India launched its second moon mission a few days ago. This time the mission involves a soft landing on the lunar south pole, followed by the release of a rover that will scoot around on the lunar surface for (a paltry) 14 Earth days. It looks like the rover is entirely solar powered and will die out when the moon rotates into the night. Wonder why India couldn’t come up with a decent nuclear battery pack. Also there will be no sample return, so data will be limited.
50 years after NASA put people on the moon, other countries are struggling to even land there. In retrospect, what a grand achievement it was for NASA! I hope the Artemis missions will eventually involve a permanent lunar settlement. This may be Trump’s only good decision.
It seems too far-fetched to be able to colonize Mars without first building permanent facilities on the moon, particularly factories to manufacture components.
Pot calls the kettle black. Pentagon’s $686 billion budget is beyond obscene, driving a vast military-industrial complex at the expense of 40 million+ ordinary Americans who can’t get enough food. Poverty and homelessness in the US is rapidly rising. Maybe we should wind up NASA, the world’s costliest space agency. That should help with the poverty.
Not India Lite. The US is in a class of its own here. Insulin in India costs a tiny fraction: about $40 for 5 vials of 3ml each. A session of hemodialysis costs $20 in India and $5000 in the US. There is really no comparison here. India is becoming richer and the US poorer. Time to wind up that space program…
Uh, no. You’re off by a factor of 10. A session of hemodialysis costs $500 without insurance, or $72,000 a year for three sessions a week. Still expensive I know, and potentially financially crippling.
OK, that’s right, my bad. With everything so expensive, it is understandable that the movie Gravity cost more than India’s Mars shot. It didn’t do much there, except orbit Mars (and greet the Rovers) but getting there was a huge achievement. NASA could cut some cost by letting Indian rockets haul some stuff on the cheap.
Advancing engineering in India will benefit everyone there. Advancing their status in the world will also. One in seven people in the world is Indian, and they have very advanced technologies, but who knows that? who thinks about looking to India for technology links? and conversely, how many don’t take them seriously? This programme is a great a advertisement for India.
India will not come out of poverty until the advance technologically.
Getting away from earth’s gravity uses a huge amount of energy. There almost has to be a workaround to make space travel practical. How to move heavy stuff to Mars? Construct it on the moon or a man made sarellite.
I think the Moon (from previous history on this board) would be a bad place to launch a Mars mission because of its inclination. You’ll more fuel to account for that, and it doesn’t get long before it starts getting ugly. Not that any of the alternatives are particularly pretty.
