India loses Moon satellite links

India is a trillion dollar economy. This was a 75 million USD programme. For comparison, India recently announced a 30 billion usd national id scheme. A bridge was built in my city - Bombay, India - that costed 4 - 5 times as much as this moon programme. Both of these do less towards providing the Indian poor with basic facilities than the moon mission. I can cite numerous other instances. Also, the BBC did not mention India's dying poor lacking basic services while reporting on these programmes. This BBC report is decidedly shoddy, crass and is a shame.

Chandrayaan-I was India's first mission to the moon. It spent 317 days in orbit and finished 95% of it's scientific objectives. The star sensor which was used by the orbiter's nav system to orient itself using relative star positions died a few months ago due to overheating. The Indian scientists hacked up a scheme to use the on board gyroscope and the pics taken of the lunar surface to keep it in orbit all this while. ISRO has declared the mission as successful despite it falling short of it's 2 year mission life. Also, it is worth noting that this mission planted the first Indian flag on the moon through it's moon impact probe.

I for one can't wait for Chandrayaan II wherein India plans to get a robotic rover landed on the moon. Go India go!