India's satellite named Mangalyaan, has enter Mars orbit

[fjmeat]

Send a vehicle to another planet for less than the cost of a US made movie about space?

Outstanding!

Uno

pretty spot on perspective.

 

[iGas]

This.

 

[xaeniac]

haha

 

[Ruptga]

Even if their payload was only 15kg, they pay their people chump change, and they had at least some benefits of modern technology, what they did is respectable. It's still going to be a long time before India is considered a first world developed nation, but they have something to be proud of.

 

[inf1nity]

Even if their payload was only 15kg, they pay their people chump change, and they had at least some benefits of modern technology, what they did is respectable. It's still going to be a long time before India is considered a first world developed nation, but they have something to be proud of.

Exactly. People here just don't understand how big of an achievement this is for us. A country where majority of the population cares more about surviving every day than the nation's space progress, and politicians make public statements against science, technology and space missions, this is no small feat.

 

[inf1nity]

every college degree'd Indian seems to be an engineer.

90% of them are useless. Unless you get your engineering degree from a good college, you'll be living in poverty after you graduate.

(Not making this up.)

 

[norseamd]

Well I bet China is pissing hot metal right now.

 

[Pocatello]

What is the probe going to do? Probing for Martians?

 

[pete6032]

$74 million PPP to USD is $1.2 billion to launch this satellite.

The MAVEN mars satellite program launched by NASA in 2013 is estimated to cost $671 million.

 

[Brainonska511]

$74 million PPP to USD is $1.2 billion to launch this satellite.

The MAVEN mars satellite program launched by NASA in 2013 is estimated to cost $671 million.

I'm pretty sure they were already converting the amount to USD, so it did actually cost only ~$74 million (in USD).

 

[pete6032]

I'm pretty sure they were already converting the amount to USD, so it did actually cost only ~$74 million (in USD).

Yes it cost them $74 million, but using PPP you take into account lower wages, lower natural resource costs, lower material cost, etc. Basically, what could $74 million in India buy you in the United States? $1.2 billion.

 

[Ns1]

Yes it cost them $74 million, but using PPP you take into account lower wages, lower natural resource costs, lower material cost, etc. Basically, what could $74 million in India buy you in the United States? $1.2 billion.

Nasa should just outsource this shit to India cuz we can get 12 satellites for the price of 1.

 

[iGas]

Yes it cost them $74 million, but using PPP you take into account lower wages, lower natural resource costs, lower material cost, etc. Basically, what could $74 million in India buy you in the United States? $1.2 billion.

Funny in the global economy not everything is cheap including local natural resources. Fuel in most third countries and developing nations are much more expensive than in the US among other products and natural resources, hence it is an amazing feat. Even if PPP cost calculation is correct, it still cheap enough for other space agencies, governments, and satellite communications companies to take notice.

IMHO, this event may not amount to much to many people, but to me it is marking the new beginning in space exploration and satellite delivery. Perhaps this will lead to global dominance in satellite services and communication if the Indians keep up this pace.


[add]
Could this be another brick coming off the wall of America world dominance?
First it was the Japanese that took the automobile from America, then the Chinese on electronics and manufactures good, and soon Indians going to take over communication/media and perhaps space exploration.

 

[LegendKiller]

Funny in the global economy not everything is cheap including local natural resources. Fuel in most third countries and developing nations are much more expensive than in the US among other products and natural resources, hence it is an amazing feat. Even if PPP cost calculation is correct, it still cheap enough for other space agencies, governments, and satellite communications companies to take notice.

IMHO, this event may not amount to much to many people, but to me it is marking the new beginning in space exploration and satellite delivery. Perhaps this will lead to global dominance in satellite services and communication if the Indians keep up this pace.


[add]
Could this be another brick coming off the wall of America world dominance?
First it was the Japanese that took the automobile from America, then the Chinese on electronics and manufactures good, and soon Indians going to take over communication/media and perhaps space exploration.

Read up on the numerous explanations as to why this was so cheap. Most agree with the following views.

1. Faster/Cheaper was done by Nasa, it had a higher failure rate. Many nations are willing to take that risk to jump ahead, but Nasa is not. They want very high success rates and go through significant re-checks on everything to ensure that. We sent $150mm probes out, they failed. No more.

2. Our mission package alone weighed ~4x as much. It has far more sensors. This thing was a proof of concept, ours was a science experiment. Two completely different things. Larger science package, larger probe, larger probe, larger rocket, all of which is far more complex. Our launch cost ~2x as much as their entire program, just the launch. They also used some slingshots, I don't think ours did.

3. Their engineers cost 1/8th as an American engineer. #1 and #2 results in significantly more engineering time. That feeds in.

4. Our materials are superior in weight, precision and then cost.


That being said, this is a great achievement for them. But to say it's an apples-to-apples and then extrapolate into a failure for Nasa or that India can do it better is idiotic. America can do something similar for a similar price, it has done so in the past and can do it in the future.

Let them put up the same exact version of what we did 100 times. We'll put ours up 100 times. Everybody knows that we'll have a far higher success rate. That's not to knock them, it's just to say it is different perspectives and methods.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Wouldn't it be great if we just had a freaking Earth Space Association, rather than each country having bits and pieces. Why the hell hasn't this happened?

 

[ImpulsE69]

Wouldn't it be great if we just had a freaking Earth Space Association, rather than each country having bits and pieces. Why the hell hasn't this happened?

Because humans.

 

[BUTCH1]

Nasa should just outsource this shit to India cuz we can get 12 satellites for the price of 1.

Some of what we do cannot be "outsourced", the landing of the rover Curiosity was extremely complex, the Martian atmosphere is very thin but you still have to deal with it plus parachutes alone cannot slow a vehicle for a safe decent so we came up with the "sky-crane" method because using thrusters all the way to the ground would have left the rover covered in dirt/dust and possibly damaged by the thrusters slinging small rocks. The rover is about the size of a Civic and is performing well.

 

[maxi007]

its a proud moment for indians as they got success on first attempt