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ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission: Spacecraft successfully enters Martian Orbit

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Re: ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission: Spacecraft successfully enters Martian Orbit

#131

Post by prakashk »

swatkat wrote: post #36
enupten wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's even more fascinating is that ISRO survived at all, through the cold war. The fact that India has a fledgling space program, despite its problems, strikes me as rather inspiring. The fact that it was done cheaply stems partly from the fact that there is a factor of ~5-10 between the purchasing-power and corresponding USD value (which is why engineers in India seem to be paid lower in dollar terms).

@enupten, Following books provide an excellent insight on ISRO's beginnings and growth. They are a superb read: "A Brief History of Rocketry in ISRO" by P V Manoranjan Rao, P Radhakrishnan "India's Rise as Space Power" by UR Rao "Wings of Fire" by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, with Dr. Arun Tiwari

Thanks for the recommendations.

While searching for these, I found what appears to be a pretty comprehensive list of books on Indian space program here: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=33814.0

Re: ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission: Spacecraft successfully enters Martian Orbit

#132

Post by Arjuna »

shiven wrote: post #130
noisy_boy wrote: post #115

People who keep making the (nonsense) point of space vs. better roads keep harping on how the money will be better spent on infrastructure. I looked up the Indian planning commission's budget for 2013-14 road development. Planning Commission provided an annual outlay of Rs.37,300.00 Crore for 2013-2014 for development in road sector[1]. That is more than 6 billion USD - just for improving roads, for a year. The budge…

Thanks for providing some "hard data" and backing it up with references! It always irks me when people make such armchair-social-economist claims (which IMO, are ultimately only populism driven). As to ISRO: you've made me feel proud to be an Indian! Ad Astra!!!

As to ISRO: you've made me feel proud to be an Indian!

I'm "sort of" Indian... by way of marriage ;)

I get really excited when rockets go up, by generally spending too much time on telemetry [1]. I have been excited about this mission as well; admittedly, I can't help but feel a little emotional about it.

I think your sentiment will be echoed across India, in the sense that it brings science, technology and astro-dynamics even further to the forefront. It will kindle a fire in young people to look even more toward understanding and exploring these fields.

Regarding the mission, I thought it was interesting how Amul (a dairy company in India) used their "Amul Baby" in this little congratulatory ad [2]. The words are transliterated from Hindi. It basically translates to, "ISRO eat! This Mars thing is pretty cool!" इसरो खाओ! यह चीज़ बड़ी है मस्त मार्स! (Native speakers: please forgive me if I'm not quite right, and correct me if so.)

Along those lines, the kid in me wishes we could see rockets showing up on cereal boxes, with blazing exhaust plumes, launch telemetry and explanations of how events must be planned in order to reach their precise window of opportunity in space.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7609781

[2] http://s4.firstpost.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/amul-mars....

Edit: Thank you viksit and vkjsub for the linguistic details. I didn't realize the "pun" with regard to इसरो and इसे रोज़ खाओ until it was explained!

Re: ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission: Spacecraft successfully enters Martian Orbit

#133

Post by ceejayoz »

noisy_boy wrote: post #118
humanrebar wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, people should have listened to critics before the Titanic, the Hindenburg, the last Columbia launch, the last Challenger launch, the Big Dig, the Iraq War, the launch of the Obamacare websites, and a bunch of other large undertakings. The critics were wrong in this case, but writing them off as noise can lead to other mistakes.

With exception of the Iraq War and Universal Healthcare websites, pretty much everything was an accident. Sending an orbiter to Mars is advancing science and knowledge. Aside from the fact that this was an unmanned mission, ambitious projects mostly have an extra element of risk by definition. Inactivity due to that would be stopping advancement. Besides, India spent USD 75 million on it. It's GDP is 1.877 trillion U…

> With exception of the Iraq War and Universal Healthcare websites, pretty much everything was an accident.

Off the top of my head: Titanic's water bulkheads didn't go all the way to the tops of compartments, Hindenburg didn't use non-flammable helium, and Challenger had known issues with O-rings at low temperatures.

Re: ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission: Spacecraft successfully enters Martian Orbit

#134

Post by sean_the_geek »

induscreep wrote: post #129
Ankaios wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it's an accomplishment, even if others did it long ago. If I successfully run my first marathon (unlikely), it'll still be an accomplishment even though someone else first did it 2500 years ago. Getting a spacecraft into Mars orbit takes skill and careful work. I think it clearly warrants congratulations. Also, by the way, the first Mars orbiter wasn't in 1965—that was the first successful flyby. The first…

Maybe I should rephrase. Is this mission a scientific achievement? It could be a economics/accounting/marketing/HR/logistics achievement, but what is new scientifically?

do you understand enough "science" to fathom "scientific achievement"? If the people behind the mission explained to you "science" in it and what are the "scientific achievement", would you understand them?

Re: ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission: Spacecraft successfully enters Martian Orbit

#135

Post by gnurag »

induscreep wrote: post #129
Ankaios wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it's an accomplishment, even if others did it long ago. If I successfully run my first marathon (unlikely), it'll still be an accomplishment even though someone else first did it 2500 years ago. Getting a spacecraft into Mars orbit takes skill and careful work. I think it clearly warrants congratulations. Also, by the way, the first Mars orbiter wasn't in 1965—that was the first successful flyby. The first…

Maybe I should rephrase. Is this mission a scientific achievement? It could be a economics/accounting/marketing/HR/logistics achievement, but what is new scientifically?

In the age of NSA sponsored spying, having an independent and largely self-taught space program is indeed a scientific achievement. Especially for a country that's 67 years old.

Re: ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission: Spacecraft successfully enters Martian Orbit

#136

Post by tjradcliffe »

suprgeek wrote: post #4

What is even more commendable is that it was done pretty cheaply [1]. Granted the capabilities of some of the other craft are different - but not THAT different. Add to this the fact that this was a success in the first shot - getting a craft from the Earth to to Mars Orbit correctly in one shot on a meager budget is indeed a stunning success for ISRO. [1] https://twitter.com/WSJIndia/status/514591179363864578/photo.…

It reminds me a bit of Rutherford's famous quip about experiment design, "We don't have any money... we shall have to be clever!"

Indian's ability to come together, organize and execute this mission is a huge credit to them. I hope other space agencies will take a careful look at what they've done and how they've done it, so they can learn from them.

As a Canadian, this makes me realize that Canada could just as well have done this. $75 million is less than our government spends on subsidizing our local film industry: http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/ems-sgd/me-bpd/20142015/me-bpd02-en...

Re: ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission: Spacecraft successfully enters Martian Orbit

#137

Post by MrZongle2 »

shiven wrote: post #130
noisy_boy wrote: post #115

People who keep making the (nonsense) point of space vs. better roads keep harping on how the money will be better spent on infrastructure. I looked up the Indian planning commission's budget for 2013-14 road development. Planning Commission provided an annual outlay of Rs.37,300.00 Crore for 2013-2014 for development in road sector[1]. That is more than 6 billion USD - just for improving roads, for a year. The budge…

Thanks for providing some "hard data" and backing it up with references! It always irks me when people make such armchair-social-economist claims (which IMO, are ultimately only populism driven). As to ISRO: you've made me feel proud to be an Indian! Ad Astra!!!

Hell, I'm not Indian and I'm proud of India.

They've achieved something incredibly difficult, on an amazing budget, and best of all: we're gonna get science out of it.

Re: ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission: Spacecraft successfully enters Martian Orbit

#138

Post by vkjsub »

Arjuna wrote: post #132
shiven wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for providing some "hard data" and backing it up with references! It always irks me when people make such armchair-social-economist claims (which IMO, are ultimately only populism driven). As to ISRO: you've made me feel proud to be an Indian! Ad Astra!!!

As to ISRO: you've made me feel proud to be an Indian! I'm "sort of" Indian... by way of marriage ;) I get really excited when rockets go up, by generally spending too much time on telemetry [1]. I have been excited about this mission as well; admittedly, I can't help but feel a little emotional about it. I think your sentiment will be echoed across India, in the sense that it brings science, technology and astro-dyn…

To add to what you said, the hindi word "cheeze" in the line you wrote means "thing" in hindi, and it rhymes exactly with "cheese" in English. Amul, being a dairy products company also make cheese, and this line doubles up to promoting their milk product :).

Re: ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission: Spacecraft successfully enters Martian Orbit

#140

Post by viksit »

Arjuna wrote: post #132
shiven wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for providing some "hard data" and backing it up with references! It always irks me when people make such armchair-social-economist claims (which IMO, are ultimately only populism driven). As to ISRO: you've made me feel proud to be an Indian! Ad Astra!!!

As to ISRO: you've made me feel proud to be an Indian! I'm "sort of" Indian... by way of marriage ;) I get really excited when rockets go up, by generally spending too much time on telemetry [1]. I have been excited about this mission as well; admittedly, I can't help but feel a little emotional about it. I think your sentiment will be echoed across India, in the sense that it brings science, technology and astro-dyn…

Kudos on finding that - it's very well done! To clarify what it means,

"ISE ROZ KHAO"

That's a pun on ISRO as well as the phrase "Ise Roz", which means "This daily". Khao means "To eat". Ultimately - it translates to "Eat this daily".

"Yeh cheez badi hai mast mars" is actually another reference to not just the term "cheese", which is of course its bread and butter business (no pun intended), but also the fact that those are the lyrics to a very suggestive, infamous and controversial song from the early 90s which compared to the attention 'Twerking'received a couple of years ago.

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