Chandrayaan 1 captured by Moon

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7718015.stm

by bootload • 18 years ago

75 27 18 years ago

news.bbc.co.uk

Well congratulations to India. It's about time the Space Industry got more diversified. NASA is a constant source of disappointment, it's current devotion to human space exploration is something I see as highly important as it is actually advancing useful technologies. However, due to lack of funding all its other projects are at risk of getting axed more now than ever.

The last mission to the moon was in 1972, since then the technology for interplanetary travel hadn't advanced. There's so many complaints that there's no reason for landing humans on the Moon or Mars, and generally yes there's nothing there that a robot can't do. Except all the people stating this neglect the fact that there's billions of dollars worth of potential income tied up in what's necessary to get to Mars.

If humans can safely travel to Mars, then the whole prospect of space stations becomes easily accessible. Not to mention that finding a light weight radiation shield has applications all the way from portable x-ray machines for the third world to being able to efficiently build nuclear powered aircraft. Hell, nuclear ramjets have already been tested and low-weight radiation shielding could help push to a completely reusable launch vessel.

yters3• 18 years ago

What drives our interest in space exploration? I haven't seen a convincing case that it gives us a lot of something, besides the excitement of having a new frontier to explore.

If we're looking for new places to live, I think on or under the sea is a more practical initial direction.

nickbtard• 18 years ago

109P,evolution,space weather,K T extinction event ,exobiology..

rms• 18 years ago

We were a little ahead of ourselves with the Apollo program, but precociousness isn't a bad attribute for a species to have. We explore space because it is the final frontier. It is one of few unknowns remaining. Beyond the desire for exploration inherent to humankind, there is a lot of energy in space. Eventually we'll colonize other worlds and build superstructures, and for now, we explore the solar system.

electromagnetic3• 18 years ago

433 Eros, the asteroid NASA investigated contains more gold than ever extracted on Earth. The total amount of gold on Earth is calculated at $3,000,000,000,000 and this is excluding all the stuff held in private collections and any fabled Aztec lost city of gold. However, I think there's enough economic incentive in space if we actually put a little money in to begin with.

If you're wondering just how much 3 trillion dollars is, well that's like the entire cost of the Iraq War there in one rock. Hell, you could buy Alaska and still have like 2.5 trillion to spare.

This is the ridiculousness of the arguments against advancing space exploration and technology, because there's more gold in one rock than in the entire world. That's not to mention, there's predicted to be asteroids containing mostly platinum and even more precious metals. For an asteroid of similar size to 433 Eros containing only 10% of its mass as a rare-precious metal like platinum, well that's when you get the capability to buy out the entire planet.

So I call 100% bullshit on people claiming there's no economic incentive in space exploration. There's more precious metals than anyone has ever dreamed of, there just needs to be a little spending to get it. Once companies like Virgin and all the other ones trying for space flight and then lunar orbits, it isn't going to be long before one of them figures out they can get to a rock like Eros and mine the hell out of it.

jackchristopher• 18 years ago

Our existence here isn't guaranteed. Spreading out raises our chances our survival.

But you're right. What we get from space is intangible. And that shouldn't be underestimated.

Visionary projects expand horizons; they're the essence of life; And that's just what "we" need.

A Mars missions must be manned, for these reasons. Sending robots is killing NASA; the public isn't interested.

We don't need another burning Alexandria. We need a big project, we need growth, we need to show our vitality.

strings• 18 years ago

okkkkkk mannnnnn Gr8.....

i agree to u.y all guys wanna go to moon or else.

to find helium3 or other fuel.

lot of people in our world is now under starvation.??

Prrometheus• 18 years ago

The "throw money at it and we might get some cool tech as side effects" argument that is often made for government space funding could be applied to any random research field.

It's one of those tired old saws that everybody believes, but I never bought.

olefoo3• 18 years ago

That argument is usually made as a reference to the original Apollo program which DID succeed on the metric of advancing the state of the art in multiple fields from materials science to physiology; with public funding.

The mistake many people make is thinking that that success can be repeated merely by giving money to NASA. The success of the Apollo program as an incubator of scientific and engineering accomplishment was directly tied to both the sense of mission that the participants felt, and the fact that it was widely perceived as a race with a rival power with potentially apocalyptic consequences for losing.

It's not categorically impossible to create that sense of mission anew, but recreating the overall context would be difficult. The closest we've seen to public programs that capture the competitive juices of the participants are contests like the DARPA robotic vehicle challenge.

davidw• 18 years ago

For me, space exploration is one of those things that has some intangible benefits that regard pushing the limits and doing something to be proud of. I don't really care who funds it, but exploration often seems to be funded by governments... because in its early stages, it's sort of "basic research": you don't know what, if any benefits will come of it.

paraschopra• 18 years ago

I guess there are a lot of Indians on HN. Or, is everyone proud of this accomplishment.

BTW, I am an Indian and extremely proud of the steps my country is taking towards the big league.

luckystrike• 18 years ago

Same here. And just in case you missed this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=357647

jgrahamc• 18 years ago

I think people here appreciate the Indian achievement because it reflects on a number of Hacker News axioms:

1. It's better to hack something than design for perfection. India had a number of launch failures prior to this success, but kept at it at low cost. They literally launched early and got feedback :-)

2. The cost of creating technology start-ups is getting lower all the time. India did this on the cheap and was able to piggy back on years of prior work. It would be interested to see a comparison of the cost of getting into lunar orbit between 1945 and today.

3. It doesn't matter who you are, it's what you do that counts.

4. There are some places in the world that are best suited for particular technology start-ups: Boston and SV for software, anywhere along the Equator for a minimal delta-v.

nebula• 18 years ago

<i> India had a number of launch failures prior to this success, </i> If you are referring to a lunar satellite kind of mission, this is not true. "Chandrayan- I" is their very first shot at it. Even the launch vehicle (PSLV) has a very good track record. [http://www.isro.org/pslv-c11/brochure/Page10.htm] "During 1993-2008 period, PSLV had twelve consecutively successful launches carrying satellites to Sun Synchronous, Low Earth and Geosynchronous Transfer Orbits."

When it comes to hacking spirit, they are pretty good though: http://www.isro.org/newsletters/spaceindia/octdec2003/webpgs... [Transporting a Sounding Rocket nose cone on bicycle during the early days of ISRO]

anshul• 18 years ago

As an Indian, I couldn't be more proud... what really excites me is that they are doing it at 77 million usd... There are many dot com companies that get sold for more than that!

orbit• 18 years ago

I've always been fascinated by different types of orbits, and the math that goes into calculating them. Does anyone know what a good resource might be for learning about them? Are there any college classes that deal with them specifically, or is that just wishful thinking? Thanks!

olefoo3• 18 years ago

http://courses.uiuc.edu/cis/catalog/urbana/2009/Spring/AE/50...

The google bait you want is "Orbital Mechanics"

jrp• 18 years ago

& 'celestial'

zeynel• 18 years ago

There's more info about Chandrayaan on this blog with a nice picture of earth

http://onionesquereality.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/chandrayaa...

Chandrayaan 1 captured by Moon

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