India Launches Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mission on Second Try
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
Reuters article: https://in.reuters.com/article/space-exploration-india-moon-...
… when you're paying Indian salaries. I'm pretty sure that paying NASA, ESA or JAXA engineers less than 12k USD/year [1] would result in exactly 0 of them staying on the job.
[1] https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/india-aerospace-engineeri...
When ISRO says it took $146 mn to send Chandrayaan 2, it refers only to engineering costs and not personnel costs.
http://www.economicsdiscussion.net/theory-of-cost/engineerin...
Taking the $146 million quoted above at face value, that means 2/3 of Chandrayaan-2's cost was independent of launch cost. Let's say about $100 million.
Another comment here is implying that those $100 million do not include labor. I find that hard to believe; it is (or should be) common knowledge that the bulk or aerospace project costs is labor [2], so it would make no sense to forgo standard accounting practice and only report what amounts to a bill of materials. But if we nevertheless assume that comment is correct, it would mean that you should at least double the estimated cost for developing something equivalent to Chandrayaan-2 at developed-country aerospace salaries. So you would be (optimistically) spending something like $200 million on the probe, and saving maybe $15 million out of a total cost ~ $250 million by launching it from India rather than e.g. the US.
Once the added administration and logistics costs are taken into account, I wonder if you would be saving anything at all.
[1] https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-609
[2] Aerospace project management handbook (2017)
local Australian folks recorded 3rd stage footage.
[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/10/health/nasa-chandrayaan-s...
you don't seem to have journalism high in you r opinion
NewYrokTimes is perhaps the biggest offender who gets away with this. All I can say is after reading Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent, I can never trust NYT.
It appears the NYT journos know more about India than Indians, who elected Narendra Modi by landslide majority (last and this term). NYT regularly tries to highlight isolated incidents as communal rift (standard playbook on India).
The more remarkable thing though is they un-fueled the launch vehicle, fixed the issue, made it launch worthy, and launched it in just under one week.
I can't recall a similar recovery in such a short period of time for a project of such magnitude.
Not sure why some folks are upset about the tone of the article. I read the entire article and didn't find anything snarky or condescending towards India and their ambitious space program.
For what it's worth, I'm Indian.
"India Launches Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mission" is a more unbiased title in my opinion.
https://www.opindia.com/2019/03/the-new-york-times-peddles-a...
India Launches Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mission after brief delay.
India Launches Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mission after a week's delay.
India Launches Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mission.
they will always say 'india did this good but naah there was something' lol
i feel bad for these type of depressed people who always push salty stuff
By technology, if you mean rockets, then yes every country uses rocket technology to escape earth's gravity.
since american media don't do research they followed good old negative path. altho to be fair some of american media is honest but you gotta follow them otherwise google won't tell you about their positive stuff.
If you need to compare then compare it with costs of other missions. And even then it would be unfair, as almost no two space missions have the exact same requirements, goals and parameters.
Does it actually? This isn't 1960 anymore... we know how to launch a rocket and get it the moon now.
It seems this is mostly a national pride kind of thing which has some value too but it's a very different kind of value.
https://www.space.com/7015-40-years-moon-landing-hard.html
Lots of the know how, resources, and people are gone forever. Just because we have lots of computers now doesn’t solve all problems. Apollo was an incredible feat of humanity. There’s a reason no other country has ever sent humans to the moon, it’s really hard.
I expect you to behave in similar manner.
Don't learn anything, it isn't going to provide any technological benefits to your company, since other people already know it.
There were already many people who knows, how to do things. Does it mean, it isn't going to provide any value?
Well, if your thought is as narrow as such, then you shouldn't have learned any language and know how to speak. Because, it's something every human learns from one another.
It does provide scientific and technological benefits maybe not to you, but to India and it's neighboring countries.
You know when people spend 300 grand plus on a car, and people say, "Think what else could be done with that money". It's like that
Anyways the reason these movies cost so much is because all the intermediary production and marketing pieces want a share of the pie.
There are just too may weird data points for popular film costs. For example each of Friends got ~$1M per episode in the last season, so that's $108M ($146M with inflation adjustment) just for main cast in season 10, vs $220M for "the Avengers". So the mission cost less than main characters in later seasons is Friends.
Brilliantly put, I need to commit that to memory.
It reminds of the saying: "All models are wrong, some models are useful".
I've been trying to source Silica Gel 1kg (orange colour changing beads in India) tried IndiaMart but either suppliers don't respond or respond with big order requirement or ask for too much information about your operation.
Back in time I was in US, and companies shipped small quantities or samples sometimes for free and same experience I had with Chinese sellers.
So lemme ask, why Indian manufacturers are so hard to deal with?
There are thousands of suppliers.
I tell the same to American companies wanting 10 page NDAs/contracts for commercial samples "We do not sign NDAs just to get samples" or "we do not spend time of engineers to fill survey forms" — and it works!
Very often after such a reply, we get a call from their managers in a week or so, pleading to not to drop a ball on them.
Why don't they cooperate and avoid making their own wheels?
Why do people keep producing loads of different movies when they could collaborate and just make one massive movie and then we wouldn't have to bother any more?
This means that it is possible that Grand Theft Rover, the new Rockstar game (one can dream) will be more expensive to make than actually going to Mars and steal a Mars rover.
I suppose that if you want as much realism as possible, then simulation is more expensive than doing an actual real thing. I guess that makes sense. We didn't create an AI yet that creates games for us at GTA-scale and quality.
https://www.gameshedge.com/rockstar-games-employees-face-sex...
https://kotaku.com/inside-rockstar-games-culture-of-crunch-1...
Are these scientists working for Isro previously worked for other organizations like NASA where they acquired know how from?
And if it's really homegrown technology, then why we haven't seen better phones or drones or 3d printer or whatever new, coming out of India?
Or does it mean, in India innovation which is not supported by government, doesn't take off?
Not sure why I am being downvoted , I asked this question in good faith.
In short, ISRO has simply learnt to be efficient and adaptive. Relied extensively on first principles and fundamentals. It is an really inspiring story of ingenuity and innovation. More "discovered and developed" than "acquired".
Cryogenic engines were initially bought from Russia, but economic sanctions in the late 90s-mid 2000s forced India to develop its own indigenous cryogenic engines. These were based on the Russian models the Indian engineers were already familiar with, though it delayed the development of India's space program by at least a decade.
America's Surveyor program, which successfully soft landed 5 probes on the moon from 1966-1968, had a total cost of $469 million, again inventing the technology and processes to do this. That comes out to 93.8 million per successful launch or 67 million per launch.
What point are you making exactly?
https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/india/ppp-conversion-factor