# India to send man to the moon? HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [January 10, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794 "2003-01-10T18:42:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vinnie_Virginslayer)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/1 "2003-01-10T18:42:28Z")
[http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/south/01/06/india.moon.reut/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/south/01/06/india.moon.reut/index.html)
Yeah RIGHT. An impoverished overcrowded nation of a billion people on the verge of a nuclear war with Pakistan has the resources to do this.
Not to mention insurgencies in the Punjab, it’s Northeast corridor and countless others.
India: get your shit together here on EARTH before planting your flag on the MOON, OKAY? Besides, don’t you think moon missions are a waste of time? Don’t you think there’s a reason WE haven’t sent astronauts there in 30 years?
I know I know, India has a very very advanced software industry, and there are a lot of very, very smart people there that could make this happen but STILL . . . PRIORITIES?
And look at China, which is less of a mess; they STILL haven’t flown a manned space mission yet. And your going to the MOON???
What next? Mali Mars Mission? This is a joke!
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/2 "2003-01-10T18:45:35Z")
Tell me. I’m curious. Why are moon missions a waste of time?
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### Author:  [@Azael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azael)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/3 "2003-01-10T18:47:09Z")
This is funny? You do realize that the “space race” has always has nuclear brinkmanship at it’s core don’t you?
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### Author:  [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/4 "2003-01-10T19:15:39Z")
How come everybody wants to go to the Moon except _us_? _sigh_
I’m secretly hoping that they do it, or at least take a few serious steps. Might be the kick in the pants we need to get us to Mars.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/5 "2003-01-10T19:19:50Z")
I think it would be really cool.
And why wouldn’t they have the resources to do it? It’s 1969 technology. And I’m sure a nation of a billion people can scrounge up a few billion bucks. And what’s more important, I suspect the voting public in India will support it all the way.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/6 "2003-01-10T19:36:08Z")
I think the OP is over-reacting, too, as well as betraying a rather stunning ignorance. Although many Indian citizens live in poverty, India is not a poor country. It is. in fact, the largest democracy in the world and probably could stage a unmanned moon mission with little difficulty, though I think a 2005-2015 schedule for a manned mission is a touch optimistic.
Azael has it right, though. Moon missions (and the space race generally) were only partly about exploration and science. The major goal was to demonstrate that you could put an object in space and bring it down wherever you wanted, be it a capsule with three guys in it or a nuclear warhead.
India may picture itself as a Asian superpower with only China as a significant rival (and the various Muslim countries as minor rivals). If China is making noise about a moon landing, India frankly **should** be doing the same, or be left behind in a race to see who economically and militarily dominates Asia over the next century.
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### Author:  [@gris\_gris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gris_gris)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/7 "2003-01-10T19:38:35Z")
Podkayne I like your name, I am a Heinlein fan too.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/8 "2003-01-10T19:41:09Z")
Good for you! Admitting you have a problem is the first step!
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/9 "2003-01-10T19:56:16Z")
\>\> India: get your shit together here on EARTH before planting your flag on the MOON, OKAY?
You mean the US has and had it’s “shit together”?
How do you define “having your shit together”?
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/10 "2003-01-10T20:36:36Z")
I don’t know that India can put a man on the moon any time soon, but the idea doesn’t amuse me as much as it does the OP. Pay a visit to the science and engineering departments at some major U.S. universities, and you’ll get an idea of just how many top science and engineering students are from India!
India may or may not have all the money and all the resources necessary to make this happen, but they don’t lack the brainpower.
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### Author:  [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/11 "2003-01-10T20:44:59Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by sailor \*
> \*\*\>\> India: get your shit together here on EARTH before planting your flag on the MOON, OKAY?
>
> You mean the US has and had it’s “shit together”?
> How do you define “having your shit together”? \*\*
i’m sure he thinks everyone in India lives in mud huts and argue about which multi-armed god is the best. It’s a good thing us and the Russkies were holding hands and dancing in the park to Herman’s Hermits back in the day…
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### Author:  [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/12 "2003-01-10T20:52:38Z")
_Iiii’m Ivan the Eight I am . . ._
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### Author:  [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/13 "2003-01-10T20:54:19Z")
firk!
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/14 "2003-01-10T20:57:00Z")
**Bryan** , you give a very good hint … China has announced they are about to send up a manned mission in the next year, so a “space race” between the two Asian “superpowers” , with India getting into this (specially with a nationalist-leaning government) to “prove something”, is not totally unexpected. After all, JFK decided to go to the moon in \<10 years at a time we seemed to be _behind_ the USSR, to “prove” our superiority.
As to India getting its… _ahem_ act together, I’d worry more about ethno-sectarian violence than poverty being what holds them down.
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/15 "2003-01-10T21:08:07Z")
If a country decides to pursue something at the expense of everything else, it will probably achieve that goal through sheer bloody-mindedness if nothing else. Nukes and moonshots are easy: The basic research was done by two world powers between fifty and sixty years ago, and has been in the public domain for at least the past thirty years. If you aren’t concerned about looking good, things get a lot easier.
The US stole its way into the space race by saving Nazi engineers (hello, Herr Von Braun), and the Soviets stole their way into the arms race by stealing the results of the Manhattan Project (hello, Comrade Oppenheimer). Secret information is the easiest information to get if you’d rather buy spies than rice.
Quite frankly, stealing _wouldn’t be necessary today_: The physics behind moonshots is a freshman’s thesis today, and the details are, as always, just details. The Smithsonian could probably get any modern moon project on track within a few months, tops, complete with antique blueprints.
Don’t laugh at India or China. I’d rather them shoot the moon than each other, of course, and maybe the first serious colonies will be shipping up chutney and duck instead of Wonder bread and steaks.
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### Author:  [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/16 "2003-01-10T21:10:02Z")
> [@](#):
>
> i’m sure he thinks everyone in India lives in mud huts and argue about which multi-armed god is the best
While not in any way agreeing with the OP’s technophobia (I think that humanity needs to get back into space; the nationality that accomplishes this is, in the long run, insignificant), but I have been to India, and folks, the place is an impoverished shithole (although it has wealth of cultural and historical treasures, plus the people are great) with a moribund economy and a woeful lack of decent housing, clean water, or adequate food for a lrge segemtn of their population. Poverty is inescapable in India, and they need to provide for their citizens’ basic needs before they can legitimately throw their national resources into a moon mission.
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/17 "2003-01-10T21:27:35Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by gobear \*
> \*\*Poverty is inescapable in India, and they need to provide for their citizens’ basic needs before they can legitimately throw their national resources into a moon mission. \*\*
That would be the decent, human thing to do, but it isn’t what the Soviets did, either.
I think we’ll see an Indian or Chinese on the moon before we see a nation of well-fed Indians or Chinese.
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### Author:  [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/18 "2003-01-10T21:28:17Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Azael \*
> \*\*This is funny? You do realize that the “space race” has always has nuclear brinkmanship at it’s core don’t you? \*\*
I’m with **Azael** on this. I’d wager this is more about [Indian ICBMs](http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=22706) than it is about straight science. After all, if you’re going to go into space, first you need a rocket to get you there. Exploration of space is a political friendly way of telling the world about your missile technology.
“We think we can go to the moon! You do know that that means we can drop an H-bomb anywhere in the world, right? Not that we would of course, we just thought you’d like to know we have some real teeth now… Anyway, we’re going to the moon!”
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### Author:  [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/19 "2003-01-10T21:31:42Z")
[hijack]
> [@](#):
>
> How do you define “having your shit together”?
This question should be on every job application and college entrance exam.
[/hijack]
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2003, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/india-to-send-man-to-the-moon-hahahahahaha/147794/20 "2003-01-10T23:15:37Z")
**gobear:** _I have been to India, and folks, the place is an impoverished shithole (although it has wealth of cultural and historical treasures, plus the people are great) with a moribund economy and a woeful lack of decent housing, clean water, or adequate food for a lrge segemtn of their population._
Well, I have **lived** in India for nearly a year, besides making several other visits there, and am going back for another extended visit in '03–'04, and no, it’s not an impoverished shithole. It does have lots of impoverished shitholes in it, and the housing and water and food shortages are as bad as you say. But its economy is strongly expanding, particularly in the manufacturing sector, and it has a wealthy upper-middle and upper class larger than the entire population of France. India is less a “poor” nation than a “two-tier” nation: a large modern technological society precariously balanced on the backs of a much larger society of agrarian peasants and urban peons.
I agree with you that this is not a good way to run a country (and I feel the same, to a lesser extent, about current levels of economic inequality in the US too), but I don’t think the resources involved in a moon shot would be enough to make a significant difference to the general prosperity, even if the Indian government chose to redirect them that way.
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