Indian Mars Mission Has Completed 95% of Its Journey Without a Hitch 117
First time accepted submitter rinka writes India's Mars Orbiter Mission, known as Mangalyaan, has made some progress since we last discussed it. The mission is on target and has completed 95% of its journey. It will reach its destination before the end of the month. Scientists will undertake a "challenging task" on September 24 when they will restart the onboard liquid engine, which has been in sleep mode for nearly ten months, for a critical maneuver of the spacecraft.
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uh huh, with a third of their population living in poverty, on $1.25 USD purchasing parity a day, they're going to be world beaters?
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most of them want to come over here and use our washrooms.
Why not? (Score:2)
Re:Why not? (Score:4, Insightful)
That's because in the 1940s everyone else had basically blown each others countries to smithereens. India is competing in a stable non-war torn world. In the 1940s the US was one of the few countries whose homeland was largely unscathed by the war.
It's easy to do well when you're the least badly crippled country going than it is to when you're one of the most crippled on the world stage.
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Re:DESI Is the SUPREME RACE! (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm no astrophysicist or aeronautical engineer, but it seems to me that at least 99.9% of any space vehicle's journey to any other planet in our star system is going to be uneventful and easy to manage; it's the end of the journey that's going to pose possible difficulties. The paper ball you toss at the trash can flies through the air uneventfully -- but whether or not you get it in the can, have it bounce off the rim, or miss the can entirely at the end of it's flight is something else entirely.
Not that I'm trash-talking Indian engineering or scientific ability. I work with enough Indian engineers to know better than that. Now if they could just learn to solder worth a damn. XD
Re:DESI Is the SUPREME RACE! (Score:5, Funny)
"What do I think of Western Civilization?"
"I think it would be a very good idea."
Remember that conversation?
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More like eight times....
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Eat my shorts with your friggin [citation needed]
Re:DESI Is the SUPREME RACE! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: DESI Is the SUPREME RACE! (Score:2)
Clothing suitable for Gurgaon may not be suitable for Minneapolis. Especially in winter.
I, however, would love to be able to buy Allen Solly in the US.
Re: DESI Is the SUPREME RACE! (Score:2)
No argument. I work in Phoenix.
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On a similarly irrelevant note (Score:3)
It's a bit of a trick question since it looks like it came from India.
History is not clear cut. Just because we eat fried potatoes does not mean we have a civilisation based on the Incas.
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Commenting to undo wrong mod. Sorry
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"Just because we eat fried potatoes does not mean we have a civilisation based on the Incas."
Or the Moors - which is where deepfried foods came into europe from.
Here's another one (Score:2)
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Does that get the message across that I consider your argument about superiority of a culture (as demonstrated by influence) impacting on a space program as misleading, and to be frank, incredibly fucking racist. IMHO this "we are the masters of everything just because of where we were born" thing is straying damn close t
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Does our use of Hindu-Arabic numbers conversely make the Indians and Arabs superior to us?
I'm not sure it should - even if we're talking about the perception of superiority (given that this is all there is, no actual superiority making any sense in the light of what we know), which is what the superstrate-substrate relationship is about. It's a pretty fundamental thing, but that also makes it very basic, one of many basic things we see around us. The suits, of course, are also very basic, and also one of many basic things around us. But here's the difference between business suits and number sys
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Do you think buddhism is some kind of diet? Or should that have been a period after buddhist?
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Most of them are buddhist, vegetarians or vegans.
Do you think buddhism is some kind of diet? Or should that have been a period after buddhist?
Do you think vegetarians is some kind of diet? Do you think vegans is some kind of diet? I suppose if you're a cannibal it could be, but I highly doubt that what GP meant.
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Oh, a fatty cute nerdy wanting to sound badass :_(
What if we made a bet? I will totally let you eat me if you survive 10 rounds with me :)
Don't worry mate, I'm untrained, so that I would only shove you a 16kg kettlebell up your butt.
Consider that I am only vegan for animal products, but I would have a fine use for all the lard to make soap of (family recipe from uncle Adolph)
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Despite having originated in India, Buddhism isn't even as popular as Christianity. India is mostly Hindus, then Muslims, Christians and Sikhs (in that order, I think).
Sure many Hindus are vegetarian. Some of them are only part-time vegetarian - my Brahmin ex-girlfriend ate Chicken, Lamb/Goat, Pork - even Beef (at western-style restaurants or abroad, at least). Jains are vegan (to the extreme - can't even eat anything that was grown underground, so no potatoes, carrots, onions etc).
But Indians are really no
But (Score:5, Insightful)
Its the last few feet that count
or is that meters
Re:But (Score:4, Informative)
the last few feet that count
or is that meters
I see what you did there [wikipedia.org]
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The first thing that was driven
except if the question impllies units (Score:2)
If the question says, how many seconds or how many kilos, then its obvious what the units are , even tho they are missing.
Hitchhike? (Score:1)
I completed 95% of my journey to date Megan Fox (Score:5, Funny)
I've driven to LA and now I will undertake a "challenging task" of finding her and getting past the bodyguards.
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I think those body guards are going to damage your biology and entry modules
So far, so good (Score:5, Funny)
I wish them the best of luck, but the headline reminds me of the joke about the optimist falling from a building...
Re:So far, so good (Score:4, Funny)
An optimist is someone who falls off the Empire State Building, and after 50 floors says, 'So far so good! - Unknown.
Better reboot it just before landing (Score:2, Funny)
You know, just to be sure. Dear Friend, Please do the needful and report back, we'll close this ticket for now.
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Love the "Do the needful". My favourite saying for South East Asia is "I will revert to you" (really? you will turn back into me?)
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and for the U.S. it is "I will be with you momentarily" (you can only stay for a second? not longer?)
that last 5%... (Score:1)
Usually is the bitch. Good luck!!!
Sounds good but... (Score:2)
This is the same with interplanetary missions. They rarely go wrong as they drift along in them middle of nowhere.
But the coolest fact so far with this mission is that it apparently cost less than the making of the movie Gravity. That really makes you think that if the defence budget was cut in two and the cu
Re: Sounds good but... (Score:4, Funny)
We'd have a lunar fighter program that cost a trillion dollars, couldn't fly to the moon, and would never be expected to fight another lunar fighter since the lunar cruise missiles would have already wiped out the enemy moon bases before the fighters were deployed, if there were any such thing as enemy moon bases. It wouldn't matterâ"the damned useless lunar fighters would be built anyway because the contractor wisely promised jobs located in each of the fifty states, ensuring that Congress would never question the program.
Oh, were you hoping that science would be done or something?
Just the remaining 95% left... (Score:3)
Just saying... ;)
Engine restart is easy... (Score:5, Funny)
If they used a standard design that NASA uses that as soon as the two chemicals touch they go BOOM! the only issue is if the valves open or if there has been any leaks.
Honestly this stuff isn't rocket scie..... oh wait.....
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And Mars Observer has completed 5000%... (Score:2)
Great! (Score:1)
700 million kms is so common? (Score:2)
This is ridiculous (Score:2)
95% is not a milestone. There's nothing significant about it. They're just sending out press releases at random moments in the trajectory because they want to get publicity additional times without actually doing additional things that deserve publicity.
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It coasted for months along a trajectory that was established during development and confirmed shortly after lift off. It didn't get hit by an asteroid. Congratulations?
Or is it that it confirms they got the math right and didn't mix imperial units with metric while programming trajectory info?
Couldn't they have waited until the 24th to give a headline about the success of failure regarding the onboard liquid engine restart and subsequent critical maneuver ?
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IIRC that would be two. But that is not the correct way to look at it. How many Mars landers were lost after they left the Earth orbit, but before they were restarted to enter Mars orbit? I believe that number is zero. Mr. Newton is driving these craft now. It is very improbable for a mission to fail while cruising in sleep mode.
Normal. (Score:2)
Lots of flights, no matter which type, do 95% OK, it's the last bit that's critical.
To boldly go... (Score:1)
... And do the needful.
Why the inferiority complex? (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't understand why most Americans on this site have such an inferiority complex. For the fuck's sake, USA is the front-runner in the space technology. If India tries to achieve a small feet in space tech, why does it bother these people so much? Scientists at NASA would be excited seeing some other agency achieve any such feet using a different method. What I am seeing is that, the people who actually contribute nothing in the field but brag around saying 'my country' did this only have this kind of opi
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Because mostly India is trying to justify this massively expensive mission when it's achieved nothing special whilst half it's population lives in poverty.
There's no inferiority complex, because the US isn't inferior, nor do I believe for a second that any American believes the US is inferior to India. The real issue is India's belief that it should be doing things like this to try and build an image of importance over many other nations on the world stage when it should really be spending the money on fixi
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"massively expensive mission" my ass. One of their industrial tycoons spent more than the cost of this entire mission a few years ago on his daughter's wedding.
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Great achievement (Score:1)
Way to go, India! I knew you had a space program, but I had no idea you were sending an orbiter to Mars. You make us all proud!
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More on Mangalyaan (Score:1)
But where's the Methane? (Score:2)
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As opposed to what? Pictures of red rocks that are still alive?
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Indians have a great standard of living... if you belong to the right caste. The problem with India's poverty is not wealth or politics, it's religious. Regardless, India has a better health care system than the US and better Internet connections.
Going to space brings about jobs and wealth. Going to war costs jobs and wealth. At least they've got their priorities straight.
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Nonsense. The life expectancy in India is 10 years shorter than the US. It wasn't until just this year it was considered to be polio free.
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Medicine is cheap. Was there last week. Bought three items for a total of about 3 dollars that would be ten times that in Australia.
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while 95% of the population still live in extreme poverty and could make more use of the billions wasted on this project
Nah, sorry, this argument doesn't work. Far more billions are wasted on completely useless military activity than the relatively miniscule space program of all nations put together - and the space programme at least has a use ...
As 'The Hawk' says [nbcnews.com], we urgently need to set up an off-world colony before the next asteroid strike wipes our species out. We had an unexpected visit from such an asteroid whizzing past inside the orbit of our geostationary satellites just a couple of days ago [bbc.co.uk] - this house-sized lu
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I suppose it depends what your goal is, that might be great in a country like the US where most people are living relatively comfortably (even the poorest in society aren't really suffering outright starvation and disease) but where military expenditure is high that you have a point.
But in India you have hundreds of millions living in abject poverty where starvation, lack of shelter, lack of availability of education, and widespread lack of treatment for disease are real issues.
Thus, it seems odd to suggest
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Back in the 1970s Indira Gandhi unveiled a program to update the Indian educational system, especially the higher education, with an emphasis on computing. The portion of the world that was not laughing at the idea of Indian computer programmers and technicians was berating the Indian government for wasting money that could have been spent feeding the poor. Today that expenditure of several billion rupees over the last few decades brings in many tens of billions of dollars in investment and revenue to Ind
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The problem is you're taking that evidence and extrapolating it to "Asia" is a powerhouse. In doing so you're effectively feeding off the success of countries that have done exceptionally well like China when the reality is that different countries in Asia have had very different experiences. China has grown rapidly but Japan has stagnated, India has disappointed whilst in South America, Brasil has completely outflanked it.
Whatever India's policies, one thing is clear - it's not done very well compared to C
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Japan has stagnated,
Today. Apparently you've forgotten the entire period from 1946 to 1999. Like I said, short attention span.
China's overwhelming advantage over India and much of the rest of the world is its 5000 years of centralization, plans that would have been non-starters in a decentralized government and economy, like One Child and the open development of the Great Firewall, are acceptable there. Brasil is a special case, drastically underpopulated and resource-rich, while India is the exact oppo
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But we're not talking about 1946 - 1999, that's irrelevant to what's happening now. It's like going back 300 years and saying, well, look at the growth of the UK with it's empire, obviously that means it's kicking ass in the world! It's meaningless.
"China's overwhelming advantage over India and much of the rest of the world is its 5000 years of centralization, plans that would have been non-starters in a decentralized government and economy, like One Child and the open development of the Great Firewall, are