ISS

5 Steps that ISRO has to take to Popularize Space Science among Students in India

Sunday, 05 May 2013 06:38

Winner of the competition titled
"5 Steps that ISRO has to take to Popularize Space Science among Students in India"

Link for the competition details

Winner Details
Name Kamil Naqvi
Age 20
Qualification B.Tech.(Aeronautical Engg.)3rd year
College Nam: Babu Banarasi Das National Institute of Technology and Management

"5 Steps that ISRO has to take to Popularize Space Science among Students in India".

1) Human flight in Space

This is very interesting thing for all the student, peoples to fly in the space and enjoy the zero gravity, its rise interest among the peoples because when the peoples fell the space itself lot of interest arises, and they show our interest in the field of space science. Through which a relation occur between the space and human. Isro has to make a project for undertaking human space flight to carry human beings to low earth orbit and ensure their safe return has been made by the department. project activities to study technical and managerial issues related to undertaking manned mission with an aim to build and demonstrate the country’s capability.

First successful human spacecraft was VOSTOK 1(“East1”) carrying 27 year old Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961.The space craft completed one orbit around the globe, lasting about 1 hour and 48 minutes. The U.S first launched a person into space within a month of VOSTOK 1 With Alan Shepard sub-orbit flight in Mercury red stone 3.orbital flight was achieved by United States when John Glenn Mercury .Atlas 6 orbited the earth on 20 Feb. 1962. Valentine Tereshkova the first women in space in space, Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963.china first launched a person into space with the flight of yang liewei abroad the shenzwa 5. It opened an entirely new era in space exploration human space flight.

Sunita Williams' interaction with students in Mumbai

Saturday, 06 April 2013 05:49

Sunita Williams' interaction with students in Mumbai

sunita-williams_1

``Space changes your perception of life. We feel one.
Except for natural borders like mountains and rivers, everything seems one"

- Srinivas Laxman

Border means nothing

Mumbai: Forty-seven year old Indian-American astronaut, Sunita Williams, had a tip for students of India when she interacted with them recently in Mumbai.

What was her suggestion? Why can’t they contribute experiments to the International Space Station (ISS) which will operate for another decade? She said this while speaking to more than 300 school students and the media at a programme organised by the Nehru Science Centre.

``Our space station is a test bed and you guys should be a part of it,’’ she reiterated.

The astronaut who has broken two world space records---spending a total of 322 days in space in two missions---the longest by a woman astronaut—and conducting the longest spacewalk again by a woman astronaut totalling 50 hours and 40 minutes in seven spacewalks--earlier addressed students in New Delhi and Kolkata. Her trip was organised by the National Council Of Science Museums.

Prof U R Rao inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame, Washington

Saturday, 30 March 2013 14:36

Prof U R Rao inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame, Washington

Prof U R Rao Prof U R Rao, former Chairman, ISRO and Secretary, Department of Space, was inducted into the highly coveted "Satellite Hall of Fame" by the "Society of Satellite Professionals International" at a gala function attended by over 1000 distinguished guests consisting of Space Scientists, Industry leaders, Administrators and Professionals on March 19, 2013 at Washington DC, USA. Prof U R Rao, who is the first Indian Space Scientist to be inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame, joins the select group of about 50 Hall of Fame Members including Dr. Arthur C. Clarke, Dr. Van Allen, Dr. Harold Rosen, Olof Lundberg, Eddy Hartenstein, Frederic d'Allest, Sidney Topol, Takayushi Yoshida, Mary Ann Alliott, Mary Frost, Peter Jackson and Robert Berry.

Does India need to spend more on interplanetary missions like "Mangalyaan" ?

Sunday, 10 March 2013 03:07

Does India Need to Spend on Interplanetary Missions like "Mangalyaan" ?

Absolutely Yes

ISRO is planning to launch a mission to Mars called "Mangalyaan" (unofficial name) in October, 2013. There is a lot of debate among people regarding the viability of these kind of missions. Some people support and some do not. The right way to debate this topic is by considering the world situation in the future years.

Imagine the world situation in the year 2100. In the year 2100, the human race would have consumed all available resources on the planet, Earth. Everyone will be struggling to survive. When there is a question of survival, the people will forget about the things like charity, good gestures or any human friendly activities. The core nature of the human race (true with any animal), for survival will kick off.

An artist's rendering depicts planets colliding in a sun-like binary system about 300 light years from Earth, in the constellation Aries.
Photo: Lynette R. Cook/UCLA

Every country will fight with other countries to gain access to their resources or every person might fight with one another for their survival. Do people really want to see such a situation in future ? I do not think so. Even if there is no resource crunch then there is always a threat of some extra-terrestrial elements attacking us or some huge Asteroids colliding with Earth and destroying the complete human race.

SARAL Mission Successful

Tuesday, 26 February 2013 03:07

SARAL Mission Successful
Another Feather to ISRO

- Srinivas Laxman

For Isro it was another historic day on Monday adding another feather to its cap.

In perfect precision it successfully launched seven satellites into orbit at intervals of less than a minute, rocketing Indian space technology into higher orbits. It may be recalled that in April 2008 it placed 10 satellites in orbit breaking a world space record.

The main satellite in Monday’s mission is the 409 kg Saral—a joint Indo-French venture- which will be used to study the ocean from space. This will be done through two payloads, ALtika and Argos. The significance of Saral, with a five-year life span, is that it is the first mission under the Indian Mini Satellite series-2 programme. According to Isro, its development marks an important milestone because it is planned to be a workhorse for different types of operational missions in the coming years.

Saral will take 100 minutes to complete one sun synchronous orbit. It is expected to do 14 orbits daily and will transmit data every 100 minutes. It is stated to be the first satellite in the world operating in a particular frequency. The other six satellites were Sapphire from Canada, NEOSat also from Canada, Aausat3 of Denmark, UniBrite and Brite both from Austria and STRand-1 from UK.

The rocket used for the mission was the highly-proven four-stage 44-metre tall core alone version of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The flight marked the 23rd PSLV mission and the ninth one using the core alone variant.

SARAL launch

Chandrayaan-2 - Indian or Russian Lander ?

Wednesday, 06 February 2013 17:32

CHANDRAYAAN-2
" WILL IT BE AN INDIAN OR RUSSIAN LANDER ON INDIA’S SECOND MISSION TO THE MOON ? "

- Srinivas Laxman

On Monday January 21,2013, the post-lunch session of a space conference at the Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), an Isro affiliate, saw a huge turn out of scientists—quite unusual indeed for an afternoon gathering!

The focus of the afternoon meeting was on exoplanets, but the last speaker of the day spoke on a different topic which interested everyone. The person who took the dais was SVS Murthy, a senior PRL scientist, who runs the laboratory’s planetary exploration group. His presentation was about India’s planetary missions to the moon and Mars.

In contrast to some of the earlier speakers, his presentation, through a well-planned power point presentation, was precise and clear without any room for doubt or ambiguity. It nailed the audience in the huge Ramanathan auditorium to their chairs, and everyone heard him with rapt attention. He provided details about India’s first mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-1, the second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2 and of course the much-awaited flight to Mars in October-November this year.

As he was speaking, none knew that the PPT would unravel a closely-guarded secret about India’s Rs 425-crore second mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-2, provisionally slated for launch in 2015.

Prof U Rao inducted into the Satellite Hall of Frame

Monday, 21 January 2013 15:44

Prof U R Rao being inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame, Washington

ur_rao

Prof U R Rao

Prof U R Rao Prof U R Rao, former Chairman, ISRO and Secretary, Department of Space is being honoured by the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) by inducting him as a Member of the highly prestigious "Satellite Hall of Fame", Washington. Since 1987, the SSPI Hall of Fame has been recognising the invaluable contribution of the visionaries who have transformed life on planet earth for the better through satellite technology. Members of the Hall of Fame are recognised pioneers in communications, satellite related aerospace scientific research or development and delivery of applications for business, institutions and government via satellite.

New Directors for ISRO centres

Wednesday, 02 January 2013 15:29

New Directors Appointed for Three ISRO Centres

Three centres of ISRO, viz., Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), with campuses in Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore and Mahendragiri and Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, have new Directors (Mr. S. Ramakrishnan, Mr. M. Chandradathan and Dr. M.Y.S. Prasad respectively) from January 1, 2013.

Shri S. Ramakrishnan - Director, VSSC Mr. S. Ramakrishnan, Distinguished Scientist of ISRO and hitherto Director, LPSC, has assumed the office of the Director, VSSC. He took over the charge from Mr. P. S. Veeraraghavan, the retiring Director. VSSC is the lead centre for the design and development of launch vehicle technologies for the Indian Space Programme.

Mr. S. Ramakrishnan

Mr. Ramakrishnan graduated in Mechanical Engineering in the year 1970 from Guindy Engineering College, Chennai and got his M.Tech in Aerospace from IIT, Madras in 1972 with first rank.

Mr. Ramakrishnan joined ISRO in August 1972 and worked as member in SLV-3 Project team responsible to develop India's first Satellite Launch Vehicle under the leadership of Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. Subsequently, he worked in the Polar Satellite launch Vehicle (PSLV) programme and was Project Director for PSLV continuation programme during 1996-2002. Under his leadership, the PSLV was operationalised, enhancing its payload capacity from 900 kg to 1500 kg.

In 2003, Mr. Ramakrishnan took charge as Project Director, Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk-III (GSLV MkIII) and steered the Project during the crucial phase of design, engineering and first-off hardware.

SpaceUp - India, 1st December-2012 - Coverage

Sunday, 02 December 2012 12:51

Complete Coverage
SpaceUp Unconference
Dec 1st, 2012
PESIT, Bangalore, India

spaceupindiaresized

Asia's first SpaceUp unconference, an one day event, concluded on Dec 1st, 2012. The event was held at People's Education Society Institute of Technology (PESIT), Bangalore, India. There were around 100 participants in the event. The event started with a speech from Dr. Vasagram, project director, Apple Mission, ISRO. He covered a wide range of topics including space industry eco-system in India. This was followed by another good talk by well-known Prof. Dr. Jayant Murthy, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore. He touched upon various research work being done by his team including the recent balloon experiments. Next talk was on "Fundamentals of Launch Vehicles" by Dr. S Ramakrishnan, Indian Space Research Organization. This was followed by a talk by Dhruva Space representatives regarding their company. In addition to these talks, there was a personal message via a recorded video from Robert Brent, Astronaut, CSA, Canada.

jayant_murthy
Prof. Jayant Murthy

Indian Space Programme - Industry Partnership - Part 2

Wednesday, 21 November 2012 14:30

Indian Space Programme - Industry Partnership

By C. Ravindranath, Retired Group Head, SDSC SHAR
Part - 2
(Link to Part -1)

Accomplishments of Industry Partnership

As has already been stated, traditionally, ISRO forged a strong relationship with a large number of industrial enterprises, both in public and private sector to implement its space projects. This strategy has resulted in diffusing the state of art technologies, which are developed for the space projects into Indian industry. Close to one third of ISRO’s budget flows into industry for supply of various products and services. ISRO’s industry participation policy emphasises that ISRO will realise higher levels of aggregates for hardware, software, systems and services from industry and will desist in investing in production facilities in house.

In accordance with ISRO policy of maximal utilisation of industry capability, thrust was accorded resulting in the identification of several new industries for placement of orders and work related to spacecrafts, launch vehicle and ground segment, which have grown both in terms of complexity and scale. Indian industries continue to support all important space projects – PSLV, GSLV, IRS and INSAT.

GSLV-MKIII

In the launch vehicles arena, major hardware realised by the Indian industries include VIKAS engines for powering the liquid propellant stages of PSLVs/GSLVs, propellant tanks, toroidal water tanks, Cryo engine fabrication, tanks and structures for cryo engine programme, internal subassemblies and interface elements, feed lines, Remote Fill and Drain System (RFDS) tubes, metallic bellows , flexible hoses etc., Capability of industry is also being utilised for fabrication, assembly and testing of a variety of pressure transducers and temperature sensors for launch vehicle applications.

mtar.vikas.engine