Why couldn't India make it to the moon while countries like the USA and Russia succeeded almost 50 years ago? Does that mean India's science and technology is 50 years behind the developed countries like USA?
为什么印度至今还未能成功登月，而美国和俄罗斯等国家在近50年前就成功了?这是不是意味着印度的科学技术比美国等发达国家落后50年?
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Ankit Singh, Knows a little something about space exploration
We couldn't and are not going to any time soon because we lack the technology to do so. Robert Frost's answer regarding the technology required to go to the moon is pretty insightful, so give it a read. Here's the link: How did we lose the technology to go to the Moon? If it has been built, it can be built again, can't it? What exactly is the problem? Also, we have had other priorities that needed immediate attention. And, since India is a develo country, ISRO never really had the budget to compete with NASA.
我们没能力也不会在近期这么做，因为我们缺乏技术。罗伯特·弗罗斯特关于登月所需技术的回答非常有见地，不妨读一读。链接：我们是如何失去登月技术的?如果飞行器建成过，还可以再建，不是吗?到底有什么问题?此外，我们还有其他需要马上优先解决的事。而且，由于印度是发展家，ISRO从来没有足够的预算与NASA竞争。
译文来源：三泰虎 http://www.santaihu.com/46832.html 译者：Joyceliu
Benefit of manned missions
载人飞行的好处
Source: www.nasa.gov
As one of the answer in the feed notes "It is useless to send a person to the moon", this is an ignorant statement to make, and nothing can be more further from the truth.
For one, robots cannot compete with humans because they are not autonomous. Understand this, they are manually controlled and are provided with a set of instructions to do even the most menial tasks.
Just look at the mars mission, the curiosity rover landed on mars on August 6, 2012, and it reached the 10 km milestone on April 16, 2015. A manned mission any given day would be much more efficient and will yield much better results.
来源:www.nasa.gov
正如某个回答中说的“把人送上月球并没有用”，这是很无知的说法，没有比这更离谱的了。
首先，机器人不能与人类竞争，因为它们没有自主性。必须理解这一点，它们是人类手动控制的，就算是最简单的事，也需要人类提供一组指令才能完成。
看看火星任务，好奇号探测器于2012年8月6日登陆火星，并于2015年4月16日实现10公里的里程碑记录。任何时候的载人任务都会更有效率，也会带来更好的结果。
Soumadeep Mazumdar, I (used to) write long answers.
So, after solving our problems of widespread corruption, mass poverty, public hygiene, discrimination based on caste and creed, female foeticide, frequent rapes and unemployment, we Indians are now judging our development based on our capability to send men to the moon?
Let me tell you a little story which might be analogous to the scenario.
There are three kids at school, USA, Russia and India. USA and Russia are both rich brats who have accomplished quite a lot in their respective fields of academics and sports. The come to school everyday via their dad's limousine and bring fancy food for lunch to avoid the school cafeteria. One fine day, both these superkids decide that they already have a lot in life and it's now time for a girlfriend. So Russia goes ahead and asks out Sputnik. This makes the USA furious, since they were supposed to be brothers and now Russia seems to be wng the contest by leaps and bounds. So, the ever overcompensating USA decides to take it a step further, and does something which would gather a lot of media coverage and appraisal, although being totally useless from a strategic point of view. He asks out a teacher, Mrs. Moon. After years of trying, spending lavishly on her, she finally agrees, and satisfies USA's desperate need to stay at the top of everything, every time.
所以，在解决了普遍存在的腐败、大规模贫困、公共卫生、基于种姓和宗教的歧视、杀害女性胎儿、经常曝出的强奸案和失业等问题之后，我们印度人现在又要根据我们能不能把人送上月球对我们的发展评头论足了?
我来给你们讲一个类似的小故事。
学校里有三个孩子，美国，俄罗斯和印度。美国和俄罗斯都是富家子弟，各自在学业和体育领域都取得了相当大的成就。他们每天乘坐爸爸的豪华轿车来学校，带着精美的午餐，看不上学校的自助餐厅。在一个风和日丽的日子里，这两个牛娃决定了，既然他们生活中啥也不缺了，该找个女朋友了。所以俄罗斯开始跟人造卫星约会了。这让美国怒不可遏，因为他们本应是兄弟，而现在俄罗斯似乎正神速地赢得了这场竞赛。所以，美国决定要超过俄罗斯，做点吸引大量媒体报道和评价的事情，尽管从战略角度来说这样做完全没用。他约了一位老师，月亮夫人。经过多年的努力，在她身上一掷千金，她最终同意了，并满足了美国在任何时候、任何事情上保持领先的迫切需要。
All the while, Russia and USA were searching for a girl, India could barely, deliver newspapers in the morning to pay for his school, cook for his unemployed, drug addicted father, mourn for his long lost mother, and then walk to school. When he reaches there, he hasn't got the time or energy to gather any interest about what USA and Russia are fighting about. He is too busy running to the school cafeteria to fetch the last morsel of food.
Now the background story to this analogy.
USA and Russia had already proved to the world that they were capable, that they were the superpowers. They surpassed most other countries in technological, social and almost every other aspect. Communication satellites were crucial for development. Russia made an attempt, succeeded. But that was that. It was absolutely unnecessary for anyone to go to the moon, except for proving USA's point that they are better than the Russians. USA took this one way to far ahead to be useful to any end. Just to prove a point, they used their surplus of resources on a project that had no humanitarian value. Just because, "they can".
与此同时，在俄罗斯和美国寻找女友的时候，印度只能在早上送报纸付学费，为他失业、吸毒的父亲做饭，追忆很早就过世的母亲，然后步行上学。当他到了学校，他已经没有时间和精力去关注美国和俄罗斯正在为什么而战。他得赶到学校的自助餐厅吃点残羹冷炙。
这就跟登月相似。
美国和俄罗斯已经向世界证明了他们的能力，他们是超级大国。他们在技术、社会和几乎所有领域都超过了绝大多数国家。通信卫星对发展至关重要。俄罗斯做了一次尝试，成功了。但也仅此而已。对任何国家而言，除了证明美国认为自己比俄罗斯更优秀之外，登月都是完全没有必要的。美国在这条单行道上领先了很多。为了证明这一点，他们把多余的资源用在了一件没有人道主义价值的事情上。只为了证明“他们有能力”。
To sum up,
Recreation comes later. Only when the basic amenities are available. You breathe first, smoke later. Eat first, dine later. Live first, enjoy later.
No, we Indians aren't incapable of sending men to the moon, or in that case to any other planet. There are team members at NASA from India who are still sending men to the moon. Indian physicists worked on the CERN supercollider. There are Indians working at Facebook, Amazon and Google who are just as capable of starting a new company of their own. But we are too tired. After struggling 20 years for an engineering or equivalent degree and trying to keep ourselves in the sun with a population of 1.2 billion, we Indians prefer to enjoy a little of our time cherishing the position we scratched and clawed to achieve. We don't see a point of sending men to the moon just to fulfil our surreal need for approval, when people at home are dying everyday. So, we read some story about some guy who quit his job and created a startup which is now a multi-billion dollar company and wonder, whether Indians are incapable of doing so. That's not the case. We worked too hard to get that job, and we just can't take the risk of quitting and finding another if our startup doesn't work out. We are incapable by force, not by choice.
综上所述,
必须先有基础条件，才能有娱乐声马。你要先能呼吸，再考虑抽烟。先有吃的，再谈宴席。先活下来，再来享受生活。
不，我们印度人并不是没有能力把人送上月球，或者其他任何星球。美国国家航空和宇宙航行局的一些团队成员来自印度，他们仍在向月球运送宇航员。印度物理学家在欧洲核子研究中心的超级对撞机上工作。在Facebook、亚马逊和谷歌工作的印度人也有能力创办自己的新公司。但是我们太累了。印度有12亿人口，我们拼命读书20年才能拿到工程学或同等学位，并努力让自己生活无忧。如今，我们印度人更愿意花一点时间好好享受，珍惜自己努力争取到的地位。我们不认为把人类送上月球仅仅是为了满足我们对世人认可的超现实需求，因为我们每天都有同胞逝去。所以，我们能看到有些人会辞掉工作，创建初创公司，如今市值达到数十亿美元，我们想知道，印度人是否有能力做到这一点。可那不一样。为了得到那份工作，我们太过努力了。我们不能冒险辞职，万一创业失败，还得再另一份工作。