ISRO discovers cave in moon

ISRO scientists have discovered a giant underground cave on the moon, which could be used as a lunar base by astronauts for inter-planetary missions.

Scientists at the Space Applications Centre (SAC), using data gathered from Chandrayaan-I's Terrain Mapping Camera and Hyper Spectral Imager (HySI) payloads, found a 1.2 km long buried, uncollapsed and near horizontal lava tube.

The hollow cave situated just above the lunar equator on the nearside of moon, can accommodate a large number of astronauts and scientific instruments, and also protect them from hostile lunar environment.

"Such a lava tube could be a potential site for future human habitability on the Moon for future human missions and scientific explorations, providing a safe environment from hazardous radiations, micro-meteoritic impacts, extreme temperatures and dust storms," a team of scientists led by A.S. Arya of SAC, Ahmedabad.

ISRO Scientists said identifying sites for permanent base for human settlements on the moon is important for further investigation.

Cosmic census finds 50 billion planets in the Milky Way

Scientists finds the first cosmic census of planets in our galaxy and the numbers are astronomical at least 50 billion planets in the Milky Way. At least 500 million of those planets are in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold zone where life could exist. The numbers were extrapolated from the early results of NASA's planet-hunting Kepler telescope.

Kepler science chief William Borucki says scientists took the number of planets they found in the first year of searching a small part of the night sky and then made an estimate on how likely stars are to have planets. Kepler spots planets as they pass between Earth and the star it orbits.

So far Kepler has found 1,235 candidate planets, with 54 in the Goldilocks zone, where life could possibly exist. Kepler's main mission is not to examine individual worlds, but give astronomers a sense of how many planets, especially potentially habitable ones, there are likely to be in our galaxy. They would use the one-four-hundredth of the night sky that Kepler is looking at and extrapolate from there.

Borucki and colleagues figured one of two stars has planets and one of 200 stars has planets in the habitable zone, announcing these ratios Saturday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference in Washington. And that's a minimum because these stars can have more than one planet and Kepler has yet to get a long enough glimpse to see planets that are further out from the star, like Earth, according to Borucki.

Charles Hayden Planetarium

 In the growing hush of full darkness, more than 9,000 stars appear, with so many gradations of intensity that binoculars can reveal more detail than the naked eye. That is the sensation offered by the newly renovated Charles Hayden Planetarium, which opened on 13 February 11 at the Museum of Science here, after a $9 million yearlong reconstruction, its new equipment, software and 57-foot dome promising to take the next generation to the stars.

                                      The dome of the Hayden Planetarium with a digital projection. 

It is easy to lose one’s balance in the vastness of space, and over the last 15 years as planetariums around the country have revamped their systems and shows to take advantage of the latest in digital technology and the most refined fiber-optic projectors from Zeiss (the same company that outfitted the first modern planetarium in Germany in 1923), many times the moorings have come loose. The domes have been used to stage fantastical free-for-all shows of cinematic effects, including dinosaurs, cartoonish tubes of warped space and sub-woofer grumblings.

DRDO launches mosquitos repellent cream

Missile maker DRDO now unveils a new insect repellent cream against mosquitoes, vectors of diseases like malaria, and dengue. Launching the ‘Maxo Military’ and ‘Maxo Safe and & Soft Wipes,’ DRDO said the cream based product will fool the mosquitoes, will have a pleasant fragrance and will not block your skin pores - a common problem with such products.

“This cream is based on a uniquely configured, researched and tested molecule which acts like a decoy and cheats the mosquito. It does not allow mosquitoes to sense the presence of human blood in their vicinity,” according to Prahlada, Chief Controller, Research & Development, of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) 

The artificially developed molecules in the cream interfere with the sensory mechanism of the mosquito and stop it from biting the humans. Research and developed by DRDO, the product would be manufactured and marketed by Jyothy Laboratories Limited which also holds the license to sell it outside the defence forces. The first of its kind mosquito repellent has been developed under a special technology commercialisation programme signed between the DRDO and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

NASA and General Motors built Humanoid robot

NASA and General Motors built a humanoid robot to be an astronaut assistant onboard the International Space Station will make a special guest appearance on the Fox Network's Super Bowl XLVpre-game show on Feb. 6. The robot named Robonaut 2 or R2 will appear on Fox's pre-game show with sports analyst Howie Long during the network's festivities before kickoff. 

The R2 robot was designed and constructed to help NASA on the International Space Station. Somewhat resembling a person, the R2 has a human-like build, but most importantly, the machine has hands designed similar to those of us with a pulse: its fingers and thumbs can full articulate and react similar to human hands.

With the potential capabilities of the R2, NASA is bringing its example on the next trip to the international space station to perform mundane tasks such as wiping down handrails. In doing so, astronauts have more time to spend on more important jobs than keeping house. The R2 can use the same tools as a non-robotic person and can adapt its grip accordingly.  NASA’s R2 is sitting aboard the Discovery awaiting a February 24th launch.

BrahMos to make cryogenic engines for ISRO

BrahMos Aerospace is going to manufacture the cryogenic engine for (ISRO) for GSLV rockets.  BrahMos is also in the process to induct its supersonic cruise missile into the Indian Air Force and develop hypersonic missile in six years' time, according to chief executive and managing director A. Sivathanu Pillai

ISRO is developing the cryogenic engine to power its GSLV (geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle) rockets. Once ISRO perfects the technology, we will make the engine as the space agency has asked us to do it,' Pillai said.

BrahMos ‘subsidiary BrahMos Aerospace Thiruvanthapuram Ltd (BATL) that already makes the liquid fuel powered engines and fuel tanks for rockets will make the cryogenic engine, he added.

BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between India's Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) that holds 50.5 percent stake and Military Industrial Consortium/MPO Machinostroyenia of Russia holding the remaining stake. According to Pillai, $300 million has gone into the venture.