India launches first unmanned moon mission
The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
-
U.N. observers warn of Syria civil war after massacre
( 7 )
-
Obama on the defensive over spending, debt
( 18 )
-
Egypt's top candidates try to broaden support
( 1 )
-
Queen marks diamond jubilee riding wave of popularity
( 0 )
-
Thousands take part in 'Slut Walks' in Brazil
( 10 )
-
- Business Teaching Positions - Part-time - Kanto Region
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥3,000 ~ ¥5,000 / Hour
-
- National Relief/Substitute Teacher - summer start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥275,000 ~ ¥300,000 / Month
-
- 営業パーソン
- 加治金属工業株式会社, Tochigi
- Salary: ¥240,000 ~ ¥350,000 / Month Negotiable
Order by Time Order by Popularity
30 Comments
Login to comment
0
skipthesong
why is it so important to go to the moon for all these countries? Why don't they go further or better yet, learn more about what is on earth?
0
Lieutenant
Go India you Asian beast.
CNN just spewed out some more hypocritical claptrap about concerns the money could have been better spent on alleviating poverty. Too busy looking over your neighbours fence?
0
SezWho2
skipthesong,
"All these countries" would include the US. I'm not sure the current status of the project, but Bush asked for money to return to the moon by 2020. It seems that he wanted to maintain a permanent American outpost there. I guess other countries don't want to cede control of the moon to the US.
Besides being a good launch location for other flights, the moon may yet be a source of minerals. And that says nothing about its potential military importance.
0
Noripinhead
It is especially important for China and India to get to the moon quickly, so that we can enjoy dim sum and curry and nan on Moonbase Alpha someday.
0
Triple888
Congratulations India! Even though China is still slightly ahead on their lunar mission they missed one essential thing: they did not drop a flag onto the moon's surface. So when India does it at the end of this mission India will go in down in history books as the forth nation to have their flag on the surface of the moon after Russia, USA and Japan. So China will symbolically be behind India!
0
CavemanLawyer
Using the money for food is a great idea! Only, who is selling and how to distribute?
Humans are weird bunch. Having such a space program just might motivate Indians enough and give them enough prestige to start taking better care themselves and each other. --Cirroc
0
skipthesong
Besides being a good launch location for other flights, the moon may yet be a source of minerals. And that says nothing about its potential military importance." Sez, that's a good point but really what has humanity achieved in the last 30 years by going to the moon yet will still don't even know a great percentage of what is here on earth. If they are looking to mine the place or make it a military outpost, I would understand, but only a tab bit more.
As for India, well, I've been there a few times actually, and I do believe they could have put that money into infrastructure at the least. Have you seen the conditions of the call centers? Wired nightmares.
0
joystick
skipthesong! You sound cynical. Do you want India to stop funding for science and technology because they have problem with their infrastructure. India is certainly not putting the money meant for infrastructure into moon mission. Poverty and poor infrastructure in India is manifestation of systemic failure, not actually due to lack of money. Moreover the amount spent for the Indian moon mission is just a small fraction of the amount other countries would spend for such a mission.
0
Noripinhead
India is basically using Japan's H2 rocket for their space program. Check out this photo:
http://www.freebase.com/view/wikipedia/images/en_id/5776656
Looks like it could have lifted off from Tanegashima Space Center.
0
normalisboring
All you CNN-NBC-ABC-BBC-all thoseCCs junkies, who responded so far to this thread, understand the actual news
A principal objective of the Indian mission to moon is to look for Helium 3, an isotope which is very rare on earth but is sought to power nuclear fusion and could be a valuable source of energy in the future.
The project cost $79-million, far far less than the Chinese and Japanese probes in 2007 and ISRO says the moon mission will pave the way for India to claim a bigger chunk of the global space business.
Do u see now, India has clearly thought for its future. If any of you can look in a normal news media (other than the one mentioned above), then u can find the news that the last japanese remote sensing satellite was launched from Indis - why - becuase it cost only 1/8th of what japan spend on their missions and successfully failed...
0
rajakumar
Look like India also creating also many jobs for rocket science industry.
Way to go India.
0
Nessie
Stay tuned for the Bollywood conspiracy movie: Chandrapricorn 1.
Anyway, it's not quite a moon mission, as they're not landing there. But good luck, India.
0
goodDonkey
Congratulations India!
The efforts it takes to conduct space missions will further India's scientific capabilities. Manufacturing the equipment needed and developing the technology will help them to reach further in their high tech aspirations. It would be hard to measure all the advantages that such advances in a production like this brings. I am not saying they don't have industries that already understand precision. I am saying that it will further the scope of precision in new areas.
The ability to stir young minds to dream the impossible. Priceless.
0
DXXJP
You know for all these trips to the moon I wish someone would just actual fly by and check on the good ol US of A's landing sights. I would really like to see if they left any junk.
Or is this one of them secrets everybody keeps.
0
temporaryVisa
Hey, with Indian Tech Support on stand-by who wouldn't feel safe to step into one of their rockets.
0
skipthesong
skipthesong! You sound cynical. Do you want India to stop funding for science and technology because they have problem with their infrastructure." Well, that's not me intention. I was just pointing out that I don't see why they won't put investment into their infrastructure, especially since a lot of their business is outsourced technical support.
Please bear in mind, I have done business with the Indian government, even just recently for alternative energy and what they are putting into that area is very low and then I see this. I just feel priorities are crossed. The only positive results I see is some national pride.
Also, I don't see any major reason for any country, including the US, to continue funding all this space stuff when we still know so little about earth. And, I am also somewhat curious about the US space landings that they may not have happened.
0
HighLama
Nessie wrote:
Chandrayaan will reach the moon in the next 15 days. The robotic probe will orbit the Moon, compiling a 3-D atlas of the lunar surface and mapping the distribution of elements and minerals. The Indian experiments include a 30kg probe that will be released from the mothership to slam into the lunar surface. The Moon Impact Probe (MIP) will record video footage on the way down and measure the composition of the Moon's tenuous atmosphere.
Not quite a moon mission?
Noripinhead wrote:
Can you mention specific points as to why you think the rocket in the picture is Japan's H2? "Looks like" doesn't count.
0
franz75
wow wow mining on the moon?
0
Nessie
Yeah, Lama, not quite a Moon mission.
0
SezWho2
Let me jump in. I think both of you are right.
As a people who have walked on the moon, Americans might have a tendency to define moon mission as a mission in which people get out of their space car, take a 5-iron or whatever and blast a golf ball into near-orbit, then get a shovel and dig to see if there are any moonworms plotting our destruction.
That's a moon mission. But circling the moon for two years, poking it with landers, doing spectographic analysis, assaying it--that's a moon mission too. So High Lama, you seem to have the advantage of using the more general definition of mission. And under a very general definition, Capricorn 1's mission (as storied) was a moon mission too. That seems to me to have been part of Nessie's point. I'd have to give the advantage of humor to Nessie.
0
SezWho2
skipthesong,
I don't disagree with you about the importance of exploring the earth.
My point was about your phrase "all these countries". To my ear, that sounded as though you were excluding the US. If you didn't mean it that way, fine. I didn't want it to sound that way I probably would have used some phrase such as "everyone" or "every country", but that's just me.
So, agreed. We should explore the earth more.
However, I wouldn't expect any country capable of space exploration to just sit back and concede the moon to the US.
0
eddie13
To criticize India for its space program in spite of poverty is being quite short sighted and too quick to judge.
India's space program has saved huge amount of forex for country by having its own weather, telecommunications and ground mapping system. INSAT program has changed lives of millions for better and indirectly has helped create thousands of jobs. ISRO even has started getting revenue for its foreign satellite launches.
No country can afford to wait for one problem to clear and THEN tackle another. It has to go in parallel, especially when it comes to time consuming and complex space program.
0
Nessie
Thanks, Sez. Maybe "mission to the moon" would be more accurate. I'd settle for that description.
0
Blue_Tiger
Hats off to India and their success in launching a moon probe, but my question is, if the Chnese have rocket power to send three men into space, and the Indians have a rocket capable to reaching the moon, could we see an arms race between India, Pakistan, and China? After all, all three nations have nukes, and two of the three have powerful rockets. Makes for a recipe for future disaster....
0
OgieDoggie
Blue_Tiger you have it right..they are showing that if they can hit the moon then they can sure hit each other here on earth.
Just remember what the old German Rocket scientist once said "Ve aimed for the moon..but Ve hit England".
Helium 3, an isotope which is very rare on earth but is sought to power nuclear fusion - normalisboring ...So if India mines this stuff from the moon how much mass of the moon can we take before it effects its orbit which in turn will effect our weather here on Earth (did anyone think about that?).
0
elbudamexicano
I am happy India was able to launch this unmanned missile, if we just let the US and the USSR (Russia now) take all the hype for their space missions, just think of all the millions of little children who do not see a brown face up there in space! The US and the ex-USSR are just a tiny perctetage of the total human population while India will surpass China very soon. So I guess we should not be so surprised to see more brown faces up in space.
0
Wolfpack
I wasn't aware that India had such high aspirations; should have been paying closer attention I guess. Good luck to them!
Back to top