Indian Moon Mission To Launch Next Month 176
Anil Kandangath writes with word that the Indian moon mission plans (mentioned earlier on Slashdot) are about to be put to the test. "While the spacecraft itself will not land on the Moon, it will act as an orbiter and land a rover on the surface. The spacecraft is being launched next month sometime between October 22 and October 26. The spacecraft payload includes 11 payloads (including one from NASA) and will perform remote sensing and studies of the lunar surface. The mission is estimated to cost Rs 386 crore (~ 84.3 million USD)." Update: 09/21 18:29 GMT by T : Thanks to reader Anil Gaddam for pointing out that this figure had been originally misstated as 7.7 million USD.
Hmm. Maybe thats closer to 84 million USD (Score:5, Insightful)
Not quite so good but still cheap.
Perhaps we should outsource NASA?
namaste (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hmm. Maybe thats closer to 84 million USD (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Finally! (Score:5, Insightful)
We can't expect the U.S. to do it alone, given all the poor and homeless people in the U.S.
Actually its more like we can't expect the US to do it because they have a nasty habit of only allowing major space missions to go ahead when it is politically expedient, and cutting their budgets when it isn't. That's no way to run a space exploration effort.
Whats needed is a driving force other than political one upmanship (ooh look, China's going to the Moon, so we better say we're off to Mars.) How long have we had the technology to go to Mars? Several decades, but it takes China moving into space to kick off the US effort again.
I feel sorry for the people at NASA and JPL, I really do. It would be nice if they could just be given the funding to do it and left alone to get the job done.
Market forces would also be a much better driving force. As it is the way things are going the race to Mars will result not in exploration bases, but military ones, official 'stake claimers' with a mandate to keep it for whichever country gets there first with a large enough force..
Re:Thank you, come again. (Score:5, Insightful)
First they laugh at you ... then they ignore you ... then they fight you ... then you win ...
Re:namaste (Score:2, Insightful)
more space exploration, the better (Score:5, Insightful)