Fly me to the moon

Today was historic for India -- it joined a very exclusive club of nations to send a spacecraft to the moon (unlike the NASA Apollo missions, India's was unmanned). It is a tremendous accomplishment for a country that has always produced top-notch scientists but never seemed to get recognition for it. But the usual skeptics are bound to surface and ask, "why is India looking to the moon when it has plenty of its own problems?"

I think both sides of this argument have some merit; India has issues of disease, poverty, environmental degradation, population growth and a growing rich-poor gap (all of which are interrelated), but has decided to divert a significant cut of the resource pie to sending a rocket to take pictures of the moon.

I disagree with these contentions. Space exploration in 1960's was one the greatest symbols of the Cold War, but most importantly for friendly, international competition. No one was maliciously killed in the Space Race; yet, it accelerated innovation in the United States and inspired a generation to think that, yes, the sky is no longer the limit. India is smart to foster the same ambitions, that accomplishing something as sending a rocket to the moon is symbolic. India is a friendly competitor in the field of science, and needed to send a message that it is able to compete on the global stage. That increased competition, I hope, will stimulate American innovation and get the United States to once again renew a mass-culture of innovation, ambition and drive.