Mission: India Moon

I wrote this on October 22, 2008. No idea why.

Delhi, India — The people of India let out a cheer for the future as
the Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft launched earlier this week in Andhra
Pradesh.

The unmanned spacecraft marks the beginning of India’s space program, hot on the heels of rival China. The mission for this spacecraft is to scan the surface of the moon then head to Mars to repeat the process.

“The reason for this sudden interest in exploration,” said Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh in a press conference. “Is that Mother India
is not growing any bigger. We need to uncover new lands with which to
build call centers and other manufacturing facilities to further be
ready at a moment’s notice to receive outsourced jobs from America and the West.”

The spacecraft will first circle the moon several times taking 3-D
geographic images of the moon’s surface to find the most suitable
location for building the combination call center/living quarters
Indian archetects have been formulating for the past ten years.

With an eye toward the future, once the moon’s images have been
recorded, Chandrayaan 1 will head toward Mars in a trek that could
take as long as 20 years.

Madhavan Nair, the head of the Indian Space Research Organization
explained the move, “We believe that by the time Chandrayaan 1 reaches Mars, the moon will have started to show signs of overcrowding, as we plan to begin colonization within 5 years. Do not worry about corrupted signals coming from the moon or Mars as we feel that telecommunications technology will be sufficiently advanced when the time arrives.”

Phase two, manned moon missions to build the complex are scheduled to begin in 2011.