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India's Chandrayaan-1 helped discover water on moon's surface (thehindu.com)
41 points by prads on Sept 24, 2009 | hide | past | favorite | 14 comments


And it only cost $78M, less than what Google paid for feedburner. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7679818.stm



Ouch.

Someone linked to a wikipedia list of "most expensive objects" and I couldn't help but notice how many of them were a waste of good money.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world%27s_most_expensiv...


I'm intrigued.

Firstly, what's bad money?

Secondly, of that list, which ones do you think were a waste?


The war toys and stadiums.


Hmmm... The ISS seems a waste.

How can the ISS cost 37 times more than the MIR space station?

Also, why isn't the birds nest staduim in Beijing on the list? Was it cheaper? What about the different canals that was built in the USSR?

It is interesting to see that a single B-2 costs more than a space shuttle.



Thanks for the link. The site seems to have dropped off the original URL (verified Google Cache).


Actually it was NASA built instrument that did the discovery but it doesn't really matter to me. Science is science, irrespective of the countries/parties involved.


Chopraji, You are right. Almost all space missions today, even those of USA are made of international teams. Science has no boundary, nor should it.

However, the title appropriately said "..helped discover.." and not "..discovered..".

This is India's first lunar mission. I know that it was not a complete success (we lost contact with the mission couple of weeks ago..), but it wasn't a failure either.

This mission, which costed a paltry $76M was able to be part of a historical discovery. So, it is appropriate to acknowledge the "Third World Country" which built it.


What surprises me a little is why NASA would install the spectrometer on-board a spacecraft by an agency launching its maiden lunar mission.


Why wouldn't they? They have not much to loose but the instrument. Lunar missions are not scheduled daily and if they are, it is a good idea to send your instruments with it.


I do not know the facts behind this, but clearly, they made the right decision.


The link seems broken. This is the right one: http://beta.thehindu.com/sci-tech/article24322.ece




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