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BEFORE the attacks in Mumbai last month, it was India's historic first mission to the moon that was making headlines. Chandrayaan-1 entered lunar orbit on 12 November and had begun beaming back images of the surface. Indians were transfixed, and the rest of the world duly impressed.
Just over a week later, the attacks justifiably garnered all the attention. A tiny probe 400,000 kilometres away no longer seemed important. "I wonder if it has already faded from everyone's memory," mused astronomer Subramaniam Ananthakrishnan, former director of the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics in Pune.
Originally posted by ngchunter
Why no attacks in china right after their first manned flights, or when their Chang'e-1 probe entered lunar orbit? Why no attacks in Japan right after Selene entered orbit?
Originally posted by wylekat
I can say this much: FINDING pictures from the probe has been very hard- Anyone have the site where the official pics are being posted? Google has been far less than helpful.
Originally posted by ngchunter
They've also never shown any interest in detracting from the many peaceful space missions of other nations, so why start now?
Originally posted by Cythraul
It was clearly extremely important to both sides to win that race, which leads me to believe that space exploration is still a coveted, exclusive capability.
Originally posted by Cythraul
I think it's a simple case of Western elites being unwilling to share the prestige that comes with successful space exploration.
[edit on 17/12/2008 by Cythraul]
The scientific payload has a total mass of 90 kg and contains five Indian instruments and six foreign instruments.
Originally posted by Cythraul
Originally posted by ngchunter
Why no attacks in china right after their first manned flights, or when their Chang'e-1 probe entered lunar orbit? Why no attacks in Japan right after Selene entered orbit?
Because staged terrorist attacks in Mumbai would not have been executed primarily to defer attention from the moon probe. So with China and Japan, unless there was another very good reason to stage a terror attack (in a plausible way), it wouldn't have been worthwhile.
In short, what I'm proposing is this:
- The terror attacks as a whole were staged in order to plunge India and Pakistan into war and destabilise them.
- The timing of them - as a secondary consideration - may have been set deliberately to kill a second, smaller bird with the same stone, so to speak.
Proof? No, just evidence (by looking at known facts and motivations). This is just a postulation remember. Note the question mark in the thread title. I'm interested to know others' thoughts.
Originally posted by wmd_2008
I tell you you guys should write movie scripts because some of your ideas are laughable
to say the least!
Originally posted by Cythraul
Originally posted by wmd_2008
I tell you you guys should write movie scripts because some of your ideas are laughable
to say the least!
Interesting, 'cos your grammar is laughable... to say the least.
Did I claim this was anything other than conjecture? Evidence is subjective my friend. To one person, circumstances can signal one thing, and to another, a completely different thing. All I set forth was the suggestion that a connection could exist. Interesting that you seem to take such personal offense to an idea. In hindsight, I should have put this topic in skunk works .
Originally posted by jra
Well this doesn't make any sense to me. In what way did the attack in Mumbai distract people from India's Lunar probe? The attack in Mumbai has come and gone and India's probe will continue to operate for at least 2 years. The attack hasn't affected it at all in any way shape or form.
So I'd have to say, No, the attack in Mumbai is not a distraction from India's Lunar probe.
[edit on 17-12-2008 by jra]
Originally posted by wmd_2008
why not just except the real reason it was a terrorist attack thats all!!!!!
PR plays a big part and I surmise that Western powers would prefer not to share the cosmos with 'third world' nations.
Originally posted by wylekat
Time to knock off the elite club of special people going up. Time for space travel to be open for EVERYONE.