Planning Phase Complete For Indian Moon Mission

alphakappa writes "According to news reports, India's low-cost moon mission -- Chandrayan -- has completed its planning phase and will be deployed in 2007-2008 as planned. The interesting aspect is that the entire mission is expected to cost only around USD 88 million. How do you think space technology will change as a result of these low cost missions, satellites and space vehicles?"

Comments

Re:Unmanned mission

[secolactico]

I think US just payed for a very expensive show.

Yes, it was a very expensive show, fueled by the cold war competition with the soviets.

It was necesary, tho. They proved it was possible to take a human being into another celestial body and return him safely, and that's no mean feat.

... and the world gained Tang.

Re:What is the point? ICBM?

[A non-mouse Cow Herd]

India already has the capability. If you can put ~2000kg into a geosynchronous transfer oribit you can lob a sizable nuke anywhere on earth.

GLSV wouldn't make a very good ICBM, but if they wanted to weaponize that capability, it wouldn't take much work. However, they already have missiles with enough range to deter the other regional powers (Pakistan, China) and have no real reason to worry about the US, EU or Russia.

Developing space technology, OTOH, gives them national prestige, technical advancement, and the chance to profit from selling space services.

Apocrypha : the answer to "why?"

[Kenneth Stephen]

Disclaimer : the following anecdote was not verified by me first hand, but given what I know, it sounds very reasonable.

Circa 1978, the Morvi dam in the state of Gujarat burst. The flooding and the resultant loss of life and property was huge. The event made front-page headlines in India. One of the more curious aspects of this incident was apparently that the Indian government was clueless about the occurrence of this disaster, but the US spy satellites in orbit detected the event. The Indian government was informed by the US about the disaster.

At that time, ISRO (the Indian space agency) had been in existence for many many years - but their funding was more of an afterthought. This incident opened the eyes of many to the strategic value of a space presence. As a result, circa 1982, India put its first satellite into space.

People in the US may not appreciate the usefulness of a space presence. The following information was gleaned from a documentary funded by the UN :

India went onto launch many more satellites - a lot of of them for weather forecasting. The neighbouring country of Bangladesh is located in the delta of two major rivers. Flooding is a perpetual annual problem. Subsequent to the Indian weather satellites being available, the UN sponsored the use of the weather forecasting data that was available to provide an early warning system for flooding due to cyclones (known as hurricanes in the US). The first year this was done, the loss of life was 150,000. The previous year it had been 300,000. And no, I am not making these numbers up.