It could be a action-filled month with regards to space and astronomy.
First, if all is a `go' the three-stage indigenous Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) powered with a Russian cryogenic engine carrying the GSat-5p communication satellite is slated for launch between December 10 and 20. The original launch window was from December 10 to December 15.
The India-made GSat-5p satellite weighing approx 2300 kgs, having a 12-year life span, has 24 normal c band transponders and 12 extended c-band transponders. Its role: to augment tv and telecommunication services. The satellite will replace the ageing Insat-2e satellite.
The G-Sat-5p will be positioned in the geostationary orbit 36,000 kms above the equator.
After this Isro can launch just one more GSLV with a Russian cryogenic engine. Following the final GSLV mission with a Russian engine, space experts wonder when the next launch of this rocket will be scheduled because it will be powered with an indigenous cryogenic engine. The maiden attempt to launch a GSLV with an Indian engine flopped in on April 15, 2010. Isro chief, K. Radhakrishnan, announced that day that within a year a GSLV will fly with an indigenous engine. This means that it will lift off between March and April 2011.
Will Isro be able to adhere to this schedule?
Another event which can occur this month is the launch of the final flight of Nasa's space shuttle ``Discovery,'' to the International Space Station. The earlier date fixed for the mission was December 17,2010. But in view of the huge amount of repairs which have to be carried out the shuttle's external tank following a series of cracks, Nasa officials are doubtful about launching the shuttle on that date. Speculation is rife in space circles that the status will turn green for lift only in February 2011.
On the astronomy front, the month will witness the annual Gemenid meteor showers and a lunar eclipse.
Will announce the dates soon.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Mumbai goes to the moon
On Monday morning, ``Beyond Moon and Mars, (BMM)'' was among the hundreds of visitors, mostly drivers in white uniforms with placards, hotel reps and a few family members, standing in the arrival zone of the swanky and renovated terminal 1a of Mumbai airport at Santa Cruz. The information board provided the updated flight data, Except for an extremely brief moment, there was a constant flow of pax from the arrival hall, most of them talking on their mobile,
Spontaneously they, were received by the drivers and hotel reps who immediately grabbed the baggage trolleys and escorted their guests to the vehicles. This is has now become a mechanical process! Some had come with just a lap top to give a presentation and return by their evening flight. There was sense of excitement in the area because three sports people who had won medals at the Asian games had arrived and were giving bytes to the electronic media.
The time was 9.25 a.m. and the person whom I had come to receive from Hyderabad should be coming out any moment. But there was no sign of him. Though we are constantly in touch on the telephone,or e mail, this was the first time I was meeting him and I was looking forward to shaking hands with him. Wait, you will know who he is.
The indicator showed that the Air India flight from Hyderabad was 30 minutes behind schedule. At 10.10 a.m., it said that the flight had finally landed. Five and 10 minutes passed and there was no sign of my friend from Hyderabad. Has he, by chance, missed the flight? Twenty minutes--where is my friend? A panic situation prevaled and I called my good friend, Dhaval Desai, of the prestigious think tank,Observer Research Foundation, and explained the situation. I started breaking into a cold sweat because I was wondering what would be the fate of the evening presentation by my friend organised by the foundation.
I tried reaching my friend from Hyderabad on the cell, but it was futile. The enterprising Dhaval atlast managed to access him---he was still inside the aircraft because the plane had not yet reached the parking bay! After several attempts I too at last got to speak to him Yes, he was waiting to disembark! What a relief!
I waited and waited and there he was---at last! He is none other than Syed Maqbool Ahmed, the man behind the discovery of water and carbon diaxide on the moon by Chandrayaan-1. He was the project manager of an instrument known as Chace (Chandra Altitudunal Composition Explorer) on board the 30-kg Moon Impact Probe (MIP) of Chandrayaan-1 which crash landed on the south pole region of the moon on the night of November 14,2008. Chace discovered water and CO2 during the MIP's 22-minute flight to the moon after it separated from the mother craft. It had made this sensational discovery even before the other scientific instruments of Chandrayaan-1 had become operational, I felt honoured to shake hands with him. What a moment.
I know Syed likes to interact with students. So while driving out of the airport, I called my wife Usha, and inquired whether we could drop in for a few minutes at her office, Muktangan a NGO. Muktangan is partnering with the muncipal corporation in running schools. It was a tough day for Usha because she had an open day at Rimanika's (my daughter) school which is JB Petit. Honestly I am scared of these open days! Also she had to attend to our car's insurance. Despite this she said yes, and we went to her office at Worli en route home.
Usha introduced all her colleagues, including Sunil Mehta, managing trustee, Paragon Charitable Trust-Muktangan, to Syed. They seemed pretty thrilled and excited meeting the very person who is credited with discovering water and carbon diaxide on the moon through the Chandrayaan-1 mission. After spending a few minutes in the office, accompanied by Usha's helpful colleague, Kinjal, we went to the nearby Globe Mill Passage School which is backed by BMC and Muktangan.
It was at this moment that Mumbaikars--both young and old--were rocketed to the moon on Monday--a day which one will never forget.
Originally, Syed was supposed to interact with the youngsters and teachers only for a few moments, but it stretched to nearly 45 minutes. They put a variety of questions to him--about the moon, planets, human space flight and related areas--and he patiently answered all their questions. Pointing to the image of the MIP on my T-shirt he explained the role of this instrument in the Chandrayaan-1 mission. This T-shirt which Rimanika ordered for my birthday certainly had an educational role! Syed was extremely happy with the quality of the questions. A school volunteer, Sanjana Sheth, incidentally a ex-JB ite, came out of the room and asked Syed questions while we were leaving, which he answered in detail. ``The questions were wonderful. They are so intelligent and enthusiastic,'' he told Kinjal.
From the school to my home in Breach Candy where I introduced him to Rimanika, showed him all that I had connected with Chandrayaan-1 mission---video recordings, books and posters. I also showed him Neil Armstrong's autograph on one of my books about the Apollo 11 mission---``First On The Moon.'' Syed was nice enough to copy his evening presentation about Chandrayaan and Chace to my computer. Thank u Syed.
I then took the moonman to lunch at a restaurant close home called ``The Sun.!'' While walking to the restaurant, he telephoned Pradeep Mohandas, my good friend, and secretary of India chapter of Moon Society. Syed was keen that Pradeep should attend his presentation because he writes an informative blog and has a good knowledge of the developments in the space sector. But unfortunately he could not make it because he has to appear for an examination on December 1. All the best Pradeep. Better luck next time!
A quick vegetarian lunch and we were back home, Briefly showed him the dvd ``The Moon Wtihin Reach,---the Chandrayaan-1 Saga Continuos'' produced by an organisation which is an afflilate of Isro.Syed could only copy part of it on his pen drive, It was brief because we had to leave for the ppt at the Observer Research Foundation. The time was around 3.30 p.m.
On the way to the foundation's office, located in the NKM International House at Backbay Reclamation, we stopped at the Saraswathi Temple near JB Petit High School and introduced Syed to the priest who is a good friend of mine. He was certaintly thrilled to see Syed.
We reached ORF around 4.30 p.m.and met its chairman, the extremely affable Sudheen Kulkarni, in his office. Later, after the ppt Sudheen had an interesting story as to how the mission was named Chandrayaan--none of us knew this aspect. He has worked with former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee and was at the Red Fort on August 15,2003, when he made the grand announcement about the Indian moon mission and christened it, ``Chandrayaan.'' I plan to interview Sudheen about this and write a blog.
Syed was happy to meet his former colleague from University of Hyderabad, Leena, who introduced him to the audience, after a curtain raiser by Sudheen. The guests included director of Nehru Science Centre, Anil Manekar, who readily agreed to preside over the function, and Nehru Planetarium director, Piyush Pandey.
In his ppt at the ORF Syed justified the Rs 386-crore Indian lunar mission, saying it had led to a lot engineering and technological spin offs, created new business opportunities for Isro’s commercial arm, Antrix Corporation, placed India on par with other global space powers, rejunuvated the mind of the younger generation, triggered a feeling of national pride and was the first step towards embarking on a mission to Mars.
Also Chandrayaan-1 was the world’s first global effort in launching a mission to the moon, he said. Apart from the five Indian instruments there were six from abroad—two from Nasa, three from the European Space Agency and one from Bulgaria
The man behind India
According to Syed one of the important benefits of the Chandrayaan-1 mission was that it had completely scotched suggestions that Nasa’s Apollo manned flights to the moon were faked. ``Such rumours were spread in bad spirit by some eccentric people,’’ he said. ``The Terrain Mapping Camera of Chandrayaan-1 had taken shots of the descent stage of Apollo’s lunar module,’’ he said.
He attributed the success of Chandrayaan-1 to what he called unbiased selection of projects, a thorough assessment of these projects by experts and more importantly the freedom given to junior team members to freely question their seniors ignoring hierarchy if they had any doubt. ``This is an important aspect of Isro’s work culture which has resulted in the success of many of its missions,’’ he told the audience.
Referring to the discovery of water on the moon, he said while Nasa’s two payloads on board Chandrayaan-1, the Moon Minerology Mapper and the Mini-Sar used remote sensing methods to detect water, the indigenous Chace on the other hand employed direct measurement which in plain terms meant that it was the actual sampling of the lunar environment.
According to him one of the reasons behind the success of Chace is because of meticulous planning by the design team in setting the instrument parameters in such a way that the equipment was kept in its ``highest sensitive regime.’’ ``This helped in overcoming the failures faced in earlier attempts employing similar mass spectrometer-based observations by Apollo-era experiments,’’ he stated.
Prior to launch the Chace instrument was subjected to severe vibration tests because it had to withstand 22gs during lift off by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) at Sriharikota.
At the end I had dinner with Syed at the Chaitanya Tower guest house at Prabhadevi not far from the Siddhivinayak Temple, and left for home around 10 p.m.
It was a memorable day. Thank U ORF for giving me this opportunity!
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Italy--not just pizzas and pastas, But also rockets and satellites.
Italy is not just about pizzas and pastas. But it is also about rockets and satellites.
Recently, ``Beyond Moon and Mars (BMM)'' has embarked on a mission of making the unknown, the known. What does it mean? It has started highlighting the achievements of space agencies which do not receive much publicity like for example, Nasa. Recently, Rosa, the Romanian Space Agency, figured in this blog. Today it is the turn of Italy which launched into the space era in 1964 resulting in the formation of the Italian Space Agency in 1988.
According to the Italian Space Agency, the nation's space adventure started at Nasa's Wallop's Island in the US. Incidentally, it was at this centre where Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and some other Indian rocket scientists received their initial training in the sounding rocket programme.
Italy actually entered the space era with the launch of the San Marc satellite in December 1964 for studying the earth's atmosphere. This was a colloborative project between the University of Rome and Nasa. With this launch, Italy became the third country in the world after the former Soviet Union and the US to launch its own satellite.
Following the formation of the Italian Space Agency, Italy has become one of the major players in the field of space sciences, satellite technologies and development of systems for exploring the universe. While a global space power like India is still debating whether it join the 17-member International Space Station, Italy is a participant through Leonardo, a logistics module, and also the interconnecting element between the space station's labs.
Over the years, Italy has launched satellites for observing the earth relating to environmental monitoring and security.
As a part of its international colloboration, an Italian satellite, ``Agile,'' dedicated to the critical field of astrophysics, was launched by Isro's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on April 23, 2007. For the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn launched on October 15,1997, it developed the antennas.
In 2013-14, the European Space Agency is launching the Beppi Colombo mission to Mercury. Again Italy will be on it with four experiments.
Italy is spreading its wings deep into space and perhaps someday will launch its own flight to Moon and Mars. It has the capability. The countdown has started. Let us wait for this day. It is not far off.
Italy therefore is not just about pizzas and pastas. It is also about rockets and satellites.
ends
Recently, ``Beyond Moon and Mars (BMM)'' has embarked on a mission of making the unknown, the known. What does it mean? It has started highlighting the achievements of space agencies which do not receive much publicity like for example, Nasa. Recently, Rosa, the Romanian Space Agency, figured in this blog. Today it is the turn of Italy which launched into the space era in 1964 resulting in the formation of the Italian Space Agency in 1988.
According to the Italian Space Agency, the nation's space adventure started at Nasa's Wallop's Island in the US. Incidentally, it was at this centre where Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and some other Indian rocket scientists received their initial training in the sounding rocket programme.
Italy actually entered the space era with the launch of the San Marc satellite in December 1964 for studying the earth's atmosphere. This was a colloborative project between the University of Rome and Nasa. With this launch, Italy became the third country in the world after the former Soviet Union and the US to launch its own satellite.
Following the formation of the Italian Space Agency, Italy has become one of the major players in the field of space sciences, satellite technologies and development of systems for exploring the universe. While a global space power like India is still debating whether it join the 17-member International Space Station, Italy is a participant through Leonardo, a logistics module, and also the interconnecting element between the space station's labs.
Over the years, Italy has launched satellites for observing the earth relating to environmental monitoring and security.
As a part of its international colloboration, an Italian satellite, ``Agile,'' dedicated to the critical field of astrophysics, was launched by Isro's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on April 23, 2007. For the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn launched on October 15,1997, it developed the antennas.
In 2013-14, the European Space Agency is launching the Beppi Colombo mission to Mercury. Again Italy will be on it with four experiments.
Italy is spreading its wings deep into space and perhaps someday will launch its own flight to Moon and Mars. It has the capability. The countdown has started. Let us wait for this day. It is not far off.
Italy therefore is not just about pizzas and pastas. It is also about rockets and satellites.
ends
Hylas launch
Another big event for India's space programme.
On Saturday at 9 a.m. (IST) an advanced communication satellite HYLAS (Highly Adaptable Satellite),
built by ISRO in partnership with EADS-Astrium of Europe, was successfully launched by the European Ariane-5 rocket. The launch took place from the Guyana Space Centre at Kourou in French
Guyana.
As the rocket thundered off the launch pad, the space scientists broke into an applause. And 35 minutes after its lift-off, HYLAS separated from the rocket after reaching the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
According to Isro officials, the Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka successfully received radio signals transmitted by HYLAS which indicated that the satellite's health is
normal.
HYLAS satellite developed for Avanti Communications, UK consists of ten
high power transponders that use eight in Ka and two in Ku band frequencies. The satellite is designed to deliver high-speed broadband services through its spot beams over Europe.
The contract for building of satellite was won in the year 2006 after competing along other leading manufacturers of USA and Europe.
Astrium had the responsibility for overall program management and delivery
of the communications payload and Antrix/ISRO provided the satellite bus
and also performed the satellite integration and testing at ISRO's
facility in Bangalore.
HYLAS satellite weighing 2541 kg at lift-off is
the heaviest satellite built by ISRO for I-2K bus capable of operating for
over 15 years mission life as demanded by the customer. The satellite's
solar panels generate a maximum of about 3200 Watts of power.
Antrix/ISRO is also responsible for the post launch operations of HYLAS,
which are being conducted from the Master Control Facility, Hassan. The
operations include firing of the satellite's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) in
three phases to place the satellite in geostationary orbit. The first
firing of LAM is scheduled for the early hours of November 28, 2010.
On Saturday at 9 a.m. (IST) an advanced communication satellite HYLAS (Highly Adaptable Satellite),
built by ISRO in partnership with EADS-Astrium of Europe, was successfully launched by the European Ariane-5 rocket. The launch took place from the Guyana Space Centre at Kourou in French
Guyana.
As the rocket thundered off the launch pad, the space scientists broke into an applause. And 35 minutes after its lift-off, HYLAS separated from the rocket after reaching the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
According to Isro officials, the Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka successfully received radio signals transmitted by HYLAS which indicated that the satellite's health is
normal.
HYLAS satellite developed for Avanti Communications, UK consists of ten
high power transponders that use eight in Ka and two in Ku band frequencies. The satellite is designed to deliver high-speed broadband services through its spot beams over Europe.
The contract for building of satellite was won in the year 2006 after competing along other leading manufacturers of USA and Europe.
Astrium had the responsibility for overall program management and delivery
of the communications payload and Antrix/ISRO provided the satellite bus
and also performed the satellite integration and testing at ISRO's
facility in Bangalore.
HYLAS satellite weighing 2541 kg at lift-off is
the heaviest satellite built by ISRO for I-2K bus capable of operating for
over 15 years mission life as demanded by the customer. The satellite's
solar panels generate a maximum of about 3200 Watts of power.
Antrix/ISRO is also responsible for the post launch operations of HYLAS,
which are being conducted from the Master Control Facility, Hassan. The
operations include firing of the satellite's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) in
three phases to place the satellite in geostationary orbit. The first
firing of LAM is scheduled for the early hours of November 28, 2010.
Friday, November 26, 2010
An unknown story about Chandrayaan's success
``You paid Rs 2,200 for the dvd,'' was the instant response of my good friend, Pradeep Mohandas, when I told him that I had brought the dvd of the famous film, ``The Dish,'' which is a fictionalised account of the role of the Parkes Observatory in Australia in the Apollo 11 mission. The high quality pics of the Neil Armstrong getting off the ladder of the lunar module and stepping on the surface of the moon, were indeed from this observatory.
My reply to him was that if it was concerned with space, I do not mind paying such a huge the amount! After all this dvd is not readily available in the market. My search for the dvd on Thursday evening was prompted by a news given to me by a close friend that that the deep space network in Canberra in Australia had supported the Chandrayaan flight. I visited a new swanky dvd showroom at Kemps Corner, not far from where I stay, and inquired about the disc. The store keeper first said; ``Sorry.We do not have it."' But, then he clarified: ``I think we have it. Let me check.'' He checked his computer, and yes he had it.After a 15-minute search of all the shelves, he managed to locate it and gave it to me, but not before playing the first part in his system.
On Friday, I watched the nearly two-hour film on my computer. To say it was great would indeed be an understatement. The reason: it was absolutely superb and in all probability I may be seeing it again on Saturday night. I told Pradeep that it was certainly worth more than Rs 2,200 and he laughed.
One of the scenes in the film depicts an animated conversation among the Parkes team during dinner which focussed on how many in the world would watch on TV, the first man on the moon. Some one rattled off figures. When it came to India, one of them said a lot of people would see it, ``but there is just one telly.' On hearing this everyone broke into laughter. There was a note of sarcasm in his answer because he clearly meant that India was a backward country with just one TV set!
This was in July 1969 But in 2008 the situation changed and India has been acknowledged as an emerging space power and what better proof of this than the success of the Chandrayaan-1 mission?
``Beyond Moon and Mars (BMM) has learnt that the Deep space network of Canberra, Australia was used by ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 lunar craft for maintainence. This is an hitherto unknown story of the Indian moon mission. Australians who in 1969 thought India was a backward nation, now supported its lunar programme! Truly there is a twist of irony in this development.
Chandrayaan-1 lunar craft was designed for two years mission life. However some observations during he early phase of the mission time line called for the accelerated operations of the science instruments to accomplish the mission objectives in the shortest time frame.
So, to operate the lunar craft on 24 X 7 basis, the support of Canberra station was sought by ISRO. The ready acceptance and the extented co-operation by the DSN operation crew enabled ISRO to operate Chandrayaan-1 lunar craft 24 X 7 basis. ``This ensured all the science instruments of Chandryaan-1 to deliver more than 7 TB of data covering the entire moon within an year. This was the secret behind the success of Chandryaan-1 even though the mission survived only 10 months,'' said an official.
The support provided by Canberra station which was not originally planned prior to the start of the mission, has it's own share in the historical discovery of water on the lunar surface and lunar ice in the craters of lunar poles etc, says the official.
Rs 2,200 for ``The Dish,'' was certainly worth it!
ends
My reply to him was that if it was concerned with space, I do not mind paying such a huge the amount! After all this dvd is not readily available in the market. My search for the dvd on Thursday evening was prompted by a news given to me by a close friend that that the deep space network in Canberra in Australia had supported the Chandrayaan flight. I visited a new swanky dvd showroom at Kemps Corner, not far from where I stay, and inquired about the disc. The store keeper first said; ``Sorry.We do not have it."' But, then he clarified: ``I think we have it. Let me check.'' He checked his computer, and yes he had it.After a 15-minute search of all the shelves, he managed to locate it and gave it to me, but not before playing the first part in his system.
On Friday, I watched the nearly two-hour film on my computer. To say it was great would indeed be an understatement. The reason: it was absolutely superb and in all probability I may be seeing it again on Saturday night. I told Pradeep that it was certainly worth more than Rs 2,200 and he laughed.
One of the scenes in the film depicts an animated conversation among the Parkes team during dinner which focussed on how many in the world would watch on TV, the first man on the moon. Some one rattled off figures. When it came to India, one of them said a lot of people would see it, ``but there is just one telly.' On hearing this everyone broke into laughter. There was a note of sarcasm in his answer because he clearly meant that India was a backward country with just one TV set!
This was in July 1969 But in 2008 the situation changed and India has been acknowledged as an emerging space power and what better proof of this than the success of the Chandrayaan-1 mission?
``Beyond Moon and Mars (BMM) has learnt that the Deep space network of Canberra, Australia was used by ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 lunar craft for maintainence. This is an hitherto unknown story of the Indian moon mission. Australians who in 1969 thought India was a backward nation, now supported its lunar programme! Truly there is a twist of irony in this development.
Chandrayaan-1 lunar craft was designed for two years mission life. However some observations during he early phase of the mission time line called for the accelerated operations of the science instruments to accomplish the mission objectives in the shortest time frame.
So, to operate the lunar craft on 24 X 7 basis, the support of Canberra station was sought by ISRO. The ready acceptance and the extented co-operation by the DSN operation crew enabled ISRO to operate Chandrayaan-1 lunar craft 24 X 7 basis. ``This ensured all the science instruments of Chandryaan-1 to deliver more than 7 TB of data covering the entire moon within an year. This was the secret behind the success of Chandryaan-1 even though the mission survived only 10 months,'' said an official.
The support provided by Canberra station which was not originally planned prior to the start of the mission, has it's own share in the historical discovery of water on the lunar surface and lunar ice in the craters of lunar poles etc, says the official.
Rs 2,200 for ``The Dish,'' was certainly worth it!
ends
Thursday, November 25, 2010
IAA and Planetary robotic exploration
Not many perhaps are aware that all these years there has been a rivalry between two of Nasa's key space centres--the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at Pasadena in California, and the Johnson Space Centre at Houson which is dedicated to manned space flights.
While the former has always insisted that unmanned interplanetary space probes have made a lot of new discoveries and attained scientific breakthroughs, and thus are better than manned space missions, the Houston team feels just the opposite.This controversy has raged for years and top officials of Nasa at the agency's HQ in Washington are also divided on this issue. In the opinion of ``Beyond Moon and Mars (BMM)'' while the Apollo manned missions to the moon between 1969 and 1972 were undoubtedly a great technogical feat, scientifically,however, were of little significance--a fact aknowledged by none other than Nasa itself. Also what was the real scientific gain by astronauts and cosmonauts visiting the International Space Station?
It is in this context, that the equal importance given to human space flight as well as planetary robotic exploration at the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) conference on November 17 2010 in Washington assumes significance.
BMM on Thursday had highlighted IAA's report about human space flight project. Today it is about planetary robotic exploration, though not in much detail.
The report says: ``We have reached the stage at which our robotic explorers must be even more sophisticated and capable, and they must operate successfully in a wider range of environments throughout the solar system, if we are to answer the next set of compelling scientific questions, many of which are directed at the age-old question: ``Did life arise elsewhere outside the earth?''
It says a programme of significantly expanded breadth and depth will be required that is well beyond the means of any given nation to pursue alone.
According to the IAA document the robotic explorers ``should pave the way for expanded human exploration through attainment of critical knowledge of relevant destinations.''
When it talks about life outside the earth, could it mean planets other than Mars?
This question needs to be answered.
----------------------
Sorry Discovery.
The highly jinxed space shuttle ``Discovery's'' launch could be resked into Christmas or even February 2011.
This has become necessary because of the massive repairs which have to be carried out to the shuttle's external tanks.
The other factor which is upsetting the launch sked is the uncertain weather at the Kennedy Space Centre.
When Discovery roars off the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Centre--whenever it is--be sure of a rousing send off! And also a grand welcome when it returns after 11 days. This will be its last mission---assuming of course that the shuttle does take off someday!!
While the former has always insisted that unmanned interplanetary space probes have made a lot of new discoveries and attained scientific breakthroughs, and thus are better than manned space missions, the Houston team feels just the opposite.This controversy has raged for years and top officials of Nasa at the agency's HQ in Washington are also divided on this issue. In the opinion of ``Beyond Moon and Mars (BMM)'' while the Apollo manned missions to the moon between 1969 and 1972 were undoubtedly a great technogical feat, scientifically,however, were of little significance--a fact aknowledged by none other than Nasa itself. Also what was the real scientific gain by astronauts and cosmonauts visiting the International Space Station?
It is in this context, that the equal importance given to human space flight as well as planetary robotic exploration at the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) conference on November 17 2010 in Washington assumes significance.
BMM on Thursday had highlighted IAA's report about human space flight project. Today it is about planetary robotic exploration, though not in much detail.
The report says: ``We have reached the stage at which our robotic explorers must be even more sophisticated and capable, and they must operate successfully in a wider range of environments throughout the solar system, if we are to answer the next set of compelling scientific questions, many of which are directed at the age-old question: ``Did life arise elsewhere outside the earth?''
It says a programme of significantly expanded breadth and depth will be required that is well beyond the means of any given nation to pursue alone.
According to the IAA document the robotic explorers ``should pave the way for expanded human exploration through attainment of critical knowledge of relevant destinations.''
When it talks about life outside the earth, could it mean planets other than Mars?
This question needs to be answered.
----------------------
Sorry Discovery.
The highly jinxed space shuttle ``Discovery's'' launch could be resked into Christmas or even February 2011.
This has become necessary because of the massive repairs which have to be carried out to the shuttle's external tanks.
The other factor which is upsetting the launch sked is the uncertain weather at the Kennedy Space Centre.
When Discovery roars off the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Centre--whenever it is--be sure of a rousing send off! And also a grand welcome when it returns after 11 days. This will be its last mission---assuming of course that the shuttle does take off someday!!
Navalgund and disaster management--at the Washington space summit
None other than the director of the Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre, the very affable R.R.Navalgund, has made a critical assessment of the state of earth observation satellites during the heads of space agencies summit in Washington on November 17, 2010. It was orgnised by the International Academy of Astronautics to mark its 50th year.
The thrust of his presentation was that there was a need to strengthen the constellation of earth observation satellites for monitoring disasters.
Navalgund, who chaired the disaster management group at the Washington space summit, in his ppt made the following points. These are just few of them:-
* Geostationary satellites provide data over large areas( eg 1/2 an hour) and are appropriate for detecting, monitoring and providing early warning for some of the meteorological disasters such as tropical cyclones. But, they do not provide adequate spatial and spectral resolution for most of the other disasters.
* Satellites with microwave payloads provide information over cloud-covered regions. But, they are limited in number.
* Constellation of satellites specifically designed for disaster management have been initiated by some space agencies. But, they are limited and need improvement.
* Satellites with specific payloads for early warning of natural disasters are few in number.
* While earth observation data is helpful in mapping flood inundation,drought severity assessment, cyclone tracking and mitigation measures, lacunae exist in:-
a----predicting the cyclone landfall point and intensity accurately.
b----Flood forecasting in particular flash floods.
``Beyond Moon and Mars,'' has not reproduced the extremely informative and interesting ppt completely. It will do so in the coming days after studying them. But, the points made by Dr Navalgund which have been reproduced here are of extreme importance and significance and the authorities should respond to them.
-----------------
The thrust of his presentation was that there was a need to strengthen the constellation of earth observation satellites for monitoring disasters.
Navalgund, who chaired the disaster management group at the Washington space summit, in his ppt made the following points. These are just few of them:-
* Geostationary satellites provide data over large areas( eg 1/2 an hour) and are appropriate for detecting, monitoring and providing early warning for some of the meteorological disasters such as tropical cyclones. But, they do not provide adequate spatial and spectral resolution for most of the other disasters.
* Satellites with microwave payloads provide information over cloud-covered regions. But, they are limited in number.
* Constellation of satellites specifically designed for disaster management have been initiated by some space agencies. But, they are limited and need improvement.
* Satellites with specific payloads for early warning of natural disasters are few in number.
* While earth observation data is helpful in mapping flood inundation,drought severity assessment, cyclone tracking and mitigation measures, lacunae exist in:-
a----predicting the cyclone landfall point and intensity accurately.
b----Flood forecasting in particular flash floods.
``Beyond Moon and Mars,'' has not reproduced the extremely informative and interesting ppt completely. It will do so in the coming days after studying them. But, the points made by Dr Navalgund which have been reproduced here are of extreme importance and significance and the authorities should respond to them.
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