Communication Lost With Indian Moon Satellite 186
stoolpigeon writes "All communication links with the only Indian satellite orbiting the Moon have been lost, India's space agency says. Radio contact with the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was lost abruptly early on Saturday, said India's Bangalore-based Space Research Organization (ISRO)."
Re:obligatory comment (Score:2, Interesting)
Be that as it may, many are turning against non sequitur pop culture quotations as humor; xkcd 307 is a particularly relevant example.
They're doing it because they don't like being left out when average people quote movies and television series they haven't seen. I learned a long time ago that appearing to be smart and intellectual all the time comes at a cost to my social life -- it's better to keep my education and intelligence "in my pocket" as it were. If that means knowing a few facts about the current mix of reality TV shows, and picking up a celebrity gossip magazine here and there, so be it. It just means that I have plans friday night while my geek friends sit at home grinding on World of Warcraft.
Orbiting the moon is exceptionally difficult (Score:5, Interesting)
Orbiting the moon is a lot harder than orbiting the earth. The moon's gravitational field is exceptionally lumpy [wikipedia.org] because of concentrations of mass beneath the surface. If not actively corrected for, these mass concentrations will make a satellite's orbit go through increasingly violent gyrations until it eventually intersects with the surface.
I wonder if this is what happened to the Indian probe.
Re:Go India! (Score:3, Interesting)
"What's strange about the Western media ignoring the enormous positive achievements of anyone..."
There. Fixed it for you.
News: We did it, allies did it (maybe), perceived threat did it (China, Russia, etc.)
Not News: Pretty much anybody else.
Re:They can find it (Score:1, Interesting)
also FUCK YOU!!!!!!111111iiiieno
Wtf BBC? Seriously? (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously BBC... wtf is up with that? India is a trillion dollar economy and this was 75 million usd project. Can I say chump change? For some context, India recently announced a really stupid 30 billion usd national id scheme [wikipedia.org]. While reporting that, you [bbc.co.uk] did not care to mention India's millions that lack basic services. Why do you hate India and real scientific progress so much?
Re:Wtf BBC? Seriously? (Score:4, Interesting)
Some critics regard BBC as a waste of resources in a country where millions lack basic services.
India may be lying in the gutter, but at least they are looking up, and working hard on getting out.
Re:data shows no sign of altitude loss, rapid dece (Score:5, Interesting)
Blessed Ganesha, it's full of cows!
Nicely done (and in good taste too :)). Pity you're all alone in a sea of mediocre pseudo-wits :(.
I'm not offended as an Indian (by the over-abused and lame tech support jokes that litter the desolate landscape of this thread); I'm offended as a connoisseur of good comedy . Seriously dudes (who-probably-lost-their-jobs-to-outsourcing-and-are-surprisingly-hard-to-feel-sympathy-for-at-this-particular-moment), that meme is about as funny as the one about Soviet Russia or even *shudder* sharks with lasers. It is scary that Fark is so much better at meme-based humor than the supposedly godlike nerds that inhabit this realm.
Congrats India! (Score:2, Interesting)
What an achievement for a country where you can't use your credit card in most places, and where Banks don't even have reliable phone service. Reminds of the time I enfielded from Delhi to Gaya and in the middle of a tea stop a white-robed local came up to me shouting angrily in Hindi and broken English, "India is Great! India is Great!" I responded by buying him a cup, and that seemed to calm him down after I halfheartedly agreed with him, but now I wish now I had the stats on Chandrayaan-1 and perhaps some print outs of the photos sent back. Congrats to the Bangalore team!