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Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

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Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#121

Post by harichinnan »

bolder88 wrote: post #108
[deleted] wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

I don't think that's true at all. I think the majority of the UK see a space program as a fairly useless endeavour - big boys playing with their toys. The UK does certainly see sending millions of pounds overseas in foreign aid, as a bad idea. And sorry again for my original copy&paste gone wrong. I copied the wrong part of the article which mentioned remittances rather than foreign aid.

I agree and so does the finance minister and now president of India. He calls it "peanuts" compared to the Indian economy. I should say they should use the aid for Scotland or other god forsaken places in UK. http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/441263/India-sends-a-spa...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/10360428/...

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#122

Post by svasan »

pramalin wrote: post #111
fit2rule wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

India's superstitions are far more deeper and affect common people in their daily life. Kudos to ISRO on this mission, as they might have faced lots of opposition to their operations from many sides. Even the Nobel laureate scientist C.V Raman opposed space explorations in his time, saying that they are meddling with Gods. For example, Mars is considered as a malicious planet in their astrology and people fear its ef…

>>> Even the Nobel laureate scientist C.V Raman opposed space explorations in his time, saying that they are meddling with Gods.

Could you provide some citation here? As far as CV Raman's religious inclinations were concerned, my understanding is that he was an agnostic [1].

Being a scientist himself, I don't think it would have been in his nature to stifle the spirit of scientific inquiry in the name of religion.

[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._V._Raman

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#123

Post by svasan »

sateesh wrote: post #77
lmm wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Religious rituals tend to have a more developed sense of internal consistency, and a framework or at least a rationale that makes several different rituals fit together. Simple good-luck superstitions tend to be more ad-hoc. (All IME)

As I see it rituals are set of elaborate steps involving a lot of ceremony, where as most of superstitions are usually in form of pithy aphorisms. A lot of ceremony doesn't necessarily mean consistency, though it might give a semblance of being so.

Forgive my naivete, but what is the point you are trying to make here? Or is this an attempt at creating some kind of fallacy?

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#124

Post by [deleted] »

bolder88 wrote: post #106
cdash wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know anything about UK investment in India but remittances are not international aid, that is money earned by foreign workers.

Yes apologies. I copy and pasted the wrong bit from a badly written gruaniad article. The point stands though. Whether it's billions or millions, it's still a ton of money which we shouldn't be giving them in aid.

[deleted]

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#125

Post by [deleted] »

bolder88 wrote: post #114
factorialboy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, just maybe, the British should not have colonized and looted India and parts of Asia and Africa for 300 years?

So you believe that the current British, should be paying money for crimes committed by their ancestors? Personally, I don't think people should pay for other peoples mistakes, even if they happen to be born in the same country.

[deleted]

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#126

Post by g8oz »

bolder88 wrote: post #114
factorialboy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, just maybe, the British should not have colonized and looted India and parts of Asia and Africa for 300 years?

So you believe that the current British, should be paying money for crimes committed by their ancestors? Personally, I don't think people should pay for other peoples mistakes, even if they happen to be born in the same country.

What if those people are still benefiting from other people's sins? If the current British don't want to pay maybe they can dispose of the ill-gotten gains i.e the country estates paid for by black slaves, the textile fortunes paid for by exploited Indian cotton farmers, the Kohinoor diamond in the Crown jewels etc.

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#127

Post by g8oz »

tapsboy wrote: post #117
salilpa wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not just isro scientists. even when our aircraft carrier INS Vikrant was launched, we had an elaborate pooja

As an atheist, it bothers me, when the "secular democratic republic" uses public money to hold ceremonies that cater to one community/religious traditions

I think the rise of the BJP has made it clear that the non-dominant communities are expected to know their place.

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#128

Post by swatkat »

anupshinde wrote: post #52

Just had a thought - Outsourcing Space Exploration - makes sense?

This is already being done at various levels. Rocket motors, parts, satellites etc are built by various private companies all over the world. Many space agencies provide launch and telemetry services. And, now we've exciting new space-companies like SpaceX, VirginGalactic, Icarus Interstellar etc.

More info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Spaceflight_Federati...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_spaceflight

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Space_non-governmental...

By the way, ISRO has Antrix:

http://www.antrix.gov.in/

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#129

Post by sateesh »

svasan wrote: post #123
sateesh wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I see it rituals are set of elaborate steps involving a lot of ceremony, where as most of superstitions are usually in form of pithy aphorisms. A lot of ceremony doesn't necessarily mean consistency, though it might give a semblance of being so.

Forgive my naivete, but what is the point you are trying to make here? Or is this an attempt at creating some kind of fallacy?

My point is there is no rational bias to distinguish between ritual and superstition and to tell that one form makes better sense than the other. In my opinion both doesn't make any good sense.

Re: Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission

#130

Post by dragonwriter »

sateesh wrote: post #129
svasan wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive my naivete, but what is the point you are trying to make here? Or is this an attempt at creating some kind of fallacy?

My point is there is no rational bias to distinguish between ritual and superstition and to tell that one form makes better sense than the other. In my opinion both doesn't make any good sense.

Ritual is a description of a kind of routinized action; superstition is a description of belief. You might engage in ritual because of superstition, but they are very much not the same thing, and you can have ritual without superstition and superstition without ritual.
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