Debate on India's mission to moon

[krishnan]

Hope everyone has been following India's new satellite launch last week. Again all talks of a moon mission around 2008 started now. The question is

Do we need to invest on it? Both US and former USSR (Now Russia) stopped sending manned mission to moon as that would'nt be worth it. All talks of getting energy from He3 (If at all it's feasible to get it from moon) seems to be a distant probability. Even if we are able to locate He3 presence, I would assume that one will have to dig in like a coal or gold mine. Assume that we do that too using robots, then comes the question of transporting it back to earth. And then there's another problem currently there are no reactors in the world that's capable of handling He3.

So what are the benefits for common man in it? Do you guys think there'll be any research benefits out of it?

If it is only to prove our technological might is it really worth and can we afford it? The same amount could be used for lot of infrastructure and needy projects, or even to other useful scientific projects. What do you all say?