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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."
Somehow, I had a mental image of a bunch of engineers trying to erect a building. None survived.
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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.
Stable? At the last election, government forces killed some 36 people demonstrating against vote fraud.
That's not the mark of a stable government; that's a mark of a totalitarian regime that will kill to stay in power.
That's why it's bad when they get nukes.
I for one believe that trade is the best binder; sooner or later we won't be able to go to war against China because we simply won't have the industrial base to support ourselves (and I'm not talking weapons but shoes. How long would a US president last if the voters couldn't buy shoes? )
Let's bind Iran in a web of trade so they can't go to war with us. The problem is that we really don't have anything they want....
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.
Iran has been bankrolling Hezbollah for years and years now. I agree that starting a nuclear war isn't very likely, but the Iranian regime has gone beyond mere rhetoric into driving violence.