6 ms·

ISRO to launch Google satellite

186 points by unmole 12y ago

sudhirj 12y ago
Now we're talkin. If ISRO pulls this off the space industry will be officially Bangalored.
paulsutter 12y ago
Skybox can sell live satellite video, I saw a demo last week that was pretty dramatic. They are currently very limited by having one satellite. Suddenly I realize the importance of the Google investment in SpaceX to launch 700 internet service satellites. Surely those could include cameras. Will we get realtime Google Earth?
- WestCoastJustin 12y ago
  Here are some of the videos for those interested: http://www.firstimagery.skybox.com/hd-video/ http://www.firstimagery.skybox.com/hd-video/
- rufustherag 12y ago
  Ah yes, Google, working hard to make '1984' a reality for the purpose of profits and advertising.
  - chheplo 12y ago
    It is still cheaper compared to 1984 standards.
_nedR 12y ago
This is a great example of how investing in space can have returns for India. You often find comments in such articles saying that India should be focusing on poverty alleviation, healthcare, and infrastructure instead of investing in a space program. The problem with this strategy is that India (and developing countries in general) will always be playing catch-up to other countries; And without finding new sources of wealth, India will be hard pressed to obtain the necessary resources to uplift itself from poverty. Another thing these commenters fail to point out is that most of the countries that are rich today got where they are not by funding massive welfare programs, but by expanding into new frontiers in search of wealth. So the strategy today's developing countries should be following is to find new frontiers in science, technology, entrepreneurship to create wealth while in parallel trying to provide basic facilities to their people. Developing countries are in some ways like startups- Perpetually strapped for cash and resources, struggling to stay afloat and facing tough odds. The key for them is not to try to compete in areas where others already dominate, but to disrupt them (by trying drastically different approaches) or to seek new fields. Microsoft didn't try to compete with IBM in mainframes, they went for the then-burgeoning PC market. Apple is the world largest corporation not because it competes head-on with Microsoft in the PC market, but because it disrupted mobile. Similarly, space is a good avenue for India to compete in, where there are few incumbents and where India can exploit its natural advantages (such as it's eye for cost-saving and huge, inexpensive talent pool). Updated: Edited to removed lines that detract from main point.
- gaadd33 12y ago
  At the same doesn't India have significantly higher (like orders of magnitude) costs to criminal and civil prosecutions? I think that few nation states of successfully competed/emerged onto the world stage when at a disadvantage of that magnitude.
- ulam2 12y ago
  Not just that, satellites also help monitoring any weather abnormalities like cyclones. It helps if one could be warned.
- higherpurpose 12y ago
  This is why I'm still pissed off at Bill Gates' attack on Google [1] for trying to get Internet to Africa instead of just investing in curing malaria. What an incredibly short-sighted thing to say from someone who's apparently admired by many for his ideas. The people there get malaria because they are the Dark Ages in terms of living conditions. Bringing Internet there, allowing them to at least educate themselves, giving them the opportunity to find jobs online, or to create a local market is what will give them the chance to get out of poverty and afford better living conditions. The Internet will also help them live in more democratic societies where abuses by the government or criminal groups are exposed and dealt with. There are usually two schools of thought for dealing with Africa's poverty. One deals with the now, and it's about giving Africans free food, free cloths and free medicine - forever and ever, and yet it never seems to be enough. It merely helps some survive. And the other is about the future, and about trying to help people help themselves out of poverty. It's much more sustainable and it's about much more than just helping Africans survive. It's about getting them to catch-up to other countries in terms of living conditions, income and of course healthcare. T [1] - http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/08/09/bill-gates-misses-the-point-about-googles-balloons-and-malaria/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/08/09/bill-gate...
  - maxerickson 12y ago
    This is a better link for the quote, it provides the question and the rest of what Gates said (it is linked from your link): http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-08-08/bill-gates-on-his-foundations-health-and-education-campaigns#p1 http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-08-08/bill-gates-o... One of Google’s (GOOG) convictions is that bringing Internet connectivity to less-developed countries can lead to all sorts of secondary benefits. It has a project to float broadband transmitters on balloons. Can bringing Internet access to parts of the world that don’t have it help solve problems? When you’re dying of malaria, I suppose you’ll look up and see that balloon, and I’m not sure how it’ll help you. When a kid gets diarrhea, no, there’s no website that relieves that. Certainly I’m a huge believer in the digital revolution. And connecting up primary-health-care centers, connecting up schools, those are good things. But no, those are not, for the really low-income countries, unless you directly say we’re going to do something about malaria. Google started out saying they were going to do a broad set of things. They hired Larry Brilliant, and they got fantastic publicity. And then they shut it all down. Now they’re just doing their core thing. Fine. But the actors who just do their core thing are not going to uplift the poor. His answer is arguably self serving, but given the question, I wouldn't go so far as to call it an attack, it's a "I don't think their approach will help really low income countries", not a "it's useless".
panini_tech 12y ago
Time for the outer space research to get big at Isro bAngalore,India
known 12y ago
Is it INSURED?
- rufustherag 12y ago
  Probably not necessary. The Indian rockets are generally more cost effective and reliable than the American ones.
  - cpursley 12y ago
    Cost effective, sure. But where have you read that they are more reliable?
    - rufustherag 12y ago
      Google PSLV. It's over two decades since their last launch failure (and 18 years since a partial failure). At least 26 consecutive successful launches since the late 90's putting over 70 satellites into orbit. it also holds the record for the most satellites successfully put into orbit in a single launch.
      - jccooper 12y ago
        PSLV has a good record, certainly, at 28 launches with one full and one partial failure. It's not particularly better, though, than Atlas V (52 launches with one partial failure) or Delta IV (28 launches with one partial failure) or Soyuz-FG (49 launches with no failures). Ariane 5 (with 77 flights and 2 full and 2 partial failures--all at the early stages of the program) ain't bad either. Number of satellites per launch is a curious metric. And a mostly useless one, I would think, considering modern cubesats, nanosats, and (soon) chipsats. I also dispute PSLV holding that record. PSLV C9 seems to have carried 10. Antares Orb-1 in January 2014 is recorded as carrying 34 spacecraft. If KickSat had worked, SpaceX CRS-3 would have ended up deploying something like 110 individual spacecraft.
        rufustherag 12y ago
kartikkumar 12y ago
Antrix has done a great job of marketing secondary payload opportunities. Many university-satellites have been launched by PSLV; they've become the de-facto small-satellite launch provider in a lot respects. My alma mater has launched a couple of satellites successfully [1], with the first one, Delfi-C3, launched from Sriharikota in 2008 (still operational!). Europe has been trying to push Vega [1] as the European offering in this market. It's exciting to see how the launcher space is developing, especially for small payloads. I know a few startups that are targeting this space because of studies, like undertaken by SpaceWorks [1][2], that point at the expected explosion within the coming 5 years. Given that I'm working on space debris risk mitigation at the moment, I'm looking at this from a somewhat different perspective. Most small-satellites to date have been launched to low enough orbits that they can meet the 25-year de-orbit guideline without too many issues. With the commercial market rapidly expanding though, there are a lot of applications that require higher orbits, and that's when space debris becomes a huge issue. Keeps me in a job! All in all, great news for ISRO, and hopefully a sign of more international collaboration and commercial expansion in the years to come. [1] http://www.delfispace.nl http://www.delfispace.nl [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_%28rocket%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_%28rocket%29 [3] http://www.sei.aero/eng/papers/uploads/archive/IAC-14.E6.1.3.pdf http://www.sei.aero/eng/papers/uploads/archive/IAC-14.E6.1.3... (PDF) [4] http://www.sei.aero/eng/papers/uploads/archive/SSC14-I-3_v1.0.pdf http://www.sei.aero/eng/papers/uploads/archive/SSC14-I-3_v1.... (PDF)
jcoffland 12y ago
Did someone say Skynet?
vardhanw 12y ago
There are some good developments giving an international exposure to Indian space research. Another commendable achievement is the Team Indus winning a $1 million prize money [1] as a part of Google's Lunar X-prize, for achieving significant milestones. They are mostly a team of fresh IITians mentored by a few senior guys [2] - entrepreneurs, enthusiasts and technology and industry veterans who started this. This was the only team from India participating in the X-prize, and is one of the 5 teams internationally to be selected for the first round of funding, from amongst other well funded entities. Incidentally my company Sasken [3] has provided the team with space in our Bangalore office for their operations and it is indeed exciting to see them succeed. [1] http://yourstory.com/2015/01/team-indus-from-india-wins-google-lunar-xprize/ http://yourstory.com/2015/01/team-indus-from-india-wins-goog... [2] http://www.teamindus.in/about-us/ http://www.teamindus.in/about-us/ [3] http://www.sasken.com http://www.sasken.com
binoyxj 12y ago
Big validation in the age of space madness. Keep them coming team ISRO.
ardahal 12y ago
A couple of months ago, I met a brilliant scientist[1][2] who runs a space startup in India that specializes in brokering deals to launch non Indian space payload on ISRO's launch vehicles. Her company is called Earth2Orbit[3], although I am not sure whether this deal was brokered by them. [1] http://travel.cnn.com/mumbai/susmita-mohanty-indias-own-moonwalker-142324 http://travel.cnn.com/mumbai/susmita-mohanty-indias-own-moon... [2] http://www.earth2orbit.com/people/people.html http://www.earth2orbit.com/people/people.html [3] http://www.earth2orbit.com/index.html http://www.earth2orbit.com/index.html
jpalomaki 12y ago
Crowdfunded military intelligence in near future? People interested in what's happening on some specific place putting their money to pool and purchasing live video feed from the region?

186 points by unmole 12y ago

Now we're talkin. If ISRO pulls this off the space industry will be officially Bangalored.

Skybox can sell live satellite video, I saw a demo last week that was pretty dramatic. They are currently very limited by having one satellite. Suddenly I realize the importance of the Google investment in SpaceX to launch 700 internet service satellites. Surely those could include cameras. Will we get realtime Google Earth?

WestCoastJustin 12y ago
Here are some of the videos for those interested: http://www.firstimagery.skybox.com/hd-video/ http://www.firstimagery.skybox.com/hd-video/
rufustherag 12y ago
Ah yes, Google, working hard to make '1984' a reality for the purpose of profits and advertising.
- chheplo 12y ago
  It is still cheaper compared to 1984 standards.

_nedR 12y ago

This is a great example of how investing in space can have returns for India. You often find comments in such articles saying that India should be focusing on poverty alleviation, healthcare, and infrastructure instead of investing in a space program. The problem with this strategy is that India (and developing countries in general) will always be playing catch-up to other countries; And without finding new sources of wealth, India will be hard pressed to obtain the necessary resources to uplift itself from poverty. Another thing these commenters fail to point out is that most of the countries that are rich today got where they are not by funding massive welfare programs, but by expanding into new frontiers in search of wealth. So the strategy today's developing countries should be following is to find new frontiers in science, technology, entrepreneurship to create wealth while in parallel trying to provide basic facilities to their people. Developing countries are in some ways like startups- Perpetually strapped for cash and resources, struggling to stay afloat and facing tough odds. The key for them is not to try to compete in areas where others already dominate, but to disrupt them (by trying drastically different approaches) or to seek new fields. Microsoft didn't try to compete with IBM in mainframes, they went for the then-burgeoning PC market. Apple is the world largest corporation not because it competes head-on with Microsoft in the PC market, but because it disrupted mobile. Similarly, space is a good avenue for India to compete in, where there are few incumbents and where India can exploit its natural advantages (such as it's eye for cost-saving and huge, inexpensive talent pool). Updated: Edited to removed lines that detract from main point.

gaadd33 12y ago
At the same doesn't India have significantly higher (like orders of magnitude) costs to criminal and civil prosecutions? I think that few nation states of successfully competed/emerged onto the world stage when at a disadvantage of that magnitude.
ulam2 12y ago
Not just that, satellites also help monitoring any weather abnormalities like cyclones. It helps if one could be warned.
higherpurpose 12y ago
This is why I'm still pissed off at Bill Gates' attack on Google [1] for trying to get Internet to Africa instead of just investing in curing malaria. What an incredibly short-sighted thing to say from someone who's apparently admired by many for his ideas. The people there get malaria because they are the Dark Ages in terms of living conditions. Bringing Internet there, allowing them to at least educate themselves, giving them the opportunity to find jobs online, or to create a local market is what will give them the chance to get out of poverty and afford better living conditions. The Internet will also help them live in more democratic societies where abuses by the government or criminal groups are exposed and dealt with. There are usually two schools of thought for dealing with Africa's poverty. One deals with the now, and it's about giving Africans free food, free cloths and free medicine - forever and ever, and yet it never seems to be enough. It merely helps some survive. And the other is about the future, and about trying to help people help themselves out of poverty. It's much more sustainable and it's about much more than just helping Africans survive. It's about getting them to catch-up to other countries in terms of living conditions, income and of course healthcare. T [1] - http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/08/09/bill-gates-misses-the-point-about-googles-balloons-and-malaria/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/08/09/bill-gate...
- maxerickson 12y ago
  This is a better link for the quote, it provides the question and the rest of what Gates said (it is linked from your link): http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-08-08/bill-gates-on-his-foundations-health-and-education-campaigns#p1 http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-08-08/bill-gates-o... One of Google’s (GOOG) convictions is that bringing Internet connectivity to less-developed countries can lead to all sorts of secondary benefits. It has a project to float broadband transmitters on balloons. Can bringing Internet access to parts of the world that don’t have it help solve problems? When you’re dying of malaria, I suppose you’ll look up and see that balloon, and I’m not sure how it’ll help you. When a kid gets diarrhea, no, there’s no website that relieves that. Certainly I’m a huge believer in the digital revolution. And connecting up primary-health-care centers, connecting up schools, those are good things. But no, those are not, for the really low-income countries, unless you directly say we’re going to do something about malaria. Google started out saying they were going to do a broad set of things. They hired Larry Brilliant, and they got fantastic publicity. And then they shut it all down. Now they’re just doing their core thing. Fine. But the actors who just do their core thing are not going to uplift the poor. His answer is arguably self serving, but given the question, I wouldn't go so far as to call it an attack, it's a "I don't think their approach will help really low income countries", not a "it's useless".

panini_tech 12y ago

Time for the outer space research to get big at Isro bAngalore,India

known 12y ago

Is it INSURED?

rufustherag 12y ago
Probably not necessary. The Indian rockets are generally more cost effective and reliable than the American ones.
- cpursley 12y ago
  Cost effective, sure. But where have you read that they are more reliable?
  - rufustherag 12y ago
    Google PSLV. It's over two decades since their last launch failure (and 18 years since a partial failure). At least 26 consecutive successful launches since the late 90's putting over 70 satellites into orbit. it also holds the record for the most satellites successfully put into orbit in a single launch.
    - jccooper 12y ago
      PSLV has a good record, certainly, at 28 launches with one full and one partial failure. It's not particularly better, though, than Atlas V (52 launches with one partial failure) or Delta IV (28 launches with one partial failure) or Soyuz-FG (49 launches with no failures). Ariane 5 (with 77 flights and 2 full and 2 partial failures--all at the early stages of the program) ain't bad either. Number of satellites per launch is a curious metric. And a mostly useless one, I would think, considering modern cubesats, nanosats, and (soon) chipsats. I also dispute PSLV holding that record. PSLV C9 seems to have carried 10. Antares Orb-1 in January 2014 is recorded as carrying 34 spacecraft. If KickSat had worked, SpaceX CRS-3 would have ended up deploying something like 110 individual spacecraft.
      - rufustherag 12y ago

kartikkumar 12y ago

Antrix has done a great job of marketing secondary payload opportunities. Many university-satellites have been launched by PSLV; they've become the de-facto small-satellite launch provider in a lot respects. My alma mater has launched a couple of satellites successfully [1], with the first one, Delfi-C3, launched from Sriharikota in 2008 (still operational!). Europe has been trying to push Vega [1] as the European offering in this market. It's exciting to see how the launcher space is developing, especially for small payloads. I know a few startups that are targeting this space because of studies, like undertaken by SpaceWorks [1][2], that point at the expected explosion within the coming 5 years. Given that I'm working on space debris risk mitigation at the moment, I'm looking at this from a somewhat different perspective. Most small-satellites to date have been launched to low enough orbits that they can meet the 25-year de-orbit guideline without too many issues. With the commercial market rapidly expanding though, there are a lot of applications that require higher orbits, and that's when space debris becomes a huge issue. Keeps me in a job! All in all, great news for ISRO, and hopefully a sign of more international collaboration and commercial expansion in the years to come. [1] http://www.delfispace.nl http://www.delfispace.nl [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_%28rocket%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_%28rocket%29 [3] http://www.sei.aero/eng/papers/uploads/archive/IAC-14.E6.1.3.pdf http://www.sei.aero/eng/papers/uploads/archive/IAC-14.E6.1.3... (PDF) [4] http://www.sei.aero/eng/papers/uploads/archive/SSC14-I-3_v1.0.pdf http://www.sei.aero/eng/papers/uploads/archive/SSC14-I-3_v1.... (PDF)

jcoffland 12y ago

Did someone say Skynet?

vardhanw 12y ago

There are some good developments giving an international exposure to Indian space research. Another commendable achievement is the Team Indus winning a $1 million prize money [1] as a part of Google's Lunar X-prize, for achieving significant milestones. They are mostly a team of fresh IITians mentored by a few senior guys [2] - entrepreneurs, enthusiasts and technology and industry veterans who started this. This was the only team from India participating in the X-prize, and is one of the 5 teams internationally to be selected for the first round of funding, from amongst other well funded entities. Incidentally my company Sasken [3] has provided the team with space in our Bangalore office for their operations and it is indeed exciting to see them succeed. [1] http://yourstory.com/2015/01/team-indus-from-india-wins-google-lunar-xprize/ http://yourstory.com/2015/01/team-indus-from-india-wins-goog... [2] http://www.teamindus.in/about-us/ http://www.teamindus.in/about-us/ [3] http://www.sasken.com http://www.sasken.com

binoyxj 12y ago

Big validation in the age of space madness. Keep them coming team ISRO.

ardahal 12y ago

A couple of months ago, I met a brilliant scientist[1][2] who runs a space startup in India that specializes in brokering deals to launch non Indian space payload on ISRO's launch vehicles. Her company is called Earth2Orbit[3], although I am not sure whether this deal was brokered by them. [1] http://travel.cnn.com/mumbai/susmita-mohanty-indias-own-moonwalker-142324 http://travel.cnn.com/mumbai/susmita-mohanty-indias-own-moon... [2] http://www.earth2orbit.com/people/people.html http://www.earth2orbit.com/people/people.html [3] http://www.earth2orbit.com/index.html http://www.earth2orbit.com/index.html

jpalomaki 12y ago

Crowdfunded military intelligence in near future? People interested in what's happening on some specific place putting their money to pool and purchasing live video feed from the region?