The Geek from Another World

ABC News reports that India has joined the ranks of nation space explorers.

Chandrayaan-1 - which means "Moon Craft" in ancient Sanskrit - launched from the Sriharikota space center in southern India early Wednesday morning in a two-year mission aimed at laying the groundwork for further Indian space expeditions. ...

"It is a remarkable technological achievement for the country," said S. Satish, a spokesman for the Indian Space Research Organization, which plans to use the 3,080-pound lunar probe to create a high-resolution map of the lunar surface and what minerals are below. The mapping instruments are a joint project with NASA.

There's more to this than pure science; in fact, it's a competition where the prize is national honor, pride, recognition as an important nation in the eyes of the rest of the world - and the increased international financing for technological development that comes with that. China and Japan are also involved; both launched lunar orbiters a year ago.

Even so, even given the nationalistic drives involved, I still prefer to think about it in terms to the knowledge gained and say the more the merrier.