India Spaces Out

In a surprising and impressive announcement earlier this week, India declared their intention to launch an unmanned spacecraft on a mission to the moon by 2007. The probe will take five days to travel from the earth to its closest planetary neighbor, where it will establish itself in lunar orbit for an unspecified amount of time.

Established in 1972, India's space program has mainly concerned itself with positioning weather, mapping, and communications satellites in Earth orbit. However, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) now believes that they have the technological capability to successfully complete a lunar expedition, which they expect to cost around $82.5 million.

The mission isn't without its critics, who say the money would be better spent on development projects that would bring much-needed aid to a heavily overpopulated and impoverished Indian society. Some defense experts also worry that the technology created for the lunar satellite will help the Indian military to its goal of building an intercontinental ballistic missile.

To date, only three countries have sent missions to the moon: the United States, Russia, and Japan. China will launch its fourth unmanned space capsule later this year, and plans to put a human into orbit within three years.

Read more about India, the moon, and space exploration in the following titles!

India Unbound: The Social And Economic Revolution From Independence To The Global Information Age
by Gurcharan Das
The relatively recent rise of India from poverty stricken third world country to developing global power is undoubtedly one of the most striking developments of the late 20th century. After it gained independence in 1947, India was burdened with a poor economy for almost 50 years. Then, in 1991, sweeping governmental reforms jumpstarted an incredible period of growth. Das, the former CEO of Proctor & Gamble India, skillfully and clearly explains the story of India's progress in this fascinating social and economic history.

Russia In Space: The Final Frontier?
by Brian Harvey
Arguably one of the more positive aspects of the Cold War was the intense Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, the competition between the two countries to explore space probed farther and farther from Earth, developing intricate technologies and inspiring countless imaginations along the way. Unfortunately, the Challenger disaster and the Soviet Union's collapse brought a sudden end to the Race. In Russia In Space, Harvey provides an engrossing history of the Soviet space program and an intimate look at what the Russians have done since the Cold War ended. His positive outlook sees the future of space exploration relying on cooperation between the two former rivals.

The Case For Mars: The Plan To Settle The Red Planet And Why We Must
by Robert Zubrin and Richard Wagner
Ray Bradbury's great Martian Chronicles took a fictional look at what exploring and colonizing Mars would be like, but in The Case For Mars, co-authors Zubrin and Wagner present a well-researched and fact-based scenario for living on the red planet. The book's authors see Mars almost as a continuation of manifest destiny. For them it's not just a possibility, but a certainty. Zubrin and Wagner enthusiastically see ripe opportunities in Mars for employment, natural resources, biotechnology, and, of course, robots. They also go at great length to explain how exploring Mars could be accomplished on a relatively modest budget (modest for the government, at least).

From The Earth To The Moon
By Jules Verne
The exciting, vast, and prophetic imagination of Jules Verne is on full display in From The Earth To The Moon, one of the famous 19th-century author's first novels. At the close of the Civil War, Impey Barbicane, the president of the Baltimore Gun Club, proposes to the organization's bored, restless members that they build a gigantic gun that would have enough fire-power to launch an unmanned rocket to the moon. When Barbicane's adversary places a colossal wager on the failure of the project, the Club gets caught up in an international space race. A large amount of diagrams and scientific exposition make the book less plot heavy than Verne's later efforts, but From The Earth To The Moon is still a fascinating read.

Goodnight Moon
by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd
This all-time classic is also the perfect bedtime book. Most people know the story, but for the uninitiated: As a young rabbit falls asleep, he says "good night" to everything in his room and outside his window. Clement Hurd's drawings are just like the text: effectively simple and effortlessly soothing. In fact, I'm getting sleepy just thinking about it. Good night. Zzzzzzzz…