ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) has lost contact with India’s first moon mission, the Chandrayaan-I. With that India’s first moon mission has come to a premature end. Chandrayaan was launched on 22 October 2008 using a PSLV. Chandrayaan-I was carrying 11 scientific instruments on board, among which, 6 were foreign. It was expected to send data about moon for about two years, but it has ended in just about 10 months.

Though the mission has ended prematurely, majority of the scientific objectives have been achieved, claims ISRO. It has sent many high resolution images of lunar surface and craters. The data will help ISRO in better understanding of the lunar environment.

The mission is not a complete failure as it not only has sent many detailed pictures on moon but has also given ISRO valuable experience in space flight which will prove critical as ISRO is aiming to land Chandrayaan-II on moon in a few years time.

WOW! I have never felt so much pride in being an Indian while writing a post. The feeling I have is shared by millions of Indians around the globe.

India’s maiden mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-I was launched successfully from Srijarikota today. The PSLV-C11 rocket was fired at exactly 0622 IST (0052 UTC).

Chandrayaan was blasted into space by highly reliable 4 stage PSLV-C11 rocket. The space craft carries 11 scientific instruments, 5 Indian and 6 foreign which will make a detailed 3D map of lunar surface as well as look for presence of water,minerals and a rare isotope Helium-3 which could be the answer to the ever increasing energy needs of our planet. It will make the most detailed maps of moon.

Soon after PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch vehicle) successfully placed Chandrayaan-I into the orbit around the earth, all the scientists who worked non-stop exulted in joy,thumping their chests with pride and congratulated each other. The whole nation was doing the same and salutes its true heroes. ISRO chief  G Madhavan Nair said “This is a historic moment for India. We’ve started our journey to the moon and and the first leg of the journey has gone remarkably well”.

Chandrayaan-I will take another 5 and a half days to reach the moon where it will orbit it for 2 years and send valuable data. It will also send a “Moon impactor” probe to the surface of the moon which will evaluate the surface of the moon. This probe is painted with Indian tri color, so if this probe reaches the surface safely, India will only be the fourth country to place their national flag on the lunar surface. Earlier US, Russia, Japan have achieved this feat. India has also joined US, China, japan, ESA, Russia in the list of countries/agencies capable of sending missions to moon.

Chandrayaan-I’s cost is $83 million, much more cost efficient than any other nation.

But even this appears sore to some eyes. There are a few negative arguements as well:

1. Some people are talking whether the space mission was at all required in a poverty ridden country like India where billions live below poverty line? For non-Indians giving this arguement, weell, you have half (not full because your reason does not purely sound a result of jealousy and you show your concern for the poor. What have you/your nation done to help the poor BTW) my middle finger as an answer. If you are an Indian thinking the same,read on the next para.

Well, first things first, it is because of Indian scientists we have been able to achieve this goal. Had it been in control of our politicians, rest assured, we would have gone no where. Agreed,that this mission was approved by government,but this mission could have been achieved much earlier also. Our scientists have the will power, skills and intelligence to power a challenging mission like this and beyond (manned missions). It is also true that our leaders have to heavily debate every project as India is a democracy. But, i doubt that if the space endeavours are cancelled, the money alloted to them will bring any good to the poor in the country.Thanks to our politicians.They are just too currupt and greedy.Heck most of the money alloted to MP’s and MLA’s for improving their constituency goes whoosh. Also, the project has long term advantages.It has exploration of Helium-3 as one of its objectives which could help India satisfy its energy needs in the future. If we had not started with Aryabhatta back in 1975, we would not have been where we stand today. If we had thought Aryabhatta will do us no good and lets get rid of poverty first, we would have been light years behind other countries. Because of those small initial steps, we today in space have an array of remote sensing,educational,communication and defense satellites. And those satellites paved way for discoveringing hidden resources, exploit them better. We today launch satellites commercially.We have to sow the seeds now to reap benefits from them tomorrow. Chandrayaan-I is today as Aryabhatta was in 1975, a small stepping stone to sucess for future missions.

2. Another question being raised is “Bah! This was done by US/USSR 50 years ago,so its not much of an achievement”.

Well,if you say this then you have my full middle finger as an answer. When India announced plans for Chandrayaan-I, people were questioning India’s capability altogether,if India is indeed capable of undertaking such technologically challenging missions? many eyes were suspicious. Now when we have done it, you say its not much of an achievement! Ever heard of “foot-in-mouth-disease”? Also if it is not much of an achievement, why only 5 countries were able to accomplish this before Chandrayaan?

Chandrayaan is not just a chest thumping issue for India as it was for US/USSR when they indulged in space race propelled by the cold war to put the first man on moon. Chandrayaan intends to make more detailed maps of moon. It will only benefit mankind,so why all these lame arguements. Chandrayaan-I has 6 international probe aboard,all included free of cost, so instead of reaping benefits from Chandrayaan why are we still raising eyebrows on a supposedly third world country for launching its moon mission? India has time and again proved that it is arriving at the global stage like never before. Why ignore it? What is the need for doing so?

One more question on a rather neutral tone possible is, why moon? Why not Mars?Or atleast a manned mission?

Well, you need to grow steady.  India so far had only launched satellites into the Earth’s orbit. We had not ventured beyond Earth’s orbit. So we had to fist make a stop at the next higher level before going further. Who says it would have been wise attempting a direct manned landing on moon in 2020 without a dress rehearsal?  You need to have an expirience,expertise for every level and Chandrayaan-I will provide that for Chandrayaan-II and other missions. US and USSR have already learnt it, but we still are learing it so that we can send our man using this expirience.

I was obviously glued to my television screen from the morning as you know i just could not have afford to miss it.But i was surprised on finding many people were just not bothered to check it and were sleeping at the launch time(it was 0620 local time you see).

Congrats to all the frontline personnels and those beind the scenes who worked so hard. Project incharge, M. Anadurai does not even have an air conditioned office, but he and other people have done every Indian proud. The nation salutes you all.

Here is a video of the launch in case you were not able to catch it LIVE.

Jai Hind

The day is here. Years of hard work is about to pay off. India is all set to launch its first ever unmanned moon mission tomorrow.

Chandrayaan-I will be launched tomorrow, i.e. 22 October 2008 at 0620 hrs IST (0050 hrs GMT) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The probe will be set on a journey towards moon where it will collect useful data about the natural satellite of the earth. The long journey of 3,86,000 kms is expected to take about 5 and a half days.

Chandrayaan-I will be carried into space by India’s reliable rocket PSLV-C11 (Polar Satellite Launch Vahicle) which has in the past successfully launched many Indian and foriegn satellites into the orbit. Chandrayaan-I will revolve for around 2 years around the moon at an altitude of nearly 100kms and take high resolution 3D images of the lunar surface and try to find possible mineral deposits as well as traces of water. It will also look for presence of a rare isotope Helium-3, which can be very  useful in solving the energy riddle of our planet. The spacecraft translated into “Lunar Craft” (Chandra=lunar/moon and yaan= craft/vehicle) will carry a payload of 590kg which includes 5instruments from ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) and 6of other space agencies including NASA, ESA(European Space Agency).

This is the description of the spacecraft as given on the ISRO site:

Spacecraft for lunar mission is :

• Cuboid in shape of approximately 1.50 m side.
• Weighing 1304 kg at launch and 590 kg at lunar orbit.
• Accommodates eleven science payloads.
• 3-axis stabilized spacecraft using two star sensors, gyros and four reaction wheels.
• The power generation would be through a canted single-sided solar array to provide required power during all phases of the mission. This deployable solar array consisting of a single panel generates 700W of peak power. Solar array along with yoke would be stowed on the south deck of the spacecraft in the launch phase. During eclipse spacecraft will be powered by Lithium ion (Li-Ion) batteries.
• After deployment the solar panel plane is canted by 30º to the spacecraft pitch axis.
• The spacecraft employs a X-band, 0.7m diameter parabolic antenna for payload data transmission. The antenna employs a dual gimbal mechanism to track the earth station when the spacecraft is in lunar orbit.
• The spacecraft uses a bipropellant integrated propulsion system to reach lunar orbit as well as orbit and attitude maintenance while orbiting the moon.
• The propulsion system carries required propellant for a mission life of 2 years, with adequate margin.
• The Telemetry, Tracking & Command (TTC) communication is in S-band frequency.
• The scientific payload data transmission is in X-band frequency.
• The spacecraft has three Solid State Recorders (SSRs) on board to record data from various payloads.
• SSR-1 will store science payload data and has capability of storing 32Gb data.
• SSR-2 will store science payload data along with spacecraft attitude information (gyro and star sensor), satellite house keeping and other auxiliary data. The storing capacity of SSR-2 is 8Gb.
• M3 (Moon Mineralogy Mapper) payload has an independent SSR with 10Gb capacity.

Chandrayaan

The cost of Chandrayaan-I mission is estimated to be around $83 million.

So why all the fuss about Chandrayaan when US and USSR did this almost half a century ago? Well, a space mission is something to do with national pride as well. Indians will be proud to find themselves in the elite club of nations/space agencies who have achieved this incredible feat. The list as of now includes USA,Russia,China,Japan,ESA. Its not that difficult to understand what it takes to stand in that list which also does not includes many of the far more developed countries than India. It only re establishes the excellence of Indian minds and justifies why there is a demand for Indian brain worldwide. It re affirms India’s rise as a global super power not only economically but also technologically and millitarily. India’s inclusion will only heat up the space race in Asia. India will be seen as a more reliable option for countries wanting to place their satellites into the space but lacking the ability to do so. Not to forget, India’s space programme also has applications in improving the country’s defence. PSLV, the rocket developed by ISRO will be the base of Agni-V, India’s first ICBM (Inter Continental Ballistic Missile) with a range of 5000kms which is expected to be tested towards the end of 2010.

That gives you enough reasons to rejoice if you are an Indian. But at the same time, we should not forget we do not stop here. Though that is the last thing on ISRO’s agenda right now. ISRO is planning another mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-II, which will attempt to land on the moon. Chandrayaan-II will be launched between 2010-2012. ISRO also plans a manned lunar mission by 2020 and a unmanned mission to Mars. Way to go ISRO.

An ESA video on Chandrayaan-I:

All the very best to all the scientists working for the project. You guys deserve it.

Images from ISRO website and here

As a car accelerates up and down a hill then slows to follow a hairpin turn, the airflow around it cannot keep up and detaches from the vehicle. This aerodynamic separation creates additional drag that slows the car and forces the engine to work harder. The same phenomenon affects airplanes, boats, submarines, and even your golf ball.

Now, in work that could lead to ways of controlling the effect with potential impacts on fuel efficiency and more, MIT scientists and colleagues have reported new mathematical and experimental work for predicting where that aerodynamic separation will occur.

The research solves “a century-old problem in the field of fluid mechanics,” or the study of how fluids — which for scientists include gases and liquids — move.

Read more

The day has finally arrived. Scientists will make the first attempt to circulate the first beam in the LHC or Large Hadron Collider tomorrow. European Organization for Nuclear Research (formerly known as Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) or CERN had earlier announced the start-up date for this most ambitious scientific research project ever to be undertaken by mankind, to be 10th Sep 2008.

If you are not very aware of LHC then here are some quick points.

LHC is the biggest ever scientific research project being undertaken by human which will give us an insight on some of the most intriguing questions like how everything was created? How and why is everything the way it is? From where did the universe,solar system,stars,planet,earth, humans animals and other beings came into existence? It will try to fit in the missing links in the standard theory of physics.

Over 8000 scientists from over 85 countries working for CERN will attempt to uncover these mysteries with help of LHC. The mega machine costs about 8 billion USD. They will make sub-atomic particles called protons collide with each other at nearly the speed of light in pursuit of creation of the moment just before the Big bang and the hypothesized Higgs particle also known as the Higgs Boson and the god’s particle.

LHC spans 27kms in circumference and is situated on the Frech-Swiss border about 80m beneath the earth’s surface.

The protons beam will be circulated in opposite directions and will be accelerated to nearly the speed of light and will be carrying astronomical energy of about 7 TeV each. The energy requirements are being mainly met by France. The protons revolving at the speed or 11,000 revolutions per second (of LHC) will be made to collide at four specific points where the data generated will be collected and the scientists will look for the elusive Higgs particle apart from other researches. To make sure the protons only move in the designated path, the sub atomic particles will be under the influence of about 1600 superconducting magnets operating at -271.25 °C or 1.5 K which as close as currently possible to the  absolute zero kelvin.

When the protons traveling in opposite beams in the tunnel collide with each other, the data will be released at enormous speeds of 27 TB of raw data per day which makes it impossible for normal servers to cope up with the speed of data generation. For this, CERN has designed a new technology called the Grid in which all the computers are interlinked with each other to form one mega super computer. The grid will also revolutionize our internet,possibly making it about 10.000 times faster than it is today.

Watch this video which does a great job of explaining LHC in layman’s language.

See this video from CERN’s site for a better understanding of what they will be doing in the experiment.

LHC will be started on 10 Sep 2008 at 0700 hrs (GMT). The event will be shown live on web also via the CERN webcast. If you wish, you can watch the whole event live at the CERN webcast.

A lot of skeptics are also worried about the negative results of LHC. They fear that the LHC will result in formation of mini black holes, strangelets etc which will consume the Earth and eventually the solar system and the universe. Scientists say that there is no ground for believing in these notions. Renowned UK physicists Brain Cox says that the mini black holes produced by the LHC will be so short lived that they will be incapable of doing any harm to us. The black holes will die out within a few femto seconds of being created. Also, a black hole needs to be of atleast of a particular size to be able to engulf other matter.

And will you be alive after the experiment starts on 10 Sep? Of course yes. Firstly because, they are not colliding protons on Wednesday, they are just attempting to circulate the protons in the tunnel in rclockwise direction. The event which could result in mini black hole will be when they collide the two beams moving in opposite direction with each other, which will be in October 2008. So there is no question of the dooms day to be on Wednesday. So stop listening to all the crap in media.They dont know what they are talking because they dont know that there is no collision taking place on 10th. they just want TRP’s and a little un deserved attention.

Secondly, if today was that day of October on which collision was to take place then also my answer would be a no, because scientists from all over the world, much much smarter than you and me are working on it. Rest assured they will be doing it in the most safe and controlled manner possible.

Watch this video. It shows Michio kaku explaining why LHC will not harm us.

They also dont want the mother earth to die.

As a light ending note, if anything does go wrong and we all die, you can sue me!

CERN has announced that the first attempt to circulate a beam in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be made on 10 September. This news comes as the cool down phase of commissioning CERN’s new particle accelerator reaches a successful conclusion. Television coverage of the start-up will be made available through Eurovision.

The LHC is the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, producing beams seven times more energetic than any previous machine, and around 30 times more intense when it reaches design performance, probably by 2010. Housed in a 27-kilometre tunnel, it relies on technologies that would not have been possible 30 years ago. The LHC is, in a sense, its own prototype.

Starting up such a machine is not as simple as flipping a switch. Commissioning is a long process that starts with the cooling down of each of the machine’s eight sectors. This is followed by the electrical testing of the 1600 superconducting magnets and their individual powering to nominal operating current. These steps are followed by the powering together of all the circuits of each sector, and then of the eight independent sectors in unison in order to operate as a single machine.

By the end of July, this work was approaching completion, with all eight sectors at their operating temperature of 1.9 degrees above absolute zero (-271°C). The next phase in the process is synchronization of the LHC with the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator, which forms the last link in the LHC’s injector chain. Timing between the two machines has to be accurate to within a fraction of a nanosecond. A first synchronization test is scheduled for the weekend of 9 August, for the clockwise-circulating LHC beam, with the second to follow over the coming weeks. Tests will continue into September to ensure that the entire machine is ready to accelerate and collide beams at an energy of 5 TeV per beam, the target energy for 2008. Force majeure notwithstanding, the LHC will see its first circulating beam on 10 September at the injection energy of 450 GeV (0.45 TeV).

Once stable circulating beams have been established, they will be brought into collision, and the final step will be to commission the LHC’s acceleration system to boost the energy to 5 TeV, taking particle physics research to a new frontier.

‘We’re finishing a marathon with a sprint,’ said LHC project leader Lyn Evans. ‘It’s been a long haul, and we’re all eager to get the LHC research programme underway.’

CERN will be issuing regular status updates between now and first collisions. Journalists wishing to attend CERN for the first beam on 10 September must be accredited with the CERN press office. Since capacity is limited, priority will be given to news media. The event will be webcast through http://webcast.cern.ch, and distributed through the Eurovision network. Live stand up and playout facilities will also be available.

A media centre will be established at the main CERN site, with access to the control centres for the accelerator and experiments limited and allocated on a first come first served basis. This includes camera positions at the CERN Control Centre, from where the LHC is run. Only television media will be able to access the CERN Control Centre. No underground access will be possible.

For further information and accreditation procedures: http://www.cern.ch/lhc-first-beam

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The mesh of nanowires behind MIT’s new material for absorbing oil and other organic pollutants, here shown at increasing magnifications (left to right). Image courtesy / Francesco Stellacci, MIT, and Nature Nanotechnology

The researchers at MIT have made a nano paper which can absorb oil from water. The mesh of nano wires can absorb upto 20 times its weight in oil. The paper can afterwards be re-cycled several times. Thats not all,the oil can also be recovered. So that means, we not only save the environment but also the non-renewable resource and money. It can also help in the nanowire paper could also impact filtering and the purification of water.

“What we found is that we can make ‘paper’ from an interwoven mesh of nanowires that is able to selectively absorb hydrophobic liquids–oil-like liquids–from water,” said Francesco Stellacci, an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and leader of the work.

Stellacci explained that there are other materials that can absorb oils from water, “but their selectivity is not as high as ours.” In other words, conventional materials still absorb some water, making them less efficient at capturing the contaminant.

The new material appears to be completely impervious to water. “Our material can be left in water a month or two, and when you take it out it’s still dry,” Stellacci said. “But at the same time, if that water contains some hydrophobic contaminants, they will get absorbed.”

Two key properties make the system work. First, the nanowires form a spaghetti-like mat with many tiny pores that make for good capillarity, or the ability to absorb liquids. Second, a water-repelling coating keeps water from penetrating into the membrane. Oil, however, isn’t affected, and seeps into the membrane.

The nano mesh is made of Potassium manganese oxide,which is highly stable at high temperatures. This property is used to recover oil absorbed by the paper. Once the oil is absorbed on to the paper, heat the paper above the boiling point of oil, the oil will evaporate leaving behind the paper(as its stable at high temperatures). The oil vapours can be condensed later to their natural liquid state.

With inputs from

How, then, did our universe go from whirlpools that could fit in a thimble to galaxies larger than our imaginations can properly comprehend? Physicists, ever ready with their dry wit, have deemed these phenomena “inflation.” Nobody knows how this works or why, this happened; vast amounts of energy aren’t something you’d like to replicate in a lab. Black holes and supernovas aren’t pleasant lab partners. It’s quite evident to the researchers however, that inflation, or something very much like it took place and, lacking the ability to do field research of lab trials, they have built scale models. This is where the tiny galaxies come in.

The theory being presented by the physicists in Lancaster University is that inflation is the product of violent competition: a series of collisions between universes known as “3-branes;” a term related to string theory which I’m frankly not smart enough to explain to you. Suffice to say that our universe is one, because it exists in 3-5 dimensions.

What the string theorists claim is that in a collision of two 3-branes, or two different modes of pure helium like that containing the mini-galaxy, the universe will rapidly expand and stop instantly, mimicking the halting advance of the universe’s growth. Remarkably, when super cooled helium in different phases is mixed, it does exactly that: symmetries in the solution disappear, and aberrations form; the first step in several that lead to the forming of galaxies out of nothing. The secrets of the universe it seems, aren’t safe for long.

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