with bigger payloads, to do more and more meaningful science. Within a decade payload weight might decrease with advances made in materials.
What is the probability (especially if one plans the timing properly). Orbits of several reasonable sized asteroids are known and NASA JPL models for predicting near term planetary positions take these into account.disha wrote:It would have crashed into the asteroid belt even before reaching Jupiter!
Certainity of failure, small chance of success - what are we waiting for? - paraphrasing Gimli.Suraj wrote:The reason for not crashing it on Mars is that there's a requirement agreed upon between spacefaring nations, that payloads reaching other celestial bodies be sterilized to avoid forward contamination. Unless ISRO had previously planned upon it and sterilized the Mangalyaan/MOM, it cannot decide after the fact that 'oh fine, lets go crash it on Mars'. The Japanese Nozomi probe had the same issue - when they lost control over it, they were obligated to fire its thrusters one last time to steer it away from Mars.
Yet another problem is backward contamination caused by matter from other celestial bodies being brought back to earth. So far only one Martian mission has attempted to do so - the Russian Phobos/Grunt mission that also carried the Chinese Yinghuo Mars orbiter. Unfortunately that mission never left the Earth's orbit, and ended up in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in 2011.
There's a 'Mars curse' associated with Mars missions - everyone failed on their first try. The ESA was partially successful, but they used Russian rockets, and the Beagle lander never made contact. We should be prepared for the significant likelihood of failure, but if we do succeed, it would be the first time anyone successfully conducted a full Mars mission by themselves at first try.
LOL and sir you can never be so wrong!SaiK wrote:not that any living cell contamination can survive anyways.. but the fact of crashing even sterilized and sanitized components can contaminate any environment just by the fact it is from Earth. So, dunno how those agreements are drafted.
You bring up a good point and one I was thinking of earlier. If the MoM is a success it will be a true feather in the cap. I know between now and the end of the month when MoM leaves earth orbit, I'll be checking up on it every day. Come September of 2014, I'll also be checking.disha wrote:Certainity of failure, small chance of success - what are we waiting for? - paraphrasing Gimli.Suraj wrote:The reason for not crashing it on Mars is that there's a requirement agreed upon between spacefaring nations, that payloads reaching other celestial bodies be sterilized to avoid forward contamination. Unless ISRO had previously planned upon it and sterilized the Mangalyaan/MOM, it cannot decide after the fact that 'oh fine, lets go crash it on Mars'. The Japanese Nozomi probe had the same issue - when they lost control over it, they were obligated to fire its thrusters one last time to steer it away from Mars.
Yet another problem is backward contamination caused by matter from other celestial bodies being brought back to earth. So far only one Martian mission has attempted to do so - the Russian Phobos/Grunt mission that also carried the Chinese Yinghuo Mars orbiter. Unfortunately that mission never left the Earth's orbit, and ended up in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in 2011.
There's a 'Mars curse' associated with Mars missions - everyone failed on their first try. The ESA was partially successful, but they used Russian rockets, and the Beagle lander never made contact. We should be prepared for the significant likelihood of failure, but if we do succeed, it would be the first time anyone successfully conducted a full Mars mission by themselves at first try.
Sir, have you ever wondered about the implications of successful on the first try itself?
Now how many more naysayers will that put at unease...in money better spent club. Well we would have proved then that there is no Martian curse either. We will know over the next year.Well. Mangalyaan's launch was on Mangalvaar (Tuesday) on its way to Mangal.Well we would have proved then that there is no Martian curse either.
Yup. Rather I expect the budhimans to come to the negotiating table.At that stage, all the world netas will go and seek cover. Figure out why?
btw, i am going by the fact it is a global (universally not identified yet) organism and can live in absolute zero. so, it should be the first thing perhaps our mars probe (future) should find. saik, we can go around in circles on rhetoric itself.SaiK wrote:disha, if they so prevalent then should be already there in mars. i can't prove it, nor you can disprove me right now.
now, to counter your question... how do they currently prove tardigrades have been killed/sanitized?
I think, in a very recent article, he said the earlier heads paid a visit prior to a flight. In his case he visits after a flight - as a thankgiving.Tirumala visit is done for all launches, including failed ones.
, but couldn't find if the M.O.M. is going to "validate" the existing Methane models based on previous orbiters and Earth based observations..... I mean, Mars footprint wise and all. IIRC Curiosity's landing zone was selected to provide best opportunity to study this fact, but it failed to find conclusive evidence. Like others posted here, NASA MAVEN's going there for validating the NASA models, among other things.
questioning a poor country’s decision to launch a space program also implicitly ignores the fact that rich countries have poor people too. In 1962, President John F Kennedy declared to Americans that “we choose to go to the moon.” That year, 38.6 million Americans, or 21% of the nation (Excel file), lived below the poverty line. Last year, it was still 15%.
I guess both were modified because I don't see anything that looks like a radar dish.SaiK wrote:
Also starting just 40 years ago with Aryabhatta satellite we have come a long way and have caught up considerably with US/Russia. Who knows in another 40 years we may be the leader in space technology, with the current youth aquiring a CAN DO attitude due to this launch.sohamn wrote:I doubt you pay any taxes to the Indian Coffers and I doubt you know anything about Indian space and exploration. I was seeing a TV program where the media interviewed a student about MoM, while she didn't even know that ISRO launched a spacecraft to Mars she was blowing steam about poverty and malnutrition . You, this student and some others are a small subset of indian population who with all their ignorance pretend to be highly intellectual.manjgu wrote:@sohamn .. u have no idea abt ESA...of which UK is a contributing member. and no idea abt british contribution to science and technology. Pl read up and then come to the forum !!
You and your pseudo-talibani intellectual bunch doesn't even know how less this mission costs ( 0.00007 % of GDP ) and how much India spends for its other programs.
What ISRO did was invest in the dreams of the Indian Youth to think big, ISRO invested in the validation of a technology that can be utilized for deep space exploration and mining. When NASA send probes to outer space it invested in dreams and there was a boy who dream't big. His name is Elon Musk, today he has opened a Company known as SpaceX which has developed its own launch vehicles and space-crafts. If we have to create Richard Branson's and Elon Musk's then we have to invest in the future, we have to invest in the dreams. We have to make us believe we can also reach for the stars.
As destined we launched ours on Tuesday, the day as per our tradition associated with Mars.Suraj wrote:There's a 'Mars curse' associated with Mars missions - everyone failed on their first try. The ESA was partially successful, but they used Russian rockets, and the Beagle lander never made contact. We should be prepared for the significant likelihood of failure, but if we do succeed, it would be the first time anyone successfully conducted a full Mars mission by themselves at first try.
Of course, if the mission was concerned about Earth and Moon. For Mars is it not the blessing should be sort from Lord Subramanya?Mort Walker wrote:^^^I don't believe in a fluke in the case of success, whereas I do believe it would be the blessing from Lord Venkateswara when a model of the PSLV-C25 was taken to Tirumala for blessing.
Suraj wrote:The reason for not crashing it on Mars is that there's a requirement agreed upon between spacefaring nations, that payloads reaching other celestial bodies be sterilized to avoid forward contamination......
It's thus surprising to see such a high tide of denouncements and misjudgements for this mission circulating in the media and online forums. Weeks ago, we saw naive criticisms of China's upcoming Moon rover by a Chinese scientist in the Hong Kong press. Now India is in the line of fire with even more dubious comments.
Some of this seems to stem from surprise. India has operated one of the world's most advanced space programs for decades, but it has largely escaped the limelight. This has partially been due to some bad communications strategies, but it's also because the program has been more focused on utilitarian goals than headline-grabbing feats in space.
This vast nation would be much worse off without the benefits of its space program.
The high-profile Mars mission has served as a wake-up call to many people who don't pay much attention to spaceflight. They should understand that this Mars mission is simply another step in a large, long and diverse space program. India has been in space with force for decades. If this mission serves as a wake-up call for the world, so be it.
There are criticisms that money spent on the mission could or should be spent elsewhere. Such dubious claims have been made for every nation that has ventured into space. Generally, these theories have been proven to be somewhat bunk. Stopping space missions does not stop poverty.
India's Mars program promises to return useful engineering and scientific data for a price that puts other space agencies to shame!
The science looks good, too. There have been some criticisms of the decision to include a methane detector on the mission.
The Indian mission will nicely complement the ground data from NASA's rover. Two independent results from different missions in different places will forge a stronger case.
....there are four other scientific payloads on the mission, including a colour camera. All of them are worthwhile. The heavy focus on the Martian atmosphere by this mission also offers more bang for the buck.
Author is an Aussie. Article is a keeper.Good science. National pride. Technical advances. Inspiration for the world. India's first step towards Mars is worth the price.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... net-space/Coming close on the heels of this week's Indian mission will be NASA's own Mars orbiter launch scheduled for later this month. Called MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission), the NASA mission will collaborate with the Indian spacecraft.
NASA has also agreed to provide communications and tracking of India's Mars spacecraft through its Deep Space Network.
"Mangalayan and MAVEN can make similar observations at different locations at the same time, helping to separate out time-varying from spatially-varying phenomena," said MAVEN team leader Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado in Boulder.
