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An Indian On the Moon By 2020
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.
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A lot of the cost of the American space program was developing technology that is now commonplace. The Indian IT team will have better equipment on day one than the US had on the day of the lunar landing, for example. India is no slouch in telecoms terms either.
Also, there was a lot of experimentation involved in the first space exploration that doesn't need to be done again. We know how to make space suits, and, thanks mainly to the Russians, we know a lot about the effects of long-term zero-gravity trips on the human body.
And even if America and Europe don't play ball (which is depressingly likely on past form), I'm sure the Russians will be willing to hand over as much technology as the Indians don't feel like reinventing.
So it won't be cheap, but I'd expect it to be cheaper in real terms than the first race to the moon.
And I'm taking as read that the Indian space program really has the same motivation as European and American space exploration, ie it's an excuse to pour lots of state funding into your high-tech industries, which gives you more competitive terrestial technology as a spin-off. In other words, this is probably more about kick-starting the Asian airliner industry than about photos of Indians eating poppadums in a crater.
Virtually serving coffee
because there are things that no amount of money will solve.
The same problem exists in many developed countries. There are just people who either don't want the help or cannot be helped. There are many people in the US who we classify as being below the poverty line that are happy and content with their lives. The problem is that we assign our standards of happiness to them and cannot contemplate how they can be in a state other than misery.
India suffers further complications because of class differences that are more important to their society than ours. They also have logistics, religious, and other issues. Sure the money could be used to try and fix these problems but money cannot buy the time needed. Only so much can be spent before your wasting it. A moonshot helps all of Inida, both directly and indirectly. It gives hope. If India can land people on the moon then people can see that yes, one day their children's lives will be better because what they see as an impossible situation really isn't. After all, landing on the moon certainly looked impossible but India will do it.
To all the people making snide remarks about feeding their people first, skip your lattes and such and donate yourself. Why ask others to do what you will not?
oh, thats right, its far easier to assign guilt than to acknowledge it
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I think the question is "why?". Indian (which is where I'm from incidentally) has a space program that's useful to it. Fine. Spending lots of money with the sole intention of "putting a man on the moon" sounds a little out of place for a country which has environmental and social problems that need to be fixed. The man on the moon is not going to help the masses that actually need help.
When India started sending satellites in space, many people said we have so many naked-starving people, why spend money in R&D and invest in future. Today, they are the one who besides from direct outcome, are benefiting from the indirect outcome of technological advancement. Everyone agrees that sending Man/Woman to Moon is a big technological challenge. But the advancement it will bring to India will be of great indirect outcome. I am an Indian and I support all investment into better future. Let us not make a make-shift country ...
where did my sig go? where's my sig at?
Let's say that it's not the most efficient way of redistributing wealth. You can copy all technology you want, like other countries have done, and get your jump ahead a lot cheaper and faster.
Having your own moon program is just ambition, to show that you're there with the rest of them. Well, the Americans to be more specific. You just want to be more American than the Americans, as one in every two Bollywood movies shows...