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> Success here would show how much is possible with $146MM … when you're paying Indian salaries. I'm pretty sure that paying NASA, ESA or JAXA engineers less t

by T-A 7y ago

> Success here would show how much is possible with $146MM … when you're paying Indian salaries. I'm pretty sure that paying NASA, ESA or JAXA engineers less than 12k USD/year [1] would result in exactly 0 of them staying on the job. [1] https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/india-aerospace-engineering-salary-SRCH_IL.0,5_IN115_KO6,27.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/india-aerospace-engineeri...

godelmachine 7y ago
You sir, have conveniently chosen to ignore that any space vehicle launch program consists of gigantic amount of engineering and equipment costs. When ISRO says it took $146 mn to send Chandrayaan 2, it refers only to engineering costs and not personnel costs.
- T-A 7y ago
  And engineering costs do not include labor? http://www.economicsdiscussion.net/theory-of-cost/engineering-cost-short-run-and-long-run-engineering-costs/5226 http://www.economicsdiscussion.net/theory-of-cost/engineerin...
llampx 7y ago
You can always outsource your rocket launches to India to benefit from these low, low costs :)
- T-A 7y ago
  According to Table 4 in [1], a GSLV launch was $47 million in 2017, so a bit lower than e.g. a Falcon 9 launch ($61.2 million in the same table). Taking the $146 million quoted above at face value, that means 2/3 of Chandrayaan-2's cost was independent of launch cost. Let's say about $100 million. Another comment here is implying that those $100 million do not include labor. I find that hard to believe; it is (or should be) common knowledge that the bulk or aerospace project costs is labor [2], so it would make no sense to forgo standard accounting practice and only report what amounts to a bill of materials. But if we nevertheless assume that comment is correct, it would mean that you should at least double the estimated cost for developing something equivalent to Chandrayaan-2 at developed-country aerospace salaries. So you would be (optimistically) spending something like $200 million on the probe, and saving maybe $15 million out of a total cost ~ $250 million by launching it from India rather than e.g. the US. Once the added administration and logistics costs are taken into account, I wonder if you would be saving anything at all. [1] https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-609 https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-609 [2] Aerospace project management handbook (2017)

by T-A 7y ago

godelmachine 7y ago

You sir, have conveniently chosen to ignore that any space vehicle launch program consists of gigantic amount of engineering and equipment costs. When ISRO says it took $146 mn to send Chandrayaan 2, it refers only to engineering costs and not personnel costs.

T-A 7y ago
And engineering costs do not include labor? http://www.economicsdiscussion.net/theory-of-cost/engineering-cost-short-run-and-long-run-engineering-costs/5226 http://www.economicsdiscussion.net/theory-of-cost/engineerin...

llampx 7y ago

You can always outsource your rocket launches to India to benefit from these low, low costs :)

T-A 7y ago
According to Table 4 in [1], a GSLV launch was $47 million in 2017, so a bit lower than e.g. a Falcon 9 launch ($61.2 million in the same table). Taking the $146 million quoted above at face value, that means 2/3 of Chandrayaan-2's cost was independent of launch cost. Let's say about $100 million. Another comment here is implying that those $100 million do not include labor. I find that hard to believe; it is (or should be) common knowledge that the bulk or aerospace project costs is labor [2], so it would make no sense to forgo standard accounting practice and only report what amounts to a bill of materials. But if we nevertheless assume that comment is correct, it would mean that you should at least double the estimated cost for developing something equivalent to Chandrayaan-2 at developed-country aerospace salaries. So you would be (optimistically) spending something like $200 million on the probe, and saving maybe $15 million out of a total cost ~ $250 million by launching it from India rather than e.g. the US. Once the added administration and logistics costs are taken into account, I wonder if you would be saving anything at all. [1] https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-609 https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-609 [2] Aerospace project management handbook (2017)