Slashdot Mirror
Iran Says It Sent Monkey Into Space and Back
Iranian state TV is claiming that the country has successfully sent a monkey into space and back, bringing Iran one step closer to its goal of a manned space flight. According to the report, the rocket named Pishgam, or Pioneer in Farsi, reached a height of 120km. From the article: "Iran has long said it seeks to send an astronaut into space as part of its ambitious aerospace program, including plans for a new space center announced last year. In 2010, Iran said it launched an Explorer rocket into space carrying a mouse, a turtle and worms."
Where did it land? Iran? No way. They would have to target the ocean and their navy is well monitored, blockaded and (honestly) fairly weak.
Correct, an orbit is a lot harder than just achieving an altitude.
I do however, disagree with you about the conclusion you are trying to prove with your analogy.
If you have never built any sort of a vehicle before, evolving from the toy stage through many many many steps to a formula 1 car may actually be a logical process, and therefore is relevant.
Likewise, a progression from earthbound to an orbiting space station and beyond, may include a developmental step of placing a monkey in a missile.
Cheers
Kenny
While I am sure the parent was kidding...I have a friend who is only moderately stupid that firmly believes that the moon landings were faked. I found this a couple weeks ago, an interesting point of view.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGXTF6bs1IU
We would have faked it...but actually doing it was easier at the time.
Have you been in Iran before? go there and come back and then we can discuss your arguments, if your arguments are based on few videos you could be pretty wrong, however I accept any country/society has his own issues , in case that you fear to go there, I was there a month ago and met an blogger from new york http://www.humansofnewyork.com/tagged/iran
to give you a clue about the quality of universities in iran, most of them are free,many like babak parviz studied and graduated from there, in case that you don't know him visit http://www.wearable-technologies.com/262 http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2009/01/20090115111056xjsnommis0.6168634.html#axzz2JHsyl8PX
or just walk in to any american university and ask how many of their Master and PhD students are iranian ;)
Please, you're undermining years of propaganda there. Carefully crafted stereotypes, smashed to the ground! Please, don't destroy our egocentric arrogance like that! It is absolutely necessary that American believe that Iranians live in caves, eat raw meat (when meat is available), and that they have pedal cars on their cobblestone roads.
Next, you'll actually expect us to believe that Iranians are LITERATE!
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Thank you AC for pointing out the obvious. Since Iran and North Korea share missile technology, you can assume what one can do, the other can do. This Slashdot story was different. There was a directive to keep an animal alive. This knowledge and ability to keep that monkey safe for the trip gives me hope. I'm not going to apologize for focusing on the positives. Eat shit, coward.
--- rapper/producer/bachelorette party stripper
Iran has had 3 successful confirmed satellite launches. This one is a smaller rocket and it has failed once before. When the last launch failed Iranian head of IASA confirmed the failure.
Let's see... the first unmanned suborbital space flight was a V2 launched by Germany in 1944. Germany at that time is sort of famous for having different classes of people, the treatment of some making Americans' worst imaginings about Iran look like playland.
The US first launched something into space in 1949. That's twenty years before Mad Men is set, six years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus, and 54 years before Lawrence v. Texas made the remaining anti-sodomy laws in the US unconstitutional.
It seems a country's position on equality of its citizens has very little to do with its success in space flight.
You don't know what you are speaking about. Iranian women have a 60% share of universities (i.e. 2.5 million seats) and they are possibly more educated than (percentage wise) most other countries.
At least 50% of almost 10 million university graduates are women.
Actually, Ahmadinejad usually is depicted as a monkey in the expatriate Iranian press, and (so I hear from relatives there) commonly referred to as such in Iran by a lot of folks. There was even an incident a few years ago where a girl on a kid's TV show innocently mentioned that her dad had nicknamed her toy monkey after the guy. Part of it is due to perceived physical resemblance, and part due to the belief that he doesn't actually wield independent power but is just Supreme Leader Khamenei's "trained pet."
"The Greens lynched a hacker in Chicago. Last month, but I think the body's still hanging from the old Water Tower."
That's far from the complete truth. The unsaid fact is that Mosaddegh was trying to nationalize British and American owned oil operations, which was what prompted our actions.
Ironically, Shah was a very modernizing influence in terms of rights for women and minorities. Yes, the man was batshit crazy, but he was aimed to create a secular state. Unfortunately, when the people revolted against him, Khomenei and his Islamic fundamentalist ilk essentially stole the revolution from the left liberals and established a theocracy in its place.
Much like what's happening in Egypt today, where the Islamists have taken over a revolution from the left liberals.
So, blaming the US for part of it is fair, but this is a classic example of unintended consequences.