Posted on April 7, 2010, at 1:04 am .
GSLV Mark III engine test (Photo: ISRO)
A bit more on India’s planned April 15 test of an indigenous cryogenic upper stage, which is proceeding along with some controversy:
Later this month, if the Indian space agency’s attempt to launch its largest rocket, the GSLV-D3 with an indigenous cryogenic engine succeeds, then India will join the elite club of five nations in the world to have successfully developed such technology.
For the country’s rocket scientists, the yet-to-be-achieved breakthrough is significant on two fronts–one, they will achieve self reliance and confidence in space technology. Two, India will emerge as a serious player in the $4 billion global satellite launch market.
Continue reading ‘India Prepares to Launch GSLV With New Cryo Engine Amid Controversy’
Posted on March 2, 2010, at 3:08 pm .
Mini-SAR map of the Circular Polarization Ratio (CPR) of the north pole of the Moon. Fresh, “normal” craters (red circles) show high values of CPR inside and outside their rims. This is consistent with the distribution of rocks and ejected blocks around fresh impact features, indicating that the high CPR here is surface scattering. The “anomalous” craters (green circles) have high CPR within, but not outside their rims. Their interiors are also in permanent sun shadow. These relations are consistent with the high CPR in this case being caused by water ice, which is only stable in the polar dark cold traps. We estimate over 600 million cubic meters (1 cubic meter = 1 metric ton) of water in these features.
Using data from a NASA radar that flew aboard India’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, scientists have detected ice deposits near the moon’s north pole. NASA’s Mini-SAR instrument, a lightweight, synthetic aperture radar, found more than 40 small craters with water ice. The craters range in size from 1 to 9 miles (2 to15 km) in diameter. Although the total amount of ice depends on its thickness in each crater, it’s estimated there could be at least 1.3 trillion pounds (600 million metric tons) of water ice.
Continue reading ‘Massive Ice Deposits Discovered at Moon’s North Pole’
Posted on December 30, 2009, at 7:27 pm .
ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter
Chandrayaan-1 Project Director M Annadurai has been honored with the H.K. Firodia award for his contribution to India’s first lunar mission. Scientist Yash Pal also was honored for his work in promoting science communication and education.
The awards, which recognize Indian scientific achievements, are named after the late H.K. Firodia, a leader of the country’s auto industry. Yash Pal was given a cash award of Rs two lakh ($4,298) while Annadurai received Rs one lakh ($2,149).
Posted on November 16, 2009, at 11:06 am .
ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter
Why fundamental scientific research has not caught on in India (Comment)
Thaindian News
Even as the nation continues to celebrate the success of Chandrayaan, the country’s first space mission to moon, this is not something one of the seniormost scientists in India, Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao, is particularly thrilled about….
Continue reading ‘Senior Indian Scientist on Chandrayaan-1: Meh!’
Posted on November 5, 2009, at 12:36 am .
Accused spy Stewart David Nozette in India.
An update on the Stewart David Nozette spy case from Talking Points Memo:
The spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy in Washington tells TPMmuckraker that it is watching the espionage case of Stewart Nozette closely following a report that the high-level U.S. government scientist traveled to India with two computer thumb drives in January.
“Definitely we have interest in the news,” said spokesman Nadeen Kiani. “The concerned desk officer is watching [developments].”
Continue reading ‘Nozette’s Missing Thumb Drives Have Pakistan Nervous’
Posted on October 27, 2009, at 2:15 pm .
Accused spy Stewart David Nozette in India.
More pieces of the Stewart David Nozette spy case are falling into place, and they’re revealing a twisted and disturbing picture. The Washington Post reports that Nozette:
- Pleaded guilty in January to over billing NASA and the Department of Defense by more than $265,000 for contracting work between 2000 and 2006;
- Sought to avoid a two-year jail term by cooperating with government officials on unrelated corruption investigations;
- Allegedly told a colleague that he would flee to Israel or India and reveal all the secrets he had if the government put him in jail on his fraud conviction.
Continue reading ‘Nozette Guilty of Defrauding Government, Had Threatened to Flee to India’
Posted on October 22, 2009, at 10:31 pm .
Accused spy Stewart David Nozette in India.
The Indian space agency has began to clam up about accused spy’s Stewart David Nozette’s visits to the country as part of his work on the Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe. The Deccan Herald reports that ISRO is now stonewalling requests for more information:
When contacted, agency spokesperson S Satish said: “I have consulted the concerned department but that information cannot be divulged as it is classified.”
The silence comes amid speculation that India is the “Country A” named in the government’s indictment against Nozette. Although Nozette was arrested for allegedly trying to sell secrets to an undercover FBI agent posing as a representative of the Mossad, there are suspicions that he might have been already spying for “Country A.”
Continue reading ‘ISRO Clams Up on Spy Case, Declares Nozette Info “Classified”’
Posted on October 15, 2009, at 7:07 pm .
Chandrayaan-1 SARA measurements of hydrogen flux recorded on the Moon on 6 February 2009. Credits: Elsevier 2009 (Wieser et al.), ESA-ISRO SARA data
ESA PRESS RELEASE
The Moon is a big sponge that absorbs electrically charged particles given out by the Sun. These particles interact with the oxygen present in some dust grains on the lunar surface, producing water. This discovery, made by the ESA-ISRO instrument SARA onboard the Indian Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, confirms how water is likely being created on the lunar surface.
Continue reading ‘How the Moon Produces Its Own Water’
Posted on October 11, 2009, at 8:50 pm .
ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter
There’s an interesting piece in the Huffington Post by Pinaki Bhattacharya about how the recent announcement about lunar water helped to restore ISRO’s damaged reputation:
For weeks before this, ISRO was being pilloried for the failure and eventual abandonment of the Chandrayaan 1. On 29 August. 2009 the Indian Deep Space Network in Byalalu near Bangalore, lost total contact with Chandrayaan 1. The end was not sudden, nor unexpected. The final failure was a culmination of a number of technical glitches that started to surface soon after the launch of the lunar vehicle.
Continue reading ‘Lunar Water Announcement Pulled ISRO Out of the Fire’
Posted on September 28, 2009, at 9:29 am .
ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter
Scientists would have gathered higher quality data about lunar water if India’s Chandrayaan-1 had fulfilled its full mission at the moon, Aviation Week reports:
M3 managed to map 90 percent of the lunar surface at low resolution before Chandrayaan-1 stopped transmitting signals from lunar orbit on Aug. 29, having completed 10 months of a planned two-year mission.
Had the mission continued, M3 would now be gathering high-resolution data.
Continue reading ‘Chandrayaan-1’s Early Failure Precluded High-Resolution Data on Lunar Water’
Posted on September 25, 2009, at 8:57 pm .
NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper, an instrument on the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 mission, took this image of Earth’s moon. It is a three-color composite of reflected near-infrared radiation from the sun, and illustrates the extent to which different materials are mapped across the side of the moon that faces Earth.
Small amounts of water were detected on the surface of the moon at various locations. This image illustrates their distribution at high latitudes toward the poles.
Blue shows the signature of water, green shows the brightness of the surface as measured by reflected infrared radiation from the sun and red shows an iron-bearing mineral called pyroxene.
Image Credit: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Brown Univ./USGS
Posted on September 25, 2009, at 3:42 pm .
Chandrayaan-1's Moon Impact Probe took this picture on its way down to the lunar surface on November 14, 2008. Credit: ISRO
India’s own probe also found water on moon: ISRO
The Economic Times
India’s own Moon Impact Probe (MIP) on board the country’s maiden lunar craft had discovered water on the moon, a finding confirmed by US space agency NASA’s probe that was also aboard Chandrayaan-1, India’s top space scientist G Madhavan Nair said here on Friday.
Continue reading ‘Nair: India’s Moon Impact Probe Also Detected Water on Moon’
Posted on September 25, 2009, at 3:31 pm .
ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter
India Hails Role Played by its Space Mission in Gathering Evidence of Water on Moon
Voice of America
India is triumphant at the role played by its inaugural moon mission in helping gather evidence that there is water on the moon. Indian scientists hope the latest discovery will bring international recognition to its space program.
The announcement that there is evidence of water on the moon has been made by the U.S. space agency, NASA, after data from their instruments on board an Indian satellite and two other satellites was analyzed…
However, data gathered before the Chandrayan mission was aborted has shown that very fine films of water particles coat the particles that make up the lunar surface. Scientists say it is not enough moisture for homegrown life on the moon but if it were to be processed in mass quantities it might provide drinking water for future moon-dwellers.
The head of India’s space agency, G. Madhavan Nair, called it a “path breaking find” and said that Indians should be proud of the fact that Chandrayan played a role in the discovery.”
Read the full story.
Posted on September 23, 2009, at 12:19 pm .
ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter
Public can go over the moon with ISRO data
Express Buzz
In a move that advances the cause of free sharing of knowledge, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to put out the data collected by its Rs 386-crore unmanned moon mission Chandrayaan- I on the internet.
Continue reading ‘ISRO to Publish Chandrayaan-1 Data Online’
