It looks like the country of India is on its way to the Moon! The rocket carrying the Chandrayaan-1 Moon probe launched successfully yesterday (or today, depending on what side of the dateline you’re one). The package is currently orbiting the Earth, and will soon do a burn that will send it to the Moon. Around November 8 it should reach the Moon and settle into its mapping orbit 100 km above the lunar surface.
Once there, its 11 instruments (two from NASA, and five built in India, with the rest built by ESA and Bulgaria) will scan the Moon, making stereoscopic terrain maps, doing mineralogical studies, and — most coolly — dropping a 29 kilogram probe (complete with a video camera and a flag of India) that will impact the surface.
Congrats to the Indian Space Research Organisation for their successful launch, and I hope the rest of the mission goes as well!
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:42 am
Jeeze, they beat us in the cricket yesterday and now another success. Congratulations India.
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:13 am
Very cool. With China and India launching, it’s like a new space race.
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:36 am
Do you know if the probe is planning on taking pictures of the leftovers of the Apollo missions? I ask because there are a couple of major proponents of the moon landing hoax ridiculousness who I would LOVE to see silenced once and for all. Their self-satisfied smugness as they declare “The radiation would have killed the pilots,” (or whatever) makes me shout at the TV every time I see it.
Anyone know the documentary I’m talking about? It’s narrated by Mitch Pileggi (shame on him).
Of course, after the fact, I suppose they’ll say that the instruments NASA developed for the mission created the fake pictures. I just hate it that they’re making money from people buying their books. Grrr…
Ok, rant over. I now return you to your previous broadcast.
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:38 am
Let’s hope that all team members were using the same units! I get incredibly stresses these days when probes are aiming for their orbital paths… If I was part of the team I’d need approx 56 coffees a day to stand the pressure
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:47 am
I saw that the cost for the mission is only $80 million. That seems extraordinarily cheap - The Yankees could go to the Moon next year at that rate.
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:52 am
thats cool
mukker@gmail.com
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:03 am
Congratulations to India!
It’s always good to see other nations do something to expand the field of science. I figure that unless the US can turn around its current trend, you all will be outsourcing to us in a few decades. 
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:23 am
With it’s surplus of man power and industry, and it’s equatorial* location India might well be in the perfect position to become the world’s leader in space technology.
* launching closer to the equator takes less fuel than launching from more temperate climates
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:29 am
It was amazing to see India launch a probe to the moon. When our country, with so many other problems is able spare this much money for the space program, I hope the developed nations take note and spend more money on space exploration because let’s face it, Space is the awesomest thing ever!!! :D.
Waiting for a manned mission by India, now that would make me immensely proud. Go ISRO!!
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:31 am
Cool. I didn’t know that there will be a Bulgarian instrument on board. AFAIK, this will be the first Bulgarian piece of equipment to reach lunar orbit. I’m not sure, though - it’s possible that we had some involvement with the Russian probes. Most people here don’t even know that the Bulgarian Academy of Science has a space program, or think that it’s a joke when I tell them.
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:37 am
How are the Lunans going to react to an orbiatal bombardment from the Indians?
Are we on the verge of a war?
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:47 am
The total cost of the Chandrayaan mission is around $83 million while Japan’s mission last year cost around $279 million. India (and China) has access to cheaper manpower and materials which makes it easier to implement cost effective missions. This cost effectiveness will hopefully increase cooperation between NASA and ISRO which will provide the necessary impetus to further missions.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:00 am
[…] India to the Moon! | Bad Astronomy | Discover MagazineThe space race just got more fun to watch with another world power (India) getting into the mix. Congrats to them on a successful launch. […]
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:20 am
Ita a matter of pride for all of us INDIANS.!! CONGRATULATIONS..!!
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:22 am
When India starts launching people, I hope we drop the silly convention of making up a new word for spacemen based on their nationality.
(”Taikonaut?” Seriously?!?)
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:33 am
Well, I guess that means NASA’s the next thing to be off-shored…
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:45 am
# Joe M Says:
Well, I guess that means NASA’s the next thing to be off-shored…
Dehli, we have a problem…..
J/P=?
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:03 am
I think that moon (and MARS!!!) exploration is the greatest and most amazing feat humanity can achieve. The possibilities of extraterrestrial exploration are endless.
At the same time, I can’t help but think back to these words:
http://www.gilscottheron.com/lywhitey.html
Funny thing to hear the song from a contemporary American perspective … but should maybe rewrite the song. Race is less of an issue, but the income gap is as great or greater, so perhaps replace “whitey” with “richie”, change some other details…
“I *still* can’t pay no doctor bill. / And Richie’s not even on the moon”
…
“The price of food is goin’ up / But Richie’s shuttles stayin’ down”
…
“How come there ain’t no money here? / While Russia’s flyin’ shuttles there”
Could be good - then again, maybe not…
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:04 am
Congratulations to India. Somehow the nationalism surrounding government-sponsored space exploration seems as silly as making up a new word for spacemen based on their nationality. I wonder how many Indians have already been involved in the efforts to bring space exploration to the private sector. And something is not quite right when a government sends a spacecraft to the moon but still has so many citizens in abject poverty.
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 am
[…] India successfully launched a rocket to the moon! It looks like the country of India is on its way to the Moon! The rocket carrying the Chandrayaan-1 Moon probe launched successfully yesterday (or today, depending on what side of the dateline you’re one). The package is currently orbiting the Earth, and will soon do a burn that will send it to the Moon. Around November 8 it should reach the Moon and settle into its mapping orbit 100 km above the lunar surface. […]
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:20 am
Apropos of this blog post by Dr. Plait, here is a comment by Bob Park on this subject with a typical Parkian snark at manned space flight.
3. LUNACY: THE DISCOURAGING SEARCH FOR INTELLIGENT LIFE.
An essay in yesterday’s Nature by Subhadra Menon, author of Destination Moon, seeks to explain the ambitious space program of India. Considered a “developing nation” in which millions struggle to survive, India has 11 communications satellites and seven remote sensing satellites. That’s good. Next week, India will launch Chandrayaan-1 to the Moon, an ambitious “suicide” mission that will send back high-resolution images as well as an atmospheric profile as it plunges into the Moon’s surface. The stated goal of Chandrayaan-1 is to further human knowledge, even as India’s space program claims to make money. In 2011, Chandrayaan-2 will look for He-3, which has no proven value. By simply skipping the unproductive phase of using human astronauts and going directly to robotic exploration, India and China could easily choose to outrace the developed nations by concentrating on remote-controlled robots at far lower cost while providing better science. The only niche left for human astronauts would be chamber maids to make beds for super rich tourists.
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:37 am
Typical humorous snark from Bob. He really does have a blind side when it comes to manned space travel. I thought it may be that he didn’t want American money spent on manned space flight, but no, he has a bee in his bonnet about humanity in general by the sound of it. My understanding that He-3 can potentially be used in fusion power. Lots of things don’t haven proven value until the experiments are done and the work is in. A bit like manned space travel really. He has set up this whole false dichotomy between manned and robotic space research. We need to do both.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:19 am
Does this mean we get clear images of Apollo stuff that was left behind?
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:23 am
Although I like seeing advances made in the exploration of space, knowing that India suffers from some of the worst poverty in the world, makes me wonder if they should be putting that money towards their people first, and delving into space exploration later. I know there will alawys be poverty in most counties, but in India around 40% of the population living below the poverty level!
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:24 am
* Always, not alawys
* Countries, not counties
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:27 am
Murff, it would be interesting to see what India spends on its nuclear weapons in comparison to its space program.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:27 am
Bob Park- wasn’t he that guy that was in Penn and Teller’s “Bul….t” episode? Penn is a genius, I don’t know much about Bob Park but he’s clearly right about manned space flight in general (huge exception for repairing Hubble - but once that is done what science do astronauts actually accomplish in this day and age that robots can’t do?).
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:36 am
@Cheyenne said huge exception for repairing Hubble - but once that is done what science do astronauts actually accomplish in this day and age that robots can’t do?
The aqueduct.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:37 am
Haven’t you guys seen Battlestar Galactica and the bad things that happen if you leave all the cools stuff to the
cylonsrobots?October 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 am
Congratulations to India as a nation for developing this ambitions mission. I’m delightfully surprised to learn that the projects budget amounts to US$ 80 million, a sum equivalent to the budget of a Hollywood movie, perhaps?
The worlds scientific community and public eagerly anticipate the results from this mission, and we look forward to the next Chandrayaan 2, which reportedly will feature a lander/rover
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 am
Re Cheyenne
Prof. Park is a professor of physics at the University of Maryland and was formerly the Washington representative of the American Physical Society. He is the author of the book, “Voodoo Science.” His views on manned space flight are seconded by Nobel Prize winning physicist Steven Weinberg who is a professor of physics at the Un. of Texas, Austin.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:44 am
“I hope we drop the silly convention of making up a new word for spacemen based on their nationality”
and what should all spacemen be called then? should we stick to the American Hegemony and call them all astronauts? Or are we going to go with the “first come, first serve” principle and call them all cosmonauts in honor of Yuri Gagarin? Or we could just let every country name them whatever they wish to name them…
and for those who said India should focus on its poverty rather than spaceflight, look at it from this angle: getting American call-centers and IT-departments was the start of India’s rise of the Middle Class… now if NASA gets outsourced, too, the country will become even wealthier, with more resources to lift their poor out of poverty.
very cool stuff. glad SOMEone is still caring about science more than woo-woo
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:08 am
A lead scientist explains that they have found a magnetic disturbance in Tycho, one of the Moon’s craters, designated Tycho Magnetic Anomaly-One (TMA-1). An excavation of the area has revealed a large black slab.
Dr ‘Chandra’ is curently developing a new 9000 computer to aid with the investigation…
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:16 pm
American Hegemony would be if we called them americounauts (or USonauts) It just a word that apparently did not exist before spaceflight.
I myself am not a native English speaker, but the word (astronaut) is used in my native language too.
Apparently this has been adopted because it is connected with national pride (Russians are cosmonauts, western world - English is prevalent there - so they call them astronauts), but in Chinese case it defines a nation not a word such as “cosmos”). So this is more of a Chinese Hegemony case here. Personally I believe we should use the world constructed in local language -Chinese cosmonaut in Russian, Chinese astronaut in English…). But who cares what I think?
Anyway, what happens if an Indian ends up on a Chinese flight? Indian taikonaut? taikoindionaut?
Seriously, great thing for space exploration that we are getting something in line of a new space race. Getting behind someone in race has always been a big motivational factor for world powers. I am soo getting tired of the “we should take care of problems on Earth first” argument”. It’s essentially like saying we should never do anything related to space exploration or eploration of unknown in general. Problems on Earth are never, ever going away.
I wish some people could understand that science is not a “Civilization” type video game where the tehnology tree is predefined and you know what you are getting in advance.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Very good for India; congrats to them and good luck!
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Once again the “why spend money in space when so many people are in poverty” argument raises its ugly head.
Once again I have to point out that NASA’s budget is less than 1/2 of 1% of the federal budget. The HHS budget (Health and Human Services, aka the welfare department) is more than half of the federal budget all by itself. Yes, it’s bigger than the military. If you dumped NASA’s entire budget into HHS it would be lost in the rounding error. I don’t know the specifics of India’s finances, but I would bet the proportions are similar.
Their space program was started specifically to improve the quality of life for their poorest and most remote citizens by developing communications satellites to serve the outlying provinces where the cost of providing land based communications was prohibitive. It was a logical sequence for them to start building boosters and launch facilities, and once you have those, the moon is an obvious target for a mission that boosts national prestige for minuscule amounts of money (on a national scale).
Remember that HHS spends the equivalent of NASA’s entire annual budget twice every day.
- Jack
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:19 pm
[…] mission to the Moon. I just heard the NPR story about the successful launch, and then checked Bad Astronomy to get the skinny. I want to be happy. I would like to think of this a positive signal of overall […]
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:42 pm
“And something is not quite right when a government sends a spacecraft to the moon but still has so many citizens in abject poverty.”
Oh, gee. Try not to notice we spend more than that publishing “news” about Britney.
There will ALWAYS be poor people: those who do not, will not or cannot control themselves, regardless of outside forces. We have lottery winners in the US who are now destitute. Obviously, giving anyone money is not the solution. Feed the poor, and what you get, plain, simple and brutally is more poor people. Learning materials are literally everywhere; it’s breaking out of a cycle of poverty that’s tough. Saudi has poor people. So does Brunei, Kuwait, etc.
People whose job it is to handle the issues of poor people will see that cash keeps flowing to ensure their own jobs, but obviously that doesn’t eliminate poverty.
So far as India goes, I’m sure they’ll be successful. They don’t have to call anybody for tech support!
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:48 pm
To elaborate on spending issues a little: don’t even begin to think that the money spent on sending this probe to the Moon is wasted because it didn’t go to poor people. All of the production activity resulted in the flow of money in the normal economic system, generating taxes as it moved. It pays real people to get an education and contribute to their country’s economy and prestige. These are real things, of real benefit.
Arguments about “return on investment”, especially in the robotics-vs-men debate, must always include the intangible. No one knows who EECOM was for Apollo 11. There’s a big, honkin’ reason for that: if nobody goes, it’s a video game, and I can do that in the house, big deal.
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I understand that there will always be poor people, and that it’s not a reason to stop space exploration, but it has to come into play when this particular country is a bit over 40% in poverty. Were not talking about the U.S. or other wealthy nations.
I can’t comment on the nuclear weapons for India, my first thought would be that nuclear power would be a good investment for the people, but that nuclear weapon money should have been spent elsewhere…but I do not know the political climate that was present and the possible threats to the populace that India had. I suppose I should read up on that and educate myself!
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:03 pm
murff, the point is that in order to help its poor, India needs to grow an even bigger middle-class, for a variety of reasons. and developing these technologies gets them there. trickle-down economics don’t work when we’re talking about rich people because they hoard their wealth, but the wealth of the middle-classes always helps the poor (assuming it’s funneled properly), because that’s where the middle-class comes from, because in creates more taxable income and therefore more money for social programs(especially education and infrastructure), because a large middle-class generally provides stability within a society, and because those tech-jobs will also provide new technology that can be used to build the infrastructure. i think someone already mentioned the satellites…
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:07 pm
According to some sources India’s middle class is around 300 million strong. About the same size as the entire population of the US. True they have around 40% living below the poverty line but the US has about 12% living below the poverty line too. It is more confronting when you see it in Mumbai or Delhi though.
They’ve made a start with reducing the poverty rate but they have a long way to go. Building a high tech infrastructure can only help.
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:05 am
I am totally proud of my country making this great achievement but I have to accept that we have some of the worst literacy and poverty ratings in the world. However any advancement in science and technology is good as it inspires us, Just the same way it inspired the Americans. Poverty may not be reduced unless and until there is growth in every aspect of society including science, industry and others, I am totally convinced that we are planning our budget spends to reflect inclusive growth.
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October 23rd, 2008 at 12:31 am
[…] India goes to the moon. Now maybe astronauts can have a nice curry instead of that freeze-dried ice cream. […]
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:39 am
We are trying to reduce poverty, corruption, illiteracy, child marriage, casteism etc. etc. Country is too large, too diverse, too many languages, customs, traditions and view points. On top of it highly political. India is a Europe in itself. We will take time…We are behind by 50 years compared to US/Europe. We are making it up.
We lookup with great respect at US/Europe for the progress they have made in all fields. We admire how comfortable they have made life for the common-man. We will catch up soon.
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:11 am
“I wish some people could understand that science is not a “Civilization” type video game where the technology tree is predefined and you know what you are getting in advance.”
If only reality had a “save” feature…
October 23rd, 2008 at 3:21 am
Congrats to India
More about the Chandraayan-1 and other missions to the Moon here –> http://www.moonposter.ie/missions.htm
Cheers
John
PS. Not a bad poster either if you want to learn more about our MOON.
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:57 am
I know this won’t be popular here, but I expect NASA to be outsourcing its lunar colonies to India in the next few decades.
Better learn to speak Chinese while we’re at it, too.
October 31st, 2008 at 1:54 pm
It is good that india is going to the moon. there are several reasons for india to do so.
1. information about moon and its resources are a closely guarded secret by the countries which have traveled there. so “real’ info is still needed by india for expanding its knowledge horizon.
2. given the energy security scare thw world is going through, fusion is one of the options the world is looking for its future energy needs, and helium-3 could be tapped for use by india.
3. there is a probability of man colonizing in the future, and india should not be one of the last ones to enter. there might be potential occupations leading to territorial rights in space.
4. i hate to say this, but india is in a borderline case of a space race with china, with china already having put man in space.
5. indian moon mission is conducted at a tenth of the price similar to the west, actual amount is around $83 million(Rs 400 crore). which is a dust particle size of investment for a trillion dollar strong economy to beef up its technology sector. TECHNOLOGY IS THE DRIVING FORCE FOR ANY COUNTRY. common man in india has not woken up to it yet.
6. moon mission is creating infrastructure in the country which never existed, like the deep space network with a 32 meter antenna for tracking.
7. it is boosting the private sector industries to get into high technology sector by involving them in building such infrastructure, thus fueling the economy. it also has a spin off of enabling these industries to bid for future projects overseas thus bringing in foreign exchange.
8. its a matter of pride. how long will we sit around and listen to the glories achieved by other countries. india still has to come a long way in innovation and technology to match america. this is one of the first steps.
November 1st, 2008 at 9:15 pm
[…] India to the Moon! […]
November 15th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Many people say that India should have spent this money on poverty alleviation. Consider:
1) This mission was done with a budget of $83 million, out of a total Indian economy of over $1.2 trillion. If this was used towards poverty alleviation, this would have been less than a drop in the bucket. Used to launch a space mission, this is an inspirational and aspirational move.
2) The success of this mission will generate a lot of commercial satellite launch business for India, easily more than the $83 million that this mission cost.
3) A lot of Indian kids move to commercial careers after university, away from the Science/Tech careers of their educational backgrounds. This will serve to motivate quite a few bright kids to develop a career in Science/Tech.
November 16th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Oh my god
HOW DOES INDIA GET TOTHE MOON BEFORE CHINA
PLEASE HELP ME TO UNDER STAND