Wednesday, October 22, 2008

India Launches First Moon Mission

Chandrayaan (the Sanskrit word for "moon craft")

"That’s OUR moon and we’re going to eat STEAK up there some day!"
-Joe the Cowboy
Breaking News
New Delhi -- India successfully launched its unmanned Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft to embark on a two-year mission of exploration of what most Trekkies still refer to as "The Final Frontier."

The head of the Indian Space Scouting Unit (ISSU), Mr. Dupai Yash, was quoted earlier today at a press conference:
Today, what we have charted is a remarkable journey for an Indian spacecraft to go to the moon and try to unravel the mysteries of how celestial bodies can operate call centers for a fraction of the cost here on Earth."
In addition to the robotic probe's orbit of the Moon, Yash also explained:
"The craft will also map the distribution of elements, minerals (such as titanium) and will detect Helium 3, an isotope which is rare on Earth, but is sought to power nuclear fusion and is loads of fun to play with when you're making prank phone calls around the office and wish to disguise your voice to sound just like Mickey Mouse."
How thrify is this Space junket? "Pretty cheap!" beamed Yash. The mission is expected to cost 3.8bn rupees (£45m; $78m), considerably less than Japanese and Chinese probes sent to the Moon last year -- all "major steps" for India as it seeks to keep pace with other space-faring, blue-tooth wearing telemarketing beings.


Red Oak said...

Nice India can afford a space program now. You'd think that would indicate to Chump Nation that it's time to do a more than just reduce the foreign aid, eh?

I'm moved to tears, though, by this bit about a "promising program" that'll probably fold without continued access to U.S. Joe's shrinking wallet:

One promising US-funded programme in India is Quest, a partnership with technology firms such as Microsoft and Lucent aimed at teaching critical skills in Indian classrooms. With Washington promising about $2 million a year, Quest expanded from 200 to 2,000 schools in just one year.

But without a continued US contribution, the initiative probably will not survive, Aakash Sethi, the programme’s executive director, told The Post in a telephone interview from Bangalore.

2Truthy said...

Red Oak,

Exactly! India is the most overcrowded country with filthy living conditions that allows their people to eat off the streets but they want to go to the moon? How about investing those mega millions into the country's schools, streets, and infrastructures?

Why are U.S. citizens allowing their taxdollars to fund this when our own people can't afford college, are losing jobs, healthcare and housing in increasing numbers here every day?

The U.S. CONTINUES to fund education in India but not for our own citizens!! I just read today that it is projected that over 40% of U.S. kids in the U.S. will not be attending college because the costs are prohibitive. This is INTENTIONAL. My son's tuition is 53K this year and will go up next year, and is all out of pocket because we are U.S. citizens!

Somebody remind me again: citizens here allow this because??

Pslv said...

Since when did India receive anykind of AID money from US? You should first check if this was some kind of AID for the poor or subsidies for the US based firms operating in India. e.g. HP, DELL, Microsoft?
You people seem to be a bunch of ignorant teens. first do some good research before posting crappy comments. Next time some of your christian missionaries ask you donations as someone in India is starving, donot donate anything. Ok???

thetownliar said...


The expression " don't bring a shiv to a gunfight" applies here, as this article is a fine example of how citizens of a poor country like India expect to compete in lunar missions with a major power like the U.S. at the very expense of the welfare of their own people.

Your religious bigotry about America's "christian missionaries" (it's "C" and not lower case)is all too unfortunate, if not assinine, as these selfless organizers have funneled great sums of money to the poor of your country.

Have you possibly ANY remote clue how many Indian mouths all of those rupees would feed or do you believe that your government and not someone else's is responsible for the lives of its billions of starving and underfed peasants?

Perhaps you would care to stray from your vitriolic and nonsensical, irrelevant and painfully obvious lack of English language (they say India is supposed to be an English language speaking country, when in truth, only a small fraction have mastered the spoken and written word) correct sentence structure, grammar and punctuation for one moment to ponder why a third world country like India is opting to use its scare economic resources on lunar missions instead of feeding its own people.

U.S. citizens are NOT responsible for the ineptitude of anyone else's government which, as in the case of yours, chooses to neglect the welfare of its own citizens. Believe me, we have our hands full here trying to take care of our own.

In Wyatt Earp We Trust,

The Townliar