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)
Re:Maybe india should worry more about planet eart (Score:2)
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)
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.
It's a Myth (Score:3, Funny)
Americans never landed on the moon. Don't be silly.
Re:Maybe india should worry more about planet eart (Score:5, Informative)
and the argument would be wrong.
does that sound even faintly like the united states in 1969?
source: the cia [cia.gov]
Re:Maybe india should worry more about planet eart (Score:2)
Re:Maybe india should worry more about planet eart (Score:2)
Besides George Bush???
The republicans are not fiscally conservative. They are politically Conservative. Their fiscal policy depends more on who is looking for handouts -- Little people get nothing, Big companies get lots. Under a solidly Republican party, the US has given lots of money to bug business (mostly via reduced taxes) and then gone to war for big business (thus increasing expenditures and giving even more money to big business)
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:2)
The facts in this book are almost always skewed one way or another no matter how objective it is.
Three things to consider (Score:2)
2) Space programs spend money. That will help alleviate the poverty problem as more people are employed, increase government revenue as other countries expand existing demand or create new contracts to launch their
Re:Maybe india should worry more about planet eart (Score:2)
Re:Maybe india should worry more about planet eart (Score:5, Informative)
(from the CIA World Factbook and other sources as listed)
1. 3% of the US population is illiterate
2. 12.7% of the US is under the US poverty line, defined as an individual earning less than USD 8,860 a year. The Indian poverty line, by comparison, is defined by the world bank to be earning less than USD 365 a year (from Poverty USA and India Watch).
3. Infant mortality in the US is not 10/1000. It is 6.75/1000. That is not the lowest in the world, but the figure ranks among most developed nations. Cholesterol-related teenager deaths? While the USA is getting too fat, causing a rise in diabetes in young people, I have not heard of a rise of teenage heart attacks or teenage heart disease fatalities, so I think your theory is way off. The obesity problem bodes poorly for lifespan and healthcare costs, but not so much for teenage mortality.
4. I won't dispute this last point much. The deficit now is ridiculous, and it was equally ridiculous when we went to the moon ourselves. Such spending is certainly not sustainable over the long haul. However, comparing deficit-per-capita means nothing without considering the deficit as percent of money brought in. A 30 billion deficit on 50 billion collected, as in India (if the previous posts were correct), is 60%, compared to $600 billion on 2 trillion, which is around 30%.
However, budget deficits aside, I think the point most people have is that India has many more places it should be spending its money other than space and nuclear weapons. Beside the high poverty in India, the caste system still rears its ugly head in the rural areas, which hampers development.
The Economist recently did a feature comparing China and India, basically showing how much farther China is ahead of its neighbor.
--Scott
Re:Maybe india should worry more about planet eart (Score:2)
I don't think that's very funny. More frightening. Only silly eurotrash like yourself, would find something like this funny.
Is that supposed to be funny? (Score:2)
Re:Is that supposed to be funny? (Score:2)
October 1960: 91 people are killed when a rocket explodes at the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan in the USSR.
January 27 1967: During a preflight test at Cape Canaveral, Virgil Grissom, Roger Chaffe and Edmund White of Apollo 1 are killed in a cockpit fire.
April 23-24 1967: Cosmonaut Vladimir M. Komarov dies when the Russian Soyuz 1 spacecraft becomes entangled with its parachute lines and crashes.
June 6-30 1971: Russia's Soyuz 11 spacecraft lo
Re:Is that supposed to be funny? (Score:2)
But given an opportunity to go into space, I think the vast majority of us would jump at the chance.
Re:Is that supposed to be funny? (Score:4, Funny)
July 20, 2008 4:17 PM
New record breaking moon crater
Seven hours before its scheduled moon landing, the Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-I was forced to shut down its flight control systems when SCO revoked its license to run Linux. Attempting to boot Windows 2009, the crew experienced a general protection fault and remained on hold with tech support in Bangalore for 5 hours and 23 minutes while support personnel dealt with callers from the US who were having trouble installing the newly released Service Pack 19 for SuckOS on their MicroSoft vacuum cleaners.
Once their call was finally accepted, the crew unfortunately had just enough time to give their license and billing information before their ship collided with the lunar surface, creating the largest artificial moon crater to date, 60 meters in diameter and approximately 200 meters deep. In honor of its creators, the new lunar surface feature - easiliy visible from earth using binoculars - has been named Darl And Bill's Hole.
Re:Is that supposed to be funny? (Score:2)
I wasn't trying to focus on the death aspect of so much... it just striked me as really funny to associate an Apollo 13 type situation with Indian tech support.
Re:Is that supposed to be funny? (Score:2)
Re:Is that supposed to be funny? (Score:2)
Re:Is that supposed to be funny? (Score:2)
Re:Maybe india should worry more about planet eart (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Maybe india should worry more about planet eart (Score:2)
Many read the article and like me made the mistake of assuming it would be a manned flight.
I just didn't think another probe would make news... we are already sick of hearing about Mars explorers, and now we are suppossed to be excited about another moon probe?
Whoa. (Score:5, Funny)
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.
India that far in technology? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:India that far in technology? (Score:5, Informative)
Aryabhatta Satellite (First Indian Experimental Satellite) [iitb.ac.in], Launch Date : April 19, 1975
Re:India that far in technology? (Score:2, Interesting)
Secondly, India plans to launch "an unmanned mission to the Moon".
RTFA
Besides, the USA will have a hard time getting manned space missions up, given predictable knee-jerk reactions to the Columbia incident. This kind of thing is definitely a bad for any country. We'll just have to see how the space programmmes proceed over the next decade.
Re:India that far in technology? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:India that far in technology? (Score:2)
By the way before people label my ideas socialist, each one of these ideas came from the Republican Party.
Explain to me again how that should prevent us from labeling your ideas socialist? I think I must've missed something....
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.
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:India and China are in competion for this (Score:2)
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.
the equation (Score:4, Insightful)
Other country does the same = War/Terrorism
Quite simple actually!
You really don't remember your history... (Score:2, Troll)
The space race was a cleverly designed PR piece that told the rest of the world that we could put a very large missile wherever we wanted it, whether in space, or on the moon, or in Moscow in a half-hour. Let there be no bones about it. If you saw what we spent on NASA vs. balistic missile testing, your jaw would drop.
By the way, the USSR was doing, and trying to do, the exact same thing we were.
Spare me the anti-US rhetoric about my country always being a bunch of bullies and the rest of the w
Thank you. (Score:2)
All the blessings in the world to you now that you are out from under Soviet rule.
Many of us in America hoped for that day. Many of us knew how good our lives were and wished happiness to the rest of the world. I am happy you are free.
May you enjoy and love the life of your choosing that many of us in America do not appreciate as much as you do.
Re:India and China are in competion for this (Score:2)
'Where there is no vision, the people perish.' If we wait to follow our dreams until all our problems are solved, we'll never follow any of them...
It's also worth pointing out that the USan moon program produced advances in technology and sciences that are generally useful outside of the narrow scope of going to the moon. These benefits, in turn, certainly helped education, health, and infrastructure.
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: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).
Re:India and China are in competion for this (Score:2)
Except that they are. They're both nuclear powers and there's friction between them.
Recently, Pakistan brought up the idea of both Pakistan and India eliminating their nuclear weapons. India responded positively to the idea, but pointed out that Pakistan wasn't the only nuclear power on their borders they don't trust.
Re:Not anytime soon. (Score:2)
The US government pours enormous subsidies (a.k.a. development contracts) into its native industro-military complex. It may be debatable whether or not this is money well spent (and highly dependent on factors such as your nationality and personal point of view), but there is certainly no question that it creates/maintains very large numbers of high skilled jobs. It is probably
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.
So what? (Score:3, Informative)
Maybe we will respect the middle east now that they have the same abilities as us, this does not mean anything, the soviets have had nuke for years and years.
I dont really care if India has nuke, and I doubt they'd put it in space unless we do it first, its insane to put it in space but I see them doing it to protect themselves from us, I mean we are willing to go to war just because we want to without going through the UN, I wouldnt blame India for being alittle bit scared of us.
India already has long range missile capability (Score:5, Insightful)
and besides
Btw
Re:India already has long range missile capability (Score:2)
The genie is out of the bottle. Saddam was recently spotted buying enriched uranium from a 7/11 in Africa.
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:India already has long range missile capability (Score:2)
Because if nobody had (publically known) nuclear weapons, then the first country to privately redevelop them would have a weapon they could use without fear of retaliation. Thus, some countries "have an inherent right to keep nuclear weapons" simply because they got them first and their existance in multiple
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].
Re:Guh. Not good. (Score:2)
Of course, this isn't surprising news coming from the crackpot Prime Minister who decided he needed nuclear toys to "defend" his nation from a far less advanced/far less populous neighbor in the first place.
Nukes stop war (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Nukes stop war (Score:2)
DPRK - has more artillery than you can shake a stick at that can and will level all of Seoul the instant the flag goes up.
DPRK isn't a special case because it has nuclear weapons, it's a special case because they have South Korea hostage.
Re:Nukes stop war (Score:2)
...unless you count the millions who have died from starvation [bbc.co.uk], or the hundreds of thousands who have been murdered by more direct means [fortunecity.com]. War is hell, but in many parts of the world peace is worse.
Why do individual nations do this? (Score:2, Interesting)
Moon cow (Score:5, Funny)
Captain Raj blniked away a tear as he watched the earth diminish in size from his viewing station within the left eyeball of the craft.
The udders steadily increasing delta V that eventually carried the metal cow and the Indians up and over the moon and then back to earth descending gently into a McDonalds parking lot.
More power to them... (Score:5, Interesting)
With more countries demonstrating prowess in space technology, perhaps it will finally motivate the U.S. to get off our asses, reinvigorate our space ambitions and do something more meaningful than driving a bus three times a year into low Earth orbit to a bloated and finicky station that doesn't seem to be doing much more than Skylab did 30 years ago.
I must be in a grumpy mood...
Re:More power to them... (Score:2, Interesting)
The technology is just not ready for useful human space trips. Until we move up from chemical fuels, human space flight is a waste. I would rather see the money spent on unmanned space probes and telescopes.
Perhaps... (Score:2, Funny)
Now, I'm not a rocket scientist, but that sounds pretty feasible.
I'm looking forward to this (Score:5, Interesting)
I think this could be a very good thing for even more expansion in space.
And even if the pressure isn't put in other programs, it's still an increase in the space research being done.
Moon competition will be a good thing (Score:3, Interesting)
The sooner we start mining the He3 [nasa.gov] up there, the better.
For the whole planet's sake, we've gotta start colonising the moon.
386 crores (Score:4, Interesting)
Flash ... (Score:5, Funny)
Big deal about other countries... (Score:2)
"US = GOOD BETTER BEAT THEM IN EVERYTHING"
Why can't we just promote that space travel is the only way off this doomed rock, and that if humanity doesn't stick together in this effort, it's doomed.
Spare me the 'huge waste of money' crap.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Spare me the 'huge waste of money' crap.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Spare me the 'huge waste of money' crap.... (Score:2)
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.
SHIT! (Score:3, Funny)
Outsouring (Score:2)
Rus
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.
From an Asian perspective... (Score:5, Informative)
Fair enough. Mod parent up please mods! (Score:2)
Re:From an Asian perspective... (Score:4, Insightful)
Not a mistake! (Score:4, Funny)
Why does everyone automatically assume that this was a mistake?!
.The stated aim of the mission is to
The Indian government want to show off the advances they have made in time travel!
1908 (Score:2)
1908 was the year of the mysterious Tunguska impact [psi.edu]
my two cents (Score:5, Informative)
For all those who have been whining about the state of India's finances and poverty levels, let me add that the PM in his Independence Day speech (think State of the Union) is also building highways, creating jobs in rural areas [hinduonnet.com], not to mention modernizing our ports and major airports. [hinduonnet.com]
May I also add that India's external finances are in great shape [hindustantimes.com]( a $6.5tn deficit comes to mind, cough cough ) and we are at present reorganizing our expensive debt.
We are sitting on so much cash, (and soon, low interest debt) that for the first time, India has become a lender nation.
Inflation is static at just under 2%, the Indian rupee has been holding its ground against all international currencies. Duties are being lowered, tariffs and trade barriers are being slashed, capital and bond markets are flourishing -- why the hell can't we have a moon mission?
Agreed, poverty and health problems cannot be disregarded, but to say this money would be better spent anywhere else is just stupidity -- India has long prided herself on her space programme -- we have great comm satellites and have been launching them since the early '70s, and a moon probe is a logical next step.
Finally, the moon probe is just one proposal among many, and slashdot readers, or at least those posting derogatory comments, need to keep a sense of proportion.
HA! (Score:2)
No, wait. Let me rephrase that...
they'll just... (Score:2)
oh wait.
Where does india go to oursource stuff?
This ought to bolster NASA's plans to go to Mars. (Score:2, Interesting)
This will also be interresting in terms of the tech spinoffs. Remember, the tech had to be INVENTED for the 1969 moon flight. What is possible with todays tech and how will this expand our understanding of the application of todays 'best tech'?
Wrong for Wrong reason (Score:2)
It isn't clear that going to the moon is a money-making venture. Better to let some neo-John-Carmack down there to start a sub-orbital space tourist business and make some money.
Socialism is its own reward, I hope India learned that from 1960-1990. Because it i
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 ce
Outsource NASA! (Score:2)
Please read the article (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Please read the article (Score:2, Funny)
You're forgetting this is /. Next you'll want us to double check our spelling, grammer, etc. Sheesh!
Re:Please read the article (Score:3, Funny)
If India is going do this on-time and under-budget, they'll probably have to outsource technical support to some third world country.
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:Right (Score:5, Funny)
Indeed. India has scores of mystics who walk around on the moon with their astral bodies [sorceryn.com] every day, so that wouldn't be anything new. But bringing along a craft, now that's exciting!
Re:Right (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Right (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Poland plans space mission, too (Score:2)
Re:Poland plans space mission, too (Score:4, Funny)
Scientifically, there's no reason you can't do this. The trick is to go at night.
The obvious drawback is they'll have to use the battery-powered kind of flashlight.
Re:Space race (Score:2)
Wasting money for a manned mission to mars doesn't give us the return on investments that we really should have with government spending.
You must not be from around here. Are you Canadian? How dare you expect a return on investment from the US government? Next thing you'll be telling me we're capitalist, and should expect a return on investment from our jobs, our homes, and our lives.
Re:Space race (Score:2)
Then, why don't we have (toll) highways owned and maintained by PRIVATE ENTREPRISE???? ...
That's what I thought.
Re:Space race (Score:2)
Mars needs to be our medium term planning. How else will we propogate our species further and increase our species' survival expectancy?
Re:Not too bright.. (Score:2)
They need to feed their people first. A trip to the moon is a huge waste of money.
Simple.
Then all the convicts on the moon can have a little revolution and toss rocks at us. :)
Re:Not too bright.. (Score:2, Interesting)
The slated budget, Rs. 300 crores, works out to 3 billion rupees. Given a population of 1 billion people, that's 3 rupees per person. That's a lot of people who're gonna get terribly rich.
Of course, there's income tax at 33%, so that leaves 2 rupees. Gives a whole new meaning to taxation at source, huh? A