Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

nextbigwhat.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 162 posts

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#51

Post by sateesh »

maaku wrote: post #31
swatkat wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's the tradition :) Former Isro chairman G Madhavan Nair on Monday said, “This has been a tradition. I had also gone to Tirupati before the Chandrayaan mission.” But more than religious beliefs, he said these temple visits helped des-stress the mind and offer clarity. But beyond this, do superstitions and other beliefs have a hold on the scientists? “Not really,” said Mylswamy Annadurai, the project director…

Regarding the peanuts (in case this was lost on others): it's a JPL tradition that mission control open and share a jar of nuts right before the launch / orbital insertion / landing, for good luck. The point, obviously, is that space programs everywhere have good luck superstitions, many of them making less sense than a religious ritual.

>> is that space programs everywhere have good luck superstitions, many of them making less sense than a religious ritual.

Why so ? How does a religious ritual makes more sense than good luck superstitions ?

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#53

Post by [deleted] »

swatkat wrote: post #33

T+150 secs. PSLV Stage-1 separated. PS-2 lit. T+260 secs. PS-2 separated. PS-3 lit. PS-3 burn out. PSLV enters a long coasting of 28 minutes, after which 4th stage will be triggered. T + 32 minutes. Coasting almost done. Stage 4 ignition in few moments. Altitude is a bit higher due to over-performance. PS-4 started. 4th stage performance normal. Yay!! T+44 minutes. PS-4 cutoff. Spacecraft separation success :) Spacec…

[deleted]

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#54

Post by discardorama »

bolder88 wrote: post #30
pavs wrote: post #19

Every time India space programs discussion comes out a group of people will bring up India's poverty and other problem that should be fixed instead of investing on space program. I used to be one of those guys (I am from Bangladesh), then I looked at the actual cost of this space program and realized that its not a lot of money (~$70 Million) even by India's standard. For example, in india's domestic cricket tourname…

One of the bigger questions is international aid. "Since 2007 India has been the world's largest recipient of recorded remittances from abroad. In 2010 these inflows were worth $54bn (£35bn). UK foreign direct investment in India is considerable, reaching £1.8bn in the same year." You can't really on the one hand claim your country is terribly poor, and needs handouts from other nations, and on the other play at bein…

> You can't really on the one hand claim your country is terribly poor, and needs handouts from other nations, and on the other play at being spacemen.

... and you can't really post on HN without showing some basic common sense.

FYI: "International remittances" is NOT foreign aid. It is money sent to India by Indians working abroad.

Foreign direct investment is NOT foreign aid. It is non-Indians buying Indian stocks.

Please read up on these before you criticize. Your bigotry is too obvious.

BTW: India has asked UK to stop the aid. Plus, any aid that UK does send should be considered a payment for all the stuff they looted from India (and the Indian lives lost fighting for UK in WW2).

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#55

Post by [deleted] »

swatkat wrote: post #33

T+150 secs. PSLV Stage-1 separated. PS-2 lit. T+260 secs. PS-2 separated. PS-3 lit. PS-3 burn out. PSLV enters a long coasting of 28 minutes, after which 4th stage will be triggered. T + 32 minutes. Coasting almost done. Stage 4 ignition in few moments. Altitude is a bit higher due to over-performance. PS-4 started. 4th stage performance normal. Yay!! T+44 minutes. PS-4 cutoff. Spacecraft separation success :) Spacec…

[deleted]

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#56

Post by suhair »

xmonkee wrote: post #44
suhair wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with most of what you say. But before jumping into portraying a shoe string salary take into account the "corruption adjusted benefits" that Google and other companes could not offer [ http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/behind-the-sband-s... ]

How would an Isro engineer get access to bribes and stuff? All that is for people dealing with large public funds and services.

ISRO has commercial wing called Antrix corporation. Just search for the scientists and top officers involved in the scam exposed in 2011. The given link is from The Hindu, most reputed daily in India.

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#57

Post by discardorama »

Every single time India does something in Space, the bigots come out from the woodwork: but India is so poor! Let them solve poverty/hunger/education/water/toilets/ice-cream first, and then worry about space.

When JFK pledged to put a man on the moon in 1961, the US did not even have the Civil Rights Act[1]. Millions of blacks lived in poverty, and were denied basic rights. Schools were segregated. In large areas of the South, blacks were denied the right to vote. There were lynchings. People were being killed just for demanding the right to vote. And Vietnam War was picking up steam.

And you know what? The US still said that getting a man on the moon amidst all this was a worthwhile goal.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#59

Post by discardorama »

fit2rule wrote: post #20
jayadevan wrote: post #11

One would imagine that scientists believe less in rituals. ISRO scientists pray at the Thirupathi temple before every mission.

Its not like NASA scientists don't have their rituals too. The Russians, as well, have a history of sticking to their superstitious habits also. Science doesn't mean you have to be an emotion-less robot.

Everyone has rituals. Read them here: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/space-mission-supe...

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#60

Post by r0h1n »

xmonkee wrote: post #46
anupshinde wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally, I would have simply agreed with what you said. (and what you said is true) But! Stop complaining at this one moment. And take a look at the achievements of this country's people. They don't have world's best food, world-class infrastructure and not enough money to hire world class talent either. Probably they have world-class corruption in the country. How many countries achieve this after having these man…

>They don't have the world's best food Strongly disagree. We really do. But yeah I generally agree with your post.

Thank you! I'd think India has one of the most diverse range of cuisines in the world, much of which is lip-smacking good!
Post reply on HN