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| India-Pakistan |
| Indian craft lands on the moon |
| 2008-11-15 |
| India has become the 4th nation to land on the moon with the maiden voyage of the unmanned Chandrayan-1 spacecraft Friday at 8:31 p.m. local time. Best of luck to the Indians. At one time an American craft landed on the moon, American men walked on its surface. The universe was at our doorstep. Then the carpers, the nay-sayers, the liberal artists with teeny-tiny, microscopic souls and all the imagination of a dairy cow decided the money would be better spent eradicating poverty. We still have poverty, but we no longer have the universe at our feet. Today we lack the imagination and the will to conquer the unknown. Pick up the torch, Indians and Chinese. While you conquer new worlds our children will sing and dance for you, assuring themselves that they're ever so special while accomplishing nothing much of note. In the long run it won't matter which nation reaches the stars, as long as the human race achieves them. Those among us with adventure in our souls will reach for them. The rest will stay home, safe and secure. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #19 Well, you guys are right, I'm being too heavy on the snark. India's achievement is remarkable, and it probably really fries China's ass. |
| Posted by: KBK 2008-11-15 21:44 |
| #18 ...we no longer have the universe at our feet. Today we lack the imagination and the will to conquer the unknown. Sad but very true. All the national pride and drive that was evoked during JFK's speech giving his vision of the exciting goal of reaching into space has now been superceded. Our youth no longer gaze up at the stars. It's just not cool. Nowadays we just look inward, or at a screen a few inches from your nose; we no longer think in terms of light-years. Our lofty goals have been replaced with a new direction, which is nothing more but go just where you're pointed, eyes at the ground, by the media, Hollywood, or rock-star politicos. They don't want your input, just your vote. And, since any warm body (and even some cold stone dead ones) can pull the lever, your imigination and thoughts are no longer needed. |
| Posted by: Lemuel Gulliver 2008-11-15 19:16 |
| #17 "we (the U.S.) have launched portions of several Pakis, but never achieved orbit elevation of any kind. With UAV's, it's not possible. With the Pakland Gov'ts permission, we are willing to, at our cost, experiment with larger delivery vehicles. Let us know, k?" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-11-15 18:51 |
| #16 In what could be construed as a response to India's efforts to expand its space exploration horizon, Pakistan has announced its plans for space research. Pakistan wants to become the first country to put a terrorist in orbit. This was revealed by Raza Hussain, Chairman of Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) at a press conference organized in Karachi. Raza said that off late SUPARCO was focusing on path breaking new initiatives to inject fresh life into the nation's sagging space programme. Pakistan's only presence in space so far is a satellite PAKSAT-1, situated at 38 degree E Long in a geo stationary orbit. This satellite has been leased from Hughes Global and the lease period will expire in 2011. "Our aim is to become the first country to put a terrorist in orbit by 2040. We are working closely with China, which has copied technology from Russia and USA for this goal," he said. When asked as to why Pakistan wanted to send a terrorist to space, he said "we have so far exported terrorists to India, USA, UK, Afghanistan, China and the list is endless. Today we have a terrorist in almost all major nations. Now is the time to look beyond earth". Pakistan's space dreams will be fuelled by modified missiles imported from China and North Korea. "We plan to integrate the Chinese and Korean rockets and use solid propellant (provided by China from the fireworks leftover after the Beijing Olympics)," Raza claimed. It has also identified a bunch of future astronauts (suicide bombers) from its terrorist infested NWFP province for the project. "The recruits are more than willing to be part of this project as that's exactly what they are supposed to do; die here or there," a SUPARCO insider told this blogger. "The initial plan is to have a terrorist orbit the earth in a low earth orbit and the subsequent missions may see a terrorist land on the moon. The branding team in ISI is right now working on naming an organization to which these terrorists will be affiliated to. I guess the name they have frozen on is the Moonian Mujaheedeen. If everything goes well, these guys may even blow themselves up on the moon," Raza informed. The terrorists will also release threatening videos before touching down. "Some of these guys are also learning how to issue threats in sign language as the audio quality may not be up to the mark," the SUPARCO insider claimed. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-11-15 18:41 |
| #15 The orbiter then moved on to the dark side of the moon so it could not transmit the data until it came around again. with opening from Pink Floyd |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-11-15 17:16 |
| #14 First 3-D image of Moon on Monday Bangalore: A year from now the world will have the most detailed three-dimensional image of the Moon, complete with the precise location of its craters and mountains, thanks to Chandrayaan-1. And the first 3-D picture of the MoonÂ’s terrain, taken by the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) on board Chandrayaan, will be processed by Monday, according to M. Annadurai, project director of Chandrayaan-1. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-11-15 16:59 |
| #13 Seems to me I remember us doing some hard landings before we tried a soft one. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2008-11-15 16:56 |
| #12 It was on November 21, 1963 that a Nike Apache rocket from the United States took off from the beachhead in the fishing village of Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram and climbed to an altitude of 208 km. The two-stage rocket weighed 715 kg. The Nike Apache released sodium vapour which, with its orange trail, lit up the twilight sky. The sight created a sensation in Kerala and the neighbouring districts in Tamil Nadu. The Kerala Legislative Assembly was adjourned for a few minutes so that the members could watch the spectacle on the western sky. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former President, was present at Thumba on that day and was in charge of Nike Apache’s payload.The launch signalled the start of India’s rocketry programme. The indigenous space programme began on February 22, 1969, when a “pencil” rocket weighing 10 kg. from Thumba soared a few km. into the sky. The Chandrayaan-1 has travelled 3,84,000 km to reach its final orbit of 100 km. above the moon. The PSLV-C11 that put it into its initial orbit around the earth stood 44.4 metres tall and weighed 316 tonnes. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-11-15 16:49 |
| #11 After the MIP separated from the mother-spacecraft at 8.06.54 p.m., it followed a curved path for 25 minutes before it impacted on the moon and self-destructed. The MIP had three payloads: a video camera, a radar altimeter and a mass spectrometer. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has received enormous amount of data from these three payloads throughout the MIP’s flight. “Whatever we did [during the MIP mission], we did for the first time and without anybody telling us how to do it,” said Dr. Goswami, who is also Director, Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad. ISRO was able to release it from Chandrayaan-1, spin it up, reduce its velocity of descent and then “approximately impact it at a point where we wanted to go,” he said. The 35-kg MIP, which was “a mini satellite of Chandrayaan-1” did everything it was expected to do. Its three instruments collected the data during its descent and transmitted them to the mother-spacecraft, which sent it to the ground. “We were doing something new and for the first time. That is why we have reasons to feel happy about whatever we have done,” Dr. Goswami said. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-11-15 16:48 |
| #10 The memory on the orbiter not the impacter. The orbiter then moved on to the dark side of the moon so it could not transmit the data until it came around again. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-11-15 16:45 |
| #9 The TV set-sized probe, painted in the green-white-and-orange colours of the Indian flag, made a "precise-to-the-second" landing on the lunar surface late Friday after being released from the unmanned moon-orbiting Chandrayaan-1 satellite, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. The probe's 25-minute descent to the moon was recorded "in its onboard memory for later readout. Finally, the probe had a hard landing on the lunar surface that terminated its functioning," ISRO said in a statement. Not only has India "put our national flag on the lunar surface, we have also emerged as a low-cost travel agency to space," ISRO chief Madhavan Nair said, referring to the space mission's total 80-million-dollar price tag which is less than half spent on similar expeditions by other countries. ISRO says its moon mission would help it achieve international "brand recognition" for India as a serious player in space. Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts and raise your traytables in preparation for landing. They'll be able to read out the data after they dig it up. |
| Posted by: KBK 2008-11-15 16:17 |
| #8 photo The chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Madhavan Nair (L) gifts a moon model to former president of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (R) during a conference at the ISRO center in Bangalore on November 14, 2008. Kalam, a rocket scientist, put forward the idea during the International Lunar Exploration Working Group Conference at Udaipur in November 2004. According to him, the probe will help in studying the moon’s geological features. ‘‘I visualise that in another four decades, the earth, moon and Mars will have economic and strategic importance. He predicted that within 15 years, ISRO will enable Indian astronauts to walk on the moon. Buoyed by its success, ISRO plans to send a second unmanned spacecraft to the moon in 2012 and separately launch satellites to study Mars and Venus. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-11-15 15:12 |
| #7 Perhaps Pournelle will be wrong. "I always knew that I would see the first man on the Moon. I never dreamed that I would see the last." --Dr. Jerry Pournelle |
| Posted by: James 2008-11-15 14:38 |
| #6 did the airbags deploy? "Hell, this is OnStar. We have detected an airbag deployment. Would you like for us to send help?" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-11-15 13:33 |
| #5 Yeah India! |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-11-15 12:42 |
| #4 one two The lunar impactor from the Chandrayaan-1 mission today successfully made it to the surface of the moon, impacting inside the Shackleton crater on the moon's south pole. Above is an image transmitted back by the 34 kg box-shaped MIP (Moon Impact Probe) before it slammed into the moon. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-11-15 11:48 |
| #3 A senior Isro scientist said he would not speculate on the final condition of the impactor or the flags. “Imagine what will happen when something crashes at more than 5,000km per hour,” the scientist said. “Its job is over,” the scientist said. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-11-15 07:07 |
| #2 Yep. It's an impactor. It impacted at 3300 miles per hour. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-11-15 07:04 |
| #1 Uhm, no. It crashed into the moon. There is a significant difference between crashing into something and landing on it. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-11-15 02:51 |
