India Plans Moon Mission by 2008 400
LPetrazickis writes "According to the Tribune, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has announced today that India will send a spacecraft to the moon by 2008. The Chandrayaan-I mission will showcase Indian achievements in science and technology to the world. Both European and Canadian Space Agencies have shown interest in the mission. SifyNews reports that 2008 was initially mispronounced as 1908. Today is the 56th anniversary of India's independence." Previous talk about this has come from the Indian space agency; this announcement from the Prime Minister seems to have more weight.
Maybe india should worry more about planet earth (Score:2, Insightful)
Better than designing nukes (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh wait. Now they are building long range rocket technology... Crap maybe this isn't better than just working on nukes.
Re:Maybe india should worry more about planet eart (Score:1, Insightful)
India that far in technology? (Score:3, Insightful)
India and China are in competion for this (Score:5, Insightful)
I know lots of people are going to complain that India should be focusing their efforts on improving their living standards rather than going on wild adventures. But I don't think the one has to distract from the other. India actually has enough food to feed herself, its just a problem of social structure and education. And it is not as if the resources used for going into space make that great of a impact on the ability of India to educate its population. In economic terms, there isn't that great of a cost of space missions, because the resources that go into them can't really easily go anywhere else.
Guh. Not good. (Score:5, Insightful)
And India is now a nuclear power.
In other words, India will end up with nuclear ICBMs.
Now, I don't have anything particular about India - I'd say this about any country. More countries having nuclear ICBM capability is simply not a recipe for world peace.
Re:Right (Score:5, Insightful)
They need to get large objects into space before they can put people in them. This is a great way to motivate themselves. Set a strong goal. And it's not like the spacecraft even needs to land on the moon safely. The first American and Russian Moon probes certainly didn't have soft landings. They were squished to a heap of garbage upon impact.
Re:India and China are in competion for this (Score:5, Insightful)
The main resource that space missions use up is money. Of course this money would be much better spent on education, health and infrastructure.
It is good that India and China are competing through science, and not through arms. Honestly, I don't see how this could be a bad thing for anyone.
There's no real difference. It was no coincidence that the space race reached a peak during the cold war. Space technologies have obvious military applications - having advanced space technologies means that a nation can deliver ICBMs more reliably and accurately. This project isn't much more than military R&D to intimidate not only China, but Pakistan.
Re:Right (Score:5, Insightful)
It's truely astonishing how they could delude themselves into believing that they actually hundreds of millions of dollars (billions of rupees) to piss away on a space program.
Having been to India and having had waded through hundreds of beggars willing to sell their children for pennies, I will never again feel that I am a member of the most cold, insensitive, and heartless culture on the earth.
No, I'll just think the corrupt racist demented Indian bureaucrat who thought that his people needed a space program. Compared to him, I'll never feel corrupt, racist, and demented again.
India already has long range missile capability (Score:5, Insightful)
and besides
Btw
Re:Guh. Not good. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd much prefer if nobody had any nukes, but living in a country that has its own [defendamerica.mil], I certainly can't blame another country for joining the Look Ma, I Can Blow Stuff Up club.
Besides, I'd venture to say that a belief in karma [wikipedia.org] is a stronger deterrent to actually using them than a belief in MAD [wikipedia.org].
Spare me the 'huge waste of money' crap.... (Score:4, Insightful)
More special than it seems (Score:4, Insightful)
Also, technological progress is a positive disruptive influence on Indian society. This mission will add to the numerous changes that have come about in India recently, both economically and socially.
Re:India and China are in competion for this (Score:5, Insightful)
But it also uses up a lot of manpower which India has plenty. Without the space programme some of the brightest minds would leave for US anyways. Also, the Indian space programme plans to bring in money from other countries (like the European Space Agency). Already ISRO [isro.org] has launched quite a few satellites for other countries. India is developing its space program at a fraction of the cost US is investing in it. So India is in a position to provide such services to other countries at lower rates.
Re:India and China are in competion for this (Score:4, Insightful)
I wish people would see the "feed the world first" arguments as just another form of luditeism (if that's a word).
the equation (Score:4, Insightful)
Other country does the same = War/Terrorism
Quite simple actually!
Everyone talks about how much it will cost (Score:5, Insightful)
You can't throw money at poverty and expect the problem to go away. The urban renewal projects in the inner cities of America proved that. The underlying reasons for poverty must be addressed.
Yes, a moon mission won't do a damn thing for poverty directly but it will move a nation forward technologically so that people that were once making carpets or driving taxis can now make rockets and drive spaceships. A poor nation technologically will result in a poor populace. Call centres and computer software engineering have pushed India incrementally ahead already, to deny those moves forward to "solve" the poverty issue is to simply perpetuate their impoverishment.
With the moves forward in technology and the education that surrounds such improvements you have a population that will not accept low paying jobs when they have skills far beyond them. In a few decades you have economic growth that will eventually push low paying jobs to other areas of the world; eventually and hopefully you end up with a world where Nike or Rebook can't make their shit anywhere for less than a reasonable wage.
That's my theory, but the hell do I know.
Re:India already has long range missile capability (Score:4, Insightful)
It's flawed logic - eg.
Bush
Passer-by
Bush
Passer-by
Bush (to Secret Service Man):"Arrest that man."
Re:Maybe india should worry more about planet eart (Score:4, Insightful)
America still practices the barbaric practice of execution by electric chair (Don't even get me started on guantanamo bay)
America's gun crime is the highest per capita of any in the world
America's welfare program is hardly fair
Every country larage and small has it's problems, and I wish for one minute that American's would stop pretending they lived in a perfect country, stop dashing off to solve (*cough* create) problems in other countries and take a good long hard look at their own country.
Re:Maybe india should worry more about planet eart (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a moonshot that costs about one-ninth to one-sixth of a shuttle launch [gao.gov]. The European and Canadian Space Agencies are interested. India has traditionally received technological support from the Russian programme, but it's cheaper to use indigenous launch vehicles, no matter how threatened USA feels by large markets (even if the population is poor) being independent. And this is an exploration mission as a prelude to commercial missions. So why would India spend money on this and what does the market have to do with it?
Because India's space programme launches communications satellites which, like TCP/IP over railway communications lines [slashdot.org], bring literacy to remote villages. Yes the schools in the villages need satellite dishes and the railroad stations need network stations, but the government provides them!
Because India's space programme launches weather satellites which, along with the communications satellites, help farmers in isolated regions to increase their yields.
Because with Japan and China shooting for the moon while NASA stagnates, India wants to position itself now as a contender for lunar mining and lunar transit station operations for deep space missions, services for which other countries (like ESA and CSA) and private companies worldwide will pay . And that money can be used to feed people!
Imagine that, creating high tech jobs to help farmers grow more food and to sell services to the global market and use the money to educate and feed more people.
With Congress cutting NASA's budget, how much of the savings are used to help feed poverty stricken Americans?
And maybe... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Maybe india should worry more about planet eart (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Spare me the 'huge waste of money' crap.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Maybe india should worry more about planet eart (Score:2, Insightful)
Feeding The Poor Doesn't Reduce Poverty (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't reduce poverty by giving food to poor people. You reduce poverty by creating more jobs for more people. Building technology is a good way to do that.
Your's is a common, well-meaning notion driven by compassion. But it's wrong. Yes, feed the hungry, but if you stop there and don't create an economy that enables them to support themselves, all you've done is to create a permanent dependent underclass.
Re:India and China are in competion for this (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, a lot of people said that about Columbus in the late 1400s. It's only with a little hindsight, that you can actually apply some foresight to see the value in exploration.
Re:Right (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: ... or even worry about their own people (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Wrong priority? (Score:1, Insightful)
Oh yes, they invaded Iraq.
Wrong priority?
Economy (Score:2, Insightful)
Some of you are saying India should spend its money on helping reduce poverty, others are saying this space program will do this indirectly.
The reality is, US has a land area of just over 9 million sq km. India has a land area of just over 3 million sq km.
Considering the fact that US has more resourceful land, and has a population less than 1/3 of India, isn't the main problem population?
India celebrated [go.com] when they reached 1 billion. I think the real celebration should be when they go back under 1 billion (if that ever happens).
But yes I do think this space program definitely has a better affect on the national economy than just giving food/money away.
Re:From an Asian perspective... (Score:4, Insightful)