[LINK] "Moon mission takes India's space program in new direction"

[rfmcdonald]

This Christian Science Monitor article caught my attention.

India's 39-year-old space program is perhaps unique. In a country of great need, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has long prioritized the practical uses of space science over the prestige it so often brings.

The Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe marks an evolution of this tradition, signaling the new scope of the country's ambitions while at the same time rooted in the ISRO's modest beginnings – built solely with Indian know-how and for one-sixth the cost of a similar NASA mission.

"It is now a mature-enough space program to start doing these sorts of things," says Jeff Foust of The Space Review, an online magazine.

Chandrayaan is India's entry into an emerging Asian space race. China and Japan have also recently sent spacecraft to the moon, as well. South Korea is building its own space program. Following in China's footsteps, India is expected to begin a manned space program, too, though the decision has yet to be made.

Chandrayaan is scheduled to reach the Moon after five days and spend two years in orbit, mapping the surface and looking for water ice deposits among other tasks. Two of the 11 instruments were designed by NASA, four are European, and five are Indian – including a small "impactor" probe that will be shot into the moon's surface to analyze its composition.

The author argues that India's space program traces its ancestry not to military projects but rather to a government push to integrate Indians into a progressively wealthier and healthier environment. I don't know enough about this to judge its accuracy, but it sounds like something I'd like to believe.