 1960s.
Re:How things are turning out. (Score:5, Informative)
India is not / no longer part of the third world.
I agree with everything you said, excepted the quote above. India *is* part of the Third World in all the definitions I know:
- Not aligned with either the West or East in Cold War
- Not a country with high HDI (Human Development Index)
- Is a "developing country"
But maybe you have another definition for it?
Re:Old-Fashioned Navel-Gazing (Score:5, Informative)
Cut down version of the above:
They made it easier for companies to outsource to india and invested in education so they had something to sell(labour).
Re:How things are turning out. (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Great - More to know about moon but what about (Score:5, Informative)
Not that old chestnut again.
We've had 6 manned missions and a few probes to the moon, all commissioned by a handful of governments. Our oceans are being surveyed constantly, by both satellites and survey ships (including submersibles) sponsored by governments, research establishments and commercial operators alike.
The moon missions just generate more publicity (ignoring the outliers like Jacques Cousteau).
Re:How things are turning out. (Score:4, Informative)
BJP govt instilled the country with some pride.
BJP is a fascist party with deep seated animosity towards anyone who is not an hindu. During the BJP regime, they and their supporting parties unleashed some of the worst atrocities against minorities in India.
To state that they have somehow instilled pride in the Indians is like saying that the Nazi party instilled pride in the Germans. That is to say that we (Indians) don't need that kind of pride. Thank you very much.
Also your claim that the moon shot will address poverty comes from the same school of thought that believes in the discredited "trickle down" theory of development which essentially says that if you continue to pamper the rich that the money will somehow magically reach the poor.
We know how well that has turned out. The wage disparity between the rich and the poor has never been more stark. The poor are poorer (google farmer suicides in India) and the rich are richer (google new Indian billionaires).
I am fully in support of the Indian space programme and the wonderful work that ISRO is doing, but let us not kid ourselves - the moon mission has nothing whatsoever to do with mitigating poverty.
mark parent "shortsighted" (Score:2, Informative)
India's space program is different from those in US and other "developed" countries. India has always focused on the practical uses of space science. Communication, weather forecasts, delivering payloads etc. (instead of sending probes to pluto)
Elsewhere "space programs came as spinoffs of military programs, so the things the space program was expected to deliver were things that could be used in defense," says S.K. Das, a former ISRO official.
wrong (Score:5, Informative)
you sound like a holistic economist, even a neocon republican. those days are at an end.
this recent crisis have shown us how dangerous unwatched, ungoverned, unregulated capitalism can be. entire world economy brought down by a handful of rogue megacorporations juggling funds in united states.
that wont happen again.
Anonymous Coward (Score:2, Informative)
The PSLV-XL itself costs only 80 crore rupee (800 million rupees) or less than 20 million USD
Re:How things are turning out. (Score:1, Informative)
Extremist Hindu attacks on Christian Indians [timesonline.co.uk]
"Gauri Prasad Rath, the president of the VHP in Orissa, said: 'I do not condemn the violence against Christians. I condemn the killing of Hindu sage Swami Laxmananda Saraswati
This absurdity despite the fact that evidence points towards Maoist extremists, who have, in fact, claimed responsibility for the killing.
India is going to continue to have serious social and political problems until they get past their caste history.
Re:How things are turning out. (Score:2, Informative)
ISRO generates Rs.1.5 to the economy for every Rs.1 that it uses in funding. This is the immediate return alone. The sustained returns (improvement in education and agriculture through remote sensing), and commercial application of its inventions are not included in this figure. The goal of ISRO is to promote space research to benefit as much of the population as possible.
ISRO is also selling commercial launch and remote sensing and imagery services through it's commercial division - Antirix corp which is making a profit.
More references:
http://www.isro.org/citizencharter.htm [isro.org]
http://www.isro.org/international.htm [isro.org]
http://www.isro.org/commercial.htm [isro.org]
http://www.isro.org/rrssc/img_ser.htm [isro.org]
http://www.isro.org/training_facilities.htm [isro.org]
Re:How things are turning out. (Score:3, Informative)
You are applying a very, very limited definition of religion, almost to the point of being a straw man attack. Personally, I don't believe that God created man in his image, or built the planet Earth, or even caused the big bang. I don't believe that God reaches down and cures people's cancer overnight, or that he causes hurricanes and earthquakes to punish those who anger him. I'm not at all convinced that he does or ever has put holy words into the minds of prophets, or inspired any book that holds the answers to life's mysteries.
But I do believe in a higher power. It's not a logical belief, I have no proof or even anecdotal evidence. For all I know it is a curious perversion of brain chemistry or just something that has been engrained into me from my youth. I don't let it rule my morality, my morality is defined very simply as 'do unto others...'. It certainly doesn't change the way I see and understand science. It doesn't affect my life, or anyone elses, in any negative way.
I often go to read creationist websites, simply to be prepaired with counter-arguments if someone tries to defend creationism as science. One of the most common themes is that science is attacking religion just as much as religion is attacking science. Now, when religion is encroaching on science, science has every right to fight back using evidence, fact, and logic. But when those who would defend science continue attacking religion beyond the area that science speaks, how is that any different?
The point is, religious views don't have to constrain science. Gregor Mendel was a monk when he discovered the laws of genetic inheritence. Charles Darwin saw no conflict between the 'Origin of the Species' and the christian religion. Copernicus was a Catholic Cleric for most of his life, including when he published 'On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres'.
Watch the Launch Video (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Old-Fashioned Navel-Gazing (Score:2, Informative)
"And we haven't been back in a while."
Need I remind you that the current Indian mission isn't a manned mission. While it's true the U.S. hasn't had a manned lunar mission in 36 years, we've launched unmanned lunar missions much more recently (Clementine and Lunar Prospector come to mind).
Re:Old-Fashioned Navel-Gazing (Score:3, Informative)
I guess you didn't get the clue the first time round and/or are too lazy to do research.
Crude oil (theories otherwise and evidence for non-organic alternatives notwithstanding) comes from organic materials, i.e. fossil fuels. And whist it's possibly that one of Saturn's moons does have life and might supposedly have reserves of fossil fuels, there's zero evidence for that. What you're thinking of is Titan and its methane seas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_geological_features_on_Titan [wikipedia.org]
Yes, methane on Earth generally comes from organic sources (e.g. cows), but it occurs otherwise.
Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on fuels by any means; by all means correct me where appropriate.