India celebrates planting its flag on moon

[The Overlord]

Another country joins the prestigious quarter-million mile high lunar club. Congratulations to the people of India for a successful lunar mission and landing.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081115/ap_on_re_as/as_india_moon_mission

NEW DELHI – India rejoiced Saturday at joining an elite club by planting its flag on the moon as the country's space agency released the first pictures of the cratered surface taken by its maiden lunar mission.

A probe sent late Friday from the orbiting mother spacecraft took pictures and gathered other data India needs for a future moon landing as it plummeted to a crash-landing at the moon's south pole, said Indian Space Research Organization spokesman B.R. Guruprasad.

The box-shaped probe was painted with India's saffron, white and green flag, sparking celebrations in the country that is striving to become a world power.

"The tricolor has landed," the Hindustan Times said in a banner headline, while The Asian Age proclaimed "India is big cheese."

As India's economy has boomed in recent years, it has sought to convert its newfound wealth — built on the nation's high-tech sector — into political and military clout. The moon mission comes just months after it finalized a deal with the United States that recognizes India as a nuclear power, and leaders hope the mission will further enhance its prestige.

"This momentous achievement shall be etched in the history of India as a grateful tribute to our scientific community for their resolute efforts to take India to a global leadership position," said Sonia Gandhi, head of the ruling Congress party.

To date only the U.S., Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and China — and now India — have sent missions to the moon.

But while the celebrations conjured up images akin to that of the U.S. flag unfurled on the moon by Apollo astronauts, India's flag is most likely scattered over a wide swath of the moon's Shackleton crater after the probe slammed into the surface at more than 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) per hour.

The violent landing was planned and Indian scientists hope to study the images and data sent back by the probe during its 25-minute descent to prepare for a future "soft" landing, Guruprasad told The Associated Press. It carried a video imaging system, a radar altimeter and a mass spectrometer.

The video imaging system took pictures of the moon's surface, while the altimeter measured the rate of descent of the probe and the mass spectrometer studied the extremely thin lunar atmosphere.

Guruprasad said the pictures that were released were raw images and that scientists had not yet analyzed the information sent by the probe.

It was the first stage of a two-year mission aimed at measuring not only the surface of the moon, but what lies beneath. The probe was one of 11 payloads on the spacecraft Chandrayaan-1. Chandrayaan means "moon craft" in ancient Sanskrit.

India plans to follow the mission by landing a rover on the moon in 2011 and, eventually, with a manned space program, though this has not been authorized yet.

[Inkidu]

Woot! Just don't mess up our footsteps while your there! They're national treasures! :D

[The Overlord]

Little chance of that for now. The 'landing' wasn't exactly a soft one; while the American flag is still standing at our sites, India's colors are spread over several square kilometers of lunar ground.

[Vekseid]

Years ago, an acquaintance of mine was watching the moon landing from an Indian bar. One of the patrons slammed his fist on his table "When are WE going to land on OUR Moon!?" Much to raucous agreement amongst the patrons.

...still, good on them : )

[The Overlord]

*digs into the NASA archives...looks for the revealing photo of the back side of moon that says Made in India*

[Inkidu]

*Was planning on making a Indian customer support/Huston we have a problem joke*

[adventurer]

Seconding Overlord:

Congratulations to people of India! This from a recent press release of World Economic Forum Davos/Switzerland.

www.weforum.org

As Hooda says at the end of the release:

"Poltics is the art of the impossible." :):)



   
INVOKING OBAMA, YOUNG PARLIAMENTARIANS CALL FOR CHANGE IN INDIA


Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s 24th India Economic Summit, held in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), India’s young political leaders call for change    
New Delhi, India, 16 November 2008 – While the youth vote in the United States carried Barack Obama to victory in this month’s presidential elections, young Indian parliamentarians speaking at the World Economic Forum’s 24th India Economic Summit, held in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), called on their countrymen to pursue the same spirit of change. “From our young sportsmen, our young businessmen, our young politicians,” said Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, Bajaj Auto; Member of Parliament, India, hopefully we are going to have more than one Barack Obama!”

New leadership and new ideas are desperately needed to address critical challenges faced by India. First among these, said Deepender Singh Hooda, Member of Parliament, India, is “the resurgence of divisions based on caste, religion and region.” Moreover, Hooda pointed out that, while India has enjoyed strong economic growth overall, certain sectors of society have been left behind and rising inequality is increasing class tension. Bihar is the most equal state in India: as states become more prosperous, they become more unequal. The shift from an agriculturally-based economy to services and manufacturing also increases tensions over issues like land rights.

Fundamentally, Hooda held, the Indian political system needs to evolve. “The difficulty that all of us face when we try to bring a change,” he said, “is the whole momentum of our system that has been built over successive ages of bureaucracy, which resists change. But believe me, we are trying.” Naveen Jindal, Member of Parliament, India; Young Global Leader, agreed: “In a true sense I feel that India is not even a democracy, it’s a bureaucracy,” and administrators, not politicians, have the power.

Part of reasserting control over governance is asserting a new design for the educational system, which is currently not a topic for political debate in India as much as it is in Western democracies. Naveen Jindal, Member of Parliament, India and a Young Global Leader, suggested a type of voucher system wherein instead of government schools providing subsidized education, students’ families would receive the sum directly and be given the freedom to choose where to send their children. Jindal also called for new initiatives to promote family planning and stem unwieldy population growth. He also called for developing nuclear power sources and hydropower.

Jindal and Hooda both agreed on the need to consolidate national and state elections into five year cycles, and Hooda went a step further, saying that elections at the panchayat levels should be included at the same time. Both agreed that, ideally, the BJP and Congress Parties would put bickering aside and form a unity government to press the business of the people; but both also agreed that it is unlikely. Still, Hooda held out hope: “Politics is the art of the impossible,” he said.

[The Overlord]

*Was planning on making a Indian customer support/Huston we have a problem joke*

Well if they own the moon then we should rightly be able to call India for tech support up there.


*best Indian accent*

"Hello Sir, welcome to the Moon, another fine product of India. I am so sorry your retro-rockets are not firing, but if you would check your software package for errors and then reboot your computers, and enjoy your stay on the Moon..."

[adventurer]

 ;D...) :)

Would be nice to communicate the Indian accent in this message to,)

[Inkidu]

Well if they own the moon then we should rightly be able to call India for tech support up there.


*best Indian accent*

"Hello Sir, welcome to the Moon, another fine product of India. I am so sorry your retro-rockets are not firing, but if you would check your software package for errors and then reboot your computers, and enjoy your stay on the Moon..."

"Sir, I know your oxygen scrubbers are shot, but that is no reason to yell. Take a deep breath and try to talk to me in a calm voice."