Friday, November 14, 2008

India to Touch the Moon

In several hours, India will make history by depositing its flag on the Moon, becoming the 4th such nation to do so, even ahead of China.

It looks like Chandrayaan has now heralded a new Moon race. However, the new US president may opt out for Mars instead. ISRO also plans to send a mission there, too.

India is also planning to launch Bhuvan, its own rival service to Google Earth, offering higher resolution as well as GPS.

Meanwhile, distant planets lightyears beyond our solar system have been directly photographed for the first time. I really think that India should join the race for finding Earth-like extra-solar planets, by launching its own space telescopes to scan the cosmos. We all remember how the breathtaking pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope inspired us all, and likewise ISRO could similarly reap great public relations benefits from this. Indians have long had a fascination with staring at the heavens since ancient times, and India's new scientific renaissance could revive that tradition.

Also, FYI, a wooden scale model of GSLV Mk-1 is actually available to buy online - possibly a nice holiday gift for any Indian techie nerds you might know.
Someone has even made a papercraft version using printouts which they also posted online. Little schoolchildren might like this.

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