Those people claiming ISRO does it at a shoe string budget, because they reuse yes they do. But we are talking of a factor of more 10 here.<p>Let me put facts on ground. Go and visit any ISRO campus in India. See the kind of offices they work in, they kind of food canteens they eat lunch at, they kind of buses they travel in and take a look at how much they are paid. I assure you will be shocked. In fact shocked will be a mild statement to make. These people work on ordinary steel tables, with fans over their heads. Eat the 15 rupee rice-curry meal and travel in 20 year old buses. Well forget all that. Take a look at pictures of ISRO available over the internet, they look like to be taken in some one's garage than a space research organization.<p>Your average MacOS/iOS app development start up has better working conditions and infrastructure than any ISRO office in India. I'm not talking just about the work place infrastructure. Even the working gear, stuff like computers etc.<p>For the salaries and the net compensation ISRO offers no ambitious well qualified youth in India would be willing to work there- I'm even surprised they have even gotten this far. Note, you are comparing a salary for something like 20K per month with a salary of something like 100K a month Google offers. You get peanuts for building the most important pieces of technology in the history of mankind, compared to building websites for sharing cat pictures.<p>This is working on shoe string budgets to its very extreme. I hope these people get better funding in the future.<p>And yeah for those people too worked up about spending some 100th decimal rounding error of India's budget on a mars project. That is doing far more benefit to India's reputation, than a yet-another-scam-infested scheme.
Every time India space programs discussion comes out a group of people will bring up India's poverty and other problem that should be fixed instead of investing on space program.<p>I used to be one of those guys (I am from Bangladesh), then I looked at the actual cost of this space program and realized that its not a lot of money (~$70 Million) even by India's standard. For example, in india's domestic cricket tournament (IPL) one of their franchise was sold for $370 million.<p>I also don't buy the wholesale "you shouldn't do x, unless y is achieved/fixed" argument. It might apply to some instances, for example india defense budget is about $46 billion, a big portion of it could have been certainly spent to alleviate the living condition of poor Indians in general. But most of the problem in India and other south-east asian countries are corruption and inefficiencies, not (always) lack of funds.
Every single time India does something in Space, the bigots come out from the woodwork: but India is so poor! Let them solve poverty/hunger/education/water/toilets/ice-cream first, and then worry about space.<p>When JFK pledged to put a man on the moon in 1961, the US did not even have the Civil Rights Act[1]. Millions of blacks lived in poverty, and were denied basic rights. Schools were segregated. In large areas of the South, blacks were denied the right to vote. There were lynchings. People were being killed just for demanding the right to vote. And Vietnam War was picking up steam.<p>And you know what? The US still said that getting a man on the moon amidst all this was a worthwhile goal.<p>[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964</a>
Here's a nice FAQ by Emily Lakdawalla of The Planetary Society:<p><a href="http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2013/10311230-india-prepares-to-take-flight-faq.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2013/1031123...</a>
You can follow the live telecast of the launch:<p><a href="http://isro.org/scripts/livewebcast-mars-orbiter.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://isro.org/scripts/livewebcast-mars-orbiter.aspx</a><p><a href="http://isro.org/scripts/livewebcast-marsorbiter.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://isro.org/scripts/livewebcast-marsorbiter.aspx</a><p><a href="http://webcast.gov.in/live/" rel="nofollow">http://webcast.gov.in/live/</a><p>Text-only updates:
<a href="http://www.isro.org/pslv-c25/c25-status.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://www.isro.org/pslv-c25/c25-status.aspx</a>
T+150 secs. PSLV Stage-1 separated. PS-2 lit.<p>T+260 secs. PS-2 separated. PS-3 lit.<p>PS-3 burn out. PSLV enters a long coasting of 28 minutes, after which 4th stage will be triggered.<p>T + 32 minutes. Coasting almost done. Stage 4 ignition in few moments. Altitude is a bit higher due to over-performance.<p>PS-4 started. 4th stage performance normal. Yay!!<p>T+44 minutes. PS-4 cutoff. Spacecraft separation success :) Spacecraft successfully placed in elliptical orbit around Earth. 300 day long journey begins now.<p><a href="http://i.imgur.com/NX9MNsF.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/NX9MNsF.jpg</a>
Here's live webcast from Youtube: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DcSDOkDvyQ" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DcSDOkDvyQ</a>
Thanks JD. Good coverage on Mangalyan.
For many Indians who are criticizing this Mission saying that the money would be better spent on toilets or teachers, this is an eye opener: Why Explore space <a href="http://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/" rel="nofollow">http://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a...</a>
I have met a lot of Brilliant people from India that have blow me away on their technical knowledge. What is stopping them from helping to fix the infrastructure problem that India has? A lot of educated people seem to be seeking a way out to another country. While most of the people in India are living in poverty and have no chance of a decent education.<p>Forget Mars, for India the problems are too great at home.
The website seems to be a bit slow, probably because of some traffic spike?<p>JD, I see that you are using wordpress. If you haven't already installed any caching plugin, please do: <a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Optimization/Caching" rel="nofollow">http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Optimization/Caching</a>
Why ISROs Mars Mission is cheapest?<p><a href="http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-10-31/news/43561612_1_moon-mission-chandrayaan-i-isro" rel="nofollow">http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-10-31/news...</a>
I watched the lift off<p>Good launch and good start. All 3 stages complete. It's in space in a matter of seconds. Need another 45 mins to declare launch success and 10 months to reach mars!
Here's a nice step-by-step animation describing the launch, tracking, spacecraft separation, and solar panel and antenna deployment:<p><a href="http://isro.org/launchtosolarpanel.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://isro.org/launchtosolarpanel.aspx</a>
And <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2480424/VISUAL-EDIT-India-little-better-Ethiopia.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-24804...</a>
Report: India PSLV successfully launches MOM en route to Mars<p><a href="http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/11/india-mars-debut-pslv-mom/" rel="nofollow">http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/11/india-mars-debut-pslv...</a>
Article on spaceflightnow.com:<p><a href="http://www.spaceflightnow.com/pslv/c25/131105launch/#.UnkG4OLi28E" rel="nofollow">http://www.spaceflightnow.com/pslv/c25/131105launch/#.UnkG4O...</a>
If you cannot get the DD and ISRO sites, you can catch the live stream at <a href="http://www.livestream.com/spaceflightnow" rel="nofollow">http://www.livestream.com/spaceflightnow</a>