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Iran's New Space Program

Posted by Soulskill on from the surveilling-puppies-and-sunshine dept.

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."

4 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Yes, Russia better worry the most by rednip · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:Yes, Russia better worry the most by Aaron+England · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Because instability in the Middle East raises oil prices and as of 2009 Russia surpassed Saudi Arabia as the world's largest oil exporter.

    2. Re:Yes, Russia better worry the most by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

      True Iran has womens rights/"cover your shame" cultural/morality issues, but lets modify you situation a little. Take ten people with "end the (US) war in Afghanistan" signs/t-shirts. March the group through Tehran's Grand Bazaar, they'll probably be cheered. Take that same group and try to have them march around the White House in Washington DC, they'll be arrested (I believe several recent attempts to protest near "national icons" have resulted in almost immediate arrests, protests have been limited to very narrow timeframes and often to specific areas such as "freedom cages").

    3. Re:Yes, Russia better worry the most by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Amen to that, brother.

      Of all the insanity on Slashdot, the thing that probably drives me the most crazy is the number of people who reply with "The USA is just as bad" when someone complains about human rights in a totalitarian nation. (And no, I'm not American.) Could the USA do a lot better in the human rights department? Absolutely. Are they orders-of-magnitude better than many, many, many places on this planet? Also absolutely.