India Reveals That It Has Returned Lunar Spacecraft To Earth Orbit 18
An anonymous reader shares a report: A little more than three months ago the Indian space agency, ISRO, achieved a major success by putting its Vikram lander safely down on the surface of the Moon. In doing so India became the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, and this further ignited the country's interest in space exploration. But it turns out that is not the end of the story for the Chandrayaan 3 mission. In a surprise announcement made Monday, ISRO announced that it has successfully returned the propulsion module used by the spacecraft into a high orbit around Earth. This experimental phase of the mission, the agency said in a statement, tested key capabilities needed for future lunar missions, including the potential for returning lunar rocks to Earth.
India will take over the space race (Score:4, Insightful)
US culture has turned to "how can we monetize other's work", along with "R&D expenses don't look good on next quarter's report", and "follow trends, instead of actually innovating". MBAs have a much bigger impact on what gets developed than EEs.
Look for papers or videos on how to actually do anything in technology or how things actually work (not just apply the latest framework, trendy tools, latest apps, etc.), they are likely coming from India and not the US.
Re:India will take over the space race (Score:4, Interesting)
"Bleeding Edge".
Being a new guy there, I then explained to the panel that if you think you are "Bleeding Edge"., then NO ONE has done it first and failure could happen.
No, i didn't get funded for that project by that panel... but a few months later, under a slightly different name, I did get funded by a different S&T panel. Project was a success, no, they didn't monetize the project.
Re:India will take over the space race (Score:5, Insightful)
You also don't seem to have a knowledge of India that even a casual observer would: That there are drastic issues with the bureaucracy and opacity of government, and which only limited areas of its economy have managed to overcome or been granted exceptions to. Their space achievements are impressive, but you're literally claiming they'll "overtake" us for just starting to do things we were doing fifty years ago.
It's delusional. They have a chance at overtaking China, but China's accomplishments themselves are insanely overrated compared to the United States.
Re:India will take over the space race (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Artemis is a hot mess, I'm not sure if the US is going to make it to the Moon any time soon. Theoretically we're going to have people in lunar orbit in 2024, and on the surface in 2025. But I'm extremely skeptical we're going to hit those dates given the current status of Orion and SLS.
Re: (Score:2)
Artemis is a hot mess, I'm not sure if the US is going to make it to the Moon any time soon. Theoretically we're going to have people in lunar orbit in 2024, and on the surface in 2025. But I'm extremely skeptical we're going to hit those dates given the current status of Orion and SLS.
NASA may not land humans on the moon again any time soon. I'm just saying the "space race" to land humans on the moon and bring them safely back to earth was over in 1969, and NASA did it five more times after that. Maybe this is a race to see who can come in 7th?
Or is the new race to create a lunar base for a permanent presence on the moon as a jumping-off point for a Mars trip? That's going to be a massive undertaking. I'm not sure sending humans is better than sending robots
Re: (Score:2)
I would note, however, that computing capability was absolutely no impediment to accomplishing the mission, and was far from the long pole in the tent - which was weight reduction.
That is at least partially because the programmers at the time could not afford to indulge themselves in the current sort of cult-like behavior that is the hallmark of modern software development.
Re: (Score:2)
Ah the Indian trolls farms are out in force today.
Re:India will take over the space race (Score:4, Interesting)
I'll grant your grousing when it comes to established/legacy players like Boeing, ULA, etc. But they aren't the only players in the US - they aren't even the ones people pay attention to.
I'm not sure how anyone could watch the recent Starship test flight and not think that's a manifestation of the culture you are looking for. If you want a not-Elon example: take a look at the skycrane landing [youtube.com] used by Curiosity and Perseverance. There are also about a dozen US-based small rocket companies out there trying new and bold things. Maxar and Planet Labs - major players in space imagery - are US-based, and they're 6 and 12 years old, respectively. There's that outfit in California that's trying to return a capsule that fabricated drugs in low-Earth orbit. The Psyche mission is pioneering laser-based communications for deep space. The list goes on.
Re: (Score:2)
Damn, I forgot to mention Ingenuity on that list. A fucking helicopter on Mars!
Oh good, more stuff (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
In related news, Kvoth... (Score:2)
"In a surprise announcement"... (Score:2)
Yeah that ol government trick. Don't say a word about it unless it's successful. (and if it fails, bury it)
Russia did that a lot. Don't be like Russia. This is Rocket Science, and everyone knows Rocket Science is hard. You get credit for trying,