Indian Space Program Discussion

[svinayak]

1] Most indians accept being defined by others. Our best sources of news about indians and indian history in general are outsiders, not ourselves. Letting this continue will have some dire long-term consequences.

2] Indians tend to dream small and are afraid of failure. Why??

3] Why are Indians so concerned about how others perceive them?

4] Why do we starve both necessary and innovative projects of money?

THis is mainly due to indoctrination due to less than std education and media which made a new generation more followers.

[ss_roy]

If that is the case, then get rid of those who indoctrinate! I suspect respecting age without consideration to ability is a flaw in Indian Culture.

I think the real issue is that conventional indian culture is too subjective, feminised, non confrontational and risk averse. It is necessary to expose this flaw in public forums (the internet is a good start) and try to build a more objective and masculine version of indian culture. My hope is that younger generations of Indians will shake off this submissive world view- I can already see that is happening.

I am sure that many in the armed forces must have often wondered whether our political leaders and bureaucrats had a different set of genitals than they profess to have.

//This is mainly due to indoctrination due to less than std education and media which made a new generation more followers.//

[rgsrini]

I suspect respecting age without consideration to ability is a flaw in Indian Culture.

Wow!!! BR has attained enlightenment. What a breathtaking piece of analysis, deductions and recommendations. India and Indian culture is truly in the hands of enlightend young minds!!!

My old neighbour has lost his thinking faculty of late due to his age. Even before that he was not that smart. The last time I checked his wife was a woman, pretty feminine I would say. I have never fought with them It is probably because I am too non-confrontational.

May be today I should go home pick up a fight with them for being stupid, spit on my old neighbour, slap his wife and chase them out of the neighbourhood. Atleast I will be a masculine person with confrontational attitude, who doesn't respect age without consideration to abilities. I would become the ideal Indian.

Some moron is flailing that ISRO just follows and does not lead and here ss_roy with his gems.

Sir What should I do about youngsters without a brain? That must be due to some flaw in Indian culture as well. Please guide this age respecting-SDREF (F=FEMININE). Also, I never realized femininity is such a disgrace. Thank you for opening my eyes...

[lakshmikanth]

Some moron is flailing that ISRO just follows and does not lead and here ss_roy with his gems.

Sir What should I do about youngsters without a brain? That must be due to some flaw in Indian culture as well. Please guide this age respecting-SDREF (F=FEMININE). Also, I never realized femininity is such a disgrace. Thank you for opening my eyes...

Thanks for the ad-hominem attack, or maybe my young Indian brain did not figure out that you were not talking about me but someone else. Fantastic contribution to the space discussion thread, congratulations.

Sir What should I do about youngsters without a brain?

May be today I should go home pick up a fight with them for being stupid, spit on my old neighbour, slap his wife and chase them out of the neighbourhood. Atleast I will be a masculine person with confrontational attitude, who doesn't respect age without consideration to abilities. I would become the ideal Indian.

Is this some sort of football match. Its like one irrational statement met by another irrational one, maybe its the Indian way of debate. Throw in some rhetoric and ad-hominem, call some people morons coz they criticized ISRO, threaten to spit on neighbours ... and hey! guess what! we won!!!! Who cares about the Indian Space Program or rationally analyzing it! just Indian space program is the greatest in the world (we don't care about the contrary data points or even accept suggestions to make it better).

I would at any point of my life respect a rational statement from a 5/20/50/80/100 yr old and value it way more than an irrational statement from an 5/20/50/80/100 yr old. Irrational statement have no value to me or for anyone. Since you think rhetorically:- Would you respect a statement from the neighbourhood grandma telling you that 1+1 = 5 and not 2 ????. Its ok to respect a person because he/she is older to you, but I would consider it unwise to accept every word and sentence that comes out of the older person's mouth, and if that is what ss_roy meant then I agree with him 100%.

I do agree that some of the statements that ss_roy made were un-PC (like the one about the wrong genitals), but your reaction to it seemed like someone touched your raw nerve. Cool down man, or woman, to be PC. Heat dumbs down debates, rational analysis enhances it, which you dont seem to have grasped so far.

Thanks for pointing out some real UN-PC stuff here, I think our mods are capable of taking care of that stuff.

PC means politically correct

[symontk]

2] Indians tend to dream small and are afraid of failure. Why??

I tend to disagree. Probably you havent heard of initial failures for SLV-3, ASLV, PSLV and GSLV. Every failure leads to failure analysis which delays the programme by at least 3 years. Not in the case of PSLV and GSLV for both ISRO recovered quickly.

And who told Indians are only ones who are afraid of failure? In my US semiconductor giant, a failure will cost ones career and even the division / group you work with.

Also India does not have the luxury of sending 3 launches a month (based on current ISRO capacity) of which all are failures. As a citizen I would expect ISRO to make sure every launch is a sucess.

If you are a citizen who does not complain, yes its well and good, but then dont complain when you dont have power, cooking gas, water and food supplies at the times when you require.

[rgsrini]

Sorry Lakshmikanth if I offended you with the word "moron".

Anyway, In the light of your clear intepretation of my post (especially the rolling eyes), your "rational" analysis and in the interest of not derailing the thread, I will let yours be the last word.

[sunilUpa]

ISRO plans manned space mission ahead of manned moon mission

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 23 (PTI) With the success of Chandrayaan-1, the country's first moon mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning a manned space mission as a first step to manned moon mission.
"Sending man to moon is a very complicated mission. So, as a first step, we plan to develop an Indian spacecraft that will take astronauts across the earth and bring them back," ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said delivering a lecture on 'India's Recent Space Achievements' here today.

The government approval for the mission was yet to be received and ISRO was planning the programme by 2015, Nair said.

ISRO was also in the process of developing technologies for a manned moon mission and it would take more than six to seven years to develop those technologies, he said adding our effort is to achieve the milestone by the time the proposed next manned moon mission of USA and China materialise in 2020".
On the next Space programme of ISRO, Nair said government has accorded sanction for the Chandrayaan-II mission that would be launched in 2012. The work on Chandrayaan-II had started, he said. Under the programme, a robotic lunar rover would smooth land on the moon and conduct experiments, he said.

'Adithya', was the another space programme in the pipeline, he said. Under this programme, effort would be made to study the Solar System by launching a satellite and the same would be stationed within the earth orbit, he said.

"There was no plan to send any satellite to Sun," he said referring to media reports that ISRO was planning a Sun Mission. PTI

[lakshmikanth]

2] Indians tend to dream small and are afraid of failure. Why??

Also India does not have the luxury of sending 3 launches a month (based on current ISRO capacity) of which all are failures. As a citizen I would expect ISRO to make sure every launch is a sucess.

I agree on the above argument. However in my opinion ISRO should aim at bringing to life technologies that would put us way ahead of the pack, which means there would be failed missions and even worse, there would be failed programmes (costing a lot of money). If we are smart enough, which I think most in ISRO are, we should align each program with a lot of spin-offs so that the revenue generated by the spinoffs pays for the program (I can see some of this happening with TATA + Hydrogen Bus for example). From this vantage point we need to view failure as a measurement and use it to propel future successes, or in other words initial failures are investments in success.

I dont see this happening aggressively (unfortunately). When DRDO fails at something, I see the DDM and some elitist thinkers talking about the money gone down the drain and not thinking of how this program might have been used to salvage and spin-off. The good thing about it is that DRDO is re-orging itself to be more effecient, which is good news for all of us.

Its also unfortunate that ISRO is not using the "hype" to generate persistent media interest in the nation's space program (look at the silence on chandrayaan).

ISRO has created a vision 2025 statement (i cannot recollect the source accurately), I hope that some variation of ION-engines/High energy density storage/high effeciency energy generation et al is present in it, either that or some advanced version of the same. IMVVVHO, RLV-TD is going to be the most critical program for ISRO, its the future of space launch. Likewise ION engines/Photon propulsion and high density electric sources are the future of space propulsion and rovers and landers and remote robots are the future of remote planetary bases. To be ahead of the pack, we need to come up with something better.

Sorry Lakshmikanth if I offended you with the word "moron".

Anyway, In the light of your clear intepretation of my post (especially the rolling eyes), your "rational" analysis and in the interest of not derailing the thread, I will let yours be the last word.

Thanks. I dont care about you calling me a "moron", being "offended" with something is my choice and has no bearing on what you say or do, my point was that pissing matches dont lead anywhere, and again sorry... i dont get the meaning of rolling eyes, maybe that too is because of my Young Indian Brain malfunctioning.

[sunilUpa]

Committed people made Chandrayaan possible: Prof Menon

Chandigarh, November 23 : “Chandrayaan was made by ordinary people who were committed to its cause,” said Professor MGK Menon, renowned scientist and distinguished professor at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He was addressing the Children Science Congress, 2008, at the Panjab University today. Menon talked about ISRO’s journey from its first satellite Aryabhatta to its latest accomplishment — Chandrayaan.
Briefing the students about the beginning of research on the universe, he said 1957 was the dawn of space age as there was increased solar activity during the year. The same year was celebrated as the International Geophysical Year all over the world.
He talked of the difficulties, landmarks and knowledge that his team acquired during the period which spanned over four decades. “In 1962, when ISRO started working on space, developing a satellite like Chandrayaan was unimaginable. During the early stages of our research, we lacked capabilities of building a satellite. Aryabhatta was built in a shed of tin. This made me believe that great institutes have small beginnings,” said Menon.

Also credited to be the man behind Chandrayaan, India’s first unmanned mission to moon, Menon said that the satellite is one of the many landmarks the country has achieved. “The route to Chandrayaan was based completely on self-reliance and it was Indians who made it happen. We developed the capabilities of instrumentation, design and building the satellite ourselves and we pride in this fact,” averred Menon.
“Those associated with this mission are common persons like us. The only difference is that they have remained dedicated to their task. Each one of us has the capability of achieving such an impossible sounding goal provided we are focused, diligent and have the interest of the nation in mind,” Menon summed up.

[ss_roy]

I am just stating the obvious-

If you want respect, you have to make others respect you. You cannot petition for respect and acceptance.

Look, India has many smart, motivated and innovative people. We as a nation must support our people. But we must also make sure that such support is meaningful and real, not just a superficial show. We tend to support our own with words as opposed to money, facilities or actions.

Don't you think we would have achieved much more if we supported competent people, whether they are scientists, armed force personnel or businessmen? However we tend to be very fickle in our support to our own and we rarely give them adequate resources to do their jobs properly. Our political leaders and our media are beholden to people who are working against our best interests.

In my opinion, our percieved servility and lack of self confidence is used against us. Why do you want others to manipulate you through your behavioural characteristics? Why not plug those gaps and remove the vulnerabilities in a systematic manner?

[Saral]

I am just stating the obvious-

If you want respect, you have to make others respect you. You cannot petition for respect and acceptance.

Look, India has many smart, motivated and innovative people. We as a nation must support our people. But we must also make sure that such support is meaningful and real, not just a superficial show. We tend to support our own with words as opposed to money, facilities or actions.

Don't you think we would have achieved much more if we supported competent people, whether they are scientists, armed force personnel or businessmen? However we tend to be very fickle in our support to our own and we rarely give them adequate resources to do their jobs properly. Our political leaders and our media are beholden to people who are working against our best interests.

In my opinion, our percieved servility and lack of self confidence is used against us. Why do you want others to manipulate you through your behavioural characteristics? Why not plug those gaps and remove the vulnerabilities in a systematic manner?

SS: Your point is well taken. We haven't developed a culture of encouraging talent (or even the not so talented.. at the outset its not clear who will succeed or not).. exceptions are there (the parents who support their kids in sports).. but most of the encouragement and peer recognition comes at a much later stage (when non Indians provide critical praise) or people just live without it. We are much more comfortable praising superiors (even if such praise is warranted).. Even on this forum you can observe this (Sir this and Sir that; granted this is friendly and shows respect but it shows that we don't accept insight from newbies so readily) and coverage of accomplishments in DDM shows the same trend. The Americans are at the other extreme.. Even the smallest feat by some little league baseballer will feature in the local newspapers. How many columnists or intellectuals in India are respected or have a wide following? The only type of gurus that have a mass following are the spiritual types. The opposite of encouragement/praise is criticism.. I give BR high marks for this (although if you buy my theory, it should count for zilch). I think we also fall short in this department (reasoned criticism). Persuading people is possible when both praise (not idolatry) and criticism (not demonizing) is reasoned and timely.

[Rahul M]

guys I would appreciate if all this discussion about Indian mentality was taken to the appropriate place viz. the Indian Psyche thread.
thanks.

no more OT discussion please.

[narayana]

Manned mission will raise prowess: ISRO chief

[quote]“Only two countries in the world, USA and China, are planning manned missions to the Moon now. According to their announced schedule, they will be sending astronauts to the Moon by 2020“[quote]

Why USA needs 2020 to send another moon mission they first sent in 1969,why they need so much time for a manned mission to moon?,almost same time line as of ISRO,even after claims of 6 or more successful Manned Moon Missions....isnt it strange

[Raj]

Manned mission will raise prowess: ISRO chief

“Only two countries in the world, USA and China, are planning manned missions to the Moon now. According to their announced schedule, they will be sending astronauts to the Moon by 2020“

Why USA needs 2020 to send another moon mission they first sent in 1969,why they need so much time for a manned mission to moon?,almost same time line as of ISRO,even after claims of 6 or more successful Manned Moon Missions....isnt it strange

I do not think India will send astronauts to Moon in 2020. In fact, the Manned program has not been approved, yet. It is more likely in 2025-2030 period, unless we are prepared to spend like the Project Apollo.

If you look at the Chinese program,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhou_spacecraft

Development began in 1992, under the name of Project 921-1. The Chinese National Manned Space Program was given the designation Project 921 with Project 921-1 as its first significant goal. The plan called for a manned launch in October 1999, prior to the new millennium.

It is launched on the Long March 2F from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The command center for missions is the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center.

The first four unmanned test flights happened in 1999, 2001 and 2002. These were followed by manned launches on October 15, 2003, October 12, 2005 and September 25, 2008.

16 years after Chinese started manned program, they(Chinese) are saying, it will take another 12 years for the manned moon landing.

[Victor]

Why speculate on our capabilities based on what the Chinese can do? The Americans did it from scratch in less than a decade and that was in the 60's (remember JFK). ISRO doesn't copy stuff from the Russians so it will not have to wait for a Russian command module and lander to appear first.

[Katare]

As of now there is no plan to send an Indian to moon or even to space, only 'approved' reality is Chandrayan -II. At best we should look to put a man on space by 2016-20 time span. Man to moon would cost billions in money and a shift in focus from more important commercial and national priorities.


ISRO's main focus should be GSLV-Mk3 and Mk4 with up to 6 ton capacity, better havier communication, navigation, carto and spy sats. Space exploration although important for national pride and inspiration POV, should be secondary to these more pragmatic roles.

[Arun_S]

Let us not lose sight of the priorities, next round of moon or manned mission is relatively low priority for ISRO, there is commercial opporunity in pent up Indian demand for DHTV and communication bandwidth that will rake in moolah and enable higher profitabelity for organic business expansition. For national defense technology for ELINT and missile launch sensing is more important. Got to balance between flaunting muscle and working the muscle to serve the roots of the tree that Bharat is.

[Raj]

Why speculate on our capabilities based on what the Chinese can do? The Americans did it from scratch in less than a decade and that was in the 60's (remember JFK). ISRO doesn't copy stuff from the Russians so it will not have to wait for a Russian command module and lander to appear first.

If India wants to send a manned mission to moon before 2020, then it should be ready to spend like Americans did in 60's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_pro ... ncellation

In March 1966, NASA told Congress the "run-out cost" of the Apollo program to put men on the moon would be an estimated $22.718 Billion for the 13-year program which eventually accomplished six successful missions between July 1969 and December 1972.

According to Steve Garber, the NASA History website curator, the final cost of project Apollo was between $20 and $25.4 billion in 1969 dollars (or approximately $135 billion in 2005 dollars).

And that's exactly what I said here.

I do not think India will send astronauts to Moon in 2020. In fact, the Manned program has not been approved, yet. It is more likely in 2025-2030 period, unless we are prepared to spend like the Project Apollo.

I do not foresee India spending 100 - 200 billions dollars or about 50 Kharab - 1 Neel rupees on manned mission anytime soon.

As Arun and Katare have pointed out, there are other priorities which are more critical for Indian needs.

[Bade]

If there is so much money to be made in commercial space applications, the best option would be to free ISRO of it and have a commercial entity deal with it, or else ISRO will end up being another PSU entity in the space business. Not a great long term plan. Frontier areas of exploration will always be conducted using tax money even in capitalist economies for years to come. There is no other way. It has been proven beyond any doubt. Hence, tax money should be used for pushing the envelope and creating new technologies or insights into science.

Once the technology is established then hand it over to someone else for routine operations. The smartest and visionaries need to be freed to think of bigger goals. NASA works along those lines.

[SaiK]

We should send our men only when we find robots can't do the same job. IMHO, moon invasion can be done by desi robots.. I am thinking miniature robots, once we have mission-h3 established, that deploys itself on moon, does a collaborative work with their IFF signals, and return back with the materials. This would make ISRO higher than NASA.

First mission is to detect those materials that we want to bring back, if we don't find them, then everything stays dark on the moon, and perhaps on the dark side as well .

[Victor]

..there are other priorities which are more critical for Indian needs.

Completely agree onlee. Simply pointing out that ISRO's originality and efficiency is more like NASA's than the Chinese. And others' numbers mean very little when we did Chandrayaan for USD 80 mm on the first shot.

[skher]

If there is so much money to be made in commercial space applications, the best option would be to free ISRO of it and have a commercial entity deal with it, or else ISRO will end up being another PSU entity in the space business. Not a great long term plan. Frontier areas of exploration will always be conducted using tax money even in capitalist economies for years to come. There is no other way. It has been proven beyond any doubt. Hence, tax money should be used for pushing the envelope and creating new technologies or insights into science.

No saar,the aim of Antrix is simply to reduce the exchequer's burden for our space program-the money generated is mostly ploughed back into the various programs-GSLV,Chandrayaan etc.

The scientists and engineers complain about doing more production than research work but that is being addressed by subcontracting assembly lines and outsourcing to our fledging indian aerospace industry.

Also considering that an R&D org like ISRO has full admin and financial control of Antrix and not the other way around - it is a very long term plan such that the Indian Space Program is completely self financed by a decade or so.

Speaking of commerce,iirc our 2016 manned mission to space was primarily aimed to promote cheaper space tourism through AVaTaR and develop hypersonic transport.
In a lighter vein,how abt an elephant and a rat as ISRO's animal subjects? shree ganesh's blessings are important.lol.

Has our focus now shifted to cold war era goals of a space race thereby pandering to America's newcon policy?

If that's so,save taxpayers around the world some money and convince all the other space agencies to go to send a antrix yatri each to Mars for future colonization studies.
Chandrayaan-I is an indication of our prowess in international collaboration.Mars and/or its moons are the logical next step for any space farer.

Why send a man to the moon now-yamri khans have made their point.It has to be Destination Mars for ESA, Roscosmos and/or ISRO.JAXA could save money uniquely by sending ASiMo.

[Anabhaya]

I'm very impressed with those Mars rover NASA sent. Working even after months and finding traces of water. Quite a feat. I believe developing local capabilities in fabricating such rovers and letting them prowl the lunar surface would yield much scientific data, and help develop the r&d base further. Prolly will have more return per paisa spent than manned missions.

Manned missions to moon are OK only if we're sharing costs with Russia or somebody.JV's are the way to go. Even NASA has come around to realize this.

[Bade]

Robotic missions are the way to go. A lot of new technology can be spin off and used for earth based needs too. Manned mission should be an international effort. There is no way even in the future that single nations are going to be able to bear the cost of such an enterprise.

Investments in space based astronomy and planetary studies are all needed well before contemplating interplanetary human travel. India is far behind still there. For the next 20-30 years we should just concentrate on sending science motivated missions. Launching an Indian to a low earth orbit is fine and good just as a place holder at the table for future international missions.

[Anabhaya]

Hope ISRO disseminates data from C-1 and MIP to sufficient educational institutions for study. Immense potential in all those private colleges and univs that came online some 15 years ago. Funding space study/research cells will be easy.

[KrishG]

What people are failing to realize is India's capability on a long term basis! India may be and most probably will be the only cheap access to space. You people could say that it is mainly due to low man power costs but that will be wrong. India has the potential to develop the latest technology at the cheapest price! That's what will seperate India from US, Russia and China.

People have got stuck to this view that robotic exploration could be better than manned program which seems very stupendous to me! In all other topics of mechanization we always hear the comment that a computer can never replace a man! Why not apply he same here!

And there are these people thinking that we cannot make our goal of 2015 and 2020 for manned orbital and moon missions respectively! Again people are basing their predictions on the past!
Very wrong! And please don't base your thinking on Chinki space program! Those people took 16 years to copy Soyuz!
The thing that will and surely would help India is the fact that India will come up with simplest and cheapest way to go to the moon! As I know we will be ready with a Mercury class module in 2014 and come up with a knew Soyuz or Orion class module in 2017-18! The only thing then will be development of lunar lander which if planned from now itself would be completed also!
This what India will do ! Keep it as simple as possible and reach our timely goals!

And people who express doubts about granting 12,000 crores to manned missio, I can assure you that the govt will pass the bill ! It not only pride now but the fact that will influence this the most will be the Chinese manned program! Its implications on India or our goal to be leaders in commercial market or a superpower!


So on a whole India will go into space in 2015 and to moon in 2020!

[vsudhir]

Anyone know anything about ISRO plans for a desi space shuttle?

Or is the in-development-hyperplane project somehow tied in to our future space-shuttle plans?

[ss_roy]

ISRO could build a gemini class vehicle (4 tons- 2 astronauts) for launch by the PSLV-XL or PSLV-HP in less than a year if

1] It had adequate funding (upto 500 million dollars).
2] The latitude to make a few big mistakes (a few f**kups).
3] Negligible political interference from outside and inside (promote competent engineers and let them do their jobs!).

We already have a surrogate for the launch escape system (the second stage of the solid fuel version of Agni-1 or 2). We also build and service supersonic aircraft, so we can build stuff that works and keeps people alive at 50,000-60,000 feet. At 50-60 k thousand feet, the conditions (pressure differentials, temperature fluctuations, vibration levels, radiation exposure, life support system requirements) are about 80-95% of those encountered in low earth orbit.

Now find some people who have flown/ repaired the Mig-25, move them to ISRO and try to make a simplified and modern version of the cockpit module. Put that module in a well designed complementary entry vehicle with a decent heat shield. Put an "escape" rocket on the top of this assembly and test it over and over again to remove design bugs and improve the design.

That is what the russians and americans did!

//And there are these people thinking that we cannot make our goal of 2015 and 2020 for manned orbital and moon missions respectively! Again people are basing their predictions on the past!
Very wrong! And please don't base your thinking on Chinki space program! Those people took 16 years to copy Soyuz!
The thing that will and surely would help India is the fact that India will come up with simplest and cheapest way to go to the moon! As I know we will be ready with a Mercury class module in 2014 and come up with a knew Soyuz or Orion class module in 2017-18! The only thing then will be development of lunar lander which if planned from now itself would be completed also!
This what India will do ! Keep it as simple as possible and reach our timely goals!//

[ss_roy]

NO!!!!!!!!!!

A space shuttle is the most fault prone, dangerous and expensive way to put people in LEO. The american space shuttle is the only human orbiter without an escape system. So american astronauts fly 'bhagwan bharose' from the moment the engines start till they touch down. The Soyuz in contrast has a huge amount of safety and redundancy built into it's design.

I would rather have an improved PSLV carrying a 2-4 person crew in a 4-8 ton capsule for ferrying people and materials to orbit.

//Anyone know anything about ISRO plans for a desi space shuttle?

Or is the in-development-hyperplane project somehow tied in to our future space-shuttle plans?
//

[sunilUpa]

New Isro rocket in 6 months, will cut launch costs by 40%

[Avinash R]

'India's manned moon mission by 2020'

Guwahati, Dec 6: India would be able to send a manned mission to the moon by 2020, while the second unmanned spacecraft would be ready by 2012, said a top space scientist who was involved in the successful launch of Chandrayaan-1.

"If everything goes as per the plan, we will be ready to send a man to moon by 2020," said Jitendranath Goswami, director of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad.

PRL is the laboratory that helped build a payload called the high energy X-ray spectrometer that will look for water ice in the polar regions of the moon.

Goswami, who hails from Assam, was Saturday interacting with students, journalists, and academics, in Guwahati.

"Maybe in 50 years from now, there will be an alternate space to live in Mars," the space scientist said.

Goswami said he felt proud to be part of the historic moon mission and spelt out other programmes in the pipeline.

"As a scientist I have miles to go," Goswami was modest in his reply to a question as to how he felt being part of Chandrayaan-1.

"But we're not in any great hurry. We're hoping to get data (from Chandrayaan-1) for a long time."

He stressed on the need to help children get attracted towards science and space technology by urging parents to do something inspirational. "Parents and guardians can inspire their children to achieve something in life," Goswami said.

[Kailash]

Someone please elaborate on the Avatar and the RLV. Is there a difference?

If the media information is right, there are two programs - the military hypersonic version that DRDO is about to test (similar to X-43A, for carrying warheads etc) and the ISRO RLV which would be similar to a space shuttle - vertical launch and horizontal glide back like a plane. Or are we looking at something which can take off like an aircraft too?

Another important question is how is the craft going attain supersonic speeds before the hypersonic engines can engage? will it be rocket-assisted or some kind of dual mode scramjet/ramjet?

[ss_roy]

ISRO seems to be bent on using the GLSV or GSLV-3 for human flight. However the PSLV-XL and PSLV-HP could easily launch a gemini class vehicle (4 tons) with 2 astronauts into LEO (200 km).

So why not use it to launch an indian gemini orbiter within a year. The design could be later converted/ integrated into a soyuz type orbiter.

[vavinash]

Whats the advantage of a gemini type orbiter? No other country is going to beat us into space. India will be the 4th nation to put a man on space irrespective of if we do a jugaad job with gemni type or a decent soyuz or ATV kind of shuttle. Let ISRO do it the right way.

[ss_roy]

It would make a cheap human orbital ferry. Think of it as a taxicab to a space station. You could use an unmanned capsule to deliver supplies and a manned capsule to deliver astronauts on a budget.

[harbans]

manned spacecraft design?

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index. ... ic=7844.30

[ss_roy]

It is still a rumor or maybe a false post. However I am concerned that some idiot in the government might actually like that idea. Why do indians feel incompetent and accept c**p?

Just copy the gemini.. at least you are copying the most advanced expendable orbiter of the 1960s. Update as necessary.

manned spacecraft design?

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index. ... ic=7844.30

[vavinash]

Someone has already made up a wiki about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISRO_OV

I think ISRO is right in waiting for GSLV-III to mature before going in for human space flight. Yes GSLV or even PSLV can launch a 1-2 person ship into LEO but why?

[ss_roy]

To test technology integration and iron out safety issues before building larger orbiters. Do you think that 'gemini' and 'apollo' orbiters were not based on the lessons learned from 'mercury'?

Someone has already made up a wiki about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISRO_OV

I think ISRO is right in waiting for GSLV-III to mature before going in for human space flight. Yes GSLV or even PSLV can launch a 1-2 person ship into LEO but why?

[vavinash]

Does India have the tech currently to built a human rated space pod? I was assuming they will only be done by the time GSLV_III is ready.