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

India is sending a rover to the moon, and the country is pumped

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 221 posts

Re: India is sending a rover to the moon, and the country is pumped

#201

Post by achow »

dmix wrote: post #122
scotchmi_st wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that irritates me more than anything about the argument that sending people to space is a bad idea is the unique bias people have against space technologies. No-one ever says "We spend billions on Football; let's spend it on poor people instead", or "We spend billions on the music and film industries, let's shut those down and instead tax everyone for the average entertainment spend and send the proceeds to…

The difference is people voluntarily pay for football tickets and TV/online subscriptions. Same with music. They are self sustaining industries. Experimental space flight is coming directly from tax payers and public funding. I still think it’s a worthy use of public funds because we get so much out of it that is intangible while supporting both scientific research and some of the most advanced R&D work on the planet…

> Experimental space flight is coming directly from tax payers and public funding.

Oh the irony.

Indian is giving tax, tax is getting spent on space flight, the said Indian is getting pumped.

Finger wagging by NYTimes.

Re: India is sending a rover to the moon, and the country is pumped

#202

Post by sidcool »

Kaiyou wrote: post #198
sidcool wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Space is an excellent opportunity to create wealth and provide employment. So your argument is still wrong.

How would you use space to create wealth?

Many long term investments. Space tourism, satellite launches for other countries (which India does), asteroid mining, tech innovation, SCIENCE!!!

Re: India is sending a rover to the moon, and the country is pumped

#203

Post by sidcool »

Tialco wrote: post #77
sidcool wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Space is an excellent opportunity to create wealth and provide employment. So your argument is still wrong.

Are you joking? Have you seen the amount of space ventures that have gone bankrupt? Try and start a rocket company and go look for funding. It's a terrible opportunity to create wealth in the short term (10/20/30 year timespan). However, in the 30-50 year timespan, it seems like a terrific opportunity to create wealth (perhaps rivaled only by nuclear fusion) if we can work our way up to sustainable/reusable rockets a…

I am glad our fathers and grandfathers and ancestors before that had the ability to see beyond their own shadows.

Re: India is sending a rover to the moon, and the country is pumped

#204

Post by easytiger »

shripadk wrote: post #160
easytiger wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea. They basically went back to first principles on relativity I hear. They had nothing to go on. No well understood science in the public domain at all. And the objection was around the seeker technology more specifically

If you want to keep going back in time why not go all the way back to Science that was founded in India and was taken and adopted by the West? How about we go all the way back to the numeral system (which originated from the Brahmi numerals) without which there would be no foundation for any future Scientific discoveries? It is ridiculous to keep going back in time to justify something that is happening today. Every…

How about you calm down and pay attention to the discussion. Total lunatic. I was stating my point around the closed science of the cold war era. India was doing nothing around that time. It then benefited, like everyone else in the world when the huge post war advances were done in public in peer reviewed science. When you do something ow, it is not from scratch. Its not an insult as you seem to think it is.

Your behaviour is scandalous and anathema to any reasonable discussion. You simply invent your own argument to have with yourself. I'm finished here.

Re: India is sending a rover to the moon, and the country is pumped

#205

Post by rohit2412 »

shripadk wrote: post #166
henvic wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must see whether the money used in something is from the te sector or if it was stolen from the people through taxation. If it is the former, it's none of your business and indeed it doesn't make anyone poorer. If it is the later, it's of everyone's business, unfair, and bad. I'm not into Indian space endeavours but probably the money comes from poor taxpayers who would be way better off if they weren't plundered…

> I'm not into Indian space endeavours but probably the money comes from poor taxpayers who would be way better off if they weren't plundered in the first place. If you don't know then it's best not to talk because it only helps perpetuate the already negative stereotype that most have. The poor aren't even taxed in India. Indians are only taxed after they have a minimum salary of 7.5 lakhs per annum (accounting for…

A correction for you. 7060$ is purchasing power parity number, while the 11000$ is nominal.

Re: India is sending a rover to the moon, and the country is pumped

#206

Post by rohit2412 »

Jagat wrote: post #176

To the naysayers, I only have one thing to say. If in future (say 20 years down the line), a research agency needs to send their rover to the moon and they have two options: Pay $1bn to NASA, or $200mn to ISRO, who would you think they'd choose? Private companies have already started using ISRO for launching mini satellites, and it may not be long before it becomes a cashflow positive company in the global market.

Plus why look at research agencies. India needs to launch it's own communication, and weather monitoring satellites. It's much cheaper to develop and use your own capabilities.

Re: India is sending a rover to the moon, and the country is pumped

#207

Post by Kaiyou »

sidcool wrote: post #202
Kaiyou wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you use space to create wealth?

Many long term investments. Space tourism, satellite launches for other countries (which India does), asteroid mining, tech innovation, SCIENCE!!!

Sounds like a pipe dream. I wouldn't lend you money for your wild fantasies.

Re: India is sending a rover to the moon, and the country is pumped

#208

Post by sidcool »

Kaiyou wrote: post #207
sidcool wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many long term investments. Space tourism, satellite launches for other countries (which India does), asteroid mining, tech innovation, SCIENCE!!!

Sounds like a pipe dream. I wouldn't lend you money for your wild fantasies.

I respect your opinion and would respect your decision. Although would not stop looking for funding elsewhere. Even a failure in such endeavors gives a great return on investment. Many modern tech wonders are a direct result of space research. Humanity has to be a space faring civilization, else our future generations will go extinct. Imagine if our ancestors had stopped exploring the oceans until all of humanity's problems were solved.

Re: India is sending a rover to the moon, and the country is pumped

#209

Post by msaharia »

sremani wrote: post #182
msaharia wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No organization had ever put an orbiter around Mars in their first try. Until Mars Orbiter Mission of ISRO in 2014. I wouldn't rule them out. ;) https://www.isro.gov.in/mars-orbiter-mission-completes-1000-...

NASA provided deep space navigation and tracking support services to this mission during the non-visible period of the Indian Deep Space Network.

Yes, I'm aware. I actually work close to the Network Integrations Center in NASA. Most space work is collaborative. :)

Re: India is sending a rover to the moon, and the country is pumped

#210

Post by Kaiyou »

sidcool wrote: post #208
Kaiyou wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a pipe dream. I wouldn't lend you money for your wild fantasies.

I respect your opinion and would respect your decision. Although would not stop looking for funding elsewhere. Even a failure in such endeavors gives a great return on investment. Many modern tech wonders are a direct result of space research. Humanity has to be a space faring civilization, else our future generations will go extinct. Imagine if our ancestors had stopped exploring the oceans until all of humanity's p…

I agree with your general point, I just think that it doesn't make sense to pump money into this endeavour until there's clean drinking water for everyone. Once there's wealth to spend, space is a nice goal. On the other hand I do not personally care about the fate of millions impoverished Indians and wouldn't mind sacrificing their lives towards the goal of space exploration. All I'm saying is that the priorities here may be perceived as being wrong.
Post reply on HN