An Indian On the Moon By 2020 299
turgid writes, "The Hindustan Times reports that the Indian Space Research Organization plans to land an Indian on the Moon by 2020. First, experiments will be conducted to launch, orbit, and recover a capsule. Plans are to launch an Indian into space in 2014. Manned orbital missions will be launched, initially for a day, but eventually lasting a week or more. Expeditions to the Moon are expected to last 15 days to a month." The article doesn't estimate the cost of such a program. The US Apollo program cost about $135 billion (in 2006 dollars), according to Wikipedia.
American centric (Score:0, Interesting)
This site is too American centric. The time difference and most common time of posting makes first posting too hard for me.
Re:Outsourcing space??? (Score:2, Interesting)
India isn't outsourcing it. It would only be outsourcing if another country got them to do it. Most of the science America did was always outsourced anyway - except that the people were brought to the US to perform it there rather than doing it in their native countries.
Re:You've got two satellites... (Score:3, Interesting)
They would have far better scientific equipment than the Americans. Maybe they intend to go to different parts of the Moon or stay for longer.
Re:Let's reinvent the wheel, not help the poor. (Score:5, Interesting)
Take for example the Dalits [wikipedia.org] who're essentially a slave caste in all but name.
This is why a lot of Indians are in poverty, not because they won't help themselves or don't want help but because of extreme prejudice against them. There is a growing growing Christian and Buddhist movement in the country, of people who're throwing away the shackles of the caste Hindu Dalit system and converting. Read this BBC story [bbc.co.uk] for an example.
With you or inspite of you (Score:2, Interesting)
- How the money needed to fund this project could be better used for other things like eradication of poverty, better infrastructure etc.
- Some sly comments on corner side stores
- etc.
All I can say is, as a soverign country, with a govt elected by a democratic process, India is entitled to its opinion on all self sponsored projects. And for people who have not noticed, most facilities that you deem common are often byproducts of funding on defence and scientific projects.
Sending a man to the moon is as pointless an excercise as hosting the olympics. The real payback is that the target motivates people to push harder on all fronts, develop a sense of pride, develop better infrastructure, create a consumer market bouying the economy, make more children wonder about science/sports etc. These things are often intangible, but more useful in the long run than those guided missiles you gurantee can destory the world, but cant deploy, since they will take you out as well!
Stop trivializing everything and you may find the world is doing ok for itself, with you or inspite of you!
Re:It's cheaper the second time (Score:3, Interesting)
Rocketry has more immediate applications. India's neighbours Pakistan and China are both nuclear and India has been in shooting wars with both of them not long ago. A civilian space program can give you a cover to develop lots of technology useful for the military.
Re:You've got two satellites... (Score:3, Interesting)
Biggest marketing budget EVAR! (Score:3, Interesting)
Everywhere I travel, people already speak-of India's software prowess. If this really goes forward it will establish India as a leader in aerospace, mechanical and electrical engineering... However that is a big 'if'... Not that I doubt the collective brain power in the country. Right now, the President of India is a PhD in Rocket Science (he ran the space research program at ISRO (the indian equivalent of NASA) and the Prime Minister is an economist from Cambridge. Together, you have a couple of Brainiacs in charge. This seems to be exactly the kind of things a couple of PhD's would dream about... (Reminds me of that episode of Simpsons where they put John Frink and Skinner in charge...!). Anyway, given the back stabbing that is Indian politics, such outstanding individuals at the helm should not last very long. Once they are gone, so goes the dream....
Great, more American and European jobs to shift to Bangalore and Hyderabad!
Won't happen... (Score:2, Interesting)
Not to mention develop the skillsets and the hardware to land and return.
Besides that, Indian aerospace programs have had a really hard time keeping up with thier schedules, for example the HAL Tejas has taken much longer to develop that planned for.