Hey all ya viewfinders out there ! Tired of zoomin’ on earthlings and landscapes under the sun ? Here is a thrilling chance - Wake up and jump - Now you can try your hand on the red planet ! I can hear you say, ‘We ain’t got a telescope, damn it’ ! Wait, lemme finish - NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission carried a very powerful camera aboard called High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE which has been doing the clicking all these years photographing every possible inch it can, yet covering only less than a percent of total martian surface !

Now NASA and University of Tucson , Arizona’s team for HiRISE have decided to give the public this opportunity to propose imaging targets and share the excitement of seeing your favorite spot on Mars at people-scale resolution ! The idea to take suggestions from the public follows through on the original concept of the HiRISE instrument, when its planners nicknamed it “the people’s camera.” By involving public, the team expects to raise more awareness among the general public for the exploration of the red planet.

All you need to do is to login to the HiRISE team page at http://www.uahirise.org/suggest/ where the team has developed an online mapping tool called ‘HiWish’ to locate the areas of the martial surface where to click next ! You have to give your ‘point of interest’ or target observation a title, explain the potential scientific benefit of photographing the site and put the suggestion into one of the camera team’s 18 science themes. The themes include categories such as impact processes, seasonal processes and volcanic processes.(see below for some of the astonishing Mars images from HiRISE)

Public suggestions will get into a priority queue after evaluation by HiRISE team. Thousands of pending targets from scientists and the public will be imaged when the orbiter’s track and other conditions are right.

Kudos to NASA for proving once again that it is not only the most technically advanced Space research wing but also the most public friendly scientific research organization.

Inspite of being the first person on Space, Russian Cosmonaut is definitely less popular than Neil Armstrong as the world still remembers Neil Armstrong better as the first person to land on the moon’s surface. So how many would remember Astronaut T.J. Creamer for any good reason ? Well, the obvious reason seems to be a ‘packet of data’ a.k.a ‘tweet’ sent from space to the micro-blogging site Twitter. This happened after the NASA crew has been given wireless intenet connecitvity in the International Space Station.

The first tweet from space by NASA’s Expedition 22 Flight Engineer T.J.Creamer under twitter account name @Astro_TJ has received tremendous response with a huge 19,000 followers until this afternoon.

“Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station — the 1st live tweet from Space! More soon, send your ?s,”

To be frank, I aint no great fan of this tweet revolution in the internet, yet here I am compelled to end it this way - One small tweet for Twitter and a giant leap for NASA !

The latest buzz  tickin’ among space engineering camps is that a group of elite engineers from the Seattle based LaserMotive have bagged the prestigious $ 900,000 NASA challenge for building a robotic climber as a space elevator powered from the ground up with a laser. This challenge project is called the Power Beaming Challenge

The rules of this challenge are to build a mechanical climber which is powered by wireless power transmission, notably by LASER, to climb up a vertical cable to a velocity of 3-5 m/s.

Among all the prominent entrants to the challenge, only LaserMotive team was able to achieve 4 times the feat of climbing the 1 km high tether that was dropped from a helicopter with their robotic climber at an amazing speed of about 4 m/s.

History of this Idea !

Before the advent of 20th century did somebody think of flying as feasible task ? Even if it was, it was to be in fantasy stories and fictions. On the same vein,  do we have ever thought of going to space without a rocket. Definitely weird ? How could one possibly go without the escape velocity being attained ?

Strange idea this though - building an elevator to zero gravity a.k.a space - this idea first surfaced in the19th century by the father of rocket science, Constantin Tsiolkovsky. He proposed a compressive structure (impressed by Eiffel tower) to be built from bottom up. Some more scientists took some modifications to the idea proposing a top-down approach of delivering a cable from a rocket from the geo-synchronous orbit (say, 35000 km up ).

Latest Advances:

Now the idea is refined by conscious groups who are pursuing  the space elevator research. This is how a space elevator is deemed to work - First a stable platform, similar to an oil rig would be built in the sea. Then a rocket would launch a special satellite into space that would position itself in geo-stationary orbit over the platform. This means that the satellite would remain directly over the platform for its entire deployment. Next the satellite would begin to drop a ribbon or tether all the way down to earth. New technologies in nanotechnology are making the development of a light-weight but strong tether possible. Once the tether reached the platform, it would be attached.

So, What makes the cut ?

Some may question the very feasibility of having such an idea and implementing it. Well, though the initial cost of setting things up - for the Geo-stationary satellite as the counter weight, dropping the tether down to earth and fixing it up in here - the cost of launching things to space will be immensely reduced when compared to traditional satellite lauching or reaching space by Rockets.

PS : I am really baffled and taken aback at this very idea that looks like science fiction ; Truly novel and innovative. Wanna end the story with this Einstein’s quote : Ideas Rule the World !!

The second satellite in ESA’s Earth Explorer series – the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission – and the second demonstration satellite under ESA’s Project for Onboard Autonomy (Proba-2) were launched into orbit last night from northern Russia. The satellites were launched atop a Rockot launch vehicle provided by Eurockot GmbH.

SMOS Mission:

SMOS is a 658-kg satellite developed by ESA in cooperation with France’s CNES and Spain’s Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (CDTI). It is based on the Proteus small satellite platform designed and built by Thales Alenia Space and its payload is composed of a single instrument, the Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS), developed by EADS CASA Espacio.

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The Indian Space Research Organization’s chief Dr.G.Madhavan Nair handed over his chair to the present chairman of the Vikarm Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Dr.K.Radhakrishnan.

60 year old Dr.Radhakrishnan today assumed office as the Chairman of the ISRO as well as Chairman, Space Commission and Secretary, Department of Space. Dr.Radhakrishnan is an avionics expert for about 35 years and hails from Irinjalakkuda in Thrissur district of Kerala. He joined ISRO in 1973 after completing his graduation as Electronics Engineer from the Kerala University. He later pursued his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and Ph.D from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

Posts held:

Dr.Radhakrishnan has held several posts such as Project Director for setting up Regional Remote-sensing Service Centres, Director of Budget and Economic Analysis for ISRO and Mission Director of Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development. He has had a short stint in the Ministry of Earth Sciences in 2004-2005 as the founder Director of Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) and first Project Director of Indian National Tsunami Warning System. From 2005 to 2008, he was Director, National Remote-Sensing Agency, Hyderabad, which has now been renamed National Remote-Sensing Centre (NRSC).

Address to the media:

After assuming charge this is what he had to say to the media gathering:

“It is with high hopes and great expectations that I am taking over this responsibility. It is a huge task that has been entrusted on me. I am confident that we will be able to achieve our goals with the dedicated work and support of the entire team of ISRO”

He also said, “A huge responsibility has been placed on me and at this moment I would like to thank all my gurus (teachers) and among them are Nair and other former ISRO chairmen like Kasturi Rangan and U.R. Rao,”

He also emphasized his immediate priority will be the successful flight of GSLV-D3 in December 2009 with an Indian cryogenic stage.

SpaceBoy Welcomes !!

SpaceBoy.in takes special pride in welcoming the new Chairman of ISRO Dr.Radhakrishnan and wishes all success to him and his team for all the hard work and perseverance in every project to make India a spear head in Space technology and also Salutes the outgoing Chairman Dr.G.Madhavan Nair for all his enduring support in making a daunting 25 successful missions Chandrayaan a great success ! You will be gratefully remembered by the Indian Space enthusiasts for making us all proud !

NASA’s Next generation spacecraft and launch vehicle system, Ares I-X was launched successfully on a test flight yesterday from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral in Florida. The test flight of this 100 m tall giant rocket was meant to be short lived for about two minutes, into the clear skies of florida skies amid much expectations, carrying hardware equipment and sensors that yielded data to determine the accuracy of trajectory and a gamut of other in flight characteristics.

The rocket soared high up about 46 kms and landed about 240 km from the launch pad with the help of parachute equipped with sensors tracking its trajectory. A whopping 700 sensors mounted on the vehicle provide flight test engineering data to correlate with computer models and analysis. Ares-I is the first step in the promise NASA is deemed to deliver as the  replacement of its ageing space-fleet shuttles, to keep its momentum in the space technology and its planned event of returning to the moon with astronauts in 2014.

“The most valuable learning is through experience and observation,” said Bob Ess, Ares I-X mission manager. “Tests such as this — from paper to flight — are vital in gaining a deeper understanding of the vehicle, from design to development.”

As per the reports from the NASA, ISRO and a paper pubished in the September 24th edition of Science Express journal, Chandrayaan mission has found some conclusive evidence in agreement with the independent observations from other missions like -Nasa’s Cassini as well as Epoxi Spacecraft;

To clear a misconception in the very beginning -  when we say there has been evidence of water on the moon it does not mean there are lakes and  rivers or even ponds and puddles up there. NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper or M3 (M-Cube) for short aboard the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan mission was a sophisticated Spectrometer that measured the reflectance from the lunar surface in infra-red wavelengths that clearly indicated the absorption in the specific wavelengths associated with the water molecules, or the hydroxyl ions (OH-) to be specific.  This means that there are trace concentrations of water molecules and hydroxyl ions in the top layer (in millimeters) of lunar soil and weathered rocks.

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ISRO has struck again, proving its mettle in the reliability of technology in Satellite launching. With its 16th consecutive success after launching India’s Oceansat-2 and six piggybacking nano satellites, the 44m tall PSLV stands even more taller for its epitome of success rate in the international space race.

Except for the first and final loss during its maiden flight in 1993, there is no turning back for this 230 tonne workhorse. Eighteen minutes after launch from ISRO space center in Sriharikota, PSLV-C14’s fourth stage ejected the main payload of its flight - Oceansat-2 in Sun-synchronous orbit 728 km above earth’s surface.

ISRO chairman made an interesting comment about this. He said:

“The PSLV is like a wine. With age, it only improves,”

There was a semi-major hitch during the 52 hour countdown for the launch when there was a leak in the vehicle’s reaction control package. A team led by M.Y.S. Prasad, Range Operations Director, saw the anomaly being rectified without losing a single minute in the countdown.

A satellite tracking observation unit in Antarctica had tracked and confirmed its positioning in orbit.

Close on the heels of the eleven payload Chandrayaan-1 mission ending near successfull, ISRO is gearing up for another massive launch of seven satellites with its indigenously developed PSLV-C14 rocket on a tentative date this september end. (23rd, wednesday)

PSLV C-14

PSLV C-14 is India’s workhorse launch vehicle which is a unique four stage engine that uses solid and liquid fuels alternatively. Standing 44m tall and weighing 230 tonnes at lift off, It is a core-alone version without the six strap on motors attached in the standard version.

PSLV C-14 is the fifth core-alone mission of PSLV family. (PSLV C-11 launched the moon mission - Chandrayaan-1). PSLV series of launch vehicles have the greatest success rate in the history of world space agencies, with 14 successive launches being successful of its past fifteen missions.

PSLV also has demonstrated its multiple satellite launch capabilities in the past and is continuing this legacy with this mission also - launching 7 payloads- One major payload being India’s Indigenously built Oceansat-2 and six nano satellites from other countries.

The fourth stage of the vehicle will launch five satellites one after the other into orbit with the mission main payload Oceansat-2 being injected into orbit first. The two Rubinsats each weighing 8 kg, which are educational satellites from Luxembourg and Germany would not get ejected but will remain attached to the rocket for its mission. These two satellites would test some new technology in space.

Oceansat-2:

The apple of the eye in the payload is India’s prestigious Rs.130 crore Oceansat-2, to study earth’s ocean surface. The satellite weighs nearly a tonne (960 kg). The satellite will be delivered to be functional in the sun-synchronous orbit 720 km above from the surface.

Oceansat-2 will investigate the interaction between oceans and the atmosphere to facilitate study of climate. It will study the wind above the oceans, and the sea surface temperature. The satellite will help in identifying schools of fish, predicting the state of the sea, keeping a tab on the phytoplankton blooms and studying suspended sediments in water. It is worthy to note the prequel Oceansat-1 launched in 1999 is still working more than its designed service period of five years.

The Payload includes three instruments :

1. Ocean Colour Monitor (OCO) ,
2. Ku-band Pencil beam Scatterometer,
3. Radio Occultation Sounder for Atmospheric Studies (ROSA).

OCM is a successful repeat candidate in this mission too. Data from OCM in Oceansat-1 was used for many applications like Coastal water pollution, Sedimentation monitoring, Estimation of water vapour content in the atmosphere, prediction of monsoon and Oil slicks monitoring.

ROSA is said to be a GPS receiver built by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) that measures the position, time and velocity for real time navigation;  it also measures the vertical profiles of the atmospheric parameters like density, refractivity, temperature, humidity and pressure.

In a press statement released here in Bangalore on September 8th, ISRO has enthused the scientific community in announcing the data collected by the massively numerous eleven payloads it carried for studying the lunar surface is healthy enough to consider the mission a success.

Chandrayaaan -1 mission scientists and experts teams from ISRO, NASA and ESA have met here in Bangalore to analyse and review the data from the payloads. Read through for ISRO statement :

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