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Space

Indian Moon Mission to Have Landing Component 278

Posted by michael from the cosmic-curry dept.
Anil Kandangath writes "Last month, it was announced that the Indian moon mission Chandrayan I would have a component that would land on the moon to function as an impactor. For all those who complain about India spending big bucks on its space program, The Scientific Indian has a list of updates about the space program's plans for this year which includes two cartography satellites, a satellite based 'total disaster management system', a few communication satellites and a satellite launch for the European Union."
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Indian Moon Mission to Have Landing Component More

Indian Moon Mission to Have Landing Component

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  • Lies... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Allow me to translate:

    [...] which includes two spy satellites, a satellite based 'total spy management system', a few spy satellites and a spy satellite launch for the European Union."

  • The Gig is Up (Score:4, Funny)

    by MrAsstastic ( 851637 ) on Sunday January 30, 2005 @05:11AM (#11518925)
    Hellooooo, the U.S. never landed on the moon. I strongly doubt India will ever have any success either.
    • Dummy, who has the largest movie industry on the planet?


      None of those stupid wooden actors who can't even remember their lines ("a small step", hah!) we want BIG MUSICAL NUMBERS ON THE MOON!

  • Competition (Score:3, Insightful)

    by nnnneedles ( 216864 ) on Sunday January 30, 2005 @05:12AM (#11518927)
    Why is EU paying india to do it when they could use the Arianne rockets in france and keep the money at home..

    • Re:Competition (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ciroknight ( 601098 ) on Sunday January 30, 2005 @05:25AM (#11518963)
      I think that ever since things have been sour between India and the European Union (specifically, UK), that now is the time for the two to make up and be friends again. Since India is one of the largest population groups on earth, it would do the European Union loads of good to have such a powerful ally on their hands. Plus, the Industrialization of India is far behind in some places, and this gives the chance for companies from the EU to come in, buy land, start producing things, and shipping them to the rest of the world. Kinda like the old colonization, but I think this time the European Union has good intentions on getting them back on their good side.

      Allies are a powerful weapon, even in peace time, and I think one thing that we need to remember is in order for their to be a lasting peace between us all, we need to all work together.

      • Re:Competition (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Triskele ( 711795 )
        Huh? In what sense are things sour between India and the EU? The UK in particular has a good relationship with India and always has done despite a rocky patch after Independence.


        And if you think India is under-industrialised and that this is an opportunity for the EU to buy cheap. India has far more wealth than you realise.

      • Re:Competition (Score:5, Interesting)

        by meringuoid ( 568297 ) on Sunday January 30, 2005 @08:09AM (#11519294)
        things have been sour between India and the European Union (specifically, UK)

        Not for a long time... India and the UK had a bit of a rocky divorce, true, especially with the whole partition thing, but they've got on very well since then. Have you seen how many fighter jets the Indians buy from the UK? And how many vindaloos the English devour?

        ESA is separate from Arianespace, so European missions fly on rockets of all nations. Mars Express was launched on a Russian rocket, Huygens piggybacked on an American probe... A lot of European satellites do fly on Ariane rockets, Ariane being a very cost-effective option, but there's no exclusive contract going on.

        You're probably right that the EU and India might be interested in closer cooperation, though... India wants to become rich, and an increase of trade with the EU would certainly help; meanwhile, the EU is already enormously rich, but doesn't have the global influence to go with it in the way the USA does. Alliance between Europe and India would certainly help both.

        • Actually, the UK is a net exporter of curry to India; UK curry manufacturers (often founded by immigrants from the Indian subcontinent) now export curry paste/mix to the rest of the world, including India. Meanwhile, tikka masala recently was acknowledged as the English national dish.

          Going the other way, a few years ago, the Indian conglomerate Tata Group bought English tea company Tetley's.

    • Re:Competition (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You can't use Ariane rockets in France. No Ariane was ever launched in France ;)

      All Ariane rockets are launched in French Guyana, a french DOM (departement d'outre-mer, overseas district) on the coast of South America.
    • maybe they're overbooked.

      or it's just simply cheaper to use the indians for that particular launch. or it's a co-operative operation(indians footing part of the bill). or maybe just whatever.

  • On the plus side... (Score:3, Funny)

    by mikeophile ( 647318 ) on Sunday January 30, 2005 @05:16AM (#11518939)
    Even a failed mission can function as an impactor.

  • New outsourcing ideas. (Score:4, Funny)

    by millwall ( 622730 ) on Sunday January 30, 2005 @05:23AM (#11518960)
    I'm sure this is just the first step to outsource NASA to India.
    • And I'm sure you're gonna be modded up for saying something as silly as this. Never underestimate a good conspiracy theory to get karma here...

      NASA won't "outsource" anything, they'll partner with India perhaps, like they partnered with Russia to have access to Baikonur. That means the US would have access to more space facilities at comparatively little extra cost, and on the political scale, India would become a closer US ally.

      But does it mean people in Houston or Cape Canaveral would get sacked because
      • So stop your karma-whoring and go back into your troll box..

        It's a joke. Laugh.

        Seriously, get off your fucking high horse and quit trying to refute a point that wasn't even made. Look how many stories and discussions we have on slashdot about outsourcing to india. It's only natural to want to crack a joke about outsourcing to india in this article. If anyone is a karma whore or a troll here, it's you, for trying to start a big argument WHEN THERE ISN'T ONE. It's a joke for fuck's sake. Take your me

  • Problems (Score:4, Funny)

    by wertarbyte ( 811674 ) on Sunday January 30, 2005 @05:38AM (#11518990) Homepage
    "Bangalore, we have a problem..." - "Please describe your problem." - "We are leaking oxygen" - "Try restarting your landing computer" (Yes, I know this mission is not manned)

    • Re:Problems (Score:2, Funny)

      by Dabido ( 802599 )
      "Bangalore, we have a problem..." - "Please describe your problem." - "We are leaking oxygen" - "Try restarting your landing computer"

      Doesn't happen till Chandrayan XIII, (as you know) and it actually goes like this:
      "Bangalore, we have a problem..."
      "Please describe your problem."
      "We're leaking oxygen"
      "Okay, I am raising an incident number for you, please write this down. 9856134. If a service technician doesn't contact you within twenty four hours, please phone back quoting the incident number."
      "B

  • Who needs the Quik-E-Mart (Score:3, Funny)

    by AussieBastard ( 587090 ) on Sunday January 30, 2005 @05:48AM (#11519009)
    "How accurately the impactor will land could be a technological trial for future soft landings"
    In other words, the space equivalent of "thank you, come again"?
  • First it was the 2Mbit/s for $2.30USD now its the Moon landing Mission

  • Telemedicine (Score:2, Interesting)

    by muditgarg ( 829569 )
    This article [indianexpress.com] talks about plans to introduce telemedicine through satlellites. This move , if successful could have far-reaching effects in India , especially since even basic healthcare facilities are out of reach for many in rural India. What is also commendable is that organisations using this for social good would not be charged for the service

  • Re Spending Money on Poor People (Score:4, Insightful)

    by anand78 ( 832850 ) on Sunday January 30, 2005 @07:18AM (#11519190)
    Wait a second, this is 101% wrong. India does spend money on poor. But as you know for spending money you need to generate it first. And no indian satellite program is used for "educational" purposes unlike western countries.
    Now coming to Western countries, well in the name of free trade agreement all the western countries have done is to ensure that the latest technologies are so costly that developing countries are forced not to use it. The whole Drug patent thing that India had to subscribe to made our generic drugs costlier than what a person would earn in a whole months of work.
    In terms of technology transfers it is pathetic even mundane things like a microwave oven is a thing of luxury for many Indians.
    Talk about environment we have all the players like Mercedes, Chevvy, Hyundai, Toyota none of the companies give clean cars to India. If they do its cost is equal to 20 years of a common mans salary.
    Moral of the story If the western counrtries dont help us we help ourselves.
  • EUA has giving more attention to Brazil on the Satellite Vehicle Launching [iae.cta.br], because the base of Alcântara [spaceimaging.com] is so near the Equator line reducing the use of gas [globo.com] to launch the roquets.
  • ...to the oft heard comment, "Jeezus, where is your call center - on the MOON?!"
  • Once India has its space program up and running, we can outsource NASA to India. That'll save us a fortune! I'm sure those rocket scientists will be able to get work at their local Wal-Marts.

  • Indian priorities (Score:5, Insightful)

    by afarhan ( 199140 ) <farhan.phonestack@com> on Sunday January 30, 2005 @08:39AM (#11519420)
    I have had enough of crap about India.

    It is time you all woke up to and figured out that USA is as bad as any other country.

    We may have more illiterates than any other country in the world, but you forget that India also has the largest number of engineers. More Indians can speak English than there are people in the entire USA. Think about that.

    We are not poor due to our stupidity. We are poor by design. Just a 100 years ago, we were the richest nation on earth. Then we were split up into two countries and made to go at each other's throat. The Indo-Pak cold war has cost us an entire civilization.

    Our political system is bankrupt. Most politicians are plain goons. But we also have the vision to elect a woman to rule us. Every second President of India is from the minorities. How many black presidents, how many women presidents has USA had? How about a Jew for the Prez?

    I find it very surprising that most of the posts talk about Indian Poverty. It certainly points to the assumption that money according to American values is what defines a person. That is simply not a simple truth for many places in the world.

    • It is time you all woke up to and figured out that USA is as bad as any other country.

      Of course it is. Every country works in its best interest.

      We may have more illiterates than any other country in the world, but you forget that India also has the largest number of engineers. More Indians can speak English than there are people in the entire USA. Think about that.

      That's not a very big feat when you consider that India breeds out of control and has the 2nd largest population on Earth. It is nobody els
      • We are not poor due to our stupidity. We are poor by design. Just a 100 years ago, we were the richest nation on earth.

        No you weren't.

        The point is exaggerated, but the importance of India around 1905 was certainly tremendous. Africa, the Americas, these were sidelines; the British Empire, when you get right down to it, was India. Indian natural resources, Indian agriculture, Indian manpower, Indian soldiers - we forget it, but the Empire depended on India as much as it did on the mother country.

        Per

        • Perhaps two to three hundred years ago, before colonialism got going, India might well have been the richest country in the world. The civilisation the built the Taj Mahal was hardly backward and poor.

          The Indian civilization during that time was pretty backwards and poor.

          I think it escapes a lot of people that the civilization that built the Taj Mahal was not Indian. It was built by the Mughals, an Islamic civilization that had conquered India. The Taj Mahal is not Indian, it is Islamic.
      • "We are not poor due to our stupidity. We are poor by design. Just a 100 years ago, we were the richest nation on earth."
        No you weren't.

        Probably they weren't the richest but do you know that Dubya's Yale University is named after the guy (YALE, ELIHU) who robbed India in the name of Trade(as a governor of British East India Company in Madras, India around 1687) and donated a little bit of that robbed Indian money to the Collegiate School at Saybrook, Connecticut around 1718 and it was eventually renamed

    • Re:Indian priorities (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Alomex ( 148003 ) on Sunday January 30, 2005 @11:58AM (#11520610) Homepage
      We are not poor due to our stupidity.

      Of course, it is always someone else's fault: the jews, the immigrants, the bourgeois class, those cheap Indian laborers stealing our jobs, those prison camp Chinese working for free, the great satan, the Turks, the yankees.

      Oneself is always blameless, after all what control do we have over our own life and country?

      • I do not think that afarhan was suggesting that it was "someone else's fault". Rather that society has allowed itself to be divided by a small minority (who happen to profit very well while everyone else is busy looking somewhere else).

        Somewhat like the situation in the US these past few years, yes?

        • Somewhat like the situation in the US these past few years, yes?

          I don't think that is what he said. India, like the US, is a democracy. If Bush policies end up costing us our status as dominant power, then we all share the blame for that to a certain extent (some more than others).
      • Mind you, in this case, he does have a point. The British Empire did cream off a lot of the wealth of India.
        • The British Empire did cream off a lot of the wealth of India.

          The same can be said about many other former colonies (Australia, Canada), yet those are back on their feet and doing quite well.

    • And India shall rise again.

      India is the world's largest democracy, far more an example of the difficulties and successes of democracy than the US.

      disclaimer: I'm not Indian. I have no relationship with India, but I do admire the country.

    • Our political system is bankrupt

      Wait up, we're catching up. The US deficit is now a sixth of the Indian GDP.
    • > We are not poor due to our stupidity. We are poor by design. Just a 100 years ago, we were the richest nation on earth. Then we were split up into two countries and made to go at each other's throat. The Indo-Pak cold war has cost us an entire civilization.
      >
      >Our political system is bankrupt. Most politicians are plain goons. But we also have the vision to elect a woman to rule us. Every second President of India is from the minorities. How many black presidents, how many women presidents has USA
    • ... dominated the political scene of India for more than 30 years. Both were "pro-soviets" in terms of economical policies, and I think it shows.

      And why exactly do you say that India was the richest nation 100 years ago ?? Or that's what you call an agricultural "paradise" ?

  • Kudos India !!! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by gelfling ( 6534 ) on Sunday January 30, 2005 @10:50AM (#11520108) Homepage Journal
    It's great news that India is developing the next stage of their space program beyond simple payload to orbit missions. Soon Iran, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea will cut the legs out of that sector of the business so NASA, the ESA, Japan, India and Russia will have to find new venues for their space programs. Scientific missions to the moon as proof of concept programs for new technology are a great first step.
  • While this is a great advancement for the Indians I just can't get excited. Been there, done that. Landers, orbiters, impacters... Who cares!!! We had PEOPLE on the moon 35 years ago!
    • Who cares!!! We had PEOPLE on the moon 35 years ago!
      Yeah, and after a handful of missions you shut up shop and never went back because you were too busy arming yourselves to the teeth. I don't see your lot making much progress in getting back to the moon.
      • Exactly! And we should be upset by this.

        Note that in my original post I didn't say YAY for the US. It sickens me to know the US got men on the moon and then got psyched about Clementine 30 years later. Again: WHO CARES!!!

        The science may be good but I don't see it moving us as a species forward in the kind of leaps and bounds that build on themselves. The kind of leaps and bounds that make the people witht he money want to continue.

        We could stop sending probes and the general public wouldn't give a damn. Put

    • While this is a great advancement for the Indians I just can't get excited. Been there, done that. Landers, orbiters, impacters... Who cares!!! We had PEOPLE on the moon 35 years ago!

      And the sad thing is that if the US, China and India all decided they wanted to do another manned moon-shot program, starting Right Now, I wouldn't know which one to bet on. Between a mix of apathy and atrophy, you might want to keep in mind that the US isn't terribly far ahead of other spacefaring countries anymore.

      Accomp

    • > While this is a great advancement for the Indians I just can't get excited. Been there, done that. Landers, orbiters, impacters... Who cares!!! We had PEOPLE on the moon 35 years ago!

      The early bird gets the worm.
      The second mouse gets the cheese.

      You don't get bragging rights for flags and footprints. You get 'em for economic development. India and China have pwn3d our asses in that department for decades.

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