Mr Trump thinks Mars is a part of moon. And NASA isn't getting funding due to myriad reasons
Countries like India take pride in space achivements and defense related ones
That's why India China are shooting ahead while west is seemingly lagging behind
I read somewhere that ISRO is able to launch satellites at fraction of a cost as compared to SpaceX.
> I read somewhere that ISRO is able to launch satellites at fraction of a cost as compared to SpaceX.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
I didn't say West is lagging behind India or India shooting ahead of the "west"
Our competition is with ourselves and not with others.
Coming to cost of ISRO vs SpaceX
> There is also a big difference in terms of cost per mission. For example, the Falcon 9 launch vehicle’s cost per launch comes up to $62 million, while ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) costs roughly $15 million per launch.
Source: https://www.thequint.com/tech-and-auto/tech-news/isro-vs-spa...
I think the west might need to wake up to the notion that increasingly China, India and others are running the show according to their own agendas rather than following in the footsteps of the west. A lot of the CEOs of companies like Google, Microsoft, etc. are Indians. Lots of Indians are also active in core industries in the US and the EU. Likewise, lots of Chinese can be found across our industries at all layers and both are primary customers for our best universities. Both have the education, expertise, and economies to produce a moonshot. And neither of them is lacking in ambition. I think it's become more a question of when than if, and sooner rather than later.
Either way, there's a new space race on and I think this is a good thing. We've been stuck not getting back to the moon mostly for budgetary and other non technical reasons. It's about time people go back there.