India and US to Cooperate in Space Exploration

p1234 writes "India and the US plan to cooperate in the exploration and use of outer space. India's first mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-1, is scheduled to be launched later this year. This is the culmination of long-term planning on both sides of the Atlantic. Apart from India's moon mission, Nair said a probe of Mars by India was very much on the agenda.'Our scientific community would like to see what new things we can find. It is not just for the sake of sending a probe to Mars. Yes, we have an agenda by 2012, by then we should have a Mars mission.'"

Sharing of knowledge will help US and India

[mohanbabu]

This is a great opportunity for both countries to share the best scientists on both sides. This mission http://www.isro.org/chandrayaan/htmls/about_chandrayaan.htm [isro.org] is very critical and challenging for Indian scientists. They need every help they can get to pull this. In the past, when US denied supercomputing facilities, Indian went and reinvented the wheel http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2906865.stm [bbc.co.uk] (although the effort was worth it).With relations improving between two countries, it will be foolish and immature not to accomplish.

This effort will NOT face any opposition like the Nuclear deal. The nuclear deal went down the drain because the stupid "left" politicians played the "Indian congress government is surrendering to US" card. They also threatened to withdraw their support which would have collapsed the Congress ruling party http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/wm1688.cfm [heritage.org]. This time, they will make sure this deal is made and take the bragging rights for landing India on the moon. Yes, the Indian politics is screwed up. But they are not fools to let this deal go away.

China?

[donutello]

If you're going to title your post geopolitics 101 you should know that there is no danger of India getting too chummy with China. The two countries have several issues including a long-standing border dispute. India is not going to get chummy with China anytime soon. It's more likely the US wants to build India up to be a stronger foil to China in the region.

Re:Call centers in space...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yet another propagation of the misquoted phrase.. It was never "Houston, we have a problem;" it was:

Houston, we've had a problem.

</pedant>

Re:Call centers in space...

[XchristX]

Even at the peak of anti-American sentiments after the invasion of Afghanistan, the hard-liner Islamic political parties never got more than 11% of the popular vote.

The Muttahida Majilis-i-Amal and their Islamic brownshirts, Jamaat-e-Islami, control enough arms, ammunition and al-Qaeda/Hizb-ut-Tahrir/Tablighi-whatever-whatever-glorious-Fidayeen-Lashkar-Hizbul support to stage a nationwide coup very soon. Even 11% supporters is enough for a sufficiently fanatic bunch to gain power by force.

Most political parties in Pakistan are moderate, and the nukes are buried deep in the military chain of command, which is secular.

No, large sections of Pakistan army, as well as the ISI (Pakistani secret police) are controlled by generals covertly sympathetic to Islamic fanatics. Pakistan is an Islamist ticking time bomb. Add to that serious grievances raised by Pakistan's Muhajir Urdu and Baluch minorities being discriminated against and systematically marginalized by the Punjabi majority, full blown sectarian conflicts between Sunni and Shia Muslims (the Shilpa-e-Shahaba is not dead), as well as full blown civil war from independence activists in Balochistan and Waziristan (so what really happened to Nawab Akbar Bugti?) , and we have a dangerously volatile situation there. And not everyone has forgotten 1971 Bangladesh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Bangladesh_atrocities [wikipedia.org] ).

Re:Call centers in space...

[PHPfanboy]

Yeah, you're right.

Stick with the Saudi's, they make a good market for your multi-billion dollar defense deals and keep your dollar high. Unfortunately they don't tend to show off the fireworks for your enemies' buddies to covet and last time they publicly demonstrated the capabilities of American industrial technology, you got a few thousand dead civilians in New York and a recession.

Better luck with poverty-stricken Egypt, Baathist Syria, little poor Jordan, crumbly Lebanon and war-torn Iraq.