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Your initial comment was knee-jerk and symptomatic of the typical response that greets advanced space/rocket programs from a developing country like India - nam

by r0h1n 13y ago

Your initial comment was knee-jerk and symptomatic of the typical response that greets advanced space/rocket programs from a developing country like India - namely that it has other more pressing issues like poverty, hunger, economic development, corruption etc. to tackle before getting to space exploration. As others have pointed out, these are not pre-requisites for a space program. And given that the $100M expenditure (Flipkart raised $160M in funding from the same country a few days back), there is no chance that it is diverting precious resources from the rest of India. Which brings me to the latter part of your comment - that ISRO does not know how to "compete" with private space startups. Tell me, why did you suddenly impose the private-profit constraint on India's sovereign space program? Sure ISRO derives some revenue from its commercial launch program, but that is not its primary purpose. Investments into a country's space program (or any other strategic initiative for that matter) can rarely ever be recouped via "profits". Are NASA engineers working round the clock to compete with Space-X? Is the primary goal of the Chinese space program's to garner the largest commercial launch market share? All of this does not mean ISRO is above criticism, nor its Mars program. For instance, why the hurry to make this happen in 2013? Why go alone instead of allying with friendly countries? Why not wait for the larger GSLV rocket to place this into orbit instead of the smaller PSLV? Why such opaque decision making around its objectives? The latter part of this Science article covers some of these points: http://news.sciencemag.org/asia/2012/08/qualms-about-indias-plan-2013-mars-mission http://news.sciencemag.org/asia/2012/08/qualms-about-indias-...

iamshs 13y ago
It is a travesty that his comment is at the top, rather than discuss merits/demerits of this initiative, we (atleast 7 of us commentators) are fixing this downright moron's narrow vision. I am immensely peeved that his comment is not adding anything of value, and is outright banal as they come on Indian topics. I do not think GSLV is ready, and won't be ready any time sooner although they are testing it in December. Also, I think GSLV should achieve workhorse capability like PSLV before it can be tasked with major workloads. I think NASA is helping with the payloads on MOM. I would be curious to know which ones are contributions by NASA though [1]. Also, the landing gear is designed with the help of ROSCOSMOS [2]. Some more detailed information in these links [3, 4, 5]. [1] - http://www.isro.org/pslv-c25/pdf/mom-payloads.pdf http://www.isro.org/pslv-c25/pdf/mom-payloads.pdf [2] - http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2013/pdf/2760.pdf http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2013/pdf/2760.pdf [3] - http://isp.justthe80.com/planetary-exploration/mars-obiter http://isp.justthe80.com/planetary-exploration/mars-obiter [4] - http://antariksh-space.blogspot.ca/2013/01/isro-mars-mission.html http://antariksh-space.blogspot.ca/2013/01/isro-mars-mission... [5] - http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3zXg2UZ2J7w/UOej3qTPVvI/AAAAAAAAAOU/3lq4DkmZTBY/s1600/ISRO_MarsMission.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3zXg2UZ2J7w/UOej3qTPVvI/AAAAAAAAAO... [6] - http://www.iafastro.net/iac/archive/browse/IAC-12/A3/3A/14699/ http://www.iafastro.net/iac/archive/browse/IAC-12/A3/3A/1469... [7] - http://www.ias.ac.in/jess/aug2009/d8je-91.pdf http://www.ias.ac.in/jess/aug2009/d8je-91.pdf
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- mavroprovato 13y ago
  God forbid if someone voices a different opinion than yours, he must be a "downright moron" right?
  - iamshs 13y ago
    No. This is not different opinion at all, but rather a very very common and banal opinion that gets voiced in every Indian space thread. I deliberately used strong language because I felt it is deserved. The comment is not exploring anything novel, is a rabid near-sighted political and anti-science commentary, and is taking space away from scientific questions.
    - monsterix 13y ago
      You might want to read the guidelines[1] before commenting on HN. "Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face to face conversation. When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names." Also do you even read before calling names? You're the only one who took the discussion away from the topic placed in here. Please note that groupthink of seven people who agreed with you doesn't make opinion of others (who disagree with you) any less relevant. [1] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
      - iamshs 13y ago
        This is civil, I would have called you out in face to face discourse too. Btw, will you say to an Indian politician verbally face to face, to bug off to mars on this orbiter? (refer to your first post, first line) I have replied very aptly to the points that are being raised in posts. I am not deviating in any sense at all, instead you took science away from this topic. Well then your opinion is one that gets raised thousand times, and it is under my purview to give a strong reply once. EDIT: Reply to comment below. "> This is civil + I would have called you out in face to face discourse too. Notice the contradiction? You should calm down, I think." Honestly, I am lost on the point you are trying to prove here with your comment. I am saying, I would have said those words to you face to face too. Anyways, thank you for contributing a whole lot of this topic.

by r0h1n 13y ago

iamshs 13y ago

It is a travesty that his comment is at the top, rather than discuss merits/demerits of this initiative, we (atleast 7 of us commentators) are fixing this downright moron's narrow vision. I am immensely peeved that his comment is not adding anything of value, and is outright banal as they come on Indian topics. I do not think GSLV is ready, and won't be ready any time sooner although they are testing it in December. Also, I think GSLV should achieve workhorse capability like PSLV before it can be tasked with major workloads. I think NASA is helping with the payloads on MOM. I would be curious to know which ones are contributions by NASA though [1]. Also, the landing gear is designed with the help of ROSCOSMOS [2]. Some more detailed information in these links [3, 4, 5]. [1] - http://www.isro.org/pslv-c25/pdf/mom-payloads.pdf http://www.isro.org/pslv-c25/pdf/mom-payloads.pdf [2] - http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2013/pdf/2760.pdf http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2013/pdf/2760.pdf [3] - http://isp.justthe80.com/planetary-exploration/mars-obiter http://isp.justthe80.com/planetary-exploration/mars-obiter [4] - http://antariksh-space.blogspot.ca/2013/01/isro-mars-mission.html http://antariksh-space.blogspot.ca/2013/01/isro-mars-mission... [5] - http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3zXg2UZ2J7w/UOej3qTPVvI/AAAAAAAAAOU/3lq4DkmZTBY/s1600/ISRO_MarsMission.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3zXg2UZ2J7w/UOej3qTPVvI/AAAAAAAAAO... [6] - http://www.iafastro.net/iac/archive/browse/IAC-12/A3/3A/14699/ http://www.iafastro.net/iac/archive/browse/IAC-12/A3/3A/1469... [7] - http://www.ias.ac.in/jess/aug2009/d8je-91.pdf http://www.ias.ac.in/jess/aug2009/d8je-91.pdf

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
mavroprovato 13y ago
God forbid if someone voices a different opinion than yours, he must be a "downright moron" right?
- iamshs 13y ago
  No. This is not different opinion at all, but rather a very very common and banal opinion that gets voiced in every Indian space thread. I deliberately used strong language because I felt it is deserved. The comment is not exploring anything novel, is a rabid near-sighted political and anti-science commentary, and is taking space away from scientific questions.
  - monsterix 13y ago
    You might want to read the guidelines[1] before commenting on HN. "Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face to face conversation. When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names." Also do you even read before calling names? You're the only one who took the discussion away from the topic placed in here. Please note that groupthink of seven people who agreed with you doesn't make opinion of others (who disagree with you) any less relevant. [1] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - iamshs 13y ago
      This is civil, I would have called you out in face to face discourse too. Btw, will you say to an Indian politician verbally face to face, to bug off to mars on this orbiter? (refer to your first post, first line) I have replied very aptly to the points that are being raised in posts. I am not deviating in any sense at all, instead you took science away from this topic. Well then your opinion is one that gets raised thousand times, and it is under my purview to give a strong reply once. EDIT: Reply to comment below. "> This is civil + I would have called you out in face to face discourse too. Notice the contradiction? You should calm down, I think." Honestly, I am lost on the point you are trying to prove here with your comment. I am saying, I would have said those words to you face to face too. Anyways, thank you for contributing a whole lot of this topic.