India launches first Moon mission

[INFRACTION]

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Mas mo bilib ko kung first sun mission hehe... daghan naman naka palaunch og probe/spacecraft sa moon... sighs...

[brad]

gabalun ug sibuyas/ahus ng ilang robotic probe para panghadlok sa alien.

la na dagway lain gastuhan ilang gobyerno sa. hehe

ang alien mahadlok nila kay naay power.

maauyo ang bobay sa technologies pero why dont they utilize soap and water.

they are excellent in running call centers.

lots of them now are a big players in the call center business having partnership with US firms.

the indians are moving forward. space na elang tirada.

[P-Chan]

bombay powerd rocket.. weeee.. never believed this would happend so soon.. this changes my image sa india..

[giddyboy]

@ giddyboy
Vern already pointed out that a country makes a more significant amount of money from launching a commercial satellite than launching an unmanned lunar probe.

op kors, they will make money from launching commercial satellites and probes. ROI could be immediate. but this unmanned mission would not. The returns could not be in the form of money but in form of goodwill or something like that. As u know, in any financial statement of a business enterprise, "goodwill" is a long term investment. i would like to think of it as a tv commercial for a product.

Even if it is only 2 or 3% of their national budget as you say, why use that amount of money on reinventing the wheel? Unless a clear and concise cost-benefit equation is produced, my thoughts on the matter will stay them same.

well, as i see it, i'm sure their think tanks who proposed the budget has justified the cost-benefit ratios. otherwise, the proposals wouldn't pass on the first reading mismo.

and btw, they didn't reinvent the wheel. its just that they made their own brand of wheels.

Oh, and isn't it odd when a program that uses minimal resources -as you pointed out- produces results while efforts to alleviate poverty using huge sums of money aren't working? Good to know that India's bureaucrats can accomplish something when they want to.

no, it is'nt odd. every program has their levels of effectivity and efficiency, depending on the kind of program that u pursue. and priorities vary from country to country.

an example is the US defense programs. they are very successful on that in most ways but failed miserably i.e. 911 tragedy. if we take a look at their housing programs, it succeeded for some time but it's now one of the worst programs in their history that caused their financial demise lately.

and just like us here in the phils, poverty is a very complicated matter. It's even more complicated than scientists working on a space mission. Even the US for example, they can launch a thousand space shuttles but still can't solve their own poverty. Solving poverty has more failure stories to tell.

and this is not to say that India shouldn't address their problems on corruption that took most of the efforts against poverty. and i believe they are working on this. proof of this is their enhanced programs on poverty, health, agriculture, etc...

Even if a space program has some share of corruption in it, still it can't prevent scientists to make it successful. But in solving poverty, it is another story. Even how much u bombard poverty programs w/ so many funds, still it can't assure 100% success. coz it doesn't involve only w/ procuring materials, building them and getting the best scientists u have and making sure that that thing on the ground should shoot itself in space as what is expected of it.

thus, u r comparing apples to oranges...

[goryo13]

maayo ni siya nga diversion...


with the world economy crumbling down

Mas mo bilib ko kung first sun mission hehe... daghan naman naka palaunch og probe/spacecraft sa moon... sighs...

murag di siguro kaabot didto bisan unsay ila ipada nga "mission." LOL

[shaxyra]

unsa naman balita ani ilang mission? maypa sila dah.. pero sa US man daw gikan ila mga gamit.. hahaha

[diatabz]

op kors, they will make money from launching commercial satellites and probes. ROI could be immediate. but this unmanned mission would not. The returns could not be in the form of money but in form of goodwill or something like that. As u know, in any financial statement of a business enterprise, "goodwill" is a long term investment. i would like to think of it as a tv commercial for a product.

I don't know what this goodwill you're referring to is. If you're trying to say that the ISRO's move to launch a probe to the moon proves their scientific prowess and will lead to investments in the future, that's a huge assumption on your part.

well, as i see it, i'm sure their think tanks who proposed the budget has justified the cost-benefit ratios. otherwise, the proposals wouldn't pass on the first reading mismo

No, a cost-benefit equation for the mission involving social goals has not been produced. Although the ISRO in general has a commercial end.

and btw, they didn't reinvent the wheel. its just that they made their own brand of wheels

Why do that in the first place? Even an official from the ISRO has stated that this was mainly a way for India to catch up on China's endeavors in space. Even if parts of the moon are unknown, why expend resources on doing something that's been done before? Why not do research on say, genetic engineering, medical research or whatnot? One doesn't have to be politically savvy to note that India is being needlessly drawn into a space race. If the ruling party wants India to move up in the pecking order of countries, fine. But do something new. India cannot afford to gambe on indirect gains while her citizens suffer.

Don't even begin to compare America to India. This isn't only about saving the poor. India has a hodgepodge of problems from horrible roads, water shortages to education. $80 million spent on something without a direct return raises the eyebrows of not only foreign observers, but Indian citizens themselves.

[giddyboy]

I don't know what this goodwill you're referring to is. If you're trying to say that the ISRO's move to launch a probe to the moon proves their scientific prowess and will lead to investments in the future, that's a huge assumption on your part.

No, a cost-benefit equation for the mission involving social goals has not been produced. Although the ISRO in general has a commercial end.

of course, that's a huge assumption on my part. coz that's how i see it.

if u talk of social goals for the space program, looking at the nature, of course, it has nothing to do for the alleviation of poverty (well, maybe perhaps job-generation). social goals is not even all about poverty. social goals has a lot of things in it. it could include uplifting pride of their country. it could also mean the social goal of letting the world know what they can do. it could also mean social responsibility.

Why do that in the first place? Even an official from the ISRO has stated that this was mainly a way for India to catch up on China's endeavors in space. Even if parts of the moon are unknown, why expend resources on doing something that's been done before? Why not do research on say, genetic engineering, medical research or whatnot? One doesn't have to be politically savvy to note that India is being needlessly drawn into a space race. If the ruling party wants India to move up in the pecking order of countries, fine. But do something new. India cannot afford to gambe on indirect gains while her citizens suffer.

even if it's been done before, it doesn't mean one don't need to do it again. if Japan has been making cars, it doesn't mean India wouldn't too. if one has already made the longest line of barbecue in Guiness book, it doesn't mean one don't have to do it also.

and btw, India has already been way long in the medical research field. even their Indian Journal of Medical Research is one of the oldest medical journals in the world.

and genetic research? what, u didn't know? well, here's one: Koduru Ishwari Varaprasad achieved with panache what “bigpharma” couldn’t. In 1997, he and his Argonauts created India’s first genetically engineered (GE) hepatitis B vaccine: Shantha Biotech’s Shanvac B. It captured 40 percent of the market and unleashed a price war that four years and more competitors later has resulted in the vaccine being available for 50 rupees (US$1) per dose!

in 2002, The Dep't of Biotechnology has announced an ambitious 10-year vision—vaccines for cholera, malaria, and tuberculosis; biofertilizers, biopesticides, transgenic crops; and gene therapy trials against cancer. State governments—notably those in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh—are bending over backward to lure firms into their “genome valleys.” Foreign firms and research institutes are rushing in. The Tamil Nadu Industrial Dev't Corp. and the U.S. firm Genome Technologies are collaborating to set up a 4.5-billion rupee genomics and bioinformatics project in Chennai.

The Hyderabad-based Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology’s (CCMB) 85-million rupee research facility, the first of its kind in Asia, will hunt for new genes and proteins that may help identify the genetic root of diseases like cancer.

and that's not even all...

so don't even begin to compare their medical and biotech research programs w/ their space program.

Don't even begin to compare America to India. This isn't only about saving the poor. India has a hodgepodge of problems from horrible roads, water shortages to education. $80 million spent on something without a direct return raises the eyebrows of not only foreign observers, but Indian citizens themselves.

i'm not comparing US and India as a country per se. i'm just pointing out about different programs, their nature, and what their stakes are in a country's national budget, and the priorities, successes and failures.

i know this isn't only about saving the poor. i know India has a hodgepodge of problems like bad roads. But they also are addressing those problems. they are increasing their budget for agri and health, and wanting to improve them too.

I know that not everyone agrees to their space programs coz some would be more biased on humanitarian goals and not this space thingy.

but i still want my bird messenger analogy...

[COMCAM]

maynalang un manned, kai kung manned pa, pwerteng delay sa launch lol! grabeh bitaw ni sila ka late kung appointments, ge indian nako ug hapit 2 hours

[Siobhan]

i hope naay showers ilang spaceship.

y man bahoan pa d i na cla?