Tech Support

are you referring to the GSLV ? if so, yes that particular rocket has long been a headache for ISRO ( seven launches, three failures), you would be interested to know that there is a GSLV launch scheduled for December 15, (which itself is a delay after they aborted a launch in august after a fuel leak); with an indigenous cryogenic engine (we usually use Russian)

quite interested actually, the papers are covering it well, the more 'nationalistic' channels do more harm than good by comparing it with MAVEN and not really understanding how all this works. the general public ? they know this a significant achievement for India, beyond that; little interest. however college students and in particular the prestigious IIT are all abuzz with excitement and actual debate on the significance of Methane. Ps. my Screen name ? haha, I thought it would be funny. especially since I am getting into the software Industry.

wait,... recoverable boosters is not economical ? I always thought that recovering the engine was worth it...

Scott Manly's latest deep space network news, he starts with the MOM mission and continues on to news on the next KSP update and other stuff.....

Thank you !

some of the scientists gave some truly moving speeches (one man who had been with ISRO since the 60's was in tears as he congratulated the team)

hello, everyone ! I had the privilege of seeing the damn thing go up ! the launch was entirely successful and the satellite is now in earth orbit, the appo. will be raised gradually and in December, the satellite will begin its voyage to Mars.

here is a longer video explaining more about the mission, the goals and some more images of the probe under construction ( a better background score, but not so great graphics and narration ) http://isro.org/mars-decu.aspx#

The Gripen is a great aircraft, unfortunately SAAB does not have the lobbying power to sell it other nations, especially when the competition is Lockheed, Dassult and Eurofighter.

apprantly, JPL sent a message to the mars mission page, wishing them well and asking them to 'pass around the peanuts' a tradition at NASA when they are attempting a historic launch. ( can someone find this particular post on FB ?, i have been searching for a link but cant find one)

oh, you might want to check out the offical FB page and this nice countdown clock

Well, so far everything has been progressing smoothly, the rehearsal on 31st Oct went flawlessly and the mission is a go. the fueling of the 4th and final stage begins at 1.30 PM and the launch time is 2.38 PM (IST). I live about a 100KM from the space center and might get a view as the rocket goes up. the tracking stations and ships are at alert and at station and the weather here is just awesome (a slight chance of rain though).

I think its because of the expense involved and the fact that most of the work and research can be done without any humans in space; why risk lives and spend unnecessary money is the mindset today; I think someone was joking how fast the moon would be colonized if there was oil there, that's sadly the truth, money makes the world go around, or in this case makes us go around the universe.

The probe's launch platform is the PSLV-XL (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) the XL is the uprated version of the standard PSLV, with stretched Boosters and was used to launch India's moon probe in 2008. it also kinda looks like CORE's ANVIL rocket series the image here is the PSLV-XL used for the moon probe mission

I get what you mean, I blame Mass Media, they never cease to show other nations in bad light. oh, and speaking of money, the entire project costed ISRO around 4.54 billion Rupees (US$69 million);cheaper than a commercial airliner but considering their entire budget of 56 billion Rupees (US$860 million), its a lot.

That's the one, thank you. and yes our scientists like cheesy background music.

These images are from the ISRO website, they also have a video of the probe undergoing tests but the site server is horribly slow, so I'll try to find one on youtube.

ha ha, the price of progress I Guess

hello everyone, I am starting this thread to follow the Indian Mars Mission, India doesn't usually get much coverage internationally, but ISRO ( Indian Space Research Organization) does have a lot of impressive achievements. The Mars Orbiter Mission is the India's first Mars mission and is slated to be launched from Sriharikota, India. the launch date is 5th November and Mars orbital insertion by 21st September 2014. They are calling it a 'Technology Demonstrator' and will serve as a test bed for future missions. NASA is cooperating with ISRO and the mission will use the Deep Space Network in addition to ISRO's own network. Mars Orbiter Mission Spacecraft attached to the 4th stage of PSLV-C25

No, I don't think so, the chutes are inside a separate compartment or 'blister' over the capsule, the Soyuz is very robust and can land in very tough conditions; in one instance, Soyuz 23 the capsule landed over a frozen lake and sank (the parachutes filled with water and pulled it down) the capsule remained air-tight and the cosmonauts were rescued after several hours.

I have been playing for a few hours now and so far I have been floating around, place a few parts and ofcourse managed to ram a ship into another one I even got it to ram through and poke out the other end before I was thrown off... RAMMING http://i.imgur.com/V3PdtGg.jpg' alt='V3PdtGg.jpg'>

Well, I just got it, and watched Scott Manley's , right now I am trying to figure out how it works, so once I do that I post a few photos.... the explosions look promising though

I saw this movie a few days ago in 3-D, I had high expectations and they were met ! In my opinion this is probably among the best space movies made ( along with Contact and Apollo 13 ) the acting was excellent as was the soundtrack, watching Ryan change from being scared, dejected and lost to determined and resourceful heroine was beautiful (although I felt that the Greenland Ham radio scene was a bit tedious to watch), if you have the chance, do watch it in I-MAX or at least 3-D, Ps.I have been playing KSP for months now and ever since I saw Gravity, I have been trying to recreate some of the best Scenes looks like others have had better luck !. and oh, one last irrational nationalistic outburst, Hollywood finally has an Indian out in space and he gets a hole in his face within the first 10 minutes ?