
India to launch its first mission to Mars [video] - gagan2020
http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/14/india-to-launch-its-first-mission-to-mars-video/
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kamaal
This is sheer awesomeness, not just with regards to what they are doing but
how they are doing it. ISRO is operating at a near throw away budget, almost a
near rounding error in India's national budget. And these people have
delivered at a whole new level.

I remember when chandrayaan-1 was launched, that morning I was traveling early
morning to office. It was a big moment in the history of Indian space
research, we were so excited we were hardly able to work the whole day. ISRO
is just redefining how government run institutions must function.

On a side note, I went to ISRO as a part of our college's industrial tour.
Many of my classmates just dismissed the whole thing and never showed up for
the tour as they wanted to go to IBM, Microsoft and Google etc. Of the few of
us who went there, we had a humbling experience as to what we saw. There were
no AC rooms, plush cubicles, carpets and other perks we have in our large
Indian IT companies.

These people were working on ordinary steel tables, with a near dying fan over
their had, windows open and sipping tea in a steel cup for 50 paise. And these
guys were writing the control system software that would run on the moon
mission. It was an humbling experience.

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kops
Many a times I used to be stuck behind an ISRO bus while driving to office.
Their bus can be described as more suitable to transfer prisoners than the
best minds in the country. Then they will go off to work on rocket science as
I inched my way towards building a web application for GM. Feels kind of
weird. I guess it is about time that their funding is increased to be more in
line with the quality of people they have and their contribution to the
country.

Hats off to the whole lot at ISRO, BARC, TIFR and myriad other such
institutes...

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zhaphod
I have fond memories of ISRO. I did my internship there working on wavelets
and remote sensing data. ISRO is a shining diamond compared to all other
government agencies here in India. Go ISRO.

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malandrew

        The MOM craft will cary thermal infrared imaging 
        spectrometer to map Mars’ surface composition and 
        mineralogy. These findings — coupled with the information 
        gleaned from the NASA’s Curiosity Rover — will give us a 
        better understanding of Mars’ surface, in preparation for
        the first human visitors to the Red Planet.
    

So serious question: why do we keep only planning on missions to Mars? It
seems like setting up a permanent moonbase would be a very prudent goal to
work on at the same time that we are looking to head to mars.

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Achshar
Mars has a better atmosphere and magnetosphere. Setting up a base would be
easier (in the long run) on mars and compared to moon because of the amount of
upkeep required. That and marks is a lot more interesting (geologically) than
moon since we now know that it once had free flowing neutral water. Plus the
length and temperature of day/night cycle is more manageable and earth like
for mars as compared to moon.

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danielweber
Mars has basically no magnetosphere. It still has an atmosphere, and thin as
it is it'll still protect you from a lot of cosmic and solar radiation. (Not
as much as Earth's atmosphere does, though.)

I agree it's definitely way easier to colonize Mars than the Moon.

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throwawaykf
A secondhand anecdote about ISRO: Was out drinking with friends a few years
ago when we saw the news about (or was it Leno joking about?) the moon impact
probe successfully crashing into the moon.

Turns out one of my friends had done his Bachelor's engineering project (kind
of like the BS Senior Design project in US colleges) at ISRO, and he was
working on something that would be part of the probe project. He was there
when the goverment pulled off Pokhran.

He tells me that because of the diplomatic fallout, all international
technology transfer deals ISRO had with various Western organizations
_instantly_ were unilaterally canceled by the foreign parties. (Even in the
commercial arena, I know of international collaboration projects that were
abruptly canceled. I think Pokhran was a very stupid, shortsighted move by the
government to score brownie points with the population just to confirm what
the world already knew.)

My friend estimated the Pokhran fallout set them back at least 4 years,
because suddenly a bunch of technology they were expecting to get ready-made,
they had to start researching and developing themselves from scratch.

And yet when the Moon Impact Probe finally happened, it was _right_ on
schedule.

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zhaphod
This anecdote tells you how many good people still work at ISRO. I have been
in SW industry in India for the last 13 years and I have seen more than a
couple of dozen ISRO employees quitting ISRO and joining the SW industry. I
guess ISRO can achieve even more if they can offer better remuneration and
purely merit based promotions. One can dream.

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sidcool
There will be people here who will chastise government for undertaking such an
ambitious activity when there are many other problems the country is facing.

To all of them: your logic is flawed.

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shiven
Ad Astra ISRO! Good luck and Godspeed.

Two men, once looked out of the bars. One saw the sand and the other saw the
stars.

(Haters gonna hate and all that ...)

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Sam121
Single line i want to say "Proud to be an Indian".

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fallingmeat
This comment has nothing to do with India, ISRO, politics or Mars, but I am
curious if anyone with expertise can comment on the clean room practices seen
applied in this video. Is it odd that the workers don't have on full 'bunny'
suits and have (what seems to be) a relatively large amount of skin/hair
unprotected? I don't know if it matters that much, it just seems a little lax
given the cost of failure.

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kamaal
Firstly, I've visited ISRO Bangalore(A few years back). And I did see the
exact things you mentioned. I did ask the guy(Not sure, if he was the PR guy)
who took our class for the tour. His answer was, they were likely assembling
some test equipment and not the real equipment that was going to space.

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stuff4ben
It seems like the article only talks about the MOM probe. What rocket are they
going to fly on? Very cool though, especially on the budget constraints! Ad
astra per aspera.

One day I look forward to seeing my American, Indian, Chinese, African, etc...
brothers and sisters on Mars toasting humanity and it's achievements. What a
glorious day that will be!

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swatkat
MOM probe will be carried by ISRO's PSLV-XL (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle -
Extended). More info here:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Orbiter_Mission](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Orbiter_Mission)

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klackerz
The mission may be postponed to 2014 if the US government shutdown continues.

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swatkat
Not necessarily. ISRO needs NASA's Deep Space Network to communicate with
spacecraft only when it gets too far away from Earth. ISRO's Bangalore DSN can
handle it during initial days (how many?) of launch.

Moreover, NASA is launching MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) in
November. So, it looks like NASA's DSN will indeed be operational despite
govt. shutdown. Let's hope for the best.

[http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/indias-
october-28-m...](http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/indias-
october-28-mars-mission-on-schedule-isro/article5204371.ece)

\-------

Update:

"NASA/JPL authorities have reaffirmed support for the MOM as planned and
stated that the current US government partial shutdown will not affect the
schedule of MOM," Bangalore-headquartered Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO) said in a statement."

[http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/nasa-reaffirms-support-
to...](http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/nasa-reaffirms-support-to-indias-
mars-orbiter-mission-isro/1/313321.html)

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codecrusade
This must happen- India's only hope is massive Govt Funded projects that
accomplish something and hope the engineering debri to spawn an ecosystem of
high tech companies.(hope they dont migrate to the US)

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monsterix
Nice. I hope they put all our politicians on it too.

I love science, and I am from India -- but then there are a lot of other
economic machinery related things that we need to figure out first. I mean the
usual things which are NOT rocket science. By the time ISRO of India matures
up, rocketry elsewhere will move away from public institutions to the more
competitive and cut-throat marketplace of private players. So I just don't see
the point, enlighten me if there is one.

Besides Indian Government should rather (and at least) be focusing on the more
serious issues drowning 'our country in our own poop' \-- things like
corruption, poverty, malnutrition, malaria, dengue, power outages etc. What
not!

[Update: Wow. So many reactions, some name-calling too. All answers address
the usual aspects of 'why science should run in parallel and not in series'
and other advantages. These are UNDERSTOOD, for if they're not why even
discuss?

Can someone explain how ISRO is gonna compete tomorrow, and do the same space
exploration at a competitive cost, when the rest of the world would have moved
to space industry being managed by private players and even start-ups? Someone
indicated below that ISRO operates on a shoe-string budget. Can we fix that at
least? No, kill the messenger instead.]

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iamshs
People like you are outright hindrance to science and progress. We do not need
to do serial problem solving, it can go on parallely. But please let Indian
students relish good science. They deserve it. Good, you are not deciding any
budget for these matters. Let's see the disparity:

NREGA (Solving indian poverty) budget: Rs. 4, 000 Billion

ISRO budget : Rs. 56 Billion (0.3% of Indian Budget)

Indian Budget: Rs. 17, 000 Billion

India has lot of other problems to solve. Yes. But this news is about Indian
science, and let's keep it so. Let's not take away from the scientists who are
delivering good value on budget. There are platforms to vent your opinions,
but this one is not the one.

If it was not for ISRO who launched INSAT 3D, cyclone phailin would have had a
devastating effect. How will this help India? Indian science is progressing.
Indian scientists are taking ambitious missions. It will help propel more
people into these fields. Technologies do not exist in vacuum and have
derivative uses.

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curiousDog
Exactly. No reason progress on both ends can't be parallelized. Also most of
the time progress in science and technology leads to alleviation of poverty.
It is seldom the other way around.

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danieltoomey
I guessed I missed the solution to millions of starving people hanging about
with no job prospects.

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cscurmudgeon
You all missed out when they were handing out decency and common sense.

[Someone who has spent a stint at awesome ISRO.]

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dr_
Really? Resources would be far better spent providing uninterrupted
electricity and clean drinking water to its citizens. Instead India spends
it's capital on trying to promote national pride and patriotism.

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curiousDog
What does patriotism have to do with this? Does NASA conduct research to
promote American pride? The thinking is that development of space technology
will spawn new techniques/materials that could lead to new areas of research,
find use in day to day life and overall, spur the economy. Every country in
the world has poverty. You don't see them stopping all work to help them out.

