3 ms·
From India, Proof That a Trip to Mars Doesn’t Have to Break the Bank
- codex 13y agoThe cost differential is about right given that Indian labor, skilled and unskilled, is about 1/10 the cost of the US. This mission employed 2500--not exactly Spartan.
- Oculus 13y agoFrom the sounds of this article it seems like the success of the mission was merely luck. > The average age of India’s 2,500-person Mars team is 27 > instead of building many models (a qualification model, a flight model and a flight spare), as is the norm ..., scientists built the final flight model right from the start. Expensive ground tests were also limited. So not only do you have an incredibly young team, you're also skipping the step-by-step approach that includes testing. “India’s ‘late beginner’ advantage was that it could learn from earlier mission failures" So are you trying to tell me that NASA doesn't have access to previous mission failure insights? I could imagine that there is some bureaucracy that can be cut out from NASA (as with any large organization), but I also think the reason for the extremely cheap mission is the ISRO cut a lot of corners.
- CmonDev 13y ago"are you trying to tell me that NASA doesn't have access to previous mission failure insights" - even before that: https://xkcd.com/984/ https://xkcd.com/984/
- CmonDev 13y ago"The Russians, for example, believe in putting large amounts of time and resources into testing so that the systems are robust." - I wonder if India's attitude will change when they will become capable of designing and funding manned missions.
- sixbrx 13y agoI see the N=1 model of statistics is still alive and well in the media.