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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.
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.
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!
That is like arguing that every Airbus is a ripoff of a Boeing. Despite the resemblance, the technology is fundamentally different in function and design.
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...
Yeah, those Soviets never did anything first in the space race.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
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.
No mod points to give you, sorry, but to acknowledge your well place sarcasm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_exploration_milestones,_1957-1969#Notable_firsts
1957: First intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7 Semyorka
1957: First satellite, Sputnik 1
1957: First animal to enter Earth orbit, the dog Laika on Sputnik 2
1959: First firing of a rocket in Earth orbit, first man-made object to escape Earth's orbit, Luna 1
1959: First data communications, or telemetry, to and from outer space, Luna 1.
1959: First man-made object to pass near the Moon, first man-made object in Solar orbit, Luna 1
1959: First probe to impact the Moon, Luna 2
1959: First images of the moon's far side, Luna 3
1960: First animals to safely return from Earth orbit, the dogs Belka and Strelka on Sputnik 5.
1960: First probe launched to Mars, Marsnik 1
1961: First probe launched to Venus, Venera 1
1961: First person in space (International definition) and in Earth orbit, Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1, Vostok programme
1961: First person to spend over a day in space Gherman Titov, Vostok 2 (also first person to sleep in space).
1962: First dual manned spaceflight, Vostok 3 and Vostok 4
1963: First woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, Vostok 6
1964: First multi-man crew (3), Voskhod 1
1965: First EVA, by Aleksei Leonov, Voskhod 2
1965: First probe to hit another planet (Venus), Venera 3
1966: First probe to make a soft landing on and transmit from the surface of the moon, Luna 9
1966: First probe in lunar orbit, Luna 10
1967: First unmanned rendezvous and docking, Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188. (Until 2006, this had remained the only major space achievement that the US had not duplicated.)
1969: First docking between two manned craft in Earth orbit and exchange of crews, Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5
Ceci n'est pas un sig.
Buran is not a clone of the US space shuttle. It looks similar, but it's not. Buran is launched on a huge booster; it has no main engines of its own, unlike the US Shuttle. It's more rugged than the Shuttle, which can't handle rain or cold weather. In many ways, it's a better design. T