Man on moon is not a new thing. Neil Armstrong did it in 1969 for USA. Well, this may be old news but it is still a hot one in South Asia. No Asian country could achieve this. India is planning to send a mission to moon. Many people like me thought that India would be the first country in South Asia to send man on moon. It seems that we were wrong after all. Today, Indian government announced that it will have moon mission without a man on moon. I am quoting from a report of Daily India:
"There is no proposal for placing a man on the moon in 2008. However, it is planned to launch an instrumented spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1, in 2008 to orbit around the moon,' Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
'The objectives of this indigenous mission include high resolution imaging of lunar terrain and mapping of various chemicals and mineralogical constituents over its surface,' the upper house of parliament was informed."
The budget of Indian moon mission $84 million. What, spending $84 million and no man on moon! I wish that Indian government changes its decision and decides to include a man on moon. Having an Indian walking on moon will increase the national image of India too much. After all, India wants to be a super power or at least a great rival of China.
What do you think?
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I have always been fascinated by India, the culture and the people. This may sound silly but I remember seeing the "Amazing Race" with episodes from India, and it was "amazing."
As an American I would love to see the largest democracy in the world, India, do a manned moon landing. Though it seems they will have to budget much more than $84 million.
Posted by: Big Roy | August 11, 2006 1:24 PM | Permalink to Comment