India's Chandrayaan Blasts Off To The Moon!, page 2
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reply posted on 22-10-2008 @ 07:43 AM by mikesingh
Here's some more gen...

The Payloads

There are 11 payloads (scientific instruments) through which Chandrayaan-1 intends to achieve its scientific objectives.

They include five instruments designed and developed in India, three instruments from European Space Agency (one of which is developed jointly with India and the other with Indian contribution), one from Bulgaria and two from the United States.

The Indian payloads of Chandrayaan-1

Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC), a CCD camera that maps the topography of the moon, which helps in better understanding of the lunar evolution process.

Hyperspectral Imager (HySI), another CCD camera, is designed for mapping of the minerals on the lunar surface as well as for understanding the mineralogical composition of Moon’s interior.

Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI) provides necessary data for accurately determining the height of lunar surface features.

High Energy X-ray Spectrometer (HEX) is designed to help explore the possibility of identifying Polar Regions covered by thick water-ice deposits as well as in identifying regions of high Uranium and Thorium concentrations.

Moon Impact Probe (MIP) demonstrates the technologies required for landing a probe at the desired location on the moon. It is also intended to qualify some of the technologies related to future soft landing missions.

The six international payloads of Chandrayaan-1

Imaging X ray Spectrometer (C1XS), an ESA payload and jointly developed by Rutherford Appleton Laboratory of England and ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, intends is to carry out high quality mapping of the moon using X-ray fluorescence technique for finding the presnce of Magnesium, Aluminium, Silicon, Iron and Titanium distributed over the surface of the Moon.

Smart Near Infrared Spectrometer (SIR-2), another ESA payload, developed by Max Plank Institute of Germany, aims to study the lunar surface to explore the mineral resources and the formation of its surface features.

Sub kiloelectronvolt Atom Reflecting Analyser (SAR), the third payload from ESA, is built by Swedish Institute of Space Physics and Space Physics Laboratory of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Tiruvananthapuram. The aim of this instrument is to study the surface composition of the moon and the magnetic anomalies associated with the surface of the moon.

Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM), a payload developed by Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, aims to characterise the radiation environment in a region of space surrounding the moon.

Mini Synthetic Aperture Radar (MiniSAR) is one of the two scientific instruments from the USA and is from Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory and Naval Air Warfare Centre, USA through NASA. MiniSAR is mainly intended for detecting water ice in the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar poles up to a depth of a few meters.

Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) is an imaging spectrometer from Brown University and Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the US through NASA, is intended to assess and map lunar mineral resources at high spatial and spectral resolution.


Quite a payload, what?

Cheers!

www.isro.gov.in...



[edit on 22-10-2008 by mikesingh]


reply posted on 22-10-2008 @ 09:08 AM by 44soulslayer
reply to post by patsy22


The real reason is because our mentality is rooted in the Eastern traditions (as with Russia, China, Japan).

We dont see suffering as something that especially needs to be tackled at the expense of progress.

Feeding the hungry is a priority of course, but progress comes first.

I know this seems bizarre to the Western mindset that India could send a satellite to the moon or possess cruise missiles and nuclear weapons while 90% of the population is in poverty, but to even the poor Indians this is something they can be proud of.

I would argue that spending money on food for the hungry at this juncture is a waste. I wholeheartedly endorse the policy of research and progress first, since it means that in the future India will become energy independent. Not to mention that this launch was a test of Indian rocket capability... the modules carried by India for the USA, ESA et al were done free of charge. This is because India knows that in the future, there will be considerable income from satellite launching (a multi billion dollar industry which India already controls 30% of).

So India spent 50 million to secure the nation's status as an expert in satellite launching, which will bring in many hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in commercial satellite launches in the future. Was this a wasted expenditure?

India is a country of massive, massive disparity and in my opinion will continue to be so. India needs to tackle illiteracy, poverty and all the other evils associated with the third world; but the priority must remain on the vanguard and forward elite striving forth, unhindered by the burdens of having to feed 1/6th of humanity.

The bottom line is this:

This mission cost $50 million. There are 900 million hungry people in India. Now do you think they benefit more from being given 18 cents worth of food each, or from being able to take pride in the fact that their country has stepped into space?

Progress is eternal, hunger is temporary


reply posted on 22-10-2008 @ 09:37 AM by TortoiseKweek
reply to post by mikesingh


Ok, enough of my silly jokes (for now).

I agree with you 100% MS. The progress and wealth will spread out to those people who need it. I'm in the Architectural Hardware game, and about 10 years ago you WOULD NOT want anything made in India for this Industry.

Now, things have changed dramatically! They give the chinese one hell of a run for their money. Many companies in South Africa (where I'm from) are now buying plenty of these products from India (locks, hinges, door closers, pivots, bumpers, floorsprings etc etc). The list goes on.

The point is, I know that the people in these factories have been uplifted, and now have a better quality of life.


reply posted on 22-10-2008 @ 09:48 AM by the_spark
reply to post by patsy22


How can ask those questions before knowing anything about India's history and current data? India has been under invasion for about 3 centuries. It got its independence on 1947. How can you think India cannot have poor people after all those foreign invaders looting all the wealth for centuries? Think about the fact it has progressed all this way up and see the fact the poverty has reduced a lot since independence. It has never stopped working for its poor. That doesnt mean she has to stop focusing other advancements. More over any technological and scientific advancement will help for good and easy for the development of the needy. What makes you that it has waste all its resource when it has capabilities to do things. India has lot of talent pool and it is using them in a right way. Do you think having poor in a country means they have to send their space scientist home wasting their knowledge. As a matter of fact ISRO has made this launch in a very cost efficient way. India's every space activity has been very practical so far like remote sensing, communication etc.. So I believe it is very unfair to compare poverty and this mission.


reply posted on 22-10-2008 @ 10:18 AM by audas
um - CHINA only got hong kong back 10 years ago - was under foriegn rule and domination for centuries - however obliterates india in every way shape and form - with similar size, pop and resources. India is NOTHING compared to this global super power.

Please bear in mind KAZAKHSTAN is one of the major launch countries in the region (a puppet state of Russia ? As is India a puppet state...)

I find it profoundly amusing that on this website, of all the places, no one has had the fundamental cognisance to consider the fact that this missile launch occurred only a matter of weeks after the co-signing of the nuclear treaty with the United States.

People we are about uncovering what lies beneath.

Congratulations to India, you have joined the Lunar club - it is however one of the most deplorable slaps in the faces of your impoverished lower classes I have witnessed in some time. I would have preferred you spent your time and money on producing this car we have heard so much about and seen so little.

India spends its time, talking, talking talking, while china simply does. Even America plays catch up , try shooting down an obsolete satellite.

I have do not have high expectations of India, so anything no matter how small is welcomed. China is about to spend several trillion dollars on expanding its middle class - a global phenomenon in any terms, a transaction which will transform China from super power to potential hegemon. This is Indias bench mark.

sorry for being negative, however this are facts.


reply posted on 22-10-2008 @ 10:59 AM by Daedalus3
Originally posted by patsy22
Indias progress in Space etc, I know is interesting, and my comment is in no way meant as critiscm or disrespect to those who are following it.
However, if you have ever been to India, you cannot help but ask,,,,,
why oh why,,,, can't they first provide their poorer people with the basics we take for granted.... clean water..... sanitary health conditions.... infrastructure, healthcare


And so there are some of us here who do live there. Me for instance.
Answering your question from a different perspective here:

So pumping say 50million USD into the country (or even 50billion for that matter) will not solve any of the problems you mention above. One has to understand that this is not a quick fix problem. It is a deep rooted socio-economic one compounded by the sheer size of the population.

There is NO country in the world which faces a problem of the magnitude and complexity that India does. No not even China. India is a democracy and so even though we encourage a one-child policy we do not enforce it with an iron fist.

Now if you look at the Indian space program till date, it has primarily been focused satellite launching in the communications and imaging/ranging areas.
A majority of the resources of these satellites has been directed for the uplifting of rural areas by (1)Providing Remote communication(mode of imparting education) and (2) data on weather patterns, fish population movements etc..

Now if you spend this budget on feeding the helpless then you help them get by for a day, or a week, or a year.. but then what?
The key, as they say, is not giving a man a fish to eat, but teaching him how to catch it.
Stamping out illiteracy and inculcating self-sufficiency is what needs to be done, and that is what is in progress. Along with that socio-cultural uplifting needs to be carried out so that the climb out of poverty is towards civilized occupations and not anarchy. The space program augments that initiative and so it is very much required.


reply posted on 22-10-2008 @ 11:09 AM by patsy22
Originally posted by 44soulslayer
reply to post by patsy22


"We dont see suffering as something that especially needs to be tackled at the expense of progress."

How sad a statement from a fellow human being.

"Feeding the hungry is a priority of course, but progress comes first."
Try saying that when your hungary... sat with your own filth a few feet away, and your children are starving.

It doesnt seem bizarre to me..... its seems wrong.

"I would argue that spending money on food for the hungry at this juncture is a waste."

Of course,,,, they are just people,,, and their lives are a waste. Is your life
worth progress,,, would happily sit in filth an applaud progress while you belly is empty



"The bottom line is this:

This mission cost $50 million. There are 900 million hungry people in India. Now do you think they benefit more from being given 18 cents worth of food each, or from being able to take pride in the fact that their country has stepped into space? "

It isnt just a question of food..... it is infrastrucure and clean water,,,,,, and it shoudl be tackled before or as well as progress.

I am sorry... you are entitled to you opinion.

But I have been all over the third world,,,, and I stand by my statement.

Your comments just make me grieve a little more.

PVR

Progress is eternal, hunger is temporary



reply posted on 22-10-2008 @ 11:17 AM by patsy22
reply to post by Daedalus3


My respect to you for your reply,,,,

It was good to read a well structured answer to my post,,, that wasnt telling me people dont deserve the things we take for granted in the West.
And then blaming it on cultural differences.

I take on board,, and agree with some of your comments.

India is a beautiful country,,, that has every right to progress and move forward with its technology.
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