Iran Says It Sent Monkey Into Space and Back 425
Iranian state TV is claiming that the country has successfully sent a monkey into space and back, bringing Iran one step closer to its goal of a manned space flight. According to the report, the rocket named Pishgam, or Pioneer in Farsi, reached a height of 120km. From the article: "Iran has long said it seeks to send an astronaut into space as part of its ambitious aerospace program, including plans for a new space center announced last year. In 2010, Iran said it launched an Explorer rocket into space carrying a mouse, a turtle and worms."
Was it President Ahmadinejad? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Was it President Ahmadinejad? (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, Ahmadinejad usually is depicted as a monkey in the expatriate Iranian press, and (so I hear from relatives there) commonly referred to as such in Iran by a lot of folks. There was even an incident a few years ago where a girl on a kid's TV show innocently mentioned that her dad had nicknamed her toy monkey after the guy [guardian.co.uk]. Part of it is due to perceived physical resemblance, and part due to the belief that he doesn't actually wield independent power but is just Supreme Leader Khamenei's "trained pet."
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Mr Emami is an Iranian. Whom speake like that about president of his mother's country, is not a reach human. Who could beleive to this kind of humans.
It's my dad's country, actually, though I did live there for a while -- specifically, I was there when Khomeini took over, so I got to see the before and after versions, and whatever the Shah's faults, what replaced him is much, much worse.
As to humanity, ask Neda Agha-Soltan [wikipedia.org]... oh, wait, you can't, she was shot by a basiji during the 2009 demonstrations. Perhaps you can ask Farrokhroo Parsa [wikipedia.org], then... no, she was executed by the mullahs for the crime of being appointed Minister of Education by the Shah. Not
and apparently... (Score:5, Funny)
Ahmadinejad made it all the way back safely
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Once they launched Ahmadinejad, why couldn't they have left him up there?? Talk about a popular candidate for space debris....
Re:and apparently... (Score:5, Funny)
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Jokes and media brain washing apart. The guy lives so much more humbly that its hard to think if he is as crazy as western media shows him or is there more going on. The country is making progress in spite of all the sanctions. Not sure if its the Iranian media spin but the guy sits and eats simple foods on a mat on the floor, sleeps on the floor.
I don't know which one is propaganda, this video or if the western media, or if there is a Jackal and Hyde going on here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyWul35JnjY [youtube.com]
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Cause they're totally innocent saints, right?
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So how is Iraq these days, what with the lack of genocide, torture chambers and oppressed populace?
https://www.google.com/m/search?q=iraq+news&hl=en&client=safari&tbo=u&source=univ&tbm=nws&sa=X&ei=wz4HUatiyOesAYy8gMAP&ved=0CEQQqAI [google.com]
Top headlines suggest political turmoil, economic progress, airways being opened to promote trade and cultural commentary.
Looks pretty good.
And you were saying?
From a US citizen (Score:4, Insightful)
Congrats Iran!
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As an American, let me be the first to welcome Iran to 1948!
Re:From a US citizen (Score:4, Informative)
Only 6 countries have that capability. No matter how much you troll.
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Are you seriously attempting to suggest that something bad cannot be used for a good purpose?
Re:From a US citizen (Score:4, Informative)
No thing is bad. Doesn't matter how ugly you think an item is, it is inanimate. Inanimate objects are neither good, nor bad. Without motivation and free will, there is no good, no bad. People are bad, and people are good.
Re:From a US citizen (Score:4, Funny)
I guess you never saw Time Bandits.
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That's a lie! They never put a motorcycle in space! No Mazdas, no Farmalls, all they ever put into space are a few stupid cosmonauts, a few satellites, and some worthless debris. They certainly haven't put a CORVETTE into space! That was an American feat!
Oh, wait. Hell - Heavy Metal, the movie, was fiction, wasn't it? Fek . . . .
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Thank you AC for pointing out the obvious. Since Iran and North Korea share missile technology, you can assume what one can do, the other can do. This Slashdot story was different. There was a directive to keep an animal alive. This knowledge and ability to keep that monkey safe for the trip gives me hope. I'm not going to apologize for focusing on the positives. Eat shit, coward.
What ? What ? What ? (Score:4, Funny)
Firing defenceless animals off into space for their twisted pleasure ?
BOMB THE BASTARDS.
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We did the same thing...
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Are you kidding? That monkey just became a lot more famous than any of us are ever going to be. He's probably going to get laid a lot more than any of us too. Shit, put ME in the next rocket, Iran!
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Nowhere in TFA does it say the monkey survived. For all we know it came back as chunky salsa...
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FTFA:
said the monkey returned safely.
I presume that means "alive," unless Iran has a very different take on the word "safely."
Re:What ? What ? What ? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Stone age society develops space age technology (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Stone age society develops space age technology (Score:4, Informative)
Depends on what you call "stone age society". They indeed have a lot to grow regarding individual freedom and rights (but, hey, so does USA currently) but they have lots of money, a great schools and universities, weath is well distributed and very low crime rate.
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As for great schools, perhaps they are, as long as you exclude science, philosophy, art, history, perhaps geography. Since they're state run (and the state bends the curriculum as they see fit), they are chock full of religion (which takes over the science, philosophy, and art departments) and since their government expresses blind hatred against other countries, I can only assume history and geography classes are equally skewed.
And that's different from the U.S. how?
Re:Stone age society develops space age technology (Score:5, Insightful)
Unlike Iran, the USA could have rewritten some history books for the entire world, but all the information is freely available to anyone, regardless of gender or religion.
Also, in the USA, if you don't like the curriculum, you can homeschool your children, you can attend online course and there are literally thousands of colleges you can go to. No, let me go further than that, if you're from the USA, you have access to any and all democratic countries in the entire world.
If you really can't see the difference, I propose this simple experiment. Choose a subject you want to learn about. Find the most comprehensive courses available, then start slashing out anything that might be considered harmful to Iran or it's religion. When that's done, then remove all bits that don't make any sense. Next and final step, create ties that replace the removed pieces, that are showing Iran and it's religion in a positive light, and possibly anybody else (especially the USA) in a bad one. Then, write it as a book, and publish it as fantasy fiction, because no sane person in a free world would believe it to be true.
I'm not an American, I don't particularly care for them, but dismissing the entire nation and culture is wrong, narrowsighted, and possibly as dangerous as Iran and it's whole way of thinking.
Re:Stone age society develops space age technology (Score:5, Insightful)
And that's different from the U.S. how?
You mean other than the fact that you don't run the risk of having the religious police give you trouble over your beard length, that you don't get locked up in prison for being insufficiently Muslim? That you can still say the word "pizza," which has been banned in that country for being too western? That little details like being sent to prison or even killed for having been raped tend to stand out? Or charming features of Iran's foreign policy such as backing the annihilation of a specific country on religious grounds, or the steady support of some of the worst medieval-minded terrorist groups in the world because they are such?
Never mind your completely spurious and disingenuous comparison of the school systems, or the fact that you just sitting here talking about it openly would - there - put in at risk of death in prison.
Woops! Here I am feeding a troll. Never mind.
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And that's different from the U.S. how?
You mean other than the fact that you don't run the risk of having the religious police give you trouble over your beard length, that you don't get locked up in prison for being insufficiently Muslim? That you can still say the word "pizza," which has been banned in that country for being too western? That little details like being sent to prison or even killed for having been raped tend to stand out? Or charming features of Iran's foreign policy such as backing the annihilation of a specific country on religious grounds, or the steady support of some of the worst medieval-minded terrorist groups in the world because they are such?
Never mind your completely spurious and disingenuous comparison of the school systems, or the fact that you just sitting here talking about it openly would - there - put in at risk of death in prison.
Woops! Here I am feeding a troll. Never mind.
I am sorry, but WHAT THE FUCK?
My dad was was posted in Tehran for two years, and and he regularly ate pizza like once a month. I would take you seriously if you weren't spouting such craziness. I mean, where did you *even* get this sort of silly ideas from?
Also beard length and and the insufficiently muslim thing(what does it even mean, anyways?) is Taliban-run Afghanistan, My dad recalls that plenty of men were clean shaven in Tehran, and he had no trouble buying razors.
Seriously people, Iran is not North
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keep playing the false equivalency game
but the only thing the silly game hurts is your own credibility
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Have you been in Iran before? go there and come back and then we can discuss your arguments, if your arguments are based on few videos you could be pretty wrong, however I accept any country/society has his own issues , in case that you fear to go there, I was there a month ago and met an blogger from new york http://www.humansofnewyork.com/tagged/iran
to give you a clue about the quality of universities in iran, most of them are free,many like babak parviz studied and graduated from there, in case that you
Re:Stone age society develops space age technology (Score:4, Interesting)
Please, you're undermining years of propaganda there. Carefully crafted stereotypes, smashed to the ground! Please, don't destroy our egocentric arrogance like that! It is absolutely necessary that American believe that Iranians live in caves, eat raw meat (when meat is available), and that they have pedal cars on their cobblestone roads.
Next, you'll actually expect us to believe that Iranians are LITERATE!
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After the revolution when Iran stopped being Persia they quickly went back to a 2nd world country. Much more of this and even NK might take over tech wise.
Calling bullshit on this one (Score:2, Interesting)
They risked a valuable Monkey? (Score:5, Funny)
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Despite all that's wrong with Iran, they have a very decent education system - that is even accessible for women, as I was told.
When I was at the University of Washington, there were quite a number of good researchers, lecturers, and post-grads I encountered in engineering and chemistry (both male and female) were educated in Iran.
Re:They risked a valuable Monkey? (Score:4, Insightful)
Despite all that's wrong with Iran, they have a very decent education system - that is even accessible for women, as I was told.
I'm no expert on the current state of education in Iran, but I can tell you with certainty that one of our allies, rhymes with "howdy arabia," is far worse than Iran when it comes to religious freedom, women's rights, and government funding of Islamic terrorist groups. Never make the mistake of rating countries on the basis of the USA's "friend or foe" list.
Re:They risked a valuable Monkey? (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean like when the United States sent Alan Shepard into space in 1961, but didn't pass the civil rights act until 1964? And it's not like the CRA ended racial discrimination.
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Ahh yes, that's right (Score:5, Insightful)
If a western nation ever did anything bad, at any point in their history, that is remotely like something a non-western nation is doing today, well then the non-western nation gets a total pass. You can't criticize them because at one time something bad happened somewhere else!
This false moral equivalency bullshit is just retarded. Every country has done bad shit in the past. Every country does bad shit now. That doesn't mean that we cannot, or should not, point out when it happens. This idea that every country that isn't the US, or at least every country that isn't western gets an automatic pass on everything they do because of bad shit that happen sin other places is beyond stupid and counter productive.
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What does Iran's sexual discrimination have to do with their space program?
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What does Iran's sexual discrimination have to do with their space program?
Because jkflying, it's been generally accepted for some time now that education lessens crime and discrimination among other things. Iran's current treatment of women would appear to contradict that.
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Re:They risked a valuable Monkey? (Score:4, Interesting)
Let's see... the first unmanned suborbital space flight was a V2 launched by Germany in 1944. Germany at that time is sort of famous for having different classes of people, the treatment of some making Americans' worst imaginings about Iran look like playland.
The US first launched something into space in 1949. That's twenty years before Mad Men is set, six years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus, and 54 years before Lawrence v. Texas made the remaining anti-sodomy laws in the US unconstitutional.
It seems a country's position on equality of its citizens has very little to do with its success in space flight.
Re:They risked a valuable Monkey? (Score:4, Interesting)
You don't know what you are speaking about. Iranian women have a 60% share of universities (i.e. 2.5 million seats) and they are possibly more educated than (percentage wise) most other countries.
At least 50% of almost 10 million university graduates are women.
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Women's rights (Score:3)
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I just realized that most of what I know comes from tv,radio and the internet.
Very little comes from actually being somewhere and witnessing something with my own eyes.
I need to get out and found out things for myself.
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I thought they sent their president Ahmadinutjob into space and brought him back alive
Even the Iranians aren't that stupid.
A mouse, a turtle, and some worms (Score:2)
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The bartender (mission control maybe) says "what is this, a joke?"
Its probably not true (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Its probably not true (Score:4, Insightful)
Oddly enough the story you are linking to says that that story may also be a fake.
Perhaps the Iranians just feel really insecure and want to make people believe they are more of a threat than they are?
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This sounds like it ought to be part of Blazing Saddles. Iranian government: No one move or we'll have our own nuclear accident. A spokeswoman from some nation speaks up: Isn't anyone going help that poor country. Iranian government backs slowly away, and hides behind a door.
[citation needed] (Score:3)
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I am curious about this also. It seems that if Iran felt like launching a surprise missile like this that we would hear about the entire Israeli military being scrambled. Or , all the interested parties were aware of the test and dont really feel like giving Iran credit.
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A space program on the international stage isn't about getting people to like you. It's about getting people to fear you. You're basically showing the world that you have the infrastructure, cohesion, and technology to pull of a milestone feat for a nation. And it also implies that you can drop a nuke on any point on the globe.
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Yep, good way to induce your neighbors to match you so not only does your dick look bigger, everyone elses does as well. They will all have above average dick sizes.
Iran before nuclear weapons: Hey great, we can swing our dick around and make nukes and no one will be able to do anything. Bwahahahaha!!!
Iran after nuclear weapons: Oh shit, now our neighbors created their own nukes and are pointing them at us. Damn, damn, damn....now our dicks don't look so big.
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That stops working the millisecond a mushroom cloud appears over Iran.
Yeah, that's when WWIII begins, with pretty much every other country in the world allied against the U.S. and Israel. Because everyone just loves countries engaging in preemptive unilateral nuclear strikes.
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Most important detail missing (Score:2)
The article mentions that the monkey went into space and back, but we all want to know whether Ahmadinejad survived or not.
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Somebody needs to tell Iran (Score:2)
that launching a rocket via the Kerbal Space Program [kerbalspaceprogram.com] doesn't really count.
Already done (Score:2)
Didn't a beverage company just send [wikipedia.org] a monkey to space and back?
Dr. Sadeq Khurasani said it (Score:2)
That settles it.
I guess the propaganda is working. (Score:5, Insightful)
From all of these anti-Iranian comments I guess the US propaganda is working well. Pretty soon you all we clamor for war and sign up to fight. It's amazing how people can hate those they never met.
Re:I guess the propaganda is working. (Score:5, Insightful)
You might be misunderstanding. Persians and Americans are actually natural allies: we both want a stable Persian Gulf region, and together could provide it, as we did prior to 1979. But the Ayatollahs running Iran at the moment, since 1979, want an unstable Persian Gulf region, because that gives them openings to advance their religious interests. So even though there is a natural underlying affinity on a national level, on a political level there can be only conflict. The hostage crisis, where Iranian thugs took captive American embassy staff for well over a year, has not been forgotten in the US, and it colors our perceptions of Iran, and specifically of their leadership, to this day. On top of that, you have the Iranians committing acts of war against the US in Iraq (not only supplying and training our enemies, but planning and sometimes participating directly in attacks) and in Saudi Arabia (Khobar Towers), as well as apparently developing a nuclear weapons program aimed directly at destroying a key US ally, Israel, and really, after all of that, does there need to be "propaganda" to explain why American attitudes towards the Iranian government are what they are?
All that said, yes, I generally despise theocrats I've never met, autocrats I've never met, dictators I've never met, and monarchs (other than titular only) that I've never met. I despise the enemies of human liberty generally. Is that really very amazing? And do you not also despise the enemies of liberty? Yet, why does that mean that I, or anyone else, is clamoring for war? It is possible to despise an ideology, and to attempt strenuously to oppose and in all ways limit that ideology, without clamoring for war. War is only necessary when irreconcilable differences over non-trivial differences exist. But just because we might not want war, does not mean we must start accepting those who would kill us if only they could.
Re:I guess the propaganda is working. (Score:5, Informative)
You might be misunderstanding. Persians and Americans are actually natural allies: we both want a stable Persian Gulf region, and together could provide it, as we did prior to 1979.
You are aware that the CIA put the Iranian dictator into power in 1953 [wikipedia.org], toppling Iran's democratically-elected government in the process? The 1979 "Islamic Revolution" merely replaced a dictatorship controlled by the USA with one that wasn't.
Re:I guess the propaganda is working. (Score:4, Interesting)
That's far from the complete truth. The unsaid fact is that Mosaddegh was trying to nationalize British and American owned oil operations, which was what prompted our actions.
Ironically, Shah was a very modernizing influence in terms of rights for women and minorities. Yes, the man was batshit crazy, but he was aimed to create a secular state. Unfortunately, when the people revolted against him, Khomenei and his Islamic fundamentalist ilk essentially stole the revolution from the left liberals and established a theocracy in its place.
Much like what's happening in Egypt today, where the Islamists have taken over a revolution from the left liberals.
So, blaming the US for part of it is fair, but this is a classic example of unintended consequences.
Re:I guess the propaganda is working. (Score:5, Informative)
On top of that, you have the Iranians committing acts of war against the US in Iraq (not only supplying and training our enemies, but planning and sometimes participating directly in attacks) and in Saudi Arabia (Khobar Towers), as well as apparently developing a nuclear weapons program aimed directly at destroying a key US ally, Israel, and really, after all of that, does there need to be "propaganda" to explain why American attitudes towards the Iranian government are what they are?
Secretary of Defense William Perry (at the time), the FBI, and Saudi Minister of the Interior Prince Nayef disagree with you about Khobar. The indictment in the US district court looks like a long list of Saudi citizens, and but a few others.
As for "acts of war" in Iraq, the US plays the same game all the time, including the selling weapons to Iranian enemies, e.g. Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War. This kind of turnaround is only fair play.
You are clearly demonstrating the power American propaganda has over minds who should know better. It is very "interesting" how selective your memory happens to be.
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Propoganda always works against an intellectually lazy, shallow, disinterested, and ignorant population. Why do you think there's been such a concerted attack from the government on our primary education system over the past 10-15 years?
Progression and Risk (Score:2)
Huh? (Score:2)
So let me see if I have this right. Iran launched what is effectively a dud ICBM with a monkey strapped to it and the western world has to hear about it in a Iranian press release relayed by a Canadian news outlet? Somehow I think if this story were true it would have had better coverage. Not to slight Iran, but the image of the rocket in the story looks like it would be lucky to have enough fuel to reach a neighbor's soil, but this wouldn't be the first time an image that had nothing to do with a story was
Keeping Up With N. Korea (Score:3)
In both cases, you have countries that can barely afford to take care of their citizens, yet they are claiming to be building a full-fledged space program. Iran is a far more resource-wealthy country and its GDP is more than 10 times North Korea's, but its economy is suffering [nytimes.com] badly [nytimes.com] because of the international sanctions for its nuclear program, and the health of its people [nytimes.com] is suffering even worse. So the only reason they would make such an announcement would be to artificially inflate national pride and try to scare the rest of the world.
Of course, Iran's people are not cut off from news from the outside world as effectively as North Korea's (despite police ripping satellite dishes off rooftops [nytimes.com] and a plan to unplug the country from the Internet [slashdot.org]), so this could backfire when the people protest about resources being spent on keeping monkeys breathing in space when there isn't enough air to breathe on the ground in Tehran.
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Misread (Score:3)
Iran said it launched an Explorer rocket into space carrying a moose
A space møøse once bit my sister...
Really, though (Score:2)
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To be experts, you have to be convincing.
Iran usually isn't.
Re:Pigs in space! (Score:4, Interesting)
Iran has had 3 successful confirmed satellite launches. This one is a smaller rocket and it has failed once before. When the last launch failed Iranian head of IASA confirmed the failure.
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Why shouldn't they? The evidence has been corroborated by even our enemies at the time. And since then there has also been independent confirmation that we left crap on the moon which is consistent with us landing on the moon.
Re:Pigs in space! (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGXTF6bs1IU
We would have faked it...but actually doing it was easier at the time.
Re:Pigs in space! (Score:5, Funny)
Moderately stupid. I need to remember that one, it could be precious one day. "You Sir, are only moderately stupid! Why can't you see reason?"
Re:Pigs in space! (Score:4, Informative)
I have a friend who is only moderately stupid that firmly believes that the moon landings were faked.
I would submit to you that if your friend firmly believes that the moon landings were faked, he's far more than moderately stupid. With all the evidence, believing the moon landing was faked is right up there with believing that the moon is made of gouda cheese. There's a reflector on the moon. If you know the coordinates, you can actually bounce a laser off of it back to Earth.
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A reflector on the moon isn't a sign that humans ever went there; an unmanned rover could have easily left it behind.
Remember that when you're dealing with conspiracy theorists, evidence contrary to their belief will be dismissed out of hand. But that's fine - when they hold such a minority opinion, the burden of proof is on them, not you. The only way to have them see reason is to tirelessly rebut everything they come up with until, finally, they start to realize that the true explanation might be the on
Re:Pigs in space! (Score:4, Insightful)
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When I said "you", I should've said "astronomers".
In other words, you haven't actually done it yourself, you just read about someone doing it.
The point was, if you aren't going to believe that men have landed on the moon after someone else tells you it has happened, why would you believe that there is a reflector or three on the moon that those men you don't believe were there left behind just because someone else tells you they are there?
The argument that someone is stupid for not believing we've been to the moon (and when I say "we", I should've said
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Correct, an orbit is a lot harder than just achieving an altitude.
I do however, disagree with you about the conclusion you are trying to prove with your analogy.
If you have never built any sort of a vehicle before, evolving from the toy stage through many many many steps to a formula 1 car may actually be a logical process, and therefore is relevant.
Likewise, a progression from earthbound to an orbiting space station and beyond, may include a developmental step of placing a monkey in a missile.
Cheers
Kenny
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Yes, the difference in energy required to reach orbit is enormous.. Though I don't think you can quite orbit at 120km, there must be terrible atmospheric drag there.
What's notable is that all the talks about space tourism in the US : they're mostly about achieving that same kind of suborbital roller-coaster that breaks an arbitrary 100km threshold. Making it cheap is probably the interesting part, I wonder if the Iranian version of this was cheap (taking your time to build a boring old rocket domestically),
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The lowest circular non-powered orbit is around 150km.
There's nothing arbitrary about the Karman line [wikipedia.org], aside from picking a static round number close to the value. It's the place where a plane would need to be at orbital speed to get lift from the wings.
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The rocket used for this launch is one of the smaller rockets Iran uses for the purpose.
Their main rocket carried a 50kg satellite to 500km in 2011 and their new rocket (i.e. Simorgh with 4 engines in first stage) is able to launch very much bigger loads.
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Find the time? It provided him with a way to avoid distractions while coming up with new absurd/asinine things to say on the international stage!
WHAT do THEY WANT?!! (Score:5, Funny)