After Successful Launch, India's Mars Orbiter Is On Its Way
neo12 writes "India has successfully launched a spacecraft to the Red Planet — with the aim of becoming the fourth space agency to reach Mars."
As our previous mention of the launch notes, getting to Mars by rocket is a long haul: if all goes well, it will be about 10 months until Mangalyaan reaches orbit.
If they can pull it off, it tells Pakistan, "We can land a nuke on Islamabad just as easily as we send a probe to Mars." This is exactly how the US-USSR space race played out. The Apollo and Soyuz programs were all about demonstrating the capacity of missile technology.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
People have tried to quantify the benefits of basic science but have largely failed – but that does not mean it is not important.
1900: "Electrons? Quantum physics? Can you eat that?"
1948: The transistor.
2013: Hell, look around yourself...
Ezekiel 23:20