Tuesday, July 27, 2010

ISRO to confirm Chandrayaan-2 payload


Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) director S.K. Shivakumar said the payload for Chandrayaan-2 will be confirmed at a meeting scheduled to be held in Bangalore on August 3, 2010. "The payloads are currently going through the process of short-listing," he said.
Speaking on 'Chandrayaan-Deep Space Network (DSN)' organized by the Institute of Engineers, Shivakumar said the probe would 'take forward' some of the accomplishments of Chandrayaan-1. He also described the step-by-step installation process of the DNS antenna constructed by ISRO to track signals of Chandrayaan 1.
ISRO constructed two DSN antennas - 32-metre primary antenna and 18-metre sandby antenna, at a cost of Rs. 100 crore at Byalalu on the outskirts of Bangalore. The Deep Space Network antenna is currently tracking the signals of Venus express satellite from Japan and waiting permission from the European Space Agency to track their Mars express satellite. The DSN satellite is epected to provide complete support for Chandrayaan 2. Chandrayaan 2 is scheduled for a 2012 launch and it would have an Indian-made orbiter and rover and a Russian Lander.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

CARTOSAT-2B Sending High Quality images


India's advanced remote sensing satellite CARTOSAT-2B satellite, which was successfully launched by PSLV-C15 on July 12, 2010, into a polar sun-synchronous orbit, is working adequately.  The initial phase of operations of the satellite has been successfully completed. The camera has been switched on, and it is sending high quality images.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

ISRO sends satellites for foreign space agencies


ISRO is getting huge orders from other countries to launch their satellites. For every one kilogram of third party payload that ISRO launches into orbit, the space agency earns an approximate $20,000. Last week too when its polar satellite launch vehicle an Algerian satellite into space orbit, it fetched a neat $4 million, besides more than half a dozen fresh orders. But then, there has never been any dearth of orders. The ISRO’s pipeline is already choked with orders worth Rs 3,000 crore.
“In case of space activity, execution of an order depends on a number of issues, from time schedule and skilled manpower,” says ISRO’s marketing arm’s head K Sridhara Murthi. “The launch services also involve provision of available spare capacity in our vehicles.”
The PSLV, often referred to as ISRO’s workhorse, is the most attractive launch vehicle for the global market because it has the capability to launch multiple satellites. Improved features over the years have not only increased the payload capacity but also acquired an ability to launch different size of satellites into various types of orbits. This flexibility with respect to various payloads and the regular turnaround for annual launch has worked to the agency’s benefit. “We are able to compete with any vehicle in the world in PSLV category,” says Mr Murthi. “But our own vehicles are the priority. Whatever capacity is available after meeting the requirements of our payloads, we offer it to global bodies. Of late, we are getting proposals for dedicated launches from other agencies.”
On the other hand, ISRO is going to launch Jugnu, the 3.5-kg satellite developed by the teachers and students of Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, into a polar orbit sometime in September or October 10.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Microsoft, NASA WorldWide Telescope Focuses On Mars


Software giant Microsoft and NASA have been working together to create an interactive Mars tour. The tour took three years of data crunching on 100 computers to create and is able to show Mars in the highest resolution images available of the planet.
The system uses Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope program and uses images collected from 40 years ago till now. The latter of the images come from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
There are two ways to view the imagery. The first way is to download the Microsoft software and the second is to use the Web client.
The 3-D effect is derived from information provided by an instrument called MOLA, the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, which flew on the Mars Global Surveyor. Scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., combined the data with regular images to come up with 3-D views. The images themselves reside on the Nebula cloud at NASA-Ames.
Read full article about WorldWide Telescope

Monday, July 12, 2010

ISRO’s PSLV Successfully Launches Five Satellites


India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on 12th July, 10 Monday fruitfully placed 5 satellites, the remote sensing satellite Cartosat-2B and four other satellites into orbit.
At the end of an over 51-hour countdown, the 44.4 metre-tall four-stage PSLV-C-15, costing Rs 260 crore, blasted off from a launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre with ignition of the core first stage and placed the satellites in orbit one after the other.
Visibly relieved scientists, headed by ISRO chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan, cheered as ISRO's workhorse PSLV soared into clear skies at 9.22am from the spaceport in the East Coast in Andhra Pradesh, about 100 km north of Chennai.
The PSLV launch assumes significance as it comes about three months after ISRO suffered a major setback on April 15 when the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D3), which was launched using an Indian-designed and built cryogenic engine for the first time, failed and fell into the Bay of Bengal.
Cartosat-2B is an advanced remote sensing satellite built by ISRO. This is the latest in the Indian remote sensing satellite series and the 17th in this series. Cartosat-2B is mainly intended to augment remote sensing data services to the users of multiple spot scene imagery with 0.8 metre spatial resolution and 9.6 km swath in the panchromatic. Cartosat-2 and 2A, two Indian remote sensing satellites in orbit, are currently providing such services.
A set of four satellites including Studsat built by students of seven engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Alsat from Algeria, two nano satellites from Canada and Switzerland, and a pico (very small) satellite called Oceansat 2 accompanied Cartosat 2 on its trip to orbit.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Planck reveals the new Universe picture


European Space Agency has released what it says is the first ever image of the entire universe which will give scientists new insight into how the stars and galaxies form.
The all-sky image produced by space telescope Planck Canalso, tells how the Universe itself came to life after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.
The satellite was launched last year by the ESA under a 600-million euros project to record the origins of the universe. While the satellite was sent nearly a million miles into space, the Planck observatory's job was to look at the age, contents and evolution of the cosmos by studying the heat left behind by the Big Bang.
This multi-frequency all-sky image of the microwave sky has been composed using data from Planck covering the electromagnetic spectrum from 30 GHz to 857 GHz.
The mottled structure of the CMBR, with its tiny temperature fluctuations reflecting the primordial density variations from which today’s cosmic structure originated, is clearly visible in the high-latitude regions of the map. The central band is the plane of our Galaxy. A large portion of the image is dominated by the diffuse emission from its gas and dust. The image was derived from data collected by Planck during its first all-sky survey and comes from observations taken between August 2009 and June 2010. This image is a low- resolution version of the full data set.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

India to help Saudi Arabia’s space program


A delegation of scientists from Saudi Arabia are set to visit India to ink an agreement with space agency ISRO for boosting cooperation that will help the country develop an indigenous space programme.
The Saudi delegation, comprising of the country’s leading scientists will visit the India Space Research Organisation later this month. The agreement to boost cooperation in space science is in line with a MoU signed between the two countries’ space agencies during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Riyadh earlier this year.
The visit of Saudi scientists would pave the way for a cooperation that will help Riyadh develop its indigenous space programme for peaceful purposes, an Arab daily reported.
The Saudi delegation will comprise of scientists from the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and other scientific institutions in the Kingdom, Rajeev Shahare, outgoing deputy chief at the Indian mission in Riyadh, was quoted as saying by Arab News.
Shahare said that a Memorandum of Understanding between KACST and ISRO during the Prime Minister’s visit.
He said that ISRO would provide expertise to Riyadh as it has been conducting a variety of operations for both Indian and foreign clients.