Disclaimer: Of course, India does not own the Moon as in being the 'owner' of lunar property! The title refers to India being totally on top of space travel to the Moon with its amazing Chandrayaan 2 project! Let's give this great Indian space mission all the attention it deserves! (Spectacular statements in the title of my video might help to achieve that goal! Especially when NASA-fans see this:-)) Enjoy the video!
INDIA OWNS THE MOON
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Now, back to India!
India has dominated the international news during the past few weeks. Mainly because of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
Although Jammu and Kashmir is a very important issue, there is so much more going on regarding India. India launched its space craft Chandrayaan 2, on july 22nd, 2019. It consists of a Lunar orbiter, lander and rover. Chandrayaan 2 will spin around the Moon and study the surface of the moons polar regions. The lander will land on the south pole of the Moon, and the rover is a vehicle that will ride on the Moon.
This is the kind of totally advanced space technology that you would expect to be carried out by NASA, the American space agency. Nope, this is done by India. The space ship is built in India and it is launched from Indias own Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
After the USA, Russia and China, India is now the fourth country in the world that is going to land on the Moon.
India has an extremely successful trackrecord when it comes to space travel. But the media often raise the question if a country like India should have a space program at all. Yes of course, a country like India should have a space travel program. For many reasons.
First of all, for economic purpuses. Space travel is now a commercial business, and space agencies like the Indian space agency ISRO, make money with their space technology.
Second, there is the strategic security argument. By having its own space program and its own satellites in space, India can watch and secure its own borders closely, from space, without being dependent on other countries.
Third, there is the advancement of science and technology, because of space travel. Camera phones, LED lights, water purification systems, even portable computers have all been invented and developed because of space travel. And space technology allows us to predict the weather and helps us to protect our food supply by detecting crop diseases. Modern life as we know it, can't exist without space technology.
Space travel is the frontier of modern technology. Any country that is in the top league of space travel programs will play a key role in the further development of mankind in the 21st century.
I think India should be such a country, and indeed, it is.
Because India has been very successful in space travel.
It is actually so succesful that many people think that the Indian Space Agency ISRO must have and extremely large budget to get all of this done. And that is certainly not the case.
In comparison; the United States Space Agency NASA will spend about 21,5 billion US dollars this year.
The Indian Space Agency ISRO is scheduled to have a budget of only 1,3 billion US dollars in 2019.
It means that the budget of NASA is over 16 times bigger than ISRO's budget!
Since there are 1,3 billion people in India, ISRO's budget is about 1 dollar per inhabitant of India per year. So in a worst case scenario, each Indian has to pay 1 American dollar per year, to pay for the space travel success of India.
But even that is not the case. Because ISRO gets a significant part of its funding through international commercial business. Not all of ISRO is funded by the Indian taxpayer, no, an important part of Indias space travel, is paid for by companies from all over the world. Customers of ISRO who pay ISRO for bringing their satellites into space.
For comparison, let's have a look at NASA, with its 21,5 billion US Dollar budget, to be paid for by 330 million Americans. It means in a worst case scenario every American has to pay 65 dollars each year, to fund NASA. That is 65 times more than what the average Indian pays for ISRO. It shows that ISRO is doing a marvelous job in creating extremely successful space missions for very little money.
When it comes to successful space travel for little money, India totally owns the space race!
Exactly what America has been trying for the last few decades.
Because many Americans thought NASA to be too expensive.
Well, India has achieved cheap space travel, right from the very start. No other country in the world has succeeded in creating so much success in space travel for so little money.
So perhaps the other superpowers should have a look at ISRO in order to improve their own space programms...