India launches 20 satellites in single mission • Hacker News Board

Re: India launches 20 satellites in single mission

#101

Post by hueving » Wed, Jun 22, 2016, 6:30 PM UTC

jkot wrote: post #22

hueving wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And US has 44M people on food stamps ;-( That's how social programs work. It wouldn't be working if they weren't giving them out to the lower distribution of the US income. I'm not sure what point you were trying to make, that food stamps imply the country is poor? Would highlighting that the UK has 100% of its people on NHS also imply that their citizens are poor?

European countries used food stamps during WW2. It implies that country does not have enough food, if it has to ration its food supplies. I know it is social assistance, but it has really bad name. NHS is paid health insurance, sometimes pretty expensive, not much relevant.

You should probably look up what food stamps are in the US. They have nothing to do with a food shortage.

Re: India launches 20 satellites in single mission

#102

Post by whack » Wed, Jun 22, 2016, 6:34 PM UTC

themartorana wrote: post #83

whack wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the majority of people live below international poverty lines" The international poverty line is ~$700/year. India's average income, adjusted for purchasing parity, is $6100/year. If you're going to make inflammatory, derogatory statements, at least get your facts right.

Are you really caught up on "majority"? Semantics are the line you've chosen to draw? http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/country/IND In India, as of 2011: - 293 million (or 22% of the population) live on less than $1.90 a day (international poverty line). - 708 million (or 55% of the population) live on less than $3.10 a day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Below_Poverty_Line_(India) "Internationally, an income o…

Someone stated that "the majority of people live below international poverty lines"

I replied stating that his comment contains factually false statements.

You replied calling me out, saying that there were no false statements.

You later provided proof that only 22% of the population lives below the international poverty line.

22% is no where even close to 50%. I don't know why you keep trying to defend this as a true statement. It isn't, as you yourself supplied proof for.

-------

Regarding your point that I'm getting lost in semantics: I should be the one saying that to you. The entire debate about the international poverty line was not even my main point. My main point as stated originally was that the post was an unnecessarily condescending rant.

And it is. If we were discussing the overall state of India, then the above comment might be a fair one. But that's not even close to what this thread is about. This thread is about India's space agency launching 20 satellites in a single mission. Someone then went off on a (unnecessary) tangent about the original definition of "3rd world", as relating to the cold war. Someone else then went off on another completely unrelated rant about every single problem he could think of, that exists in the country.

Bringing up valid criticisms during the appropriate context/discussion, is certainly very valuable. But criticizing someone/something during completely unrelated discussions isn't. It's usually just a sign of someone who enjoys condescending to others and enjoys the feeling of power that comes with it.

Re: India launches 20 satellites in single mission

#103

Post by mankash666 » Wed, Jun 22, 2016, 6:35 PM UTC

x5n1 wrote: post #26

sidcool wrote: post #24

There will be naysayers when a second or third world country achieves a milestone. Inspite of similar feats done before by developed nations, this is huge for developing economies. Similar thing happened when the earlier Prime Minister of India announced that India will launch a Mars mission within a year at a fraction of cost at what NASA or ESA would do it. Most people laughed at it, and said it's impossible and wh…

Well when your top engineers get paid 25k sure you can do it for a fraction of the cost. Why couldn't you. Indian military already has tons of tech that if they bring to the civil sector they could use to compete with whatever. The problem is usually corruption and funding. The intelligence is there, in a billion people there are a few million outliers. Heck most of American Fortune 500's are leveraging Indian brains…

Bah! "The intelligence is there, in a billion people there are a few million outliers"

That statement is suggestive of an Indian race that's generally not intelligent. Just curious on your country of origin and race, and source of this bias!

Re: India launches 20 satellites in single mission

#104

Post by whack » Wed, Jun 22, 2016, 6:41 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #84

whack wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the majority of people live below international poverty lines" The international poverty line is ~$700/year. India's average income, adjusted for purchasing parity, is $6100/year. If you're going to make inflammatory, derogatory statements, at least get your facts right.

> > "the majority of people live below international poverty lines" > The international poverty line is ~$700/year. India's average income, adjusted for purchasing parity, is $6100/year. The mean income (which is the average for which that statement is true) tells you nothing about whether the majority is above or below a certain point, unless you know independently that the distribution is normal, so that the mean i…

Yes, I'm aware of the mean vs median distinction. But if someone states that the majority of the country has an income below X, and I find out that the average wage in the country is actually 8X, I'm going to be extremely skeptical of the original statement. The amount of income inequality that is needed to produce a situation like that, is so extreme that no one should believe it without supporting data.

As it turns out, I was right. The other person to reply to me, dug up evidence showing that only 22% earn below the intl poverty line. Not "the majority" as was stated.

Re: India launches 20 satellites in single mission

#105

Post by vthallam » Wed, Jun 22, 2016, 6:55 PM UTC

rrrazdan wrote: post #61

As an Indian and personal supporter of the Indian space program, I don't see this as a feat in the international sense. What was the technological leap? ISRO could have done this few years back as well. Its just that the payload combination clicked this time. By bragging about things like these we merely betray our jingoism. And what's more when a real technological feat happens it would be drowned out because we glo…

> As an Indian and personal supporter of the Indian space program, I don't see this as a feat in the international sense.

It makes sense since the only other two agencies which were able to send many satellites were NASA and the Russian space agency. So this news shows ISRO is also a serious contender.

>By bragging about things like these we merely betray our jingoism.

Posting a BBC article here is not bragging. Though i wouldn't suggest people to go out and say we are the best, since we aren't, I don't see any harm in posting this kind of news on HN.

You seem to think things should be ground breaking to be appreciated, it need not be to appreciate the efforts of the scientists.

Re: India launches 20 satellites in single mission

#106

Post by walrus01 » Wed, Jun 22, 2016, 7:54 PM UTC

I wouldn't say that India is a "major player" in the satellite launch market yet, considering the reliability record of its rockets:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_Satellite_Launc...

They're uninsurable for commercial telecom satellite launches. The PSLV is slightly better but also has a much smaller market.

Re: India launches 20 satellites in single mission

#107

Post by sangnoir » Wed, Jun 22, 2016, 11:16 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #82

sangnoir wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've been on HN for many years and my recollection is that the community here has been very supportive and encouraging of India's efforts in space technology. Unless your memory is selective - you may recall that the support was far from unanimous. I recall a number of HNers stating that the ISRO budget would be better spent on other 'more pressing' challenges India is facing (poverty, sanitation). In fairness, the…

That's not being a naysayer. I think the same is true of the US space program. If we really want to colonize space we need self sustaining habitats and highly compact and automated manufacturing from raw materials. Both can be done while staying on earth, and sending people up or yet another probe is mostly pointless.

> and sending people up or yet another probe is mostly pointless

Good thing they are lifting telecom & weather sats too! It's reasonable to say those are not pointless.

It's unreasonable to put space programs on hold while we try to solve the human condition. There is no political will or even widespread support. People are horrible - they worry about themselves, their families, their neighbourhoods, towns and countries in that order. "Self-sustaining habitats, pffft, not with my hard-earned tax dollars. Build my kid's school a bigger stadium than last years'"

Re: India launches 20 satellites in single mission

#108

Post by zump » Wed, Jun 22, 2016, 11:18 PM UTC

rck404 wrote: post #71

zump wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have to be born in India?

Yes unless you can provide something Indian citizens cannot provide like expertise in some of the systems ISRO doesn't have proficiency in. I don't say these in demeaning way. India is a 1.26 billion people country and pays less when you compare to salaries of NASA in USD. There's also the aspect of ISRO also being important research organization for defence. It's more like US DRDO and NASA both in a single entity. A…

FAIL! As an Overseas Citizen of India, this is extremely disappointing!

Re: India launches 20 satellites in single mission

#109

Post by vithlani » Thu, Jun 23, 2016, 1:04 AM UTC

sidcool wrote: post #24

There will be naysayers when a second or third world country achieves a milestone. Inspite of similar feats done before by developed nations, this is huge for developing economies. Similar thing happened when the earlier Prime Minister of India announced that India will launch a Mars mission within a year at a fraction of cost at what NASA or ESA would do it. Most people laughed at it, and said it's impossible and wh…

And what exactly was the benefit to India of the Mars mission?

Did it benefit the middle class? The poor? Hell, even the rich?

One of the most powerful (perhaps the most powerful) technologies to master is nuclear power and energy. India has had this for a solid 50 years now. Where are the benefits?

Please don't hide your nationalism behind a "tech is good, regardless" veneer.

Re: India launches 20 satellites in single mission

#110

Post by ucaetano » Thu, Jun 23, 2016, 9:50 AM UTC

neeleshs wrote: post #79

ucaetano wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean cost/kg to LEO? My short search showed costs far higher than SpaceX.

NDTV, an indian news channel, just reported that the launch cost was 50% less than spacex. No specifics were provided though.

From another comment here:

"the PSLV's payload to LEO is 3.25 tons. Wikipedia gives the cost of a launch at 15 million USD so that gives about $4600/kg to LEO. For context, that's nearly twice as expensive per kg as a Falcon 9 launch but they're difficult to compare because they serve different launch markets."