I’ve been to India, and seeing the catastrophic living condition of the majority of its citizens makes me question if going to the moon is the right priority.
Similar argument can be made about homelessness in San Francisco and other cities. Poverty elimination and tech progress can go hand in hand. In fact, it can help: https://homelessness.paulallen.com/
The argument I was answering to was "I have seen catastrophic living conditions" thus "India should not". Of course, India needs a different approach and India has different problems. But in perspective, Indian defense imports are 100B USD and this mission costs 1.4B USD. India does not buy any missiles anymore. French Rafales cost India 5-10 B USD. This is the price India pays to be able to stand up to China in Doklam.
It always is worth. These things inspire the nation. Instill pride. They work wonders. And India's space program is much less expensive than many other nations. India sent a rocket to Mars that was cheaper than the budget for the movie Interstellar.
At the end of the day what is needed is to create wealth, not to spend it. Spending wealth while lots of people in the country are living in poverty in a way, that doesn't directly address this problem may come off as having the wrong priorities. This is about perception.
Also I would like to add, the govt has now a made a private corp called New Space India Limited, which will help in commercialization of tech developed by ISRO
Are you joking? Have you seen the amount of space ventures that have gone bankrupt? Try and start a rocket company and go look for funding. It's a terrible opportunity to create wealth in the short term (10/20/30 year timespan). However, in the 30-50 year timespan, it seems like a terrific opportunity to create wealth (perhaps rivaled only by nuclear fusion) if we can work our way up to sustainable/reusable rockets and colonies on Mars/Moons. If we can get asteroid operations set up and start exploring the rest of the solar system (and eventually the galaxy) then we can have a society without scarcity.
The main problem is, we will all probably die before we see the benefit (instead we'll see losses). So, how do we value the lives of posterity in comparison today.
I find it ironic how the same people who use the "think of the children" argument the most are also the most against investing in space exploration.
My bias is also that we should value posterity the same as we value humans alive today. But then again, we still can't even agree on the basic question of whether a life in Africa is worth the same as a life in the United States.
Before you can do this you need to have accumulated wealth that you can spend. It's not a coincidence that the industrial revolution started where it did.
There is always “one comment like this” because most people here are not poor. If poor people were in this community, then you’d see many more comments like this.
You think it’s worth it. I’m not saying it’s not worth it. I’m simply saying, if you ask poor people, many of them won’t think it’s worth it. And most people in India are very poor.
Inspiration is a scarce commodity in our world. Going to the moon is one of the most potent sources of inspiration we have. There are countless stories of American engineers and scientists who can pinpoint their interest in STEM to the day they watched their people transcend our world and visit the stars. The net output of those people probably more than paid for the cost of the space missions.
I don't have a strong opinion about this, but your comment isn't really comparing apples to apples. The levels of poverty and poor living conditions in modern India are worse than we had in 1950s America.
If the money spent on that program remains int eh country then it won't be a waste, the country will developer high technology and experts. If they say would pay for US to send stuff to space all those money would make rich a few US citizens.
You don't have the whole picture from what you have seen. Have you been to SF? Have you been to LA. Have you seen problems caused by drugs in US? Every country has problems
Note to the downvoters: They automatically assume I said it’s not worth it. But actually I simply said we should question it, meaning consider it from all sides.
Is analyzing things before during and after making decisions no longer an acceptable thing to do in 2019?
So how much do you think the Indians are spending on the space mission, how much of it should be taken away and applied towards poverty elimination and how exactly do you see that working? Hand over the money, build toilets, food rationing, power availability - all of that they are doing in parallel to their space program and those aren't things that just magically disappear by throwing more money at them.
This is false dichotomy - one doesn't have to cease for other to exist and ceasing one doesn't automatically make the other better.
> So how much do you think the Indians are spending on the space mission, how much of it should be taken away and applied towards poverty elimination and how exactly do you see that working?
All very good questions. I think the act of asking them is more important than merely stating that the space program is either worth it or not worth it.