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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.
... oh, you meant the other kind
And never put a man in space before? Hey, It's possible, and I wish you the best, but *good luck* It's not like there's about to be a cold war style infusion of cash for ya.
Americans haven't been to the Moon in decades. I think we could possibly recruit Indians for space travel here in the U.S., but I think they'd have reservations.
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.
Yes, but considering that, much like the elephant population, these estimates have TRIPLED IN THE LAST SIX MONTHS, I'm guessing that cost is closer to $405 billion.
Push Button, Receive Bacon
I wonder if call centers are cheaper to run on the moon?
China, India, wtf??
Engineering is the art of compromise.
take-away delivery service.
First post!
This site is too American centric. The time difference and most common time of posting makes first posting too hard for me.
Sorry...some one has to say it.
With no roads on the moon, how off earth will they build any corner shops!
"Don't hate me Trinity; I'm just the messenger"
>>>Scanning for I.D.I.O.T.S. >>>
>>>I.D.I.O.T.S. FOUND! >>>
"This is one small step for a man , one giant leap in cost savings for Space Inc"
Dell: Hello - this is Tim (it's really Samir) with Dell support, could I have your name please?
Me: Rich Jones
Dell: Can I call you by your first name?
Me: Sure
Dell: Ok, Mr. Rich (this always happens) - how can I help you today?
Me: I wanted to check on the status of the replacement batteries I'd ordered for some laptops.
Dell: Let's see here... Uh.. oh! Solar flare!
Dell Automated System: Thank you for calling Dell, we can't determine how to route your call. Please hang up now.
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
Based on the engineering skills I have seen, it will be badly welded baked bean cans, and some dodgy wiring, perhaps an old 386 with the side casing missing at an Internet Cafe in Bangalore, as the mission control centre.
In Soviet Russia, rocket launches YOU !!
but we eventually go back there, we won't have to. Our astronauts will be able to stop by the lunar 7-Eleven for a Big Gulp Slurpee!
"Thank you, come again."
He was very clear about bringing them back again. The closest they get to that in this story is "The voyage to the moon will mean a mission of longer duration."
Maybe this is a new way to help with overcrowding?
Me, I'm just damn glad that in the unlikely event I get to go there in my lifetime (well, it won't be after) I'll be able to get a decent takeaway. Yummee.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
NASA's planed return to the moon is 2018. A few bad schedule slips at NASA could see Americans following Indians back to the moon. Both sides get bonus points for an Indian American on either mission.
The world will not get better through technology. We must seek to be better people.
I've been in India for about a year now. These guys have horrible infrastructure: bad roads, horrible mass transport, not to mention spotty internet. Their education system is pathetic. Any task that involves the government (ie starting a business, importing something for use in a business) takes forever (despite all the bribes given). Yet these idiots are trying to put a man on the moon. Fix the basics first WTF are they doing?
India has one of the world's largest gaps between the richest and the poor. Literally hundreds of millions of people in the country are starving. The government-supported medical system is an abject failure, with doctors bribing people to get out of their work taking care of the less fortunate while continuing to be paid as if they had actually performed health care services. There are oases of IT work in the biggest cities surrounded by people living in shacks who, due to the social and educational systems of the country, have absolutely no chance at upwards mobility. More minor problems exist too: trains and roads are broken, and the electrical infrastructure is in tatters.
So they want to go to the moon, a feat already accomplished by mankind? How stupid. There's no way the aeronautics industry will contribute to the 'rising tide.'
Seriously, if the country is going to spend money not fixing its rotting social and physical infrastructure, at least pick a problem not yet solved.
... for all the under-nourished poverty stricken millions in India who could have benefited from all the money that is being wasted on a space program.
Good luck to them and all, But they have bigger problems they they should be pouring money in to.
God Be Gone
China is already making good headway in the market for small to medium sized turboprop airliners and transports so quite frankly my money is on the Chinese in that particular race. Their aviation industry is more mature than that of India and has proven it self to be able to tackle more sophisticated projects. The same goes for the Russians. Strangely enough, while they took large chunks of the automobile and shipping markets by storm, neither the Japanese nor the Koreans seem especially interested in competing on the medium to top end of the jet airliner market.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
I've been in India for about a year now. These guys have horrible infrastructure: bad roads, horrible mass transport, not to mention spotty internet. Their education system is pathetic. Any task that involves the government (ie starting a business, importing something for use in a business) takes forever (despite all the bribes given). Yet these idiots are trying to put a man on the moon. Fix the basics first WTF are they doing? The people here are obsessed with copying America and Americans. The problem is that in 1969 America was pretty much set, there were not people killing each other in the country (Naxalites vs the Government), there was no "communist" part in power anywhere (the government right now is actually a colation government in which there is the moderate Congress Party and the leftist Communist party sharing power). In addition to all that why are they sending a person to the moon? Set up a new Hubble telescope or something. Sending someone to the moon is rather pointless, it won't achieve anything whereas a new hubble would maybe expand our knowledge of the universe.
Its time to put the indian moonwalk to the test http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/57411/Indian_V ersion_Of_Thriller.html
Just like Chinese, Indians can save on the return trip.
"Next project: indoor plumbing" -Jay Leno
A Space Indian is crying.
In related news, curry on the moon by 2021.
Sorry, wrong Indian.
So a country of a billion people can spend billions on a space program, but can't feed a BIG portion of it's own people? I like space travel, but my god get your priorities in order.
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
Being an American of Indian descent who has spent time in India, I can assure you that this will never happen. India's infrastructure (electricity, roads, communications, etc.) is horrible, and the country refuses to adopt modern methods to improve its vast problems. For example, if a road needs to be build here in the US, the Dept. of Transportation (at whatever appropriate level of government) will assemble a crew of professionals that use modern road-making machinery and techniques. In India, because they wish to appease peasant laborers, only manual labor can be used. The same road that would take two weeks to build here would take over a year in India. Only the simplest of machinery would be allowed, with all the other work coming from unskilled day laborers using shovels and hand tools. The end result is a road that will only last 5 years at best, is not level and doesn't drain water, and took almost a year to build. This is the sad reality, and with the exception of the newest high-tech areas like Bangalore, this is the way projects are tackled in all of India, and it isn't going to change anytime soon. An Indian on the moon? Forget about feasability, I can't even imagine all the people that would need to be bribed to get the project off paper. EVERYTHING in India requires bribes, especially police and bureacrats.
When you take into account that India's population is over 1 000 000 000, the answer is obvious...
They must have run out of space for call centres.
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Yea, there is famine occasionally in parts of india, from what i know.
And each monsoon season, many people die due to lacking infrastructure.
Shouldnt they better fix these first with the money rather then spending it landing a man on the moon ?
Read radical news here
The moon is made of Tandoori chicken.
Developing, building and selling airliners is linked heavily to other activities, in another words companies like example Boeing and Airbus doesn't just build airlines, they are involved in much more activity. Boeing is the second largest defense contractor to US army. Airbus is subsidiary of EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company) which is a large defence and armaments company supplying many European armies. Also both Boeing and Airbus get government subsidies in a form or another. Boeing gets big contracts from US army and works very tightly with NASA. Airbus also gets subsidies in form of a "launch aids" and other government involvement.
It should also be noted that South Korea and Japan in economic terms are quite small compared to United States or European Union, they just don't have muscle enough to set up a support systems to make building airliners economically feasible. Also it should be noted that both South Korea and Japan are allied with US, so it would be politically risky to start building a competitive industry to a industry that US sees as a strategic as. Airline, space and armaments industries are heavily strategic industries in the eyes of world powers. In that perspective both India and China will one day build up their own airliner industries to compete with Europeans and Americans.
Survey research tool for commercial and scientific use
I read some of the comments
- 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!
"Thank you, come again!"
Isn't there a more modern motorcycle we could strap a rocket to?
What if it breaks down while up there and they have to call back for tech support?
It will have been over half a century since we did it by the time they get around to it. Not much of an accomplishment. This is about as exciting as "The First Indian Made Car!"
Followed shortly by a call-centre
Thankyou come again.
Analytic & algebraic topology of locally Euclidean meterization of infinitely differentiable Riemmanian manifold
So long as we get to keep the two we have in town. The last thing I want to do after 6 pints is trek all the way to the moon.
Sorry, couldn't resist...
The more the merrier in terms of getting people into space. The whole idea seems to have stagnated, and a bit of competition from other countries would go a *long* way to kicking off some sort of space race again. After all, the likes of Columbus didn't discover the new continents by dipping their toes in the water and then saying "well that was cool, but I can't be arsed now". If competition from other countries is what's needed to get the US's motivation back up again, so be it.
14 years to build the props and set? Sheesh, i'm sure we could give them a hand and lend them ours.
Is spending billions of dollars of tax payers' money to go to the moon the proper role of government?
We didn't land on the moon, the moon landed on us!
Y
All his extended family and friends by 2021.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Glossary:
yaar: Punjabi for friend.
cogging: copying/imitating/aping. IIT Madras slang
benami: Owning property in the name of a trusted flunky
big big: Repeated adjectives to replace the adverb very is a common Indianism.
junta : (the j is j not h) Hindi for public/people/populance
I am thinking: Use of continuous present tense where simple present is appropriate is another very common Indianism.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Hi Friends,
Request some urgent help with this matter.
Am on moon, and I would like to know the procedure in getting back to Earth. I have been landed rocketship, how can i do. Please somebody can help me with my condition?
Please kindly advice.
Rashpal
You just got troll'd!
Orbit!
Why dont they just team up with China who are planning a moon walker sooner? And Indian and Chinese can do it at the same time. Better yet get both nations to team up with NASA and perhaps they could do it around 2010?
Better yet, forget about moon walks, orbits etc and team up with NASA and a host of other nations and help the human race advance as one!
Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
...the cowboys got there first.
On the other hand - every year thousands of Americans die needlessly due to illnesses caused by smoking, alcohol, drugs, and poor nutrition (more often obesity than starvation). Shouldn't the US Government better fix these first with their money before spending on its space programme?
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...
Come on India! You can do it! The best of luck to you!!
I think as soon as more countries start getting into space, then there will be a bigger push internationally for space exploration. Then, just maybe then, we can see the world as a round planet, with no East and West, but just as a home, for the human race, united as one. If you want to end hunger then universal peace might be a way forward.
Even this guy knows that.
The US is pursuing specific plans to get back to the moon that include a hydrogen fueled heavy lift vehicle a crew exploration vehicle and a lunar lander. Details like this are completely missing from Russian, Chinese, and Indian press releases on their space programs.
an ill wind that blows no good
Your argument is a fallacy... In India people die because they do not have food to eat... It is involuntary.
All those problems you listed in the US however are voluntary, you CHOOSE to smoke/drink/eat a lot... Heck that fact that anyone in america can become obese says a lot... And the US is a free country buddy, I don't smoke or drink and I am very fit, however I would be pissed as hell if the government told me I didn't have the choice to smoke/drink/pig out.
"See you space Indian..."
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Reminded me of the old joke of Tenzing and Hillary climbing Everest to find a Mr. Hare Ram Patel running a Quickie Mart.
:-) As someone said, "Indians are like sand, they get everywhere..."
Don't mean this as a racist joke.... Indians are just fantastic entrepreneurs...
I remember back-packing thru Libya only to find myself eating Chicken-Tikka-Masala at the remote oasis of Jughbub. Turned out the family running the place were descendants of an Indian soldier from Ludhiana who fought the Germans (Rommel et al) under the British flag....
I have to admit this is a shrewd marketing move by the Indians. If this succeeds, it will put the world's eyes on the sub-continent. It will do well to further reinforce India's image as a technology leader.
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!
involves having the entire population standing on everyone's shoulders, the cheaper space elevator.... its only by 2020 that the population will be large enough
NASA seems to be interested in sending their payload on the mission. Also http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.p l?file=2006051307181100.htm&date=2006/05/13/&prd=t h&
Read current science article for scientific need and international collaboration (there seem to be countries other than US, Russia, and iRaq) on unmanned mission.
Most points on the debate (poverty, public (though not scientific) infrastructure) have all been beaten to death for the unmanned mission itself. Stop being cynical and think of something interesting.
Yours truly,
a fellow snake charmer.
Last I knew the United States owned the moon as we performed mankinds version of a dog pissing to mark its territory by planting a flag on its surface. I just hope the designated Indian has his passport readily available with his customs declaration forms filled out. Thank you, and welcome to America.
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.
You really don't keep up with current events, do you? The Russians won't hand over anything. Everything has a price when it comes from Mother Russia and nothing is free. However, I am sure that they will offer favorable terms to their Indian friends (they've been nominal allies for a very long time), but it certainly won't be "given away".
Who cares? I don't.
Wait! Why assume that being without an X-Box, internet, transfats, high fructose corn syrup, TV, a "high" paying job (etc, etc) makes your life poor? I hate this idea of impressing our own beliefs on others...its just ridiculous and self serving.
I grew up on a farm where my family would have easily been considered poor by city folk standards. I now work in software development where I make a ton of money, can go on vacation anywhere in the world, own two houses, new cars, can buy all of the latest anything I want and all the food to go with it. So what does that bring me? Stress, poor health, no time to enjoy my loot, always under attack by those who think I have too much (like I didn't earn it or something)...and the biggest kicker...I daydream daily about being back on the farm and "poor." Life was so much more rewarding when I was "poor." The happiest people I know are "poor".
The moral of the story is "cram that latte up you're a$$ before you even think about imposing your "better" lifestyle". Let the Indians all enjoy a great accomplishment that will no doubt transcend all.
I for one relish the idea of one day enjoying a hot Dunkaccino on the dark side of the moon, if you will. As with all Dunkin' Donuts coffee they are 100% Crustaceans-Free, which is a point of pride ask any employee and she will say. "You maybe feeling crabby, but enjoy our hot coffee it's crab-free!" Dirty
"A keyboard?! How Quaint!"
how most posts are people using this as some kind of opportunity to make ethnic/racial stereotype jokes. racism for nerds, bigotry that matters.
"A lead Indian astronaut and his 50 backup astronauts to dance with female astronaut and her 50 backup astronauts on moon by 2020"
India doesn't have the heavy-lift rocket capability right now and it is unlikely they will develop it on thier own within 13 years. Of course they could contract out to the Russians but that doesn't really fufill the nationalistic drive to do it yourself.
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.
This may come to bring new Definition to the words Out Sourcing.
.... breaking Burt Munro's previous record by approximately 39,000 km/h!
Forget sending Indians to the Moon. Just shoot them into the sun.
The average Slashdot response to this news is quite ridiculous, though not unexpected. There are of course the usual call-center jokes...for those irked by Indian call centers...it is US-based companies that try to cut costs by out-sourcing to India...nobody is compelling them to. Why not target them instead!
As for the merits and de-merits of India sending a human to the moon: agreed that there are a number of socio-economic problems that India still needs to resolve; but that does not mean that India should give up on all scientific advancement till that is done. A nation's progress is not some sequential one at a time thing, and, as some posters have mentioned, the direct or indirect benefits of technological progress eventually do percolate to the masses. They also add to a nation's self-esteem.
People who are poking fun right now should realize that once upon a time many-a-person would have laughed at the idea of India launching a satellite...but for some years now, India has been sending satellite s up to polar orbits (and yes, these satellites provide benefits to the masses).
The insistence that developing countries should not attempt ambitious projects is just some sort of neo-imperialist concept!
All the jokes about call centers and slurpee machines on the moon aside, this "promise" by the Indian government says something for that generation of American engineers working in the 60s. With little of the know-how or technology available, those folks went from politician soundbite to one giant step in less than a decade. If the Indians start today, they're promising to take 14 years. Any of originals still alive will be celebrating the 51st anniversary! Simply amazing.
That's good, because they're probably going to need a Kwik-E-Mart up there.
Yes. Going to the moon is next on the list of fun things to do.
List of Fun Things to Do. by:GWB
1. War!
2. Have one friend shoot another friend in the face.
3. Send someone to the moon.
We are all just people.
"One a these days, Aishwarya, on a these days....bang! zoom! - to the moon!"
-----
Sorry, I'm only a 1336 h4x0r.
Next think you know, the US, China, Russia, and India are going to be staking claims on the moon.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Landing a man on the moon is like a right of passage for a country. Climbing to space, seducing Luna, finally getting to touch down. "Popping her cherry", if you will. You are not a grown country if you don't score with the moon at least once.
Thank-you. Come again!
... because the head of Dell's support has just been informed that all that 'lunar land' he bought from the ads in the back of the Fortean Times isn't really legal.
I can't believe this we are now outsourcing space travel.
In Soviet Russia, moon lands on you!
The Chinese have a similar time table, but arent pushing it too fast. They have a manned launch every 2-3 years, two so far. The US space program averaged about three per year during the sixties race and shuttle heyday.
The reason I heard is that the Chinese central R&D program is not very large. Their space program falls under the military.
In other news, big chief asks: "HOW?"
Freeze-dried Indian Food? Oh man...hopefully those $80,000 toilets work well...
Saving the World: One Drink at a Time
"Thiruvananthapuram, we are having a problem!"
Colonizing space will require convenience stores. I'm looking forward to the first Lunar Slushie.
When will they make the movie: "The world's farthest Indian"
(most) Americans seem totally America obsessed, there is more in this world than just the USofA
India is ususally more concerned with local politics,
that is they are dealing with countries like Pakistan and China
they feel ususally threatened by China as does any other country over there, china being an expansionist power on their borders. Also they want to compete with china on equal footing. like with the nbr of people within their borders and likewise on the spacerace front..
The race to build the first lunar Kwiki Mart!
We have too though. It's called MySpace.
spoonerize "magic trackpad"
Ok, they have a plan for getting someone to the moon. Do they have a plan for getting them back to Earth?
(Not like anyone's going to read this...)
Slashdot needs a new subject icon for these Indian Insecurity stories. They have no more chance of putting a man on the moon than they do of actually providing quality software.
India's continuing space program is part of nuclear weapons proliferation and an escalation of the local arms race. The United States cannot be helpful to the Indians' space program, and at the same time truly try to reduce the chance of a nuclear exchange.
One of the most important efforts to stop nuclear exchanges has been the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT). In the NNPT the nuclear weapons powers (US, USSR, France, UK, China) made a bargain with the non-weapons states: don't work on nuclear weapons and we will help you out with peaceful nuclear technology; otherwise, you will be isolated in various ways.
Since the more recent Indian nuclear test in 1994 the US has not lived up to its obligations to isolate India (and Pakistan, and Israel). Each such act weakens the NNPT regime and leads to proliferation.
The Indian space program is just a piece of their ballistic missile program, and may contribute to a further arms race in second-tier world military powers (e.g. Pakistan, Brazil, Japan). It might also slow efforts in the UK and France to do away with their nuclear stockpiles. Any help the US gave India would just make it worse by adding directly to India's build-up and indirectly through weakening the ideas behind the NNPT.
Indian outsourcing.
I am still waiting to see "Jews in space!!!"
When the "digital revolution", so to speak, was in the air in the 1990's, I read an article about someone who won a school "computer competetion". One of the questions asked was "why do computing and develop advanced technology, why not help the poor?"
With the growth of IT in India, the answer is pretty obvious today.
As is typical - Slashdot leaps before it reads.
This isn't a plan by 'India' - it's a pipe dream (and an unfunded one at that) by the head of the Indian equivalent of NASA. Move along folks, nothing to see here.
Do they plan on using a rocket or by 2020 will their population have grown so large they'll be able to make a human pyramid and climb to the moon?
If they can't manage something as simple as birth control, seems unlikely they'll master rocket science in the next 13 years.
...they can't just study and get a NCMT (NASA-Certified Moon Traveller) certification, they'll actually have to build a rocket and everything?
The amount of outright and tongue-in-cheek racism present in most of the replies is disappointing and outstanding. And here I thought at least most of us were past that.
Still waiting for India to offer us those dramatically cheaper software costs they've been promising. Where's the $100 laptop that India said it would have in Walmart by 2004?
See the book Critical Mass (I don't remember the author's name) - I'm pretty sure India has had substantial rocket capacity for awhile, enough to deliver a nuke (or ten, though not on one rocket) to their bestest buddy neighbors, if required.
Space races are sometimes a cover for dual-use missile technology, but all you need for a nuke is a rocket that can get payloads to orbit, and maybe a little bit more - and they already have those. Going to the moon probably won't help their weapons programs, unless the increase in status helps their technological recruiting.
Moon Pie!? What a time to be alive.
They'll corner the market in green cheese palak paneer.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Anyone who doesn't actually get that the two growth powerhouses of the next 20 years will be China and India and understand why investors pump money into *growth* prospects not doing-it-already economies needs to go back to fairly early high-school economics. The posters who say "I am here and the roads are shit so they'll never make it" are the sort of head-in-the-sand neo-colonialist observers that ever underestimated the ability of growth economies on the grounds of well, naivety.
Here's a clue - spot a single investment bank in the world (one of which is my paymaster for my sins) that isn't majoring on "Chindia". Wonder why that is? Or is your cod economic and cultural chalk-drawing more likely to be the case?
India this, India that.... Here is an analogy to compare Countries that have potential to do well:
;)
Try choosing one mutual fund over another. One of the aspects you look at is..the historic performance of the fund. so..lets take this example..and compare various countries over a 10,000 year period. You will see that India has had a period of downfall since 400 years ago. However, the history is Intact..Im not going to go any further to elaborate the glorious history of India since I find that redundant in this blog..however..I will point one thing out..I would better be called Anonymous Coward that put my name down on this blog..since many of the folks who are reading that cant pronouce my name..their language doesnt allow them to pronouce "Bha"..sounds more like "Ba" doesnt it?
Final words: Some countries have a loooong history..and rich wisdom...please dont mock them by looking at a span of a few hundred years..because good and bad times shall always come to all.And the numbers tell it all..India is only beginning to realize its Potential.
Imagine the fight that would break out if cowboys reach the moon, too!
Currently hooked on AMP
Industry and furthering the economy are the answer to those problems. Both are served by a space programme.
with a population close to 1 billion ?
we have had the same misperception here. industry was pumped up, economy was pumped up, it became a major economy in region and europe (turkey) but situation did not change for around 40 million of the 60 million population.
winners are always the big capital, they dont share the wealth. they do not invest much. even if they do invest the employment they are creating is pitiful compared to a plan that encourages small enterpreneurs. funding a space programme is similar to that - just creates very high value business at the hands of who already have the money and profits them further. it does not distribute wealth.
Read radical news here
Maybe with China, Japan, the US, India, and maybe even Europe dashing for the Moon, there'll be some good impetus to get a serious space program going. Competition is grand.
Do we really need curry on the moon?
Wow, I thought at least somebody would have said something. What if they can't find an American flag fluttering in the breeze when they get there? Wouldn't that be kinda funny? For those who think the original moon landing was a hoax owing more to Hollywood than NASA, some good news. You'll be able to spot the hoax this time around. The Indian film-makers won't be able to resist having 500 astronauts in sequined space suits pop out of craters to dance with the main characters when they hit the moon.
I didn't know NASA was now outsourcing too...
Suppose we break this into two types of difficulty. They had to do all the initial research in 1968 to develop the programs that govern a trip to the moon. Once you go that program set down, wouldn't it be the same general program with updated variables?
I agree a thoroughly competent team would be needed to update it. But if you had a basic template for the subroutines, isn't it down to specific equations for that launch?
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
...but are these the same engineers who developed the Hindustani Marat with the piston-engined jet engine?
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear