[melling]

Yes, but the people who do a lot of the criticizing seem to just shrug their shoulders then start criticizing the next thing. As humans, we often don't learn from our mistakes. And in democratic societies, we expend a lot of energy dealing with the noise.

[Cthulhu_]

Almost nobody will admit to being wrong. Plus a lot of people take a lot of satisfaction from being negative about things.

[humanrebar]

On the other hand, people should have listened to critics before the Titanic, the Hindenburg, the last Columbia launch, the last Challenger launch, the Big Dig, the Iraq War, the launch of the Obamacare websites, and a bunch of other large undertakings.

The critics were wrong in this case, but writing them off as noise can lead to other mistakes.

[noisy_boy]

With exception of the Iraq War and Universal Healthcare websites, pretty much everything was an accident.

Sending an orbiter to Mars is advancing science and knowledge. Aside from the fact that this was an unmanned mission, ambitious projects mostly have an extra element of risk by definition. Inactivity due to that would be stopping advancement.

Besides, India spent USD 75 million on it. It's GDP is 1.877 trillion USD approx. Its peanuts[1].

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8361505

[ceejayoz]

> With exception of the Iraq War and Universal Healthcare websites, pretty much everything was an accident.

Off the top of my head: Titanic's water bulkheads didn't go all the way to the tops of compartments, Hindenburg didn't use non-flammable helium, and Challenger had known issues with O-rings at low temperatures.

[intended]

In context, many early stage startups are (or hope to be) valued more than a probe to mars.