Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently revealed an ambitious 10-year space program for the country early this week, which includes Moon missions, sending Turkish cosmonauts into space and developing globally viable satellite systems.
The president announced the program, viewed as part of his vision for positioning Turkey in an expanded regional and global function, during a live telecast event tied-up with special effects.
According to a report from SFGATE.com, President Erdogan said that Turkey was planning to establish a pioneering "contact with the moon in 2023," when the nation marks its 100th year of the founding of Turkish Republic.
The initial stage of this said mission, the nation's leader elaborated, would be "through international cooperation," the second stage on the other hand, would use the rockets of Turkey.
Moon Mission
The Turkish president also said that his administration's primary and most essential objective for the country's national space program is the Republic's contact -- in its centennial year -- with the moon.
"God willing," he continued, "We're going to the moon."
President Erdogan also made a declaration that the aim of Turkey to send citizens of the nation into space with global cooperation, to work with other nations on developing a spaceport and to create a worldwide brand in terms of satellite technology.
The country leader added, he's hoping that this said roadmap, which will bring the nation to the top league in worldwide space race, will successfully materialize and come to life.
Turkey instituted the Turkish Space Agency or TUA about three years ago, with an objective of joining several other countries that have space programs.
Promising Space Program Amidst Criticisms
Critics are now questioning the decision of the government to spend huge amounts of money on that specific goal at a time, they say, when the economy of the country is suffering.
Supporters say though that a promising program will generate jobs for researchers and possibly reduce brain drain of travelling researchers.
President Erdogan did not give any detail on how Turkey is planning to attain such goals. In January, he and Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO spoke via a telephone call and discussed collaboration on space technologies with companies in Turkey.
Meanwhile, a recent New York Post report said, the metal monolith that "mysteriously appeared and disappeared on a field in southeast Turkey" seemed to be a "publicity gimmick" prior to the main event.
The 10-feet high metal slab that had the inscription: "Look at the sky, you will see the moon," translated by writing in an olden Turkic script was discovered late last week, by a farmer in Sanliurfa province.
More so, the said discovery was located near the UNESCO World Heritage area of Gobekli Tepe, which is considered a home to "megalithic structures" dated thousands of years before Stonehenge, during the 10th BC.
Then yesterday, the said structure was reported to have disappeared which added to the mystery. According to previous reports, the monolith's image was later projected on the screen as the Turkish president said, he's now presenting the 10-year vision of Turkey, "strategy and aims and I say, 'Look at the sky, you will see the moon.'"
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