Channel C: India Goes To The Moon!

This week marked the successful launch of the Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft as it began it's two year mission in space. The unmanned shuttle will be looking for surface or sub-surface water on the moon, and also for the valuable isotope Helium 3, which could be a valuable source of energy in the future. It will also be dropping India's national flag onto the moon, where it will join the flags of Russia, China, and the USA.

India has take some flak for the mission, with critics saying that it is a waste of valuable resources when millions lack basic services. I'm of the mind that anytime the words 'space', 'moon' and 'mission' come together, it's not a waste of time.

Freethinkur's Blog is straight to the point:

• Today India has launched a rocket carrying a probe to land on the moon. The cost of this endevour must be enormous, while millions of Indian citizens live in abject poverty. No further comment from me needed.

Not everyone is sour on the mission. Astroprof says that this is exactly what India needed:

• India’s Chandrayaan-1 is something that India can be proud of. The public perception of India in the United States seems to be that it is a backwards technologically unsophisticated third world nation bereft with poverty. We tend not to think of India as being very technologically advanced.Of course, that public perception is a bit out of whack with reality.

Spazztastic compares India's situation to that of the United States in his comment at Slashdot:

• India still also has a huge problem with poverty. There's still disease, unclean water, etc. My parents spent a month there visiting friends and despite how quickly they're building up there are still many problems that need resolving.