
India Launches Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mission on Second Try - pseudolus
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/world/asia/chandrayaan-india-moon-launch.html
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electriclove
This is great! Success here would show how much is possible with $146MM and
encourage others to invest in space exploration as well. India's space
program, ISRO, put a satellite into Mars orbit in 2014 for $73MM.

Reuters article: [https://in.reuters.com/article/space-exploration-india-
moon-...](https://in.reuters.com/article/space-exploration-india-moon-
idINKCN1UH0WC)

~~~
T-A
> Success here would show how much is possible with $146MM

… when you're paying Indian salaries. I'm pretty sure that paying NASA, ESA or
JAXA engineers less than 12k USD/year [1] would result in exactly 0 of them
staying on the job.

[1] [https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/india-aerospace-
engineeri...](https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/india-aerospace-engineering-
salary-SRCH_IL.0,5_IN115_KO6,27.htm)

~~~
llampx
You can always outsource your rocket launches to India to benefit from these
low, low costs :)

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T-A
According to Table 4 in [1], a GSLV launch was $47 million in 2017, so a bit
lower than e.g. a Falcon 9 launch ($61.2 million in the same table).

Taking the $146 million quoted above at face value, that means 2/3 of
Chandrayaan-2's cost was independent of launch cost. Let's say about $100
million.

Another comment here is implying that those $100 million do not include labor.
I find that hard to believe; it is (or should be) common knowledge that the
bulk or aerospace project costs is labor [2], so it would make no sense to
forgo standard accounting practice and only report what amounts to a bill of
materials. But if we nevertheless assume that comment is correct, it would
mean that you should _at least_ double the estimated cost for developing
something equivalent to Chandrayaan-2 at developed-country aerospace salaries.
So you would be (optimistically) spending something like $200 million on the
probe, and saving maybe $15 million out of a total cost ~ $250 million by
launching it from India rather than e.g. the US.

Once the added administration and logistics costs are taken into account, I
wonder if you would be saving anything at all.

[1]
[https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-609](https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-609)

[2] Aerospace project management handbook (2017)

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carlsborg
Great news on the launch. But it ain't over till the land rover starts
transmitting, so to speak. This will orbit earth for a bit till the moon snags
it into its own orbit, and then it lands on the moon in September.

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bhaavan
Yes, Chandrayaan-1 already crash landed on moon once. The new part of this
mission is soft landing for a rover, which will only happen in early
September.

~~~
carlsborg
Chandrayaan-1 operated for 312 days and seven years later it was found still
circling the moon [1]. The Moon Impact Probe (MIP) crash-landed on the moon,
possibly by design.

[1] [https://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/10/health/nasa-
chandrayaan-s...](https://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/10/health/nasa-chandrayaan-
spacecraft-found/index.html)

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namanaggarwal
I just feel that headline is not accurate. It seems to be suggesting that
first try failed, when it was actually aborted.

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thecleaner
Nytimes does that fairly often. Theres always an undertone of negativity about
Indias space program. But they're just responding to market needs cant really
blame them.

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wiz21c
>> But they're just responding to market needs

you don't seem to have journalism high in you r opinion

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kobiguru
I doubt Journalists hold present-day journalism in high opinion.

NewYrokTimes is perhaps the biggest offender who gets away with this. All I
can say is after reading Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent, I can never
trust NYT.

~~~
wiz21c
100 agree. Although rather unclear, my comment was hinting at the fact that
even if we all think that journalism is not what it used to be, cynicism
shouldn't win over idealism...

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shripadk
For those interested, this video succinctly explains the entire Chandrayaan-2
Moon mission:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhWK_pZrXl4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhWK_pZrXl4)

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periram
How about any of the following headlines.

India Launches Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mission after brief delay.

India Launches Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mission after a week's delay.

India Launches Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mission.

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redpillor
no buddy that's not how bbc,nyt or aljazeera works for india.

they will always say 'india did this good but naah there was something' lol

i feel bad for these type of depressed people who always push salty stuff

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gingabriska
It's spectacular, if I read correct they used a technology Which Israel has
failed to use to land successfully on moon. I might be wrong, feel free to
chime in.

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SnShines
Where did you read this? It didn't mention this in the linked article.

By technology, if you mean rockets, then yes every country uses rocket
technology to escape earth's gravity.

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switchb4
No bro, this guy talks in broad sense only.

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gourabmi
I expected such headlines from BBC, but not the NYT. Surprisingly, the BBC
headline was much better than this one.

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redpillor
bbc headline was better because there was a feminine angle. 30% of isro people
are women. and two women were commanding this isro. so they can't speak
negative even if they has to.

since american media don't do research they followed good old negative path.
altho to be fair some of american media is honest but you gotta follow them
otherwise google won't tell you about their positive stuff.

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maxpert
What happened to first one?

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electriclove
This is the problem with the headline. Launches get delayed, rescheduled,
aborted, cancelled for many reasons. This mission has had launch dates moved
around several times over the last couple years. This headline is referring to
having the launch aborted about a week ago.

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totaldude87
Apart from using almost 95% of homegrown technologies, One high feat is that
the entire mission cost around $141 million which is half the cost of Latest
Avengers Movie..

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gingabriska
I want to know how did they acquire this technology. I've heard china simply
steals technology (or atleast accused of stealing by western media), but what
about india, does India too steals technology or what exactly is their process
to get the technology they need?

Are these scientists working for Isro previously worked for other
organizations like NASA where they acquired know how from?

And if it's really homegrown technology, then why we haven't seen better
phones or drones or 3d printer or whatever new, coming out of India?

Or does it mean, in India innovation which is not supported by government,
doesn't take off?

Not sure why I am being downvoted , I asked this question in good faith.

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mkl
Why are you assuming that Indian scientists and engineers cannot develop
things themselves? That is bad faith.

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gingabriska
Chinese scientists and engineers can also develop things themselves, then why
are they accused of stealing technology often? If something is possible
doesn't mean it's the best option they've on hand.

