Indians on the Moon

The world's largest Democracy, India, has announced plans to land a man on the Moon by the year 2020. Are they doing this to expand Indian technology? Are they doing this to earn international prestige? Are they doing this because they've run out of space to build call centers on Earth, and are looking to expand to our only natural satellite?

Apparently the Indian government plans on spending tens of thousands of crore on research and development of systems and training for a moonshot. They also plan on re-inventing many of the tested systems that have been used in previous Moon landings by other countries - manned and unmanned. Indian technology has already produced the launch vehicle (a rocket system with the capability of sending a payload into orbit) and has successfully launched satellites. They are also planning to launch an unmanned lunar orbiter/impactor as soon as December. Much R&D needs to be done in the interim such as the actual creation of the lunar modules, and development of systems and practices needed to actually make the trip survivable for the occupant(s).

The whole idea is amusing. I like Kiwikid's opinion on the subject. Let's just hope that they put more effort into imitating the Apollo program than they do into imitating Michael Jackson.

Hindustan Times
India Today