Indian Mars Probe Successfully Enters Sun-Centric Orbit 132
New submitter palemantle writes with this excerpt from The Hindu, updating our earlier mention of the successful launch of India's Mars-bound probe: "In a remarkably successful execution of a complex manoeuvre, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) fired the propulsion system on board the spacecraft for a prolonged duration of 23 minutes from 0049 hours on Sunday. In space parlance, the manoeuvre is called Trans-Mars Injection (TMI). ISRO called it 'the mother of all slingshots.' Celebrations broke out at the control centre of the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore from where the spacecraft specialists gave commands for the orbiter's 440 Newton engine to begin firing. The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also known as Mangalyaan, is designed to demonstrate the technological capability to reach Mars orbit. But the $72m (£45m) probe will also carry out experiments, including a search for methane gas in the planet's atmosphere."
We have high hopes (Score:1)
3.. 2.. 1.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Countdown to a flood of unfunny, racist Indian call center jokes...
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Yes, really looking for methane. One of its sources is living things - metabolic by-product of fauna, and decay product of flora. Particular differentials in carbon isotopes is indicator of that biological sourcing, if it exists. It's really rather amazing what real scientists get up to, nu?
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I'm sorry, I should have posted my unfunny racist post under yours, but I just got too cought up in the unfunny H1B jokes.
Like all the qualified citizens here that get pushed out of jobs by H1Bs - it never happens, you know.
In this great country, we just don't have enough "smart people" because we are all MORONS that want a living wage and benefits
It's such a shame we will not work for basic wages with no benefits,WHO DO THE FUCK DO WE THINK WE ARE.
Blaw, blaw, blaw....
New Rule for Posts Expecting Racist Posts (Score:2)
I propose the following be applied to posts predicting racist posts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatulence_humor#Assigning_of_blame [wikipedia.org]
Incidentally, this was a new one for me: "Whoever thunk it stunk it."
Re:3.. 2.. 1.. (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not sure why someone who sends out a printed invitation for racist jokes would get modded "Insightful".
I didn't see any such jokes until you mentioned them, and then the ones that came were pretty half-hearted.
Maybe you need to have a little more faith in people.
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I didn't see any such jokes until you mentioned them, and then the ones that came were pretty half-hearted.
Well, I didn't see any ${BADTHING}s until you mentioned them, so they must be your fault.
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Well, I didn't see any ${BADTHING}s ...
Ah yes, pseudocode. You can't argue with that!
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Ah yes, pseudocode. You can't argue with that!
I won't apologize for knowing my audience any more than you will, so stop taking the... er...
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Touché, I say (turning toward you while discharging a full, er, stream...
News (Score:1)
We shall not just send probes, we shall send many many QUALIFIED people to satisfy all the IT needs on the Sun.
Good For Them (Score:3)
On a more philosophical note, I'd love to see this benefit India as a whole by pointing out to everyone just how insignificant we ALL are in the grand scheme of the universe. While they've "officially" abolished the caste system, it's still there in a lot of ways. The more people realize that Earth is but a tiny speck, the more people will (hopefully...I can dream, right?) begin to treat each other better, especially those deemed to be in a "lower class" by some arbitrary rules that nobody alive has any connection to anymore. Actually, it would be nice if we could all work toward that, not just Indian society.
Re:Good For Them (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't exactly like the fact; but when being better in some absolute sense isn't an option, we frequently turn to finding somebody to be worse, as though that's a substitute.
Great but... money better spent elsewhere (Score:2, Insightful)
While I congratulate them on the outstanding technical achievement of this and other feats of their space program, it is a country where any and all available funds need to be going towards resolving the massive poverity, corruption and inequality issues. Over half of the nation's population is poor, 21% of their diseases are water-related,and only 33% even have access to what would be considered normal sanitation facilities. Charities exist by the dozens to deal with a variety of issues in India in tryin
Re:Great but... money better spent elsewhere (Score:5, Informative)
Well 73 million is 0.025% of their yearly budget (73m/280b). Spending the renaming 99.975% of the budget will have more appropriately will have more of effect on corruption, poverty, and inequality issues in my opinion. If help improve research and help improve research and manufacturing technology, it would probably more than pay for itself. It would also probably bring more business to Antrix (commercial wing of ISRO), and probably even make money for the Indian govt, and end up with a net gain rather than 72 million expense.
Re:Great but... money better spent elsewhere (Score:5, Insightful)
If this rocket inspires 20-50 million Indian poor children to study harder at school, learn Math and be an Engineer, then this project has a FANTASTIC value for the country of India.
I suspect this is money extremely well spent to inspire masses of children to take destiny in their own hands and rid themselves and their family of the poverty trap, by believing that an ordinary Indian child can do something extraordinary in the village, town, city, state and planet
I just ran 3 IT seminars in 3 Australian cities - all three had 50% participants from India - why, because Indians aspire to Math, Engineering, and Australians aspire to be sport heroes, lawyers and slackers, while their government wins an election on "Turn back the refugee boats" and "Kill the Carbon Tax". Where are their inspiring projects?
Re:Great but... money better spent elsewhere (Score:5, Insightful)
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US, which keep cutting funds from NASA in name of trying to fix social problems that strangely keep getting worse and worse the more money the government apply on them.
The US has been *reducing* the amount spent on "trying to fix social problems" (or anything that primarily benefits everyday citizens, for that matter) for at least 3 decades now, not increasing it!
Our problems have worsened for a wide variety of reasons, but as a quick starting point: job outsourcing leaving countless Americans unemployed, waves of underpaid H1B workers & legal/illegal immigrants compounding the problem, and bulk retailers like WalMart (which severely underpay employees) replaced the
completely wrong (Score:2)
That's completely wrong. In fact, we are spending a larger and larger portion of our budget on social programs:
http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/Hist/BudGDP.jpg [aaas.org]
http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/infographics/2012/10/SR-fed-spending-numbers-2012-p2-2-chart-3_HIGHRES.jpg [amazonaws.com]
Science, infrastructure, and other spending that bene
Re:Great but... money better spent elsewhere (Score:2)
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While I congratulate them on the outstanding technical achievement of this and other feats of their space program, it is a country where any and all available funds need to be going towards resolving the massive poverity, corruption and inequality issues. Over half of the nation's population is poor, 21% of their diseases are water-related,and only 33% even have access to what would be considered normal sanitation facilities. Charities exist by the dozens to deal with a variety of issues in India in trying to clean up these problems, and here is their government spending millions on space missions. To me, that just seems grossly irresponsible. :/
When a similar question was asked to a professor at ISRO after a successful launch. He said, during diwali we spend 5000 crores on fireworks/rockets which reach only 10 feet high. We are spending 500 crores for MOM (Mars Orbiter Mission) in comparison.
IMHO, money can always be better spent elsewhere.
Re:Great but... money better spent elsewhere (Score:5, Interesting)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Space_Research_Organisation#Goals_and_objectives [wikipedia.org]
Seems they got the funding mix right and can now enjoy the long term tech exports and get to add to space science
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Spending more money on the problem won't solve the problem, as long as those in charge don't want to solve it.
It would be fucking easy to fix basically anywhere. All you have to do is enable this: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/indian-man-single-handedly-plants-a-1360-acre-forest [mnn.com]
Instead of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues_in_India#Pollution [wikipedia.org]
But look around you at the country of your choice. Here in the USA we have people actively preventing people growing
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you are confused. the people must produce the means to feed themselves, not be handed money taken from others. investing in technology is one way to accomplish that end.
Indians, in spaaaaace (Score:1, Offtopic)
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Sounds nice, as long as the "1940s" you describe doesn't extend to the old gender roles -- those are fine for people that naturally fit them, but not very pleasant for those of us that don't. :-)
Well, they not only have fucked up gender roles, but they also have their own answer to racism, the caste system. Which is officially over, but very much still alive and well today. And as hateful as ever. It just goes to show that until The People of (wherever) decide to cooperate on a better future, someone always finds a way to divide and conquer them. India has its attractions but ecologically it's a fucking wasteland. What could it look like with more cooperation? I notice their last vestiges of royalt
An Indian Odyssey (Score:5, Interesting)
Excellent work by our scientists and engineers at ISRO.
Mangalyaan is thus far proving:
1. How reliable PSLV series is for commercial space-launch.
2. How far India has come in mastery over orbital mechanics - witness the precise application of Oberth effect. This isn't just your granddads Hohmann slingshot. At least not yet.
3. Setting benchmark pricing for Mars transit at USD 70 Mn. for 485 Kg payload viz. 144K USD per Kg.
4. Generating huge impact among school kids. Visits to Nehru planetarium are no longer about US this and Russia that... even though we owe them for being pioneers.
I look forward to the next logical extension viz. manned-mission with the Indian flag atop Olympus Mons.
Varun
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Even if it ends badly, it'll still pay off in the acquired expertise. The first few attempts by Russia and the US didn't pan out so hot, either. It may be an expensive education, but it's an education nonetheless.
The Sun and the science of Moonraker? (Score:2)
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When I think of the Sun and science, I can't help but think of the James Bond movie Moonraker where the opposing teams of astronauts / space marines are killing each other in Earth orbit with space lasers, one guy gets hit, and he starts to fall into the Sun.
Our first war in orbit will be the last one for a long time. Of course it will be the end of most everything in orbit. There was a reason the US only tested 1 sat killer, and there was an uproar when the Chinese did that a few years ago. Space junk. The massive amounts of debris will prevent most space travel until most of it de-orbits.
Kongrats (Score:2)
Needs more Kerbal (Score:2)
Is it just me, or does anyone else need a screen shot of the path in a Kerbal Space simulation?
They I hear the term "slingshot" (from TFS), I imagine a multi-pass loop around earth making a gravitational slingshot out part Earth's sphere of influence.
sad extremities of having cents versus dollars (Score:1)
What the heck has happened to the West ? (Score:3, Funny)
India's Mars probe finally leaves Earth-bound orbits on the 1st of December 2013.
On the very same day, China is set to launch its first lunar lander.
Both India and China are from Asia.
Where are the Europeans ?
Where are the Americans ?
What the heck happened to the usually technologically more advanced societies of the Western countries ?
Asia is playing catch up very very fast, and before long, they might even get ahead of you guys !
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What the heck happened to the usually technologically more advanced societies of the Western countries ?
We can't be bothered anymore. We now focus on creating billionares. And we have way more than asia. Yay!
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And inside every State House in the Union there's a piece of Moon rock. Yeah, that's where they went.
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Maybe you've forgot how those people like JP Morgan and Carnegie would likewise destroy people that had great ideas like Nikolai Tesla or prey on the scientists that moved from war-torn Germany/Europe to the 'land of opportunity' (eg. Wernher von Braun)
even if Tesla was a loser, still that was then (Score:2)
It doesn't matter. If you think Tesla was the big loser who was somehow "destroyed" by JP Morgan, the fact remains that the age of the great industrialists was way back then. The claim was that today is the period of the great American industrial empires. To anybody with any idea of American history, that idea is preposterous. Today's companies are primarily owned by millions of grandma's via their 401K.
I happen to disagree with the assertion that Tesla was destroyed - we both know his name, despite the fa
his point is what he said, US and EU news all fail (Score:3)
I don't think that's what GP said.
GP asked "where are the Europeans and Americans?", perhaps pointing out that lately the US and EU countries are only in the news for fail of various kinds.
In the fifties and again from about 1985-2000, all the big space and science news, the big new machines, etc. were all coming mainly from the US and the UK. About 15 years ago, something happened such that the US in no longer the leading nation it once was. Perhaps that's what GP is referring to.
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Nonsense, the American space program is far ahead of the rest of the world. Who has rovers on Mars? who has done massive inventory of planets around other stars? who has craft half way to Pluto? Who has craft orbiting Mercury to map the planet, that discovered ice and organics at its poles?
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Nonsense, the American space program is far ahead of the rest of the world. Who has rovers on Mars? who has done massive inventory of planets around other stars? who has craft half way to Pluto? Who has craft orbiting Mercury to map the planet, that discovered ice and organics at its poles?
And the Chinese are starting to reach for the planets. With humans. We're redoing versions of what we have done before. And while the Chinese are playing catch up, as well as the Indians, we are not going any further than what we are now.
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the USA is the only country to send men to another world. the Chinese talk of walking on the moon in 2025.
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the USA is the only country to send men to another world. the Chinese talk of walking on the moon in 2025.
So far. So in a few years, you'll be able to say "Well, yeah - but we were first!" BFHD
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first let's see them up their launch payload capacity by a factor of 30 from their current biggest rocket
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India their development work from the 1950's onwards in a slow and careful way.
No country can just emerge with the maths, computing power and expert staff. It takes years and India put that effort into science and space exploration very early on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Space_Research_Organisation#Formative_years [wikipedia.org]
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India's Mars probe is on the way to Mars.
America's Mars probes are already on Mars, and have been for years. So that's where the Americans are.
The Chinese don't have a Mars probe at all. They are still struggling to figure out unmanned moon probes.
As for the Europeans, who knows? Not me; I don't pay attention to Europe.
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The Chinese were relying on Russia to get it to Mars.
It's not hard to make something that circles a body, if someone else is doing the hard part of putting it there.
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From another article:
"India's Mars mission, with a budget of $73 million, is far cheaper than comparable missions including NASA's $671 million Maven satellite that is expected to set off for Mars later in November,"
It's crazy to think that 1.24 billion people are in India. They could all pay $1.00 (that's
might get ahead? China OWNS the US, borrower slave (Score:1)
> Asia is playing catch up very very fast, and before long, they might even get ahead of you guys !
Who do you think is financing all of these new government programs in the US? That's China's money we're living off of. The US is spending WAY more than we make, racking up insurmountable debt to Asia. "The borrower is slave to the lender", as the saying goes. Meaning, a larger and larger portion of our earnings are paid to China in the form of interest. The "great American companies" are largely owned b
NASA launched a probe 13 days ago (Score:1)
NASA launched the MAVEN probe for Mars on November 18. Now, this probe is India's first Mars probe, so it is special in that regard. It was launched on a rocket weaker than the Delta II. Given all the hoopla Iran has been getting for its rocket development, I wonder when it will launch its first probe outside of the Earth system.
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As my history teacher used to say when asked 'what was Spain doing in WW2' - "Sleeping off a hangover from their own efforts"
Re:What the heck has happened to the West ? (Score:5, Interesting)
To start, the US de-funded scientific research. It had to, in part, because Ronald Raygun privatized many government functions. What was the practical effect? It means that rather than paying managers of a government function a government salary, you now take bids from private companies who have only one interest at heart: To make the managers of the private company rich. The cost of government has risen dramatically thereby. Think I'm wrong? Look at SAIC, Ross Perot and his old company, and all the companies related to war and contracting "security" services (just to scratch the surface). Which is directly related to why America spends well north of 55 percent of it's national budget on war related costs, instead of the less than 25 percent of a national budget that European countries do. So, in a country where people do not like government, don't want to pay any tax, in a country where R&D incentives (first initiated during WWII) are removed, in a country that feels it's OK to send jobs to China (effectively making China's middle class rich and America's poor) you end up being left behind on the ideological, scientific, basic research items.
Europe has it's own financial problems right now. It did three things. First, it allowed Germany to become not only the bankers of the EU, but to become the economic powerhouse of the EU as well. Second, many EU countries bought a ton of AAA-rated US mortgage packages that turned out to be junk. Take a close look at which countries bought what and you'll see the effect I'm pointing out. Third, the EU tried to grow their economy by doing what the US and UK did; make cheap loans available as a means of boosting production. Bad move, right? Credit bubbles seldom last forever. Look at what it did to Spain.
Which leads me to this: First world nation's governments are deeply involved in "realpolitik", and are no longer paying attention to the ideologies on which they were founded or the ideologies of science as it might relate to industry. In the US and UK this means enabling corporate and banker greed. On mainland Europe, this means getting wrapped around the axle of competing political interests.
...What the heck happened to the usually technologically more advanced societies of the Western countries ?
Asia is playing catch up very very fast, and before long, they might even get ahead of you guys !
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Nice theory, but doesn't agree with reality.
http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/fy2013/hist13pAgy.png [aaas.org]
During Reagan and Bush, science funding increased while during Clinton and Obama it decreased. The decrease in the Obama years has been particularly sharp, mostly because Obama wasted so much money on politically popular social programs and bailouts. It's the welfare state that's killing publ
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... so how do your comments square with the following?
From Chemical and Engineering news [acs.org] -
Reagan’s economic programs, so controversial then and now, generally supported federal science programs... As Reagan’s term went on, however, the rising federal deficits and lower revenues that were the result of a recession took their toll on R&D budgets. Soon, agencies such as the Energy Department, the National Bureau of Standards, and even the National Institutes of Health were looking at budget c
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I objected to your claim that the "US de-funded scientific research, because Ronald Raygun privatized many government functions." In fact, the US did not de-fund scientific research under Reagan, as the AAAS data shows, so you are wrong. Feel free to dislike Reagan for other reasons (personally, I think he was an idiot), but blaming him for things he didn't do is not helpful because then you miss the real culprits.
The real threat to US scientific dominan
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Last I looked, direct subsidies to corporations exceeded those to individuals by almost a factor of two. That's before tax breaks and loopholes. As for the 'job creators' myth, while it's true for small businesses, for going on two decades more and more of the profits of production have not been returned to the economy either in investment or job creation by the multinationals and their majority owners, nor by many of the individuals in the fraction of the 1%. All the data are out there, readily availabl
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ImOuttaHere incorrectly blamed Reagan for de-funding scientific research and I gave data showing that he is wrong. I also pointed out that it is mandatory spending and entitlement programs that are squeezing out scientific research and other discretionary spending, a simple budgetary fact.
Nearly half of our federal budget are Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Other welfare programs and direct paym
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First, I don't dispute your facts, so please don't take it that way. I should maybe have been more clear about that.
Second, I'm not talking about entitlements, but direct subsidies. But even when entitlements are included (unlike many, I distinctly exclude Social Security - OASDI - because they're insurance policy payouts), direct corporate payments exceed the rest.
Third, I don't think this is a party issue (fifty years of votes will bear this out) - it's become systemic. While some roots precede it, mos
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Whether you think you're entitled to Social Security as an "insurance policy payout" is fiscally irrelevant; insurance companies are supposed to have reserves for their payouts, the federal government for practical purposes does not. Social security is mandato
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Well, let's see. OASDI was fucked over by Congress in the '70s because it was easier for them to do that than to perform their fiscal responsibilities...responsibly. They needed to raise revenue and control spending and they did neither. Just for grins, in the last twenty years I don't recall a single congressman even acknowledging either of those things - and of course they've never paid back what amounted to a bond against the fund. What I regard it as is true, as is the fiscal irresponsibility.
Christ
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The budget is here:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bc/Fy2007spendingbycategory.png/800px-Fy2007spendingbycategory.png [wikimedia.org]
As you can see, about 60% is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment/welfare, and interest. That leaves 40% for everything else. There is no way social programs are smaller than corporate subsidies.
Such g
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In re-reading my last post I notice my tone got a bit testy among other things - I apologize, as I do for the tardiness of reply due to stuff getting in the way.
Aaargh, I hate those kinds of color-coded graphs; they're pretty, but with having a good bit of red-green color blindness... I mean, peanut butter is green. Well, isn't it? [grin] I found this, first result, which gives the same numbers in an easier to see and grasp way - I hope you'll find it OK: http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=1258 [cbpp.org] and
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Who is this "we" you are talking about? I know what I value and why, and it isn't money. That's why I have lived frugally and saved money. Many who talk about about needing to reevaluate what "we" value are really saying that they want a whole bunch of free stuff, and they want others to "value" their money less so that others pay for it
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I am sorry to learn of your loss. Several friends of mine are in similar straits. I'm too far down the demographic ladder, living two steps up from homeless (first is living at a shelter, second is having "a place to call one's own". Rent is two-thirds my income; half the rest has gone for transportation - and two-thirds of that for medical appointments. At 80% of poverty level, it gets interesting. I worked hard, I tried to do what's right. Shit happened.)
The "we" is everyone involved in the social c
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FWIW, I don't spend more per month than you seem to be spending (I save the rest). Are you saying you're working, earning 80% of poverty level, and not receiving any government assistance? Or are you not working and entirely on disability payments? Why would you be spending that much money on rent? And why would you be having so many medical appointments?
I don't
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I'm 66 and retired; was on SSI for a year and a half, was required therefore to retire at 64. Due to previous long-term health problems, had no recent work history (I did some odd jobs and computer work off the books as I was able to get and to do) so I get the lowest amount allowed by law. State so far pays Medicaid premium.
Rent is 500/mo. for 160sq.ft; as an apartment it kinda sucks but if I regard it as a tourist-class cabin on a liner it's "charming". Best deal based on needs and availability in this
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I'm sorry to hear about your problems. So you're really going through something acute right now. I wish you good luck with that and a quick recovery. It sounds like you don't have any kind of support or social network. If friends can't help, have you considered getting help from a church or similar organization?
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I get some help from friends; a lady brought me a plate of Thanksgiving supper, and another let me do laundry a few weeks back (I've been washing small stuff out in my sink all year, otherwise.) There's an Interfaith Council in town that does stuff - rides and the like, but Jesus doesn't like felons, so that's a no-go.
I wouldn't mind so much, but I'm in worse shape now than when I came home from rehab on 13 December last year - although the pain is not so acute and I can get mostly full walking motion and
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Curious, are you American?
A slingshot maneuver is used to help change your orbit, i.e. eject you from one orbit and inject you into another one.
Catch with a slingshot? (Score:2)
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The ISRO Mars orbiter was in an eliptical orbit of Earth and a burn at the lower (close to Earth) end of that orbit injected it into a heliocentric transfer orbit. The spacecraft has more kinetic+potential energy now than it did before the burn.
http://www.isro.org/mars/mission-profile.aspx [isro.org] (they just completed step 1)
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India's Mars probe finally leaves Earth-bound orbits on the 1st of December 2013.
On the very same day, China is set to launch its first lunar lander.
Both India and China are from Asia.
Where are the Europeans ?
Where are the Americans ?
What the heck happened to the usually technologically more advanced societies of the Western countries ?
Asia is playing catch up very very fast, and before long, they might even get ahead of you guys !
Apparently they're in Houston, and Florida. I regularly see the European, Japanese, Russian, Canadian, Russian, etc. Astronauts at the Johnson Space Center.
The USA has sent astronauts to successfully walk around on the moon, and driven manned rovers there. We've got some satelites orbiting Mars already, and several successful mars rovers, the latest Mars Science Lab is the size of a SUV, and was deployed by unique very complex manoeuvre involving a hovering platform.
NASA partners with space agencies aroun
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Re: What the heck has happened to the West ? (Score:1)
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What the heck happened to your news feed? these baby steps India is taking we did decades ago. We put landers on Mars in the 70s.
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What the heck happened to your news feed? these baby steps India is taking we did decades ago. We put landers on Mars in the 70s.
Because you don't just aim something at Mars and blast off
So many people do not realize the incredible and wonderful job the Americans and Soviets did in the 1960's. Aside from the obvious rocket building and testing, there is the orbital mechanics science, which is not simple at all. The skill involved is monumental, and just because it was done way back then does not make it trivial. India and China are simply at different points on the learning curve.
And some day, they will probably do some incredibl
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So many people do not realize the incredible and wonderful job the Americans and Soviets did in the 1960's.
None of which would have been possible without all the incredible and wonderful work the Nazis did in the 1930s-1940s. Just sayin'.
What were the Nazi's contributions to orbital mechanics? Otherwise your inference is a non sequitar.
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And tell me, who built and launched the Voyager and Pioneer platforms? Some of which are now at the edge of the solar system.
And who landed SEVERAL men on the Moon? Yeah, we did, in the 1960's and 1970's. Nice to see that China and India are playing catchup now. And I have to wonder, if we got a look at t
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The Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance (NASA) and Mars Express (ESA) orbiters are still operational, as are the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers. NASA launched the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution orbiter less than two weeks ago.
Ignorant poster is ignorant.
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Where are the Americans ?
We're servicing the stockholders, and anyhow, that space stuff is verging on sedition, being science and all. And science is bad.
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Asia is playing catch up very very fast, and before long, they might even get ahead of you guys !
Good. It's about time they started pulling their own weight.
Maybe they will even innovate some new tech instead of recycling old western ideas.
Then, their citizens will start becoming more educated, making more money, and trying to end the human rights abuses at home.
It's never been clear to me why the US is expected to always be the leader in space research and why other countries can't spend more of their own GDP to advance our knowledge of space.
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Ghosh, Rosie, I'd love to surf on over there, but my nurse is leaving, so no more channel flipping tonight for me. I'm sure that once there whatever fee might be involved in pursuing my life's dreams would be most nominal and certain to be applied only to defray necessary expenses.
Speaking of which, I could well be in a most wonderful position to make a substantial investment in this regard, as I've been left a rather embarrassingly large stack of old treasury notes in a safe deposit box which belonged to