Go MOM...
Can we now start wailing and whining about poverty in India, unwanted aid, yada yada yada?
India has become the first nation to achieve a successful insertion to Mars orbit on its first attempt, after an epic 10-month trek by its cunning Mangalyaan (aka Mars Orbiter Mission, or MOM) spacecraft. The mission that marked India as a genuine deep-space power is also a miracle of low-cost space exploration, setting the …
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That's a given. I'm expecting 40% of the comments on this article to be in that vein, if past comment threads are any guide. Simple, unalloyed compliments for a noteworthy technical accomplishment seem to be as difficult for many commenters here as said achievement was for the ISRO.
- 0 million : UK aid to India (2015, maybe)
- 22 million : luxury Yacht
- 26 million : burning man (2013)
- 40 million : Katie price wealth (reality tv)
- 60 million : low end private jet
- 65 million : Kim Kardashian wealth (reality tv)
- 74 million : Mars attempt India // Not just cheap labour but also the method.
- 110 million : London police budget
- 110 million : Sachin Tendulkar networth (cricket player)
- 140 million : (In)famous Gareth Bale transfer to Real Madrid.
- 175 million: Hollywood blockbuster cost
- 210 million: India Space Agency revenues // Its not just willy waving.
- 236 million: Trump Golf Course
- 270 million: Germany homeopathy market
- 350 million: A Boeing jet.
- 450 million: UK aid to India (2013)
- 500 million: India space budget (2013)
- 600 million : Bono networth
- 650 million: Burj-al-Arab
- 1,000 million : India Cricket revenue
- 1,500 million : Canada winter olympics
- 1,900 million : Commonwealth games India // Hmmm....
- 2,470 million: Mars Rover
- 8 billion: BBC revenues.
- 13 billion: TCS revenue (IT outsourcing)
- 14 billion: London Olympic games.
- 16 billion: India Education/yr
- 16 billion: Lakshmi Mittal (Richest Londoner)
- 19 billion: India food subsidy budget
- 21 billion: Mukesh Ambani (Richest Indian)
- 34 billion: South Korea Defense budget/yr
- 38 billion: India Defense /yr
- 68 billion: India Tech exports
- 160 billion: Worldwide space market. // Prize
- 640 billion: US defense budget/yr
- 1,700 billion: India GDP/yr
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Complied this as a result of a debate during intial MoM launch, but never posted it. Posting here with some updates.. sources for all data is internet, so take them with a pinch of salt.
As far as the meaning of the aid goes, it's simply a way for nations to lubricate future trades and relations. Unless you are paying for a major portion of a nation's budget, you have no say on how they run their country (ie based on the aid). Think of it as 100 quid that your rich neighbour puts in your birthday envelop. Maybe he hopes to boink your mama in future, but that doesn't allow him to question how your house is run.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Orbiter_Mission#Payload
Here's what they got for $74 million
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"Either labor in India is soooooooo cheap or the others are soooooooo corrupt...or both."
There are other factors, like inefficiency.
However, it comes down to Indian labor being inexpensive. When most of your supply chain from engineers down to riveters is earning a pittance, then the parts are cheap. A Western nation aerospace company is going to be tapping into a huge chain of contractors and subcontractors where every company bills at about $100 per labor-hour.
Al -gebra is Indian stuff repackaged by Arabs
They may have invented place number notation to, indicating the lack of a power of ten which became the Zero
Read from " One to Zero"
Here are the previous posts about poverty, grants, space
""They may have invented place number notation to, indicating the lack of a power of ten which became the Zero
More relevant in this regard is that the optimal rocket nozzle shape (what most people call a "bell") is actually known as a "Rao" nozzle, after the Indian who invented it.
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Could somebody clarify what's meant with the "first nation on first go" comment?
Do they mean that the managed a successful mission to Mars without having a few probes go boom or disappear into deep space? Or have all other successful missions had to do a few loops before successful orbital insertion?
I assume it's the former, would just like clarification from those who know these things better.
They mean most space agencies have an unsuccessful Mars mission before they have a successful one. Only 51% of all missions aiming for Mars have made it.
I would like to point out that the first Mars Probe sent by the ESA (Mars Express) did make it and is still in orbit, although i technically they aren't a nation so their statement is correct.
Their very first probe made it to Mars to do science. That's pretty damn impressive, considering how hard it is.
As opposed to Beagle 2, which was A) dropped off by ESA, B) never heard from again, and C) Britain's not tried again.
Or Mars 1960A, Mars 1960B, Sputnik 22, Mars 1, Sputnik 24, Zond 2, Mars 1969A, Mars 1969B, Kosmos 419, and Mars 2, which were the first 10 Soviet attempts. Mars 3 was the first successful landing and returned science.
Or Mariner 3, which was the first American attempt. Mariner 4 was a successful flyby and returned science.
For anyone playing Kerbal Space Program, you know the point of the missions are returning science!
Welcome, India.
And now to show others how easy IT is whenever Commanding Creative Cyber Control doesn't upset and deny, degrade, disrupt and appears ignorantly and primitively designed to seek to dominate and/or destroy the natives or is Project Mangalyaan not an Advanced IntelAIgently Designed Enterprise for Dark Web Masters Tripping the Light Fantastic and Truly Monumental?
There be Changed Days and Changed Ways and Means with Memes for EMPowering Zeroday Vulnerabilities which Crash Systemically Corrupt and Perverse SCADA Operating Systems.
Quick nurse I need another dried frog pill. I'm starting to understand amanfromMars
There be Changed Days and Changed Ways and Means with Memes for EMPowering Zeroday Vulnerabilities which Crash Systemically Corrupt and Perverse SCADA Operating Systems.
Told you so ......http://www.wired.com/2014/09/kevin-mitnick-selling-zero-day-exploits/ .... and Kevin Mitnick is late to the party and no more than a wannabe gate-crasher/free-loader? Leopards and spots and all that jazz.
I was thinking about something along the lines of "they forgot the naan" but you beat me to it.
BTW, is such a comment racist these days? If Virgin had done it and we made a joke about beards or Tubular Bells would that be "corporatist" of "Bransonist"?
Confused in the minefield of modern "ists".
I always get a reliable delivery after a vindaloo.
I think the mission trajectory was a key part of keeping the rocket size (and hence cost) down. IIRC it was quite tricky. The other option might have been a solar sail.
However as readers of the Mythical Man Month know a strong early success (and this is very strong indeed) can lead to the oh-so-difficult 2nd mission. They had better watch out for that.
Thumbs up for this which I think beats India's greatest rivals (China and Pakistan) to the post by a long margin.
We didn't really get a chance to learn much more than that many of them failed many times. The ISRO was under international sanctions until 3 years ago, which meant zero collaboration. They did this all by themselves.
Since the PSLV wasn't capable of lofting the payload with as much force as the MAVEN was by its launcher, they used the Oberth effect to generate the necessary momentum. There was not much margin for error - they needed to calculate the necessary fuel to do the Oberth rings, get catapulted to transfer orbit, and then have enough fuel to capture Mars orbit.
Despite a couple of early glitches, they still arrived in Mars orbit with twice the fuel originally calculated, which means the mission will be much longer than planned.
I'm not entirely sure why someone felt the need to downvote me for that. Perhaps my congratulations were somehow offensive to someone who thinks that this isn't an impressive technical achievement by those in charge of the Indian space program, or perhaps the down-voter thinks that India doesn't deserve to have a space program. On the other hand, perhaps they believe that doing this sort of thing is a waste of resources and are too blinkered to see the benefits to be had to the people of India, from gaining the technical expertise involved in pulling this off. Or maybe they're just racist thugs, and don't like Indians?
Oh, wait it is...
While they're obviously standing on the shoulders of giants, it is still an impressive achievement.
The weatlth divide in India is massive, but this could be seen as an attempt to establish India as a player in the aerospace market, which in turn could lead to business going their way and so generating wealth for all.
"India: 600,000 die annually from 50% open-defecation rate
"India, a nation with one foot in the present and the other in the past, suffers from a certain kind of pollution largely associated with undeveloped nations.
The populations of entire villages in India still defecate in common-area fields that surround their communities, according to a Bloomberg report out Monday.
The government of India, a world nuclear power, is trying to control disease by potty training rural populations who return to nature when nature calls, even after the government has installed toilets at their homes."
http://www.digitaljournal.com/life/health/india-600-000-die-annually-from-50-open-defecation-rate/article/394639#ixzz3EF4ptJWf
Priorities 1: India spends roughly 45 million (in Sterling) sending a satellite to Mars and hopefully inspiring a future generation of scientists. In the mean time we will be spending upwards of 30-40 BILLION to get from London to Brum a few minutes quicker. How many kids will HS2 inspire?
Priorities 2: It costs more to get some footballers to pledge temporary allegiance to a team!
MOM - $74 Million (Satellite, Indian ground stations and software upgrades) (15kg payload)
MAVEN - $671 Million (Mars Scout program which MAVEN is part of) (65kg payload)
MOM is a demo unit for India that included a science payload. MAVEN was built to collect Mars specific data as its primary function. Service life and scientific instruments are also rolled up into the cost of each.
Both are of value to science for different reasons and their cost reflects that.
I'm happy that money is being spent on expanding knowledge rather than regional/global conflict for a change.
You cant tell me that all the work done before hand did not help with this mission, it an impressive feat yes and Kudos to the indian space agency, but all the first time comments well its like telling me that a commercial airline pilot is better than a test pilot cause the commercial pilot never bailed and crashed an aircraft...