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India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Land on Moon

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201–210 of 297 posts

Re: India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Land on Moon

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should there be something distracting on launch day ?

Distracting to whom? The scientists were pretty much focussed with their tasks.

You are telling me ISRO spent no resources catering to this visit. Even 0.1% of resources, mindshare and energy wasted on landing day is stupid IMO. Do all speeches, visits the next day. Modi was clearly there for a photo op.

Re: India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Land on Moon

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What else was it if not a PR exercise ? Was he helping mission control ? IMO leaders should let scientists focus in crunch time. He could have come one day later to give a speech or something.

> IMO leaders should let scientists focus in crunch time. What do you mean "focus"? The landing mission was not controlled by the scientists at all. The mission was taken over by the lander and was automated. The lander chose the landing spot and the trajectory. The scientists could do nothing but just monitor the data coming in. Modi being there or not being there would not have changed the outcome. So stop this can…

Please stop calling anyone who doesn't agree with you "left" brigade and "anti national". It insults everyone's intelligence. You don't know me or my political views. You know my opinion on this issue, let's stick to debating that.

Modi's presence sure wouldn't make the lander land better. What if there are key decisions that need to be taken in some missions, in an emergency, would you want politicians looking over their shoulder ? Modi could have gone a day later and given a raucous congratulatory speech or a motivating speech.

Re: India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Land on Moon

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What else was it if not a PR exercise ? Was he helping mission control ? IMO leaders should let scientists focus in crunch time. He could have come one day later to give a speech or something.

> What else was it if not a PR exercise ? He heads the Department of Space. That's good enough to justify his presence. > IMO leaders should let scientists focus in crunch time. Scientists were very much focussed from what I saw.

He heads the entire government. Doesn't mean he goes to every launch, announcement etc..

Re: India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Land on Moon

#204
post #119

I read that the maximum experiments are in the orbiter so this is a successful mission. The only thing for which it 'failed' was to let the ruling class do chest thumping by saying 'we are the fourth country to land a rover'. The ruling party had planned a great celebration today for it's 100 days in office, a date coinciding when the rover would land! They wanted to milk it for their nationalistic purposes while the…

I could be wrong, but I think Modi came across as a lot more compassionate leader after the failure. And, to be honest, what is wrong with chest thumping if you have a success. Regarding Nehru, one good deed doesn't get rid of his other sins and royal screw ups.

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Re: India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Land on Moon

#205
post #152

Latest update.. DSN did a carrier lock on lander https://twitter.com/dsn_status/status/1170391223040954368 DSS 54 carrier lock on Chandrayaan-2 Lander Frequency: 2.2846GHz Signal strength: -143dBm IDLE OFF 1 TURBO

Can you explain in layman’s terms what this might mean?

Re: India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Land on Moon

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India, which is currently stripping ethnic Bangladeshis of citizenship? That India?

I feel you’re looking for a fight and I don’t want to indulge you. Hope you’ll understand.

People have the right to be upset about things they believe to be unjust.

India is a wonderful country, but that diversity causes a lot of problems.

I mentioned the Kaveri River water supply issues in a different comment, but there's also all of the issues in the Indian controlled portion of Kashmir... and just everything surrounding the whole of Kashmir

The issue in Assam that the person you are replying to is mentioning is also important. It's quite similar to some of the issues we're facing in America, and it shouldn't be dismissed so quickly.

For those unfamiliar, one of the states in India has a significant refugee population, largely from refugees fleeing Indo-Pakistani and Bangaldesh Liberation Wars of 1971. Millions fled, particularly from Bangladesh and the rest of east Pakistan, to India. India, since 1987, lacks jus soli/birthright citizenship. Many of the refugees did not bring with them any way to prove citizenship in other countries. Many of the refugees forged identities to be allowed to stay. While this obviously is technically illegal, the end result is that there are people that have been living in India for 50 years, or were born there and know nothing else, that are having their citizenships revoked. Without the ability to prove citizenship from their other countries, these refugees and their descendants are at risk of ending up totally stateless - there are millions of people at risk from this. Bangladesh has not committed to accepting these people, and neither has India said they will allow them to stay and give them a path to citizenship.

It's hardly related to "big" problems like this, either. Casual statism and racism is a significant issue, both along the north/south divide, but also within regions.

Re: India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Land on Moon

#207
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m no expert but doing polar landing would involve a plane change maneuver after you arrive in moon orbit (or some clever orbital mechanics to minimize delta-v losses and somehow do it in a single burn (both capture and plane change). Apart from that, I’d presume theres also complexity of the landing site not being directly visible from earth, necessitating re-transmissions from the orbiter. Not something that hasn’…

In terms of orbital mechanics the polar orbit around the moon isn't significantly more complicated than an equatorial one. A small midcourse correction after entering a flight path towards the moon is all that's needed to ensure capture into orbit around the poles (and a capture burn), without the need for a plane change (note that this is also based on experience from KSP).

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Re: India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Land on Moon

#208
post #160

I'm for space programs, but India is one of the poorest countries on earth, and spending that kind of money on social programs would actually have an impact on it's population. And then it looks like it failed on top of that, which is honestly not surprising, since space programs are so sensitive to minor quality issues and quality is the hardest thing for a 3rd world country. If I was living in India and struggling…

Please don't take HN threads into nationalistic flamewar. This one is a classic flamewar tangent that has happened countless times, leads nowhere good, and is quite off topic. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20900411 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20900396

How is this "nationalistic"? How does this lead nowhere good? How is it off topic?

Re: India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Land on Moon

#209

I'm for space programs, but India is one of the poorest countries on earth, and spending that kind of money on social programs would actually have an impact on it's population. And then it looks like it failed on top of that, which is honestly not surprising, since space programs are so sensitive to minor quality issues and quality is the hardest thing for a 3rd world country. If I was living in India and struggling…

1 in 8 households in America was food insecure in 2017 [1]. Do you think it's justified to spend 20 billion dollars on NASA when America can't even provide food security to each of its residents, and reports of crumbling infrastructure from all corners of the country, from collapsing bridges to cracking dams speak the sorrow tale of construction quality in what is supposed to be a 1st world country? [1] https://www.f…

I saw a commercial on TV recently claiming 1 in 6 households in America were "food insecure". I don't buy it. Food costs are still low, food banks still have food and EBT is still available. When I was younger I was well below whatever the poverty line was defined as, and most if not all of my friends/neighbors were in similar situations, and I never once witnessed or heard of anyone going hungry, let alone feeling insecure about obtaining food. Paying the electricity bill on the other hand...

Re: India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Land on Moon

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I will disagree with your views, scientifically we are same race and our genetic differences are insignificant. Insignificant except for the ability to digest lactose in adulthood, resistance to malaria, efficient metabolization of alcohols... And that's just off the top of my head for "significant genetic differences that tend to be associated with a race". And if you're saying that "99.99% of our dna is shared, s…

> So, a question for you - do you have any scientific basis for your views, or are they based on an idea of how the world should be? The average nucleotide diversity (pi) for the 50 segments is only 0.061% +/- 0.010% among Asians and 0.064% +/- 0.011% among Europeans but almost twice as high (0.115% +/- 0.016%) among Africans. The African diversity estimate is even higher than that between Africans and Eurasians (0.0…

Is there more genetic diversity in wolves, or in individual breeds of domesticated dogs? I would assume wolves. Does that mean that there are no dog breeds?

For that matter, you seem to be conceding the point that there are different groups of people similar to those commonly referred to as "races" that have discernibly different traits - in this case nucleotide diversity.

In other words, I do not think that your paper does not support your assertion that races do not exist. (And also completely failed to address the "these specific traits are significant and associated with particular races" component of my argument)

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