Chandrayaan-1 has entered into lunar orbit. After further braking maneuvers are done to shrink the orbit, the Moon Impactor Probe will then be released to hit the surface. The MIP will take video footage on the way down, and will bring the Indian flag to the Moon.
Here's another launch video I found.
4 comments:
i am writing a debate with somebody about whether chandrayaan is worthwhile. i claim it is, and she says (mirroring communist thinking) that the money would have been better spent on social justice.
help, folks. what points do you have that favor chandrayaan? i am bashing her saying this animal named 'social justice' actually means 'filling the pockets of kkkangress party cadres'.
Lets see...
a) Militarization of Space. Space is the ultimate 'high ground', and these days whoever commands/controls Space/Air is the winner. See how the US has won all its wars because of its use of Air-Power & Space-Power(GPS/Spy satellites) etc. Chandrayaan is a valuable learning experience when we decide to militarize space even further. Already we do have spy satellites. But we have to look into the future. India is already developing a hypersonic plane for military applications which would orbit the earth and deliver payload to any part of earth and comeback & get reloaded.
All this boils down to Guns vs Butter argument. Once again India will have lots of butter in the next few decades starting now. What abt the Guns to defend it?
b) Chandrayaan is an important step to colonise moon which will act as a base station to further colonise other planets starting with Mars. These planest could be the source of valuable raw materials. Saturn's moon Titan has hundreds of times more hydrocarbon than earth.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/02/14/2162556.htm
c) Then there is the question of National Pride without which nothing worthwhile is possible both at an individual & national level. Already China & Japan have launched moon satellites last year. Should we be left behind?
I'm sure N^3 would be able to give you more tech details of the future of Space from a civilian/military perspective.
Lastly, we Hindus have our Lord Shiva-Nataraja who symbolizes Space among the five elements of earth, water, fire, air, space.
So we better learn to be the Masters of that domain too.
Well, I'm the guy who went around posting that Chandrayaan's $79M pricetag was less than half the cost of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, of which so many land and take off from Indian airports everyday. (Hah, even the CPI-M's website plagiarized my comment and repeated it.) This $79M cost was incurred over 10 years, which amounts to $8M per year -- there are people in Bollywood who make more money than that per year. So why go after our hard-working and underpaid scientific community for cash? Why should your friend complain now, in knee-jerk fashion, when ISRO has been operating for decades, and this project is only 10% of their annual budget?
There is such a thing as opportunity cost, and nations that focus myopically only on filling their bellies will always be stuck lagging behind. If you want to reach the Moon, you've got to shoot for the stars.
The fact is that India gains from developing and promoting its scientific and engineering capabilities, which advertise it as a destination for technology projects. There's no benefit to being seen as a nation of snake-charmers, or even 2nd-rate tech support personnel. We have to show our engineering excellence. In turn, this will also inspire the younger generation of Indians to aim high for careers in science and technology.
If your friend is so interested in uplifting the poor, maybe they should be more concerned about the obstructionist politics that impedes commercial industrialization, which is the real avenue for creation of jobs and infrastructure.
To support my above mentioned points, here is an article which shows how useful the Chandrayaan mission would be to our future endeavors in Space both for civil/military applications.
Controlling the spacecraft and making it obey commands from a distance of abt 400,000 km from earth is amazing! Useful lessons in command & control.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081109/jsp/frontpage/story_10085204.jsp
Post a Comment