Moonstruck: What Will India's Lunar Mission Achieve?November 12, 2008

 

moonstruck

In India as in other countries, the Muslim faithful wait for a glimpse of the moon to start their Eid al-Fitr celebrations. At the end of October, it will be the country's scientific community looking moonward. During a narrow temporal window beginning October 22, the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh plans to launch the Chandrayaan-I, the country's first moon mission. ("Chandrayaan" means "trip to the moon" in Hindi.) If the weather plays spoilsport, the launch could be postponed until December.

Critics of the country's space program would prefer that the unmanned launch be postponed indefinitely. Their complaints? First, that India is just reinventing the wheel: The moon mission proposes to do what other countries already have done. Second, that India is a poor country. Aren't there many other ways to put the funding the launch requires — Rs. 386 crore (US$80 million) — to better use?

Read full article on Knowledge@Wharton.
Please note that access to the full article requires registration to Knowledge@Wharton. Registration is free.

 

Originally posted on Knowledge@Wharton October 16, 2008.