

India loses Moon satellite links  - edw519
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8228371.stm

======
DanielStraight
I don't understand. They don't tell us the significance of this, or enough
history to care, and they end by philosophizing on the morality of space
programs. This is crap reporting. The BBC is better than this.

~~~
pavs
The significance is that it was launched last year (OCT) for a two year
mission and got kaput before even reaching one year. What history are you
looking for?

They are not philosophizing anything, only stating the fact that space program
like this, which costs millions of dollars to run and maintain, have come
under scrutiny within certain sector of India since millions of people on
India still lack basic services; like power, water and proper sanitation.

I don't see anything wrong with the reporting.

~~~
anshul
India is a trillion dollar economy. This was a 75 million USD programme. For
comparison, India recently announced a 30 billion usd national id scheme. A
bridge was built in my city - Bombay, India - that costed 4 - 5 times as much
as this moon programme. Both of these do less towards providing the Indian
poor with basic facilities than the moon mission. I can cite numerous other
instances. Also, the BBC did not mention India's dying poor lacking basic
services while reporting on these programmes. This BBC report is decidedly
shoddy, crass and is a shame.

Chandrayaan-I was India's first mission to the moon. It spent 317 days in
orbit and finished 95% of it's scientific objectives. The star sensor which
was used by the orbiter's nav system to orient itself using relative star
positions died a few months ago due to overheating. The Indian scientists
hacked up a scheme to use the on board gyroscope and the pics taken of the
lunar surface to keep it in orbit all this while. ISRO has declared the
mission as successful despite it falling short of it's 2 year mission life.
Also, it is worth noting that this mission planted the first Indian flag on
the moon through it's moon impact probe.

I for one can't wait for Chandrayaan II wherein India plans to get a robotic
rover landed on the moon. Go India go!

~~~
secret
Indeed. Exploration brings hope and advances humanity. I never understand why
some believe that we cannot advance until we fix all current problems.

