The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has sent an unmanned mission to Mars, joining a group of several other countries in a relatively low profile race to the Red Planet. The rocket, which took off on Tuesday from Sriharikota, a small and remote island outside of Chennai, should reach Mars in late September 2014.
The mission was named Mangalyaan, probably because almost any name would have been better than “MOM” for Mars Orbiter Mission…
Critics of the mission argue that India, still considered by a great many people as being part of the third world, should’ve invested the budget into some program to assist its people in need, perhaps by stimulating the micro-economy which seems the only way to go for their poorer regions with people borrowing incredibly small amounts of money, to start an incredibly small enterprise such as a fruit and produce stand, or selling shoes, ties or other clothes and accessories.
Given the current state of the Interweb, with memes being all the fashion and even bleeding onto traditional television, this could’nt spark anything but a huge raining down of memes, comments and other internetian idiocies. Some better than others.
As well, another commenter noted that: “The total budget for India’s mission to Mars is 73M$, while the total budget for Gravity starring Sandra Bullock, was just over 100M$.”
This last guy’s not wrong…
