India, U.S. Agree to Joint Exploration of Mars

Post by rtx » Thu, Oct 02, 2014, 7:57 PM UTC

fillskills wrote: post #38

brd wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had written something similar but you put it much more succinctly. The only things I'd add to this explanation 1) Democracy is the US rallying cry, our allies are more defensible when we do so in the name of democracy. 2) The powers that be are highly adept at manipulating a voting population so making an ally a democracy will likely turn it into a predictable/manipulable Plutocracy of sorts. *fixed implication tha…

Something to note regarding recent US and Indian history - During the cold war, India supported Russia (Not much of real support, mostly supporting in words and buying technology from Russia in turn). So US ended up supporting Pakistan and China. Pakistan continuously tried different ways to discourage India's development. Not sure if all that had any major effect on the cold war, but it certainly had serious repercu…

Post by wavefunction » Thu, Oct 02, 2014, 8:20 PM UTC

Karunamon wrote: post #33

shas3 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are implicitly assuming somehow they don't currently 'play by NASA rules (and NASA-level) standards.' Any evidence that this is so?

Aren't NASA-level standards historically slow and inefficient? I was of the impression that private parties streamlining that process and coming up with a cheaper program is what led to NASA (or congress by proxy, whatever) abandoning manned spaceflight to the private sector. In other words, maybe India is taking a leaf from SpaceX's book rather than NASA's

Post by asavadatti » Thu, Oct 02, 2014, 8:51 PM UTC

peeters wrote: post #34

shas3 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are implicitly assuming somehow they don't currently 'play by NASA rules (and NASA-level) standards.' Any evidence that this is so?

I'm not disparaging the quality of India's space program. I'm more saying that once you bring NASA into the picture there's the potential of inheriting 70 years worth of engineering requirements and process which could be detrimental to a fledgling space program. Edit: And you added the "NASA-level" which put words in my mouth that I did not say nor mean. I meant what I said: "NASA's standards"; standards that NASA h…

Post by anigbrowl » Thu, Oct 02, 2014, 9:10 PM UTC

falsestprophet wrote: post #67

anigbrowl wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone who pays attention to international affairs knows that the US has been seeking a rapprochement with India; Prime Minister Modi just had his first meeting with President Obama the other day. Meanwhile, the US has been at odds with China over its ballooning territorial claims in the South China Sea, to the point of possibly terminating the ban on arms sales to Viet Nam. I don't think the GP needs to provide cita…

Here we go again. Opinion: Anyone who pays attention to international affairs knows that the US has been seeking a rapprochement with India Unconvincing evidence: The President met with the President of India. Mr. Obama also met with the mayor of Gary, Indiana yesterday. It is easy to acquire incomplete current affairs knowledge. You are attributing the United States motivation to counter China to claims to the South…

Post by mturmon » Thu, Oct 02, 2014, 9:53 PM UTC

falsestprophet wrote: post #39

Naritai wrote: post #7

While I'm a big supporter of international co-operation, remember that the US has been striking a number of technical deals with India, as a part of a long-term political investment in bringing up a large democratic power to balance China. I think this has as much to do with that goal as it does with sharing technical information.

"Remember" that people on the internet state their opinion as fact without substantiating that opinion with facts. The parent comment, which at this time is the #1 comment, does not contribute to understanding why the United States and India made this agreement.