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Iran's New Space Program
eldavojohn writes "Coinciding with the 32nd anniversary of the Iranian revolution, Iran opened a center to receive satellite images built 'entirely by Iranian engineers.' Iran promised that by the end of their year (March of 2011) they would launch two observational satellites: Fajr (Dawn) and Rasad-1 (Observation-1). You might recall two years ago when they launched Omid, which completed about 700 orbits in two weeks. There are reports that new launch rockets will be revealed in February to launch the new satellites — all equipment is claimed to be entirely Iranian made. Iranian media is reporting that one of the satellites 'carries remote measuring equipment that would be used in meteorology and identifying sea borders.' The Iranian Student News Agency says Explorer 4 (Kavoshgar 4) is meant to transport humans and other living organisms into space, and that the sensory on the satellites 'is able to find gas and oil resources, identify coal mines, jungles and agricultural products as well as salty-marsh and contaminated environments.' These rapid fire achievements are not the only bragging Iran has done as of late; they also claim 'new gamma radiation units for medical treatments and a supercomputer billed as among the top 500 most powerful in the world. But, fact or fiction aside, the satellites have old enemies speculating."
But I guess what Stuxnet is for.
I'm shocked that they aren't just photoshoping pictures of a guy in an American or Russian space suit strapped to the side of a photoshoped rocket.
Somehow, I had a mental image of a bunch of engineers trying to erect a building. None survived.
My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
I've never understood why the Russian leadership seems willing to arm it's most crazy neighbor to the south. It's not like they don't already have an islamist problem.
The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.
Sounds like an echo from a few decades back. Just swap "iranian" for "russian", and you have authentic old news story. The cold war was acually quite deadly for a lot of peple however.
Get ready for 72 virgins in Uranus.
Iran can always do what the Soviets did and make a clone of the US space shuttle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spacecraft)
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
I honestly can't tell if this response was a joke or not.
in order to iran, the islamic nation with an apparently insatiable appetite for science! I hope the pictures and data from the satellites are released publicly as well as perhaps their beacon frequencies? (to listen in on them as they traverse the skies, i know, im an amateur radio geek.)
the medical equipment is fascinating too...are they based on any current designs? do they take advantage of any FLOSS?
and being a tech nerd I cant wait to get specs on the new supercomputer too...are they soliciting any CPU time for college projects? what is its ultimate goal/architecture/performance metrics?
and if you're wondering when politics plays into all of this, it doesnt. I dont care what the russians are doing, what the mullas are barking, or what the israelis are doing because this is nerd news.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Every time I read a story about technological advancement in some [non friendly to the US] nation it's always portrayed in the light of "Oh crap, dirty brown people are getting their hands on technology OMFG THEY'RE GONNA NUKE US"
What's up with that? What possible use could a stable, financially self-sufficient nation have for nuking a much larger nation (who has a lot more nukes)? I know people like to portray them as crazies and always extract the most radical-when-translated-and-taken-out-of-context quotes about how these countries/groups of people want nothing more than to wipe Israel and the US off the map, but I find it hard to believe that the leaders of such countries have any serious plans to this effect. I'm sure it drums up some good publicity in certain mainly arab nations, but every politician likes to talk big, few like to ask a country to pay for a dangerous and expensive war with a nearby nation.
Maybe if we worked with countries like Iran instead of just antagonizing them to the max and declaring their religious government illegitimate (even though the only reason they don't have the secular government they used to have is because we installed the shah because they weren't doing what we wanted, oops!).
If you're feeling threatened by someone, perhaps you should examine why they don't like you - is it because you are always a dick to them? Maybe don't be such a dick? (and apologize for forcibly removing their democratic government just so you could get a bigger piece of the money cake)
Ze Atomic Device! It iz Ztolen!
...target practice!
(I kid, I kid. Just don't tell Sarah Palin.)
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Ouch.
All Made in Iran.....
(Clang).....
To Paraphrase the first Iranian Astronaut after his retro rockets failed to fire trapping him in orbit for a few extra hours....
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
Is there any other kind?
Not counting Canadians, Mexicans and South Americans of course.
Poe.
..opened a center to receive satellite images
Read as: "..opened a center to receive SPY satellite images"
Explorer 4 (Kavoshgar 4) is meant to transport humans and other living organisms into space
BIOLOGICAL WARFARE PAYLOADS
so we can soon see a real Orion spaceship up in the orbit, if only just to spite of all the hipsters. but seriously, how is an Orion continental destroyer more dangerous than the thousands of missile silos on the ground? while the development of the former will finally grant us large scale human existence outside earth and the technologies to fly to and colonize moon and even Mars.
It's only a matter of time until they start using swarm techniques to overwhelm our star cruisers.
I believe that recent military and defense transactions with "their most crazy neighbor to the south" has little to do with logic and more to do with lucrative arms deals that have recently been put on hold (I daresay in the interest of regional stability).
To answer your question in a historical context I might point you to the horrible things that Russia and the United States did during the Cold War that essentially provided puppet theaters for their ideologies to be fought out. Why risk your citizens when you can show the world who's right with war and poverty in weaker nations? Wikipedia does a decent job of summing this up but you might look up the 1953 Iranian coup d'état followed by the 1979 Iranian revolution and surmise why it would be in Russia's best interest to keep this thorn festering in the United States' side right up until today. The Soviet War in Afghanistan, the Eastern Bloc and many other actions were basically a cowardly way of Russia and the United States putting external countries in chaos to prove who was the better country in our petty capitalism versus socialism spat (and after all that everybody's implementing a little bit of both).
Similar to the redrawing of national/political boundaries by the Allies following World War II, we (and I mean the world, US/Russian citizens, the citizens of those countries, everybody) will for a very long time feel the pain and suffering of putting such pressures on weaker nations during the Cold War.
When you say "it's most crazy neighbor to the south," it might benefit you to consider the pressures that added to that craziness. While the blame lies entirely on no one, everybody participated. For a somewhat more even handed introduction to Iran's problems, check out the intro to Persepolis (the movie or the manga).
You know who's really lost a lot in all of this? The Iranian citizens.
My work here is dung.
That's what she said.
so they're looking towards space. if you think their reactor is going to be a big hit when the rooted controls stop working, just wait until their space bombs get called by the botnet.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Maybe I think we should nuke them first because Ahmadinejad (you know, the Iranian "President" - well if you don't count those pesky votes..) believes that it is his duty to trigger a period of chaos, war and bloodshed, which will lead to the coming of the 12th Imam who will eventually rule the world.
Citation.
Seriously, Iran is fucked in the head when it comes to thinking. I don't want their kind of thinking having access to nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles.
Shh.
This story sounds strangely deja vu like.
What other militant country with a nutjob leader which has openly swore to wipe another off a map was trying to advance "satellite putting up in orbity" technology and at the same time trying to start a nuclear program (but only to generate power) which is their god given right to do so...
Nothing to see here, move along.
I would say they are playing with fire, but that would be too obvious not to mention literal.
Ah Bomb bomb bomb...bomb bome Iran...
[Falsetto] A bomb Iraaaaaaan....
(sung to the tune of Barbara Ann)
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
That's Iranian-American.
There's been no Iranian Islamonauts, female or otherwise.
In my book, that's score 1 for the Americans, err Russians. Damn this outsourcing is confusing.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
(US: Torture, invasions, abuse of power, runaway government spending - Mexico: Rampant Corruption - Egypt:Mass censorship, dictatorship - Pretty much every government: Civil Rights Issues, police state tendencies, etc)
And my brother is the most evil of all, he kicked my dog!
If you are trying to equate any of those other governments' wrongdoings with one that tries to stone a woman to death for "adultery" because she befriended another man two years after her husband died you are as wacko as the Iranian theocrats.
Wow, there is even a movie to go along with it...
http://www.iraniumthemovie.com
you people are worried about nukes? Jesus they have new gamma radiation units people! Who's to say Dr. Banner has gone rouge? he hasn't been seen in months!
Ouch
That's what she said.
No, that was what he, the Iranian suicide terrorist, said when he found out that the virgins in Paradise were not females...
Hello, I have this wonderful bridge and I want to sell it really cheap. I think you would love it. I also happen to have a tower in Paris that I'm willing to sell at a bargain price.
BTW, are you interested in getting a commission for taking a few million dollars out of Nigeria?
> You might recall two years ago when they launched Omid, which completed about 700 orbits in two weeks.
Something is wrong about these numbers.
It is impossible for any satellite to surround earth in less than about 86 minutes. At that orbital period, 700 orbits would take more than 40 days.
The nearer to earth the satellite gets, the lower the orbital period will be and the cheaper the rocket.
If the satellite would be orbiting just at the limit of space (100km, where it would lose height and burn in the atmosphere very quickly), it's orbital period would be about 86 minutes.
For the orbital perioud to be just 2 weeks / 700, required orbit height would be about 3300 kilometers beneath sea level somewhere in earth's outer core (ignoring the fact that gravity would be significantly lower there).
How about them making cars and gasoline before nuclear power and spacecraft?
The source was Iranian state television. They have been known to embellish Iranian accomplishments... Did Omid really even make it into space?
Ran out of coal.
"It seems that we are at the age where life stops giving us things, and starts taking them away..." Indiana Jones
Iran needs a launch platform to be able to strike the US with nukes, anyone who thinks it's so called "space program" has any other purpose is an idiot.
I announce that I will begin a project to have sexual relations with Mila Kunis.
While the religious fanatical state in the middle east is working hard to advance science, "heart land" of america is working hard to denounce science.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
These satellite launch photos just in from Iran's space agency: http://realitypod.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/14.jpg
I remember Iran bragging about the supercomputer stuff.... I sure looked a lot like a beowulf cluster. The login screens sure looked like a beowulf cluster. Some of the management screens looked like OSCAR (Open Source Cluster Application Resources) screens. You don't need 'top scientific minds in the world(tm)', you can just download the software and build an off-the-shelf cluster (many junior-high and high-school kids have done this). All you need are a group of about 20-30 computers (less will still work, but more is usually always better), install the software, presto, instant supercomputer. Of course, to those who don't know from computers, especially supercomputers, (and since these things always work better on that exotic, unknown linux system), only a rare group could possibly have blah, blah. And yet somehow Stuxnet got in. Beware of bold assertions and those playing fast and loose with universal truths.
"transport humans and other living organisms into space", my ass.
Weapons more like, nukes in particular.
Iran is NOT currently a nation with peaceful intents.
Ever hear of Timothy McVeigh? He killed quite a few. Now lets look at the numbers killed in South America by US sponsored terroist groups. Or Afghanistan during the russian invasion. Or in Ireland when US Irish were funding the IRA for amy years only stopping after 9/11. Or thieving Terrosit nation of Israel, using bombs paid for and supplied by the US.
NO but they have killed many thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese civlians and used phosphorus against a school.
Israel is a contry founded by a terrorist campaign you know. Look up Irgun or the stern gang, and the King David hotel
Hmm, seems to me that 700 orbits in two weeks is about one orbit every thirty minutes.
It's been a long time since I was in school, but last I checked a 30 minute orbit around Earth is impossible.
Well, without a continuous 7G burn to keep the satellite from flying off out of the solar system - speed required to do a 30 minute orbit is about 60% more than solar escape speed.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Who would have thought old Mahmoud would have picked an anniversary that was a power of 2 for this? (Or does that tell us about how many fingers he can count before he loses track?)
Coinciding with the 32nd anniversary of the Iranian revolution, Iran opened a center to receive satellite images
Translation: Iran loaded up Google Earth today for the first time.
>(sung to the tune of Barbara Ann)
Well, there's the problem. I was singing it to the tune of "99 Bottles of Beer."
What's funny is some of the pictures in Iran-related coverage seemed to show an LCD with the Windows XP Funskool theme.
The lesson for me from that is even if you emphatically hate a country's (the "Great Satan's") foreign policy, Windows is such a drug that nobody can desist from it.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
It's good to be reminded of the sheer moral, philosophical and political weight of Obama's opponents. It honestly makes you wonder how anyone could have voted for him when given the option of an intellectual colossus instead.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it