tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29437316564517139612024-02-06T20:01:45.093-08:00IndiSpaceFanS.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-51222855744833425642020-07-11T10:49:00.001-07:002020-07-12T10:18:42.875-07:00Hope - UAE's Emirates Mars Mission : Goals - Hurdles<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hope the spacecraft ; credit : MBRSC, UAE</td></tr>
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After getting freedom from British in 1971, a small piece of land in the Arab world, UAE, aspires to go beyond Moon in a most inspirational attempts by the modern human kind. This need not to be underestimated from this group of Arabs who boast of : world's tallest building and a driver-less metro. Though established as one of the richest countries per capita, but with the oil wealth sliding and the expensive infrastructure projects which are expected to fuel the economy are on the down trend, the leaders of the nation are looking for some mean of boosting the morale of just around 12% Emiratis, the native Arabs, to get interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Vow.... they made it.... The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in Dubai with a humble beginning of developing a earth orbiting satellite with the help of South Korea (2007) has now prepared to a deep space mission to Mars. A bold step taken by UAE’s vice-president and prime minister, Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum in 2014 that they would celebrate the 50th Independence year by going to Mars has been seeing the fruits of seeds sown earlier.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hope team, Women force; credit : MBRSC, UAE</td></tr>
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The UAE's mission to mars is called HOPE ("Amal" in Arabic) or EMM, Emirates Mars Mission. A team very young engineers (all Emiratis) with an unbelievable average age of 27-years were pooled into the Hope's mission primarily to draw the attention of youth towards STEM. Another remarkable aspect of this team is: women make 34% of the total work force and an astonishing 84% of the science team. The science team lead by Sarah Al Amiri, a computer engineer turned Planetary Scientist, with the over all team lead is Omran Sharaf another very young member. As the story of reaching to planet Mars evolved... the seniors picked up exactly the place where they left in taking UAE into Space. They instructed the youngsters to "build the mission" NOT to "buy". Its a wise, tested and well calculated move... they approached University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), which had just completed a successful mission to Mars, the MAVEN spacecraft exploring the Martian atmosphere in one of the finest details. Along with: University of California Berkeley Space Sciences Lab (SSL), Arizona State University (ASU) School of Earth and Space Exploration. Another remarkable decision was to go with a solid science goal; for this they approached, the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group, an advisory group convened by NASA that includes scientists from around the world.<br />
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GOALS:<br />
The Hope mission has its eyes firm on cracking a fundamental issues related to Martian atmosphere. Today, Mars atmosphere is few hundred times less than that of earth's. There are many questions unanswered on what happened to the prevailing atmosphere around Mars that was existing at one time. Mars also has seasons and its own storms erupting around the year. They got 3-goals set which would enhance the understanding Martian atmosphere as a whole: 1. By measuring the lower atmospheric parameters to understand the climate dynamics on Mars. 2. Role of weather in permitting the loss of Hydrogen (and Oxygen) into higher atmosphere. 3. To understand the structure and variability of Hydrogen (Oxygen) in upper atmosphere to estimate the overall loss of Martian Atmosphere to space.<br />
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The most successful (>70%) nation to reach the red planet, USA, has majority of the missions on the ground (rovers), the recent MAVEN (2014) orbiter indeed accomplished a huge success in measuring the various atmospheric parameters and solar flux reaching to the planet. The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) too had a great deal of success of measuring O, CO, CO2 presence in upper atmosphere by sampling at site employing a mass spectrometer, apart from acquiring few hundreds of pretty pictures of Mars. While both MAVEN (~ 150 X 6,200 km) and MOM (~ 470 X 74,000 km) were in highly elongated orbits and had many other objectives apart from studying the Martian atmosphere; the Hope is completely dedicated to study the lower/upper atmosphere and the interplay among them; ultimately trying to explain the secrets behind the loss of atmosphere. Its planned orbit of around 20,000 X 40,000 km is ideally suited to study Mars on multiple occasions in a day.<br />
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Unlike majority of the interplanetary probes which carry variety of instruments to address various scientific goals; Hope carries only 3-types of spectral imagers; meaning these are wavelength based imaging instruments; also capturing visible images of the "Red Planet" at 12-megapixel sensor. They are very powerful tools in providing spatial-scientific information, a unique combination, of late entered into many space missions.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">EXI instrument; credit : MBRSC, UAE</td></tr>
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In detail: 1. Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI) would provide details on the optical depths of dust and water ice in the Martian atmosphere and column abundance of Ozone gas<br />
2. Emirates Mars Infra Red Spectrometer (EMIRS) will provide the details of global distribution of key atmospheric parameters over the Martian daily and yearly, including dust, water ice (clouds), water vapor and temperature profiles<br />
3. EMM Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS) measures relative changes in the thermosphere (highest atmospheric layer) and the radial variability of both the Hydrogen and Oxygen.<br />
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HURDLES:<br />
Reaching Mars has been among the toughest hurdles for space faring nations. Out of the 57-attempts made by humans around half of them (30) ONLY have made it to Mars. USA is sitting right on top of the mountain of success including the very first probe to reach planet mars (Mariner-4, 1965). India holds the unique distinction of being the very first country to reach Mars in its first attempt. While European Space Agency had a decent rate of success, Russia had to face many failures including one failed attempt in the recent past along with China (Phobos grunt, Russia-China, 2011). The technological advanced and meticulously working Japan has plans of reaching out to Mars in 2024, the next available celestial window.<br />
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As they say "Rocket science" is truly tough nut to crack, the Mars journey involves placing the spacecraft into helio-centric orbit and guiding it towards Mars in the next 8-months. There are dedicated group of people called "mission team". This group needs to take many crucial decisions in selecting proper helio-centric (around the sun) orbit, making course correction as the spacecraft slips out of its intended orbit. The ultimate test of this team would be would be to perform a kind of "slamming" of the brakes of spacecraft which is racing almost at the speeds of around 120,000 km/hr to reduce it to 18,000 km/hr. Having captured by planet Mars, the last hurdle for this team would be to park it in the intended orbit.<br />
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As a trained spectroscopist, I like to hold my personal reservations on few finer aspects of the imaging spectrographs; though they have seen the timely tested missions in the recent past (MAVEN) but some of the spectral resolution on EMUS (1.3 nm) are highly ambitious as they demand a very very narrow field of view of 0.14 X 0.2 degree which curtails the throughput (light gathering power) to feeble levels. Again, in my view... this is very meager issue as compared to reaching planet Mars... How sweet that feeling will be?<br />
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The Hope spacecraft is planned to be launched from Japan using a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA launcher and is set to arrive at Mars in February 2021.<br />
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I wish each and every group member of Hope ... all the very best ... they have demonstrated immense amount of dedication and showed a high level of maturity as narrated by their mentors at LASP (from the interview).<br />
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Hope..... to meet you on Planet Mars......<br />
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[Like to offer credit to Elizabeth Gibney's article for some of my reference, appearing in <a href="https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-020-01862-z/index.html#:~:text=The%20Emirates%20Mars%20Mission%20(EMM,map%20of%20the%20Martian%20atmosphere.">Nature</a> .... ]<br />
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S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com0Hyderabad, Telangana, India17.385044 78.48667116.9002155 77.841224 17.8698725 79.132118tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-60198458314379403222019-09-19T02:41:00.000-07:002019-09-19T10:16:18.176-07:00VIKRAM STATUS - 3<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It is 17.00 hrs lunar time .....<br />
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(Report time: 19.09.2019; 15.00 hrs)<br />
Its going to be another 2-earth days time left, that there will be some amount of light which can soak Vikram's solar panels in bringing life back. Its almost dusk like scene on the moon for Vikram. Once the night kicks in; it has to bear the bone freezing -200C for another 14-earth days.<br />
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A sad news from NASA is; their Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) on Sept. 17 imaged the south pole landing site of Vikram lander, "but long shadows in the area may be obscuring the silent lunar explorer" is the statement on their part.<br />
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Have a look at the landing site of Vikram (courtesy: NASA)... you need extraordinary skills to be able to spot a flat location. Had the Vikram succeeded in applying breaks to counter the huge forward (orbital) velocity; reaching down to 400-m, ISRO had every other hurdle worked out in the form of a built in Artificial Intelligence by employing a Hazard Detection and Avoidance System (HDAS). As things stand today.... the HDAS had no chances of coming into play.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vikram landing site Credit: NASA</td></tr>
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This is the time for me as well to throw my hat in the ring..... in predicting what could have been the scenario......<br />
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"It could have been malfunctioning of those two diagonal 800-N variable thrust engines which could NOT have delivered the 'THROTTALABLE' performance." Hence the tumble (flip) which could have occurred at 2.0 km altitude, leaving no chance for the built in mechanism to assist in soft landing.<br />
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S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-50728125000294270772019-09-13T01:53:00.000-07:002019-09-13T02:16:28.318-07:00Vikram Status -2 ; Chandrayaan II<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Vikram - last contact @ 335-m NOT 2.1-km</div>
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13th September, 14.00 hrs IST</div>
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As per the Indian Express report (12th Sept), the last signal received from Vikram appears to be from as low altitude as 335-m.</div>
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Lets see what could have happened during the 2-phases of breaking in the height range of 18-km to 400-m.</div>
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Tapan Mishra, Ex-SAC (Space Application Center) and PRL (Physical Research Laboratory) director, Ahmedabad; distinguished scientist @ ISRO-HQ; has written in his facebook account the details of Vikram landing of 15-minutes. In his smooth flow of words; he has thrown light on what exactly would happen when Vikram switched from Rough breaking (18-7.4 km) to Fine breaking (7.4-km to 400-m). Apparently, it was a switch-over from 4-cornered retro engines to 2-diagonally opposite engines for the fine breaking phase from 7.4-km to down below upto 400-m. Without mentioning the actual cause of the Vikram incident; he did warn that during the fine breaking the operation of 2-diagonally opposite engines is a pretty involved and tricky procedure. Considering the fact that a less filled fuel tank would "slosh" leading to the exhaust of fuel to these engines and hence would lead to un-even burn. Hence, it will be very difficult to provide a "uniform centrally directed breaking force"; this is what clearly emerges from that discussion.</div>
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Taking a cue from the above explanation; it can be conjectured that:</div>
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1. Though the switch-over to 2-engines from 7.4-km and downwards would have occurred.</div>
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2. The signal loss at 2.1 km could be due to a tumble; taking the direction of communication (antenna) away and hence the signal loss</div>
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3. Best part is: Vikram did sail through 2.1-km to 335-m. If one recalls; it had 3-more milestones below 400-m to accomplish: a. @400-m: hover and activate Hazard Detection and Avoidance sensor b. @100-m: select one of the 2-targeted locations c. @10-m: stop and hover to ensure the point of landing</div>
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4. Since, the above 3-milestones are AI-based. There is a very high probability of Vikram making it safely to lunar surface and hence a good news, which could emerge in these couple of days....</div>
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Wishing ISRO-team again a very best of luck.</div>
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S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-28982894025308689562019-09-11T22:38:00.003-07:002019-09-12T01:58:22.736-07:00Vikram Status : Chandrayaan II<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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12th September, 2019; 11.00 hrs IST.<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Post 7th Sept., 1.55 am; every space enthusiast and an Aam aadmi is seeking the status of Vikram. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The resolve and intent shown by ISRO is commendable in tracing down Vikram within 40-hours (roughly). It was an extra-ordinary effort on part of ISRO to employ Imaging IR Spectrograph (IIRS) to pick Vikram. As per ISRO norms; the payloads would be made operational as per the prior determined sequence from their hibernation status. I am sure, the waking up of IIRS is an exception as it provides unprecedented 80-m resolution images. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The palpable pressure on ISRO can also be judged by the fact that they have requested public faith in them as theier best efforts are behind the salvaging efforts of Vikram. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In my view: though ISRO was fully prepared for any eventuality ("15-min terror"); they had to face rude shock of uncertainty as Vikram descended below 3-km. As per the views expressed by anonymous team members; the lack of simulations on Vikram could have been the reason behind unknown situations faced by Vikram. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Lets face it... on moon, you got ambiance (atmosphere) which is 10-orders of magnitude less than what you feel on earth (760 torr of atmosphere). You could never ever simulate these conditions for testing the throttelable retro engine (800-N capacity) lets say. There was no way you could simulate 100s of kmph speeds to test breaking mechanisms. As per one report; even a simple drop of Vikram from an aircraft would have given some handle on testing out the AI behind the Hazard Detection Avoidance Sensor system. Well.... Vikram had not reached that phase at 2.1 km anyway. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So as we have completed 6-earth days out of the 14-available on the moon to perform post Vikram operations....Having spend 4+ years for the Chandrayaan-I; Moon Impact Probe mission time... I can assure every one that Team ISRO is not going to leave any stone un-turned.... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Lets wish ISRO....... all the very best.... </span></div>
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S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-17781249382085241982019-09-09T09:44:00.001-07:002019-09-12T01:45:01.570-07:00Fate of VIKRAM lander ; Chandrayaan II<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A grab of display panel of Vikram landing @ Bylalu, ISTRAC ; Courtesy: DD</td></tr>
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It is just around 60-hrs that the contact of Vikram lander had lost. The support, ISRO got starting from the Prime minister and other ministers is commendable; not to forget the foreign media, NASA and of course millions of Indians who kept themselves awake post mid night and were not able to sleep after the episode. A poem went on to pour the feelings of Vikram mentioning that how hard it was as it had to face the aspirations of 1.2 billion people. While ISRO has been working very hard to get to the bottom of the facts, a 1st statement from Chairman ISRO, was that they have identified the VIKRAM by IR-imager. There are dozens of anonymous opinions by ISRO scientists/engineers coming out to the public domain by media; few 10s by experts all around the globe and innumerable by every other soul; explaining if it had not happened this way, then could it not have happened the other way.<br />
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I was the team leader of CHACE payload in Moon Impact Probe of Chandrayaan I; spent 4+ years in VSSC-ISRO and have gone through the grill/drill of ISRO in transforming a commercial instrument into a smart, most sophisticated, highly rugged which sucks a very small amount of power from the main power bus with every nut and washer which has been used was argued quite a few times in its selection of weight, dimension. Having left ISRO post Chandrayaan-I, right now I head the central instruments facility here at the University of Hyderabad. The following discussion is purely based on what has been floating around in the media along with my own personal comments and has nothing to do with ISRO. As I have been doing; I will treat this to be a highly popular level; without compromising the value of message I intend to put across.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vikram lander showing 4-engines firing; Courtesy : Digit</td></tr>
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Vikram took a "power descend" from its intended 30X0 km orbit; basically starting from Perigee point of its earlier orbit and heading towards the intended 71-degree southwards journey. Power descend meaning, Vikram is using its forward orbital velocity of around 1.66 km/s (a whopping ~ 6,000 kmph) for its southward journey while the 4 - (throttelable) retro-engines will be keep on firing against the orbital velocity and hence the net effect of "breaking". As per the reports appearing in the media [WITHOUT ANY AUTHENTICATION]... these were major milestones along its <i>15-minutes of terror</i> covering 30-km journey in a parabolic trajectory.<br />
<br />
1. De-orbit operation : 30-18 km<br />
<br />
2. Rough breaking : 18-7.4 km<br />
<br />
3. Fine breaking : 7.4km - 400 m [ Activate Central Retro-engine; Shut off 4-Engines]<br />
<br />
4. Hover for 12-s : @ 400-m : [Activate Hazard Detection & Avoidance (HDA)]<br />
<br />
5. Hover for 25-s : @ 100-m : Select the target A or B<br />
<br />
6. Prepares for touch down: 10m-2m in 13-s<br />
<br />
7. Shut down engine : @ 2-m<br />
<br />
Free fall from 2-m: [Four wheels are equipped to take the shock of this order]<br />
<br />
As the nation and entire world watched; Vikram's path veered during soft breaking [as can been seen on the display panel above] and at 2.1-km altitude the green signal on the display panel disappeared; the gloom prevailed all over the faces was very evident and after span of 20-minutes or so, Chairman, ISRO declared that the data link to Vikram has been lost. It was not only the ISTRAC control center of ISRO at Bylalu, outside Bangalore which dipped in ocean of sorrow, every other Indian who was waiting for that successful moment were completely devastated. On my personal behalf, I kept on reviving the possible scenarios which were possible; also got involved in discussions in my 3-4 Whattsapp groups; in a way taking away the gloom prevailing around. Waited for the following day to head to the TV discussion.<br />
<br />
The following day; 2-leading news papers published completely opposite views (quoting anonymous ISRO scientists) on the probable causes of the Vikram incident. While one said that it is the over breaking during the soft landing which could have contributed to skidding effect [aka car] on the Vikram. While the other attributes it to under performance of retro-engines. Many other experts gave their views as widespread as possible.<br />
<br />
By noon: ANI news broke the story for the first time, quoting chairman, ISRO that " Vikram has been spotted by IR imager of the Orbiter; later to CNN News18 that the health of the Vikram can not be confirmed."<br />
<br />
On the 2nd day of incident; many more stories [speculative/anonymous] appeared....<br />
1. Vikram might have crash landed [either on its side or upside down]<br />
2. Vikram is in one-piece [suggesting no greater damage]<br />
3. Orbiter ORHC camera can detect the damage<br />
4. ISRO would persist contacting Vikram for all the 14-days<br />
5. The chances of revival would fade faster as the time passes by<br />
<br />
<br />
POSSIBILITIES:<br />
<br />
Let's be clear that; when the contact was lost; Vikram, at 2.1-km above was guzzling with the speed of around 200-kmph. Again, as per the newspaper report; the soft breaking operation would involve switching from 4-corner based engines to a single central engine.<br />
<br />
Scene-1 [status-1]: Could only be a tumble, due to malfunction of throttelable engine; or the 4-engines. However, the close loop guidance system [CLGS] working properly running through the remaining milestones of 4 - 7 as explained above. Vikram has survived the incident and has landed safely. Also supported by one of the reports that Vikram is in one piece<br />
<br />
Scene-2 [status:0] : Lets face it, the 200-kmph is enormous speed. Signal loss means the Vikram has tumbled; so much so that it has not allowed the close loop guidance system [CLGS] to tackle the situation. Let me just remind you all that CLGS will work only when there are aroun 20+ sensors feeding the input to the computer and then on the decisions were to be followed. Which means, a meager failure of one retro-engine, gyroscope could lead to failure in breaking system. Hence the CLGS not at all getting a chance to run thru the remaining milestones of 4 to 7.<br />
<br />
Scene-3: Neither 1 nor 0: There is a very finite possibility that a combination both the above scenerios could lead to system surviving but with a BIG question mark... will it perform the oprations of letting the Pragyan slide out.<br />
<br />
My take:<br />
Since communication link snapped before event; believing that the Artificial Intelligence has done its job to its best trained scenario; finding the hardware in one piece (unconfirmed report)....<br />
SCENE-3 APPEARS TO BE MOST PROBABLE....<br />
<br />
Lets hope best out of the above three cases and we get to see some ray of hope... Tomorrow...<br />
<br />
ALL THE BEST ISRO...... you have done all the humanly possible actions, to quote chairman ISRO.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-5629548079301982132019-03-12T03:25:00.000-07:002019-03-14T03:22:48.825-07:00Lunar water; Who dunit ??<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As the world awakes to one more paper appearing at <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2018GL081821"><span style="color: blue;"><b>GRL</b></span></a> [12th March, 2019] on lunar water finding by a UV instrument (LAMP) on NASA's LRO today; my memories takes me back to 14th November, 2008. The LAMP team has announced that by carefully analyzing the data they could find water molecule moving around during the day time on the moon. That day, at ISRO's Bylalu station, our senior most team member, Prof. R.Sridharan was literally jumping around as he noticed peak number-18 (water) in our just arrived mass spectra relayed by CHACE instrument, my baby, as it took a suicidal journey on the Moon Impact Probe of Chandrayaan-I.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiM-rYe95T0XaOCEjtJsCHaVLl9BugfsshPuKu3HehkQkxySnDPhYvGxP6J5qLZxE_AAGaGR1lMwfdesPI3XpoC_qUd6-cxQqmDbhjR3bx5Ep72gnQckKPCygkHFP6MrEm8i6eRcptgEU/s1600/lunar-water-esa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="362" data-original-width="625" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiM-rYe95T0XaOCEjtJsCHaVLl9BugfsshPuKu3HehkQkxySnDPhYvGxP6J5qLZxE_AAGaGR1lMwfdesPI3XpoC_qUd6-cxQqmDbhjR3bx5Ep72gnQckKPCygkHFP6MrEm8i6eRcptgEU/s400/lunar-water-esa.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: ESA</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
If I can make the story very short... it goes as follows...<br />
A billion hearts were beating to the success of Chandrayaan-I reaching moon on 8th November, 2008. Then came the 14th November episode of Moon Impact Probe (MIP) being separated from the mother space craft and had an impact on southern pole of the moon; covering around 2,800 km with a descend journey lasting around 22-minutes. The story of CHACE (CHandra's Altitudinal Composition Explorer), the ONLY science experiment on MIP; it is best narrated in my blog <b><span style="color: magenta;"><a href="http://here./">here.</a> </span></b><br />
<br />
CHACE has been built to sample that tiniest of tiny particle densities around 10^3 and above in the lunar ambiance. However; as the humanity had learned its lessons when Bob Hodges and his team members had built their LACE mass spectrometers and left by Apollo team members on the moon; all of those instruments were getting saturated as the sun started rising on the lunar horizon; it was later learned that the poor dynamic range as the cause. Thanks to the present day technology; the CHACE could withstand 10-orders of dynamic range; while the older versions of mass spectrometers could at best 4-5 orders. It is for this reason that CHACE came out as a WINNER. But our joy was very short lived. As we sent our manuscript both to Science and later to Nature; none of the experts were ready to believe on what CHACE had relayed by giving its own life; they called it <i>contamination</i>.<br />
<br />
CHACE, a quadrupole mass spectrometer, riding on the front end of Moon Impact Probe (MIP) was over sampling the lunar ambiance as the MIP gushing though the tenuous atmosphere at the speeds of around 1.5 km/s. No one would ever believe that CHACE was actually sampling the first time ever day time lunar ambiance. It was ridiculed as outgassing by the spacecraft inner components. By the time we realized that the "ram correction" was needed for this over sampling (10^4 higher); the other payloads on Chandrayaan-I from NASA had got their instruments (MMM and min-SAR) geared to look for reflectance signatures of water and had their work published in the same journal <i>Science </i>in October, 2009. It was the same <i>Science</i> journal which published MMM data withing 4-5 months of rejection of CHACE observations.<br />
<br />
Finally after an agonizing wait of one year and 2-months our work was <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032063310000693"><b><span style="color: blue;">published</span></b></a> in February 2010. I always carry (will..... till I breath my last) this guilt of missing the bus. Today, as I read the GRL paper; I like to draw attention of each and every soul who had ridiculed our work when we were trying to bring to their notice that.... YES.... INDEED THERE IS A WATER ON THE MOON....<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: red;">Chronological developments on Lunar water</span></b><br />
<i>1. Chandrayaan-1 Lunar orbit injection.... 8th Nov. 2008</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>2. Moon Impact Probe mission ... 14th Nov. 2008</i><br />
<i>(Successful CHACE observations of H2O)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>3. CHACE Manuscript to Science journal.. Dec. 2008</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>4. Meeting of Ch-1 scientist at ISRO-HQ.... Feb. 2009</i><br />
<i>(PIs of Indian/Foreign payloads </i><i>including </i><br />
<i>MMM, mini-SAR;</i><br />
<i>CHACE plot of lunar water shown to all)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>5. MMM operational ....... Mar. 2009</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>6. MMM publication in Science ..... Oct 2009</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>7. CHACE Publication ..... Feb. 2010</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>8. LAMP /LRO Publication .... Feb 2019</i><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-48671680655094741502016-10-13T02:17:00.000-07:002016-10-28T01:42:23.499-07:00Schiaparelli<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The unrelenting European spirit of landing on Mars continues. <span style="color: magenta;">Mars-3</span>, the first earthling object from USSR, though, had landed on Mars in 1971; it's signals ceased within 14-seconds of soft landing. While USA is sitting pretty with nearly half a dozen rovers roaming Martian surface, the last probe from <span style="color: magenta;">European Space Agency</span> (ESA/UK), <span style="color: magenta;">Beagle-2</span> (2003) while almost making it to the surface of Mars but failed to send the signals back home. It was only in 2015, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter finding it intact on the expected spot on Mars, indicating failure of solar panels to deploy. Here comes another daring attempt by ESA on soft landing <b><span style="color: red;">Schiaparelli</span></b> next week. The excitement is immense; a six minute long sequencing of commands have already been loaded into the mother craft (<b style="color: red;">Trace Gas Orbiter, </b><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://indispacefan.blogspot.in/2016/03/exomars-trace-gas-orbiter-schiaparelli.html">link</a></span>) cum lander (<span style="color: magenta;">Schiaparelli</span>).<br />
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The famous Italian astronomer, <span style="color: magenta;">Giovanni Schiaparelli</span> (1835-1910) dedicated his life studying planet Mars. From the ground telescopes (in Europe), he observed a network of linear structures; calling them "<span style="color: blue;">canali</span>", in Italian, meaning <span style="color: magenta;">channels</span>; but it was mis-interpreted as "<span style="color: blue;">canals</span>" in the English speaking world; leading to huge speculation of existence of life there. Thanks to the later observations (Italian scientist) and the spacecraft era; the pattern was ascribed to meagre optical illusions.<br />
<br />
Here is a wonderful sequence of <span style="color: magenta;">Schiaparelli</span> touchdown, created by folks at Science alert:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_IvH5OfnlXSkiWCiPDDCiYC8tP_zwUrgiyIEd7qQHDOLFLI8EZPXaSjexiSkwvroD-bHIPkyFLwFW_2h9cdKa9OHXmt5J_1EoZXUjJsDDItkbrXfBgOgLwuU_0_iTVkKaXpu35y3H08Q/s1600/mars-landing_1024.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_IvH5OfnlXSkiWCiPDDCiYC8tP_zwUrgiyIEd7qQHDOLFLI8EZPXaSjexiSkwvroD-bHIPkyFLwFW_2h9cdKa9OHXmt5J_1EoZXUjJsDDItkbrXfBgOgLwuU_0_iTVkKaXpu35y3H08Q/s320/mars-landing_1024.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
The European Space Agency, ESA in their respect to this gentleman has named their lander,... <span style="color: magenta;">Schiaparelli</span>, which is due to land on Mars on 19th October, 2:48 pm GMT. If everything goes as planned, ESA will be the next entity after NASA to reach Martian surface (though the past attempts both by ESA and Russia/USSR have failed). The sequence of events are self explanatory on this ESA leaflet (a click on the image would enlarge it; come back to the post by LEFT arrow) ...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDEB2XOdb81L00YBN1lJSKMPLjhhg6whW5J4e1xeEYBlAELDa8UZLWo1nedS04AkhVGgYbHAzoLgPdkLLrbmn2j1GKaPMDf0YERC4LNV3iDUYXgnkXUCDsgh2m-CKNWSmMDyKf7pX5uXs/s1600/ExoMars2016_DescentInfographic_16x9_20160223.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDEB2XOdb81L00YBN1lJSKMPLjhhg6whW5J4e1xeEYBlAELDa8UZLWo1nedS04AkhVGgYbHAzoLgPdkLLrbmn2j1GKaPMDf0YERC4LNV3iDUYXgnkXUCDsgh2m-CKNWSmMDyKf7pX5uXs/s640/ExoMars2016_DescentInfographic_16x9_20160223.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
At an altitude of 121 km, the Schiaparelli will be separated from its mom <span style="color: magenta;">TGO</span> (Trace Gas Observatory) descending with an enormous speed of <span style="color: blue;">21 000 km/hr</span>. While the atmospheric drag (on Mars, it is almost 100 times less as compared to earth) would slow down its speed to around <span style="color: blue;">1 700 km/hr</span> at 11 km above the surface. The parachute will open up around this time slowing down to speed to <span style="color: blue;">250 km/hr</span>... still beating most of the cars on the earth's highways. At an altitude of 1 km, three set of thrusters would burn and control the descent speeds down to <span style="color: blue;">4 km/hr</span> and stop just around 2 meters above the ground. The Schiaparelli would briefly hover above the ground just before cutting off the thrusters. This hair rising sequence would take 6 minutes; and the scientists and engineers at ESA have to spend another agonizing 9-minutes for the UHF signals to travel to the Indian site (from Mars) called <span style="color: magenta;">Giant Meter wave Radio Telescope, GMRT</span> (vow... the signals are passing by my motherland), then to ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany.<br />
<br />
Now, lets see what all is in store once Schiaparelli makes it to the spot on Mars called "<span style="color: magenta;">Meridiani plane</span>" where NASA's Opportunity rover had landed on January 24th, 2004.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyLMmAhJXQmKXakXCIEsEziPnI4eIO6R7Q1-dwje1MX-Aak2CkJnJ4meAGWJpUB3f2e4h542y-VolUXlBTWqt9EYwhlbFfVwNhZH8_jGVcyXMvtId7LeU-eFdkcwKAQQQXpmrDDuk_S5U/s1600/sch-landing-f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyLMmAhJXQmKXakXCIEsEziPnI4eIO6R7Q1-dwje1MX-Aak2CkJnJ4meAGWJpUB3f2e4h542y-VolUXlBTWqt9EYwhlbFfVwNhZH8_jGVcyXMvtId7LeU-eFdkcwKAQQQXpmrDDuk_S5U/s400/sch-landing-f.jpg" width="281" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: Mars fossil</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: magenta;">Schiaparelli, </span>apart from breaking the jinx of landing, after reaching the surface, it is planned to work for 2-8 sols on Mars; this would translate into couple of earth weeks.<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="color: red;">During Descent:</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">A separate instrumentation package, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: magenta; font-family: inherit;">COMARS+</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">will monitor the pressure, surface temperature and heat flux on the back cover of Schiaparelli as it passes through the atmosphere.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222;">In addition, the descent camera (</span><span style="color: magenta;">DECA</span><span style="color: #222222;">) on Schiaparelli will image the landing site as it approaches the surface, as well as providing a measure of the atmosphere’s transparency. DECA is the re-named flight spare of the visual monitoring camera which flew on Herschel.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222;">A compact array of laser retroreflectors, known as </span><span style="color: magenta;">INRRI</span><span style="color: #222222;">, is attached to the zenith-facing surface of Schiaparelli. This can be used as a target for future Mars orbiters to laser-locate the module.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><b>On the Martian surface:</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: inherit;">DREAMS:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Schiaparelli surface payload, the DREAMS (Dust Characterisation, Risk Assessment, and Environment Analyser on the Martian Surface) package, consists of a suite of sensors to measure the wind speed and direction (MetWind), humidity (DREAMS-H), pressure (DREAMS-P), atmospheric temperature close to the surface (MarsTem), the transparency of the atmosphere (Solar Irradiance Sensor, SIS), and atmospheric electrification (Atmospheric Radiation and Electricity Sensor; MicroARES)</span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2knhspXBid0FaVeSAO1aDWRRj3-yPSa9rly_dQtJJn4A1IFpFZuW4-BtcVst_h8MSaVV0KyABM2k4WWhfybfsELvMi8T7MqtIkz3JuiFzZiR9RsQFHs5FCOEK_9AzyUhB2hCfynkY9D8/s1600/Clipboard02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2knhspXBid0FaVeSAO1aDWRRj3-yPSa9rly_dQtJJn4A1IFpFZuW4-BtcVst_h8MSaVV0KyABM2k4WWhfybfsELvMi8T7MqtIkz3JuiFzZiR9RsQFHs5FCOEK_9AzyUhB2hCfynkY9D8/s400/Clipboard02.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artist impression of DREAMS, Credit: ESA</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Lets hope for the smooth touch down of Schiaparelli ....<br />
<span style="color: magenta;"><span style="color: blue;">On my personal behalf</span>... </span><span style="color: magenta;">let the GMRT (in India) prove to be a good omen for ESA ... </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: red;">Inputs from ESA</span>:</span> ( <a href="http://exploration.esa.int/mars/48898-edm-science-payload/"><span style="color: blue;">link</span></a> )<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><b style="color: red;">Postmortem: </b>(25th Ocober, 2016)</span><br />
The ESA team was shocked to learn that the signals from Schiaparelli stopped 1-minute before the expected landing. Then came a stunning reveleation fromNASA's Mars Reconnaincse Orbiter (a 12-year old veteran circling Mars) that it has indeed captured the grave of Schiaparelli exactly in the expected ellipse of size 100 km X 15 km.<br />
<br />
Here is the proof of landing captured :<br />
<div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPCuuQ87xue9eFjUHMu15XsKVfM4jJufv6YHsmEAZYYWhkHE4sU4BTmWQYqliEQ1BpuKA1tFJnoUFEtbhKDL1RA5vxSYJHxr2FlaClXxcMw3Isc1wr2FleNqFl3XaiRi2yvrEcw3h_bVo/s1600/exomars-lander-crash-site.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPCuuQ87xue9eFjUHMu15XsKVfM4jJufv6YHsmEAZYYWhkHE4sU4BTmWQYqliEQ1BpuKA1tFJnoUFEtbhKDL1RA5vxSYJHxr2FlaClXxcMw3Isc1wr2FleNqFl3XaiRi2yvrEcw3h_bVo/s400/exomars-lander-crash-site.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: NASA; Picture showing "before" and after the crash of lander </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The ESA team came up with this explanation:</div>
<div>
Though the first 4-minutes sail of Schiaparelli went as expected... that is.. both the parachute and heat shield deployed successfully in slowing down the free fall speed; however the slowing down thrusters seems to have shut down earlier than expected leading to the lander's free fall from 2-4 kms above the surface of Mars with a killing speeds of around 300-kms per hour. They also claimed that since the fuel tanks were not emptied, there could have been an explosion at the crash landing.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="color: blue;">So, my heart goes out for this daring attempt by ESA... I can only say: </span> <span style="color: magenta;">RIP .. Schiaparelli</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
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S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-88749573176448291382016-03-31T04:10:00.002-07:002016-04-12T02:36:07.809-07:00EXOMARS, Trace Gas Orbiter & Schiaparelli <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The objectives of <b><span style="color: magenta;">ExoMars</span></b> mission is to look for life beyond earth (exo-biology) and it is performed by sending an orbiter (<span style="color: blue;"><b>T</b></span>race <span style="color: blue;"><b>G</b></span>as <span style="color: blue;"><b>O</b></span>rbiter, <b><span style="color: magenta;">TGO</span></b>) and Lander (<span style="color: magenta;">Schiaparelli</span>) which is already on its way to the Red planet and preparing for a rover in the next available celestial window in 2018. It is a joint venture between ESA and Russian space agency Roscosmos. Instead of giving a routine information on this mission, I try to bring out the niche technologies utilized by the participating European countries in TGO, which are at the forefront of Planetary Exploration. Special emphasis is made to bring out those attractive aspects of the "<span style="color: blue;">suite of instruments</span>" which are employed to hunt down the elusive secrets (methane) on Mars.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhllJ0jKNOu55INDgzXIIZHXSzAzvTNxoDpa7l7XjQSe18T95v5RrTHmtsuZ3yxZ2jiQwGrHzYNR7GxOU_Af4LaZVHCH22HkAzquo9wzwVKtOcVeSEoPXu3NmdjMMIq2tggwWtNpF2e-wU/s1600/exo-mars-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="417" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhllJ0jKNOu55INDgzXIIZHXSzAzvTNxoDpa7l7XjQSe18T95v5RrTHmtsuZ3yxZ2jiQwGrHzYNR7GxOU_Af4LaZVHCH22HkAzquo9wzwVKtOcVeSEoPXu3NmdjMMIq2tggwWtNpF2e-wU/s640/exo-mars-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy: ESA </td></tr>
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<span style="color: magenta;"><b>T</b></span>race <span style="color: magenta;"><b>G</b></span>as <span style="color: magenta;"><b>O</b></span>rbiter, as the name suggests is geared to look for <span style="color: magenta;">trace gases, </span>these are defined as the species which fall in "less than 1% composition" of a planet. Since the signature of life could be buried with methane, a trace gas, concentrations occurring at parts per billion (<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">10</span><sup style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif; line-height: 18.4px;">-9</sup>) by volume; TGO carries a suite of instruments to monitor this gas primarily and many other trace gases which have been contemplated but never have been recorded at all. There is also an un-resolved issue of how the Martian atmosphere is lost; this could be accomplished by measuring ratios of isotopic species of various gaseous compounds with respect to the normal; example: HDO/<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">H</span><sub style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif; line-height: 18.4px;">2</sub><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">O. By comparing the ratios with the one appearing earth; one can estimate the loss of lighter species as compared to heavy. In summary, the task of TGO is <span style="color: blue;">1.</span><span style="color: magenta;"> to </span><span style="color: magenta;">look for methane at ppb concentration levels</span> (huge demand on sensitivity of the instruments) and <span style="color: blue;">2.</span> <span style="color: magenta;">measure the ratios of isotopologus species</span> (very high spectral resolution required) and <span style="color: blue;">3.</span> <span style="color: magenta;">technology demonstration for landing in a thin Martian atmosphere</span> (Schiaparelli).</span></div>
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A brief introduction on composition of Martian atmosphere:<br />
<span style="color: magenta;">Major gases</span> [Martian atmospheric pressure ~ 10 torr (Earth's: 760 torr)]<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: magenta;">CO<sub>2</sub></span>: 95% (0.95)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: magenta;">N<sub>2</sub> </span>: 2.7% (0.027)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: magenta;">Ar</span> : 1.6% (0.016)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: magenta;">Trace gases</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">O<sub>2</sub></span>: 0.13% or 1.3X10<sup>-2</sup><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">H<sub>2</sub>O</span>: 2.0X10<sup>-4</sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">CH<sub>4</sub></span>: ~ 1.0X10<sup>-8</sup> or parts per billion (</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">10</span><sup style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif; line-height: 18.4px;">-9</sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">), (ppb)</span></div>
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For a composition analysing scientist measuring methane at a ppb level concentration is a million dollar ??? (or higher) question. This is where the Trace Gas Orbiter, TGO's journey to the red planet is holding huge expectations from the planetary scientists across the globe (which includes me).<br />
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There are 4-gem of instruments gear to break the technology barriers primarily geared in nailing down the elusive gas - Methane.<br />
1. <span style="color: magenta;">NOMAD</span> (Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery)<br />
2. <span style="color: magenta;">ACS</span> ( Atmospheric Chemistry Suite)<br />
3.<span style="color: magenta;">CaSSIS</span> (Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System)<br />
4. <span style="color: magenta;">FREND</span> – Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector.<br />
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Each instrument's configuration and their scientific goals are nicely outlined here:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8sYhn1USIZDXmVmMpNfNxthg7kbmCM1OfjQw0DZSiktk_BGUMmgl_9HpNVPqsAZsLaMSajNFA7dNRexEnEg7J9Wq0qE7CLp92gAltJETozG8Aq_pHwIimc3QcLOcEyOTs4j4uon0nKPY/s1600/TGO-inst.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="636" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8sYhn1USIZDXmVmMpNfNxthg7kbmCM1OfjQw0DZSiktk_BGUMmgl_9HpNVPqsAZsLaMSajNFA7dNRexEnEg7J9Wq0qE7CLp92gAltJETozG8Aq_pHwIimc3QcLOcEyOTs4j4uon0nKPY/s640/TGO-inst.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy, J.L. Vago, ESA</td></tr>
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Both ACS and NOMAD are a set of spectrometers designed to measure a huge range of gaseous species (including isotopolagous), while CaSSIS is a color camera employed in imaging, FREND searches for H-atoms down to 1-meter looking for traces of buried water.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">NOMAD:</span></b><br />
I spent 2-days in reading the "suite of instruments" <span style="color: magenta;">NOMAD</span> (Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery) carries and almost went <span style="color: red;">MAD</span> in appreciating the abundance amount of technological prowess this suite possesses. After debating on what proportion of "technical-popular" combination; I chose to take a middle path and try to keep the information flow in perspective so that both the casual and serious reader will be interested in reading beyond this paragraph.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy : ESA<br />
(NOMAD instrument: 1. SO, 2. LNO, 3. UVIS, 4. Electronics)</td></tr>
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NOMAD basically covers <span style="color: magenta; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">0.2 – 4.3µ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> spectral region with a set of 3-instruments operating in 3-</span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">different</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> modes: </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">1. <span style="color: magenta;">SO</span>: 2.3-4.3</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">µ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> (Solar Occultation)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">2. <span style="color: magenta;">LNO</span> : in </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">2.3-3.8</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">µ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> (Limb, Nadir and Occultation) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">3. <span style="color: magenta;">UV-VIS</span> channel : 200-650 nm </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
The SO mode is to look at the Sun during sunrise and sunset, while Nadir is looking straight down at the planet, LNO is a combination of limb scan /nadir view/Solar occultation. The table below is taken from a very recent publication of Robert et al appearing in Planetary and Space Sciences, outlining the greater details of what all NOMAD can deliver in different modes of observations.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0xtXjkuvJOv3EVsZlFtFUPD_p_thlBpdxk_58PI6DeDlkpGhFlUYgd8_ddZI8cy3632M_KhrQR8uWLLuDVSLZJCD6jAXnuh-b1cgL-0Rd1yQ14rCKWLUaFIg14b5_S6fEKXl5Ocb7ShI/s1600/nomad-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0xtXjkuvJOv3EVsZlFtFUPD_p_thlBpdxk_58PI6DeDlkpGhFlUYgd8_ddZI8cy3632M_KhrQR8uWLLuDVSLZJCD6jAXnuh-b1cgL-0Rd1yQ14rCKWLUaFIg14b5_S6fEKXl5Ocb7ShI/s640/nomad-3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert et al., Planet.Sp.Sc., 2016</td></tr>
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Another notable point is the ability of NOMAD in detecting methane signal is given in the above said reference. Interestingly the NOMAD in LNO mode is capable of detecting methane even at<span style="color: magenta;"> 0.018 ppb</span> (18 ppt) concentrations; which carries much superior sensitivity than the present day instruments both on Martian surface (<span style="color: magenta;">CURIOSITY</span>) and in the orbit (<span style="color: magenta;">MOM: MSM</span>, <span style="color: magenta;">MENCA</span>).<br />
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">ACS:</span></b><br />
Atmospheric Chemistry Suite is a kind of complementary, IR spectrometer again with a suite of 3- built-in instruments,covering a huge spectral region of <span style="color: magenta;">2.3 - 17<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">µ</span></span> i.e. 1. NIR, 2. MIR and 3. TIRVIM.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Korablev, J.App. Remote Sensing, 2014</span></td></tr>
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Just like NOMAD, ACS too has SO, Nadir and LNO observation modes explained in the above table.<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">The science goals of various sub-sytems are:</span><br />
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<b>NIR instrument</b>:<br />
a. Monitoring and profiling of trace components, CO, <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">H</span><sub style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif; line-height: 18.4px;">2</sub><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">O</span>, O<sub style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif; line-height: 18.4px;">2</sub><br />
b. Vertical profiles of atmospheric density<br />
c. Sensitive search for new OH, O<sub style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif; line-height: 18.4px;">2</sub> and NO night glow<br />
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<b>MIR instrument:</b><br />
a. Vertical profiles of СО<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 18.4px;">2</span> (atmospheric density and temp.) ; minor species like <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">CH</span><sub style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif; line-height: 18.4px;">4</sub> , <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">H</span><sub style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif; line-height: 18.4px;">2</sub><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">O</span>, СО<br />
b. Profiling of isotopic ratios HDO/<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">H</span><sub style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif; line-height: 18.4px;">2</sub><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">O</span>, 13CO<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 18.4px;">2</span>/CO<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 18.4px;">2</span>, CO18O/CO<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 18.4px;">2</span><br />
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<b>TIRVIM instrument:</b><br />
a. Search/monitoring of minor constituents<br />
b. Monitoring of atmospheric dust, and condensation clouds<br />
c. Monitoring of the thermal state from the surface.<br />
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Most striking aspect of ACS is a huge spectral resolution (resolving power~ 50,000) it offers in the MIR region of 2.3-4.3<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">µ</span>. This would help in detecting the trace gas species first time ever: CH<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 18.4px;">4</span></span>, C<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 18.4px;">2</span>H<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 18.4px;">2</span>, H<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 18.4px;">2</span>S, HCl. The TIRVIM region is helpful in:a. detecting trace gases, b. measurement of thermal profiles, c. aerosol properties and d. trace species: NO, N<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 18.4px;">2</span>O measurements. <br />
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">CaSSIS:</span></b><br />
The color camera's spatial coverage (swath) and resolution details are outlined here:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy: J.L. Vago, ESA</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">FREND:</span></b><br />
Artist's concept of the instreumnt and similar kind of observation made are given here:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy: J.L. Vago, ESA</td></tr>
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<span style="color: magenta;"><b>TGO has added huge expectations among the Planetary scientists who are looking forward to fix the jigsaw puzzle on life beyond earth and in particular signatures of life on our next neighbour.</b></span><br />
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S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-2782054082502048672016-03-05T03:31:00.002-08:002016-03-28T01:50:18.515-07:00India need Nano satellites; Future of Space Sciences<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: magenta;">Sputnik 1 </span>was the first human endeavour to leave mother earth (October, 1957) to be able to wander into Space. Though it was a small satellite ( ~ 83 kg), the later attempts by humans to explore space (Low Earth Orbit, <span style="color: magenta;">LEO</span>) were becoming increasingly bulky. The exploitation of geo-synchronous orbit (36,000 km) for beaming telecommunication and other signals could only add more burden on building huge work horses (<span style="color: magenta;">Envisat</span> ~ 8,000 kg). The present discussion is limited to <span style="color: magenta;">Nano-Satellites</span>, which fall in the <span style="color: magenta;">1-10 kg</span> weight category; while Micro- satellites are in <span style="color: magenta;">100-10 kg</span> and Pico satellites <span style="color: magenta;">under 1-kg</span>.<br />
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As the miniaturisation in electronic components (MEMS) started, so was the aerospace industry turning to <span style="color: magenta;">COTS</span> (Commercial, Off-the-Shelf) based small satellites. The idea was to try out newer technology riding on tiny satellites (Micro / Nano) even if the sub-components are not of very expensive MIL (military) grade, meaning radiation hardened class. In came a "golden standard" called <b><span style="color: red;">Cubesat</span></b>, by a group of scientists lead by Bob Twiggs (Stanford Univ) and Jordi Puig-Suary (Calpoly University, California) in the year 1999. They called 1U (1-unit) which would measure <span style="color: magenta;">10 X 10 X 10 cm</span> and weigh less than <span style="color: magenta;">1.33 kg</span>. Same group also came up with a great idea of developing a <span style="color: magenta;">P-POD</span> (Poly-Pico satellite Orbiter Deployer) satellite dispenser. Their idea is to impart training for the undergrad students in the space technologies at affordable budget.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRtBgM7ace8mX5BCbSA0Qfwvt_J5NSFzomFxrBXDjR31w-rsx7bVRGx1FVtOalbz-Xbgcoyjpfxtftx4pxuZw0m_qnpA4J_1MhMXM6ju2S8xY4gVpQqzkDfErsdR_HnJ8T60aTgzQrcJ8/s1600/small-sat-WIRED.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRtBgM7ace8mX5BCbSA0Qfwvt_J5NSFzomFxrBXDjR31w-rsx7bVRGx1FVtOalbz-Xbgcoyjpfxtftx4pxuZw0m_qnpA4J_1MhMXM6ju2S8xY4gVpQqzkDfErsdR_HnJ8T60aTgzQrcJ8/s400/small-sat-WIRED.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit : Skybox Imaging</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The first Cubesat shot into space in 2003.. oh boy!! ... it transformed the land scape of how one reaches space. The years 2014, 15 saw nearly 100-Cubesats launches each across the globe. In USA (and Europe) NASA, US-Air force ventured into Micro-satellite developmental programs. NASA's <span style="color: magenta;">AMES </span>centre had well laid program on Space biology, Lunar Sciences and Inter-planetary missions. Similarly, <span style="color: magenta;">JPL</span> (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) too has a vibrant Cubesat program to monitor the earth and also a curious <span style="color: magenta;">MARCO</span> (<a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cubesat/missions/marco.php"><b><span style="color: blue;">Mars Cube One</span></b></a>). MARCO's are two data relaying Cubesats which will be part of NASA's next journey to Mars. They call it a "Technology Demonstration".<br />
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Observations made by Michael Swatwout at Saint Louis University, highlights the point (shown below) that the task of Nano satellites has tilted towards Technology demonstration as compared to Educational purposes. A country like India can afford to skip the FIRST step and take advantage of easily availabile components to be able to develop newer technologies.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGQg1g6PxxTJTq6ULWnjyeumWyJ7dPI5CXmV0lfBTIEG1mgTG4RSuLC7sRF6UoVeD3ihx799dzanKAVotqp0Qq-7hI4ZoqPd39dHLPuFhqrC3lPdrSk_HKQZAf8m4foQZzwfsmK2-b51Y/s1600/nanosat-aims.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGQg1g6PxxTJTq6ULWnjyeumWyJ7dPI5CXmV0lfBTIEG1mgTG4RSuLC7sRF6UoVeD3ihx799dzanKAVotqp0Qq-7hI4ZoqPd39dHLPuFhqrC3lPdrSk_HKQZAf8m4foQZzwfsmK2-b51Y/s400/nanosat-aims.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: Michael Swatwout, SLU</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Nano-Satellites: Easy to make</span></b><br />
It is not the big players for whom the tiny cubes were like TOYS, even for a lazy engineering graduate there are almost a dozen shops opened up in USA, where a stroke of key board and a credit card can bring him "Power board to Communication board even a Cubesat camera. Here are a few to quote as examples:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNgD38U3c9IKOoSSzX9k4SdPxkPVZxQPGIGDXMAGQ85i6ChlXzqggEqMMmm4BsdvgFwZ0RlPXMzt37OgHgdv0eEYVpqxvDIjgGpKWAeZW7OdQ9jX7-cno7uqs96BJaGw_9Lyd7x0qrUW8/s1600/cubesatkit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNgD38U3c9IKOoSSzX9k4SdPxkPVZxQPGIGDXMAGQ85i6ChlXzqggEqMMmm4BsdvgFwZ0RlPXMzt37OgHgdv0eEYVpqxvDIjgGpKWAeZW7OdQ9jX7-cno7uqs96BJaGw_9Lyd7x0qrUW8/s320/cubesatkit.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: Cubesatkit</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
http://cubesatshop.com/<br />
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http://www.cubesatkit.com/<br />
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https://www.planet.com/<br />
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">INDIA and Nano-Satellites</span></b><br />
India has started venturing into space from the <span style="color: magenta;">SLV</span> (Satellite Launch Vehicle, 1979) Program. The first flight under the leadership of very well known face from India <span style="color: magenta;">Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam</span> was a failure; within a year the next flight roared into the skies of Sriharikota in southern India; that was lesson#1 in the history of ISRO; they never seem to look back in repeating failures. The <span style="color: magenta;">PSLV</span> (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) too had to face the setback in its first flight but never ever looked back till date... the present <span style="color: magenta;">SUCCESSFUL FLIGHT</span> number is <span style="color: red;"><b>31</b></span> and is still counting.<br />
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As dictated by the priorities, the Indian Space Research Organisation (<span style="color: magenta;">ISRO</span>) has been having a very active, bright, successful program which has catapulted the country's name among the league of biggest players in world. ISRO has been successful in low earth orbit programs (<span style="color: magenta;">IRS</span> satellites), geo-synchronous orbit program and a very successful Lunar (<span style="color: magenta;">Chandrayaan-I</span>) and Martian (<span style="color: magenta;">MOM</span>) missions. Capturing the tag of <span style="color: magenta;">FIRST nation </span>to do so in its very <span style="color: magenta;">FIRST attempt</span>.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAvGzczVu5kiAljY_FxeUZ5Q9DmUxYH8tU__AR9ExTwVYR-dthtzBt7vYESMjlqKH8TN9ofN8KRuSARspu1jzth5g9_GqN3aGv4Nbc46SnlCsP8cef6anUgw0J7PZvmjTxxxrmzFxQV8w/s1600/studsat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAvGzczVu5kiAljY_FxeUZ5Q9DmUxYH8tU__AR9ExTwVYR-dthtzBt7vYESMjlqKH8TN9ofN8KRuSARspu1jzth5g9_GqN3aGv4Nbc46SnlCsP8cef6anUgw0J7PZvmjTxxxrmzFxQV8w/s400/studsat.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">STUDSAT, Credit: ISAC, ISRO</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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However, the neglected aspect of Small Satellite activity can be gauged by noting that India could launch a meagre number of <span style="color: magenta;">FIVE</span> in the entire history. Among these, there are just 3-of them which are 10-kg or less. Notable is <span style="color: magenta;">JUGNU,</span> a 3-kg satellite, developed by Indian premier education center: Indian Institute of Kanpur (<span style="color: magenta;">IITK</span>). The real hero in my view is <span style="color: magenta;">STUDSAT</span> which was developed by a group of engineering colleges from the cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad. The reason for STUDSAT to stand out is: due to their limited resources and also a mammoth task of co-ordination among the youth... Hats - off guys...<br />
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So... as my title says.... Today, India is a vibrant country with huge potential of growing in cutting edge technologies. Nano Satellites will offer a first hand training to the youth of our nation; also as it has been noticed worldwide that these tiny toys can serve as work horses for testing the new technologies in space, before venturing with millions of investments. With ISRO as the back bone, we can do a lot better than what we have been on the Nano Satellite front..... Let's kick start this activity.... which would bolster the <span style="color: magenta;">Make in India </span>program as envisaged by the central government.<br />
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S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-80496556731286275202015-12-18T03:38:00.004-08:002016-02-15T01:24:50.511-08:00ASTROSAT vs The Giant Hubble<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A TV program on the legendary <span style="color: magenta;">Hubble Space Telescope, HST</span> (Hubble's Cosmic Journey, National Geographic), prompted me to write this piece on the recently launched Indian space telescope called <span style="color: magenta;">ASTROSAT</span>. The purpose of Hubble Space Telescope is to break the barrier of <span style="color: blue;">1-arc second seeing limit</span> (full moon is about 1,800 arc-seconds across) from the ground which arises due to the atmospheric disturbances. NASA had achieved this by a mammoth effort of grinding a 2.4-meter glass to the curvature accuracy of 1/800,000 th of an inch and placing the school bus size object weighing 11,110-kg in 550-km orbit. ASTROSAT is India's multi-wavelength telescope geared to look at the stellar objects primarily in UV, X-ray regions of the EM spectrum. In that TV program, the sweet voice of John Grunsfeld conveying his strong bond he had created in repairing the Hubble more than one time. Hubble is the most sophisticated optical experiment of humans in the space which has been working for 25-years and is going great guns.<br />
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In the back drop of this legacy; enters here, the young-aspiring Indian beauty, <span style="color: magenta;">ASTROSAT</span>. In a typical Indian style of <span style="color: blue;"><i>small-simple but effective</i></span>, this telescope carries the same heritage as that of the Indian <span style="color: magenta;">Chandrayaan-I</span> (<a href="http://moonatmosphere.blogspot.in/"><span style="color: orange;">moon mission</span></a>) and <span style="color: magenta;">MOM</span> (<a href="http://mom-mangalyaan.blogspot.in/"><span style="color: orange;">Mars mission</span></a>). The idea of Indian scientists is to perform front line research from the existing experience in the country (<span style="color: magenta;">X-ray astronomy</span>); and hence majority of the hardware which went into is in the X-ray regime of EM spectrum. Considered to be a small size (in comparison to others) space telescope, it weighs 1513-kg at the time of lift off; it is basically a multi-wavelength telescope in a near equator orbit of around 650-kms radius.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYP8zCH7l7LJnpFGJ3afHmg6NR8n8AMIUJUIK_h3qvs92pD_0zJ-6rooHZqCbll325H57SpAgSbrl0vzpmWwEvhTDviv7O7PJxoXu3gr6TfmBrFltG-HoIVqIHg67kfFRyqmDfh9Kz89k/s1600/astrosat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYP8zCH7l7LJnpFGJ3afHmg6NR8n8AMIUJUIK_h3qvs92pD_0zJ-6rooHZqCbll325H57SpAgSbrl0vzpmWwEvhTDviv7O7PJxoXu3gr6TfmBrFltG-HoIVqIHg67kfFRyqmDfh9Kz89k/s640/astrosat.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: DNAINDIA </td></tr>
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Apart from performing the deep field survey of the Universe in the UV region; <span style="color: magenta;">ASTROSAT</span>'s wish list covers a wide range of phenomenon which are taking place in the universe:<br />
<span style="color: magenta;">a.</span> studying the high energy processes of binary star system (neutron star-black hole),<br />
<span style="color: magenta;">b.</span> estimation of magnetic field of neutron stars,<br />
<span style="color: magenta;">c.</span> look for star birth region beyond our galaxy,<br />
<span style="color: magenta;">d.</span> detecting the new briefly appearing bright x-ray sources in the sky.<br />
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If I could drift a bit beyond the popular level flow of this presentation; here is the list of payloads, the instruments which are very well thought over and put together by the host of Indian research institutes: TIFR, IIA, IUCAA, PRL and RRI.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUWXWyLJmsEjYog80V5l8PljqtDGGHe3_uyd2JlXepl3f4UIfaCNtZud-GlRaoRdZWlZYL14sEpkt-6zcb8qg-qGHmh2nJOh8Z3sLZeAAKYZhTCQKCOb6Egv_NyRl2LyId6LCUCrpcp-s/s1600/payloads-astrosat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUWXWyLJmsEjYog80V5l8PljqtDGGHe3_uyd2JlXepl3f4UIfaCNtZud-GlRaoRdZWlZYL14sEpkt-6zcb8qg-qGHmh2nJOh8Z3sLZeAAKYZhTCQKCOb6Egv_NyRl2LyId6LCUCrpcp-s/s1600/payloads-astrosat.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: ISRO</td></tr>
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The details given above emphasises that the Optical and UV region is covered by a single detector; great efforts have been put to cover a very wide range of X-ray based 4-instruments.<br />
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As they say, <i>t<span style="color: blue;">he proof of the pudding is in eating</span></i>.... the <span style="color: magenta;">ASTROSAT</span> has come out with a flying colours as soon as its eyes were made to open.<br />
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On 17th November, when the Swift observatory of NASA made its 1000th observation of Gamma Ray Burst (GRB), the ASTROSAT's CTZI indeed picked the same object and hence the sweet news of success to the eagerly waiting Indian scientists. The observations are reported <a href="http://astrosat.iucaa.in/czti/documents/CZTI_GRB.pdf"><b><span style="color: purple;">here</span></b></a> .<br />
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<h2 style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="color: red;">COMPARISON: </span></b></h2>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Comparing Hubble Telescope with the ASTROSAT would be like comparing the legend </span><span style="color: blue; font-weight: normal;">Carl Lewis</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> to that of a young athlete or in Indian terms, comparing </span><span style="color: blue; font-weight: normal;">Sachin Tendulkar</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> to a Ranji trophy player. Without offending anyone, I must also add that both of these sport legends have indeed followed the same nascent stages. Hubble is a huge optical telescope to peek deep into the dark patches as seen from the ground telescopes. This was possible due to the avoidance of atmospheric disturbances. Where as, ASTROSAT is a multi-wavelength observing telescope; may not be huge in size but carries a state-of-the art X-ray detectors and a combined UV-Visible detector in aiming the similar deepest in-accessible "</span><span style="color: magenta; font-weight: normal;">dark regions</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">". With the success of operation of most of the detectors, it is only the time which is going to unravel the worthiness of all the hard work of Indian scientists. </span><span style="color: blue;">Best of luck INIDA..... </span></span></h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<b>Hubble Space Telescope</b></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">As has been referred here, Hubble is a legend in opening the eyes of humanity into the darkest regions of skies. </span>Hubble basically is an optical observatory with an viewing ability of better than 0.1-arc second, having the 3-different types of sensors: i. Camera, ii. Spectrograph and iii. Photometer. A daring 5-space walks had fixed the flaw in achieving the intended goals of Hubble imagery; a total of 4-repairing attempts have kept the instrument in its best abilities.</div>
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<span style="color: magenta;">Here is the summary of few greatest achievements of Hubble:</span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Identification of dark matter which is otherwise invisible and comprises around 23% of the entire universe could be modelled into 3-D from the observations of Hubble</li>
<li>Hubble discovered 2-new moons of Pluto : Nix, Hydra</li>
<li>Identification of star forming regions, e.g. Orion nebula</li>
<li>Picking up gamma ray bursts (GRB) and resolving the mystery around them</li>
<li>Capturing the famous collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy with planet Jupiter</li>
<li>Helped to identify the dark energy which is responsible for expansion of universe</li>
<li>Super massive black holes may be lurking in many galaxies that have bulge of stars at the centre</li>
<li>Observing the atmosphere of exo-planet (in Visible)</li>
</ul>
<span style="color: magenta;">The list goes on.... and is still counting.....</span><br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
The humble : ASTROSAT</h3>
<span style="color: magenta;">The unique capabilities of ASTROSAT lies in its multi-wavelength capabilities of observing stellar objects.</span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>The Large Area X-Ray Proportional Counter (LAXPC) stands out among all the available space telescopes (RXTE, HEXTE, SAX); by offering almost 3-times larger area at 40-keV energy x-rays.</li>
<li>The LAXPC will also offer best timing studies; helping the observers to study the strong gravity regions around neutron stars and stellar mass black holes</li>
<li>LAXPC will also serve as a complimentary instrument for the present/upcoming spectroscopic observations (Chandra, XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, ASTRO-H)</li>
<li>Sensitive hard X-ray spectroscopy</li>
<li>Wide spectral coverage : UV, 0.3-150 keV</li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: magenta;">RXTE </span>: The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer<br />
<span style="color: magenta;">HEXTE</span> : High Energy Timing Experiment<br />
<span style="color: magenta;">SAX</span>: Beppo SAX, Italian Dutch Satellite for X-ray astronomy<br />
<span style="color: magenta;">MOM</span>: Mars Orbiter Mission<br />
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S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-36155284704606785002015-09-30T11:37:00.001-07:002015-12-06T09:37:13.052-08:00Water on Mars<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
After the discovery of bone dry moon to be holding traces of water molecules... <span style="color: magenta;">Water on Mars</span> means a lot to the human race. It is not a meagre scientific result where a 9-year old space craft revolving around Mars and 4-years old results have shown liquid water to be flowing during the summer on Mars; rather, <i>these results have re-kindled new hopes of finding life on Mars</i>, as per Michael Meyer, NASA's Mars Exploration Program. Of course, the intelligent, eager and inquisitive human's quest of leaving earth has found astronomical levels of adrenaline pumping into their blood streams.<br />
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This is the picture released by NASA which speaks tonnes of words on how the newly appearing streaks, called the <span style="color: magenta;">recurring slope lineae</span> (<span style="color: magenta;">RSL</span>)... held the secrets <span style="color: magenta;">under their belly</span> for so long that it took a smart under graduate student, Lujendra Ojha from Georgia Tech to figure out that these are actually hydrated salts which appear only when the ambiance reaches -23 C and above. In a way, the salts are helping the ice (water) to melt at much much lower temperatures; just as salt on roads here on Earth causes ice and snow to melt more rapidly.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC0xKS3Axup-j0ONPJy6XWEpul5IKt6r9kN9OhdbTHQI_8x8aijEw6UHJNjP_O3SL2d3BhbehgE5IMj6ZtxlNu3R-VRIsl-32LfZKrQ22Cu3G8WQvyrkBahvBALvTybkZ3coFEzAfcIzc/s1600/Clipboard01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC0xKS3Axup-j0ONPJy6XWEpul5IKt6r9kN9OhdbTHQI_8x8aijEw6UHJNjP_O3SL2d3BhbehgE5IMj6ZtxlNu3R-VRIsl-32LfZKrQ22Cu3G8WQvyrkBahvBALvTybkZ3coFEzAfcIzc/s640/Clipboard01.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit : NASA</td></tr>
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<span style="color: red;"><b>SECRETS unravelled..</b></span><br />
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The dark streaks seem to be appearing in the summer and would again vanish as the temperature dips. It is only due to the long lasting mission Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (<span style="color: magenta;">MRO</span>) and the versatile instruments it is carrying; that the keen observations of this undergrad student along with his team members that they found a way to unravel the secret beneath these streaks.<br />
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Ojha and his team first created a 3-D model (digital terrain map) utilizing the stereo information from High Resolution Imaging Experiment <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #fffdfc; font-size: 14px;">(</span></span><span style="color: magenta;">HiRISE</span>) camera of MRO. The image is draped with the spectral information from Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer (<span style="color: magenta;">CRISM</span>) of MRO. The spectrometer component of the overlaid image shows information about the hydrated salts at the multiple RSLs.<br />
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Ojha and his co-authors interpret the spectral signatures as caused by hydrated minerals called perchlorates. The hydrated salts most consistent with the chemical signatures are likely a mixture of magnesium perchlorate, magnesium chlorate and sodium perchlorate. This study of RSL detected perchlorates, now in hydrated form. This also is the first time perchlorates have been identified from orbit.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">Another example of Dark Streaks on Garni crater..</span></b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Ka4Sa1kPbVtMyn3Mk2wkJOtfk1u64nixH4rHmNTT8Ag1zFB2-voX0Sbk15b27gyv7vrn0WehhNVFHMVUAYJKqP3ItkDMnh91MGSNe2gg_tpRfLZ_F4rm_MkSC4yMUg2xlT22qepz1D0/s1600/Clipboard01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Ka4Sa1kPbVtMyn3Mk2wkJOtfk1u64nixH4rHmNTT8Ag1zFB2-voX0Sbk15b27gyv7vrn0WehhNVFHMVUAYJKqP3ItkDMnh91MGSNe2gg_tpRfLZ_F4rm_MkSC4yMUg2xlT22qepz1D0/s640/Clipboard01.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: NASA</td></tr>
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S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-54984727017064236332015-08-06T02:23:00.000-07:002019-08-08T04:51:04.722-07:00Breakthrough Listen - Search for Aliens<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
"<span style="color: blue;">Is there an intelligent life beyond Earth</span>? " this question has been bothering the human race as far as 19th century. The Serbian-American Scientist Nikola Tesla proposed to send signals to Martians (1890); he claimed to have received unusual signals, calling them to be from "<span style="color: blue;">another world</span>". The project, <span style="color: magenta;">Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence</span>, SETI, 1960 by Frank Drake, USA was to look for radio signals sent out by intelligent life in the universe.<br />
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The declaration of 100-million dollars fund by the Russian investor Yuri Milner with a surprise addition of Stephen Hawking in his team, the project "<span style="color: magenta;">Breakthrough Initiatives</span>" would certainly change the fate of SETI search. Milner, a physics graduate turned investor is known for <b><span style="color: magenta;">turning coal into gold,</span> </b>with his investments bringing a new tide into the businesses (e.g. facebook, twitter, alibaba, xiomi, flipkart....); lets hope the same for SETI.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: www.effmeride.it </td></tr>
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<span style="color: magenta;">How is it done??</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">First strategy:</span> Search for the radio signals in the nearby 100 million stars hoping that civilization living in their planetary system may be intelligent enough to have a radio active utility in their routine works, e.g. air traffic control or any other communications.<br />
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Since the past studies of SETI have strongly suggested that the radio signals from extra-terrestrial signals could come only from the far away sources and they could be extremely strong, an alternative hunt would also be planned.<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">Second strategy:</span> Here the entire plane of milky-way galaxy (where we live) and the central zone will be studied in detail to cover more than 100-billion stars in the shallow region (meaning far away). Apart from this, the survey would also stare at 100-galaxies comprising of 10s of trillions (1000-billion or million-million) of stars, each star having its own planetary system.<br />
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To accomplish the above said goals; the plan is to spend one-third of the funding in buying 20% of the 100-meter diameter Green Bank radio telescope at West Virginia and a substantial amount of time on Parkes 64-meter telescope in Australia for 10-years.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo26m5OLN0jzjwFrkbRL73J7iYGSQeJExa2IPXlO-NRj9fSHhBRHUnoGQHmdwUS7YLPW3qNOAWakb957AaJQa0Citnbi1MQHVvlF5iHKkD5DZdr7lOsquYJSU3IeI-dDsp0Rpqho_gkSg/s1600/green-bank-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo26m5OLN0jzjwFrkbRL73J7iYGSQeJExa2IPXlO-NRj9fSHhBRHUnoGQHmdwUS7YLPW3qNOAWakb957AaJQa0Citnbi1MQHVvlF5iHKkD5DZdr7lOsquYJSU3IeI-dDsp0Rpqho_gkSg/s400/green-bank-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">100-meter Green Bank radio telescope</td></tr>
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Another one-third amount of funds are planned to develop very high sensitive receivers to listen to billions of narrow frequency channels in 1-10 GHz, a region which covers best of the radio signal regimes which passes through the earth's atmosphere and also clean from the cosmic background . </div>
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Breakthrough Listen will also be taking up observations in visible light region on the 2.4-meter Lick observatory's planetary finder telescope. This would serve as an additional tool to support and confirm the region from where one hopes to pick POSITIVE signs of civilization.<br />
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Example: As per a rough estimate, the present studies (at Green Park) can pick up signals: "If an alien civilization living on a planet orbiting around any of the 1000 stars closest to us from a common air traffic kind of communication signals". 2. The optical signals monitored at Licks observatory would be able to pick 100-watts of light from the planets of stars which are within 4-light years away from ours.<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">Prominent SETI attempts:</span><br />
A British radio astronomer, Antony Hewish and his post doc Jocelyn Bell studying the inter planetary scintillations of compact radio sources came across a set of radio sources displaying very regular and fast packet of signals. Unable to identify the source they went on to name them "<span style="color: lime;"><b>little green men</b></span>". Later the team went on to discover a new set sources called Pulsars; Anotny Hewish getting a noble prize (1974) for this discovery.<br />
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The famous ISRO-Balloon experiment, where the Indian scientists lead by Dr. Jayant Narlikar have successfully found bacteria in the stratosphere of earth, at an altitude of 20-40 kms. The three group of bacteria to be identified after the gene sequencing technique have been found for the first time (<a href="http://www.isro.gov.in/update/16-mar-2009/discovery-of-new-microorganisms-stratosphere"><span style="color: blue;">Reference</span></a>). Though the Indian experiment may not fall under the <span style="color: magenta;">LISTEN</span> category, it does stand out as an outstanding effort of humans to reach out extra terrestrial life. India can certainly play a big role in this project; Milner goes on record to say that the idea of pumping this money is to instigate young minds towards science... <span style="color: magenta;">is any body listening????</span><br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">Bottom line!!</span><br />
Though the present initiative may increase the SETI search by 100-times in the form of more sensitive tools (a rough estimate); it may take even generations to get to listen to the super civilization living away from our world. But surely enough... Milner has certainly initiated a giant step towards SETI...<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">Credit: </span><br />
<span style="color: magenta;">Like to give credit to few press reports appearing in the internet after the declaration of Breakthrough Initiatives project on 20th July at the Royal Society, London, particularly to a good piece of article appearing in the Sky and Telescope by Alan MacRobert.</span></div>
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S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-81733315545438064722015-07-02T04:13:00.000-07:002015-08-03T01:39:02.254-07:00NEW HORIZONS <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: red;"><b>Key words: New Horizons, Alan Stern</b></span><br />
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The NASA page of <span style="color: red;">New Horizons</span> says.... <i><span style="color: magenta;">10-Years..,5- Billion kms</span></i>; truly the human aspirations are racing towards the edge of solar system with an astounding speeds of 80,000 km/hour. To be able to reach Pluto, the New Horizons space craft has to take a <i>slingshot</i> from the giant planet Jupiter. The scientists are going to peek into the new frozen world of Pluto on 14th July 2015 at a distance of just around 12,500 kms having to view football size images with 48-meter resolution. Where as, after its discovery in 1930, Pluto has just been a <i>dot</i> to the best possible astronomical observations from earth, except for few (10-12) pixel across image appearing in the Hubble Space Telescope in 90s. Why are the scientists so excited??? they say.... they have no idea.. may be it is the thickest atmosphere or gaseous jets streaming out.... anything.... so little is known.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">New Horizons, </span>Credit : NASA, </td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: red;">New Horizons (NH).. an unique attempt?</span></b><br />
Voyager-1 (<span style="color: blue;">Sept-1977</span>) which has crossed the solar system now, had opted for Titan (Saturn's moon) as a compromise to bypass Pluto's flyby. Voyager-2 (<span style="color: blue;">Aug-1977</span>) never had a trajectory to flyby Pluto. Then comes... New Horizons (2006)... fully geared to explore this dark world at its gory details. NH got the best opportunity to catch up with the celestial windows to be able to <i>sling shot</i> towards Pluto before the planet drifts further away and the atmosphere it holds getting frozen. As per the inspirational posts from Alan Stern, PI, that every care has been taken to avoid any collision the space craft may suffer due to the un known world around Pluto. "It was a relentless effort of around 2,500 NASA employees's effort that is going take us into these unknown worlds" says Alan Stern.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">The Space craft:</span></b></div>
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To quote NASA, the <span style="color: blue;">piano sized space craft</span> weighs 478 kilograms, with the lead role taken by the Southwest Research Institute, APL-JHU and contributions coming from (GSFC, JPL, KSFC, UC, Stanford...) many other institutions, to say <i>a typical</i> <i>American heritage</i>. Its a technological marvel running on a single radio-isotope thermoelectric generator of 200W capacity provided by a 11-kg Plutonium dioxide. Most of the instruments working at an average power of 5W (~ night lamp) and with the data being transmitted via 2.1-m antenna, a must for an object 5-billion kms away and the communication taking almost 9+ hours both ways. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Instruments, Credit: NASA</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: red;">Instruments:</span></b><br />
The 7-instruments are like gems, hand picked with 10s of deliberations carried to get the maximum from the <i>un-known worlds</i>. In my priority list:<br />
<span style="color: magenta;">1. LORRI</span>, the telescope/camera comes first. Dubbed as the hawk eyes of New Horizons, it is basically a black and white digital camera with a 20-cm telescope, but built to work in a hostile <i>cold</i> environment. On 14th July, LORRI will be beaming football size images with an unprecedented 50-meter resolution, a life time opportunity for all the planetary scientists.<span style="color: magenta;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: magenta;">2. RALPH</span>, though called as the "main eye", but a complex mixture of instruments comprising of three panchromatic imagers, four color imagers and a spectrograph. It will offer an abundance information on surface geology, morphology and thermal features.<br />
<span style="color: magenta;">3. ALICE</span> is an imaging UV spectrometer to study the composition of Pluto's atmosphere. A smart baby with a built-in telescope and a huge spectral coverage to study ionic to neutral species.<br />
<span style="color: magenta;">4. REX</span>, a smart idea of employing occultation technique (looking down to earth's DSN signals via the target atmospheres) to measure pressure, temperature of atmospheres of Pluot and Charon.<br />
<span style="color: magenta;">5. SWAP</span>, to measure solar wind around Pluto, <span style="color: magenta;">6. PEPSSI</span> to look for energetic particles, last but not the least <span style="color: magenta;">7. SDC</span> a student dust counter, developed by the students to measure microscopic dust grains produced by the collision among asteroids, comets and KBOs.</div>
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<b><span style="color: red;">Pluto Picture of the Day..... (</span><span style="color: blue;">updated daily...</span><span style="color: red;">)</span></b><br />
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Mountain range discovered by NH on 14th July in the Tombough region from a distance of 77,000 km Credit: NASA.<br />
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Another secret of Pluto revealed, as NH was moving past Pluto, it captured the haze around Pluto extending to 130 km. Credit: NASA.</div>
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S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-12385748475376775442014-11-14T03:25:00.000-08:002015-08-02T23:56:35.517-07:00Philae vs. MIP (Moon Impact Probe)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="color: red;">Key words: Philae, Rosetta, Moon Impact Probe, Chandrayaan-I</span></b><br />
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Today (<span style="color: blue;">14th Nov., 2014</span>), exactly six years ago "<b><span style="color: purple;">the messenger from India</span></b>" (<span style="color: blue;">as president Kalam called it</span>) <span style="color: red;"><b>Moon Impact Probe</b></span> had crash landed near Shackleton crater, very close to the south pole of the moon. While 2-days ago we hear about <b><span style="color: red;">Philae probe</span></b> of Rosetta space craft of ESA landing on the Comet P67 and hence the title of this post; by no mean there could be any other analogy in these missions. Let me narrate few amazing facts about Philae then will switch over to my own personal experiences as a core-science team member of Moon Impact Probe mission in <span style="color: blue;">Chandrayaan-I</span>.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">Philae:</span></b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit : ESA</td></tr>
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The team of Rosetta waited for almost 10-years in chasing the <span style="color: blue;">P67 comet</span> before they could send 100-kg Philae to set its foot on the tiny nucleus which was measuring just around 4-km. The mind boggling numbers of <span style="color: blue;">500-million km</span> journey lasting <span style="color: blue;">10-years</span> and sailing along side the elusive comet's nucleus at a distance of <span style="color: blue;">few-100s of kms</span> with a speed of <span style="color: blue;">64,000 km/hr</span> were all truly <span style="color: purple;"><b>hair raising statements</b></span>.<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">On 12th Novemeber, 2014</span>, the time had just been ripe for the team Rosetta to fire the Philae weighing 100-kgs and would take around 8-hours to be ready to land on the nucleus. As it reaches the nucleus of the Comet, Philae would fire 2-harpoons and would tag itself onto the soft surface. The press reports (from ESA officials) confirm that the Philae has in fact bounced twice and later got settled at location which is not known for sure as of today (14th Nov., 2014); however finds itself in a shadow of a cliff shown below.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: ESA</td></tr>
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Though the fully charged battery of Philae would permit its <span style="color: blue;">9-instruments</span> to operate for <span style="color: purple;">56-hours</span>; but the recharging would take much longer than the expected time as the present location would offer only an hour of sunlight for the solar panels to charge the battery; this is certainly not the dead end, as the comet itself would offer its "<b><span style="color: purple;">seasons</span></b>" where the same location could hope to get much more sun exposure in the future. It is indeed a moment of pride for the entire humanity that the ESA has achieved for the first time on being on a comet. The scientists are upbeat about Philae (though landing on 2-legs, out of three) being very healthy as far as running of their proposed battery of experiments are concerned. Any further manoeuvrability need to be done with extreme care as this may lead to dislodging of the probe from the surface itself. <span style="color: red;">Why</span>... because the the 100-kg Philae would weigh just around <span style="color: purple;"><b>1-gram</b></span> due to a reduction of gravitational pull of P67 of the order of <span style="color: blue;">100000 less as compared to earth</span>.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">Moon Impact Probe (MIP):</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: blue;">Mission:</span></b> While <span style="color: blue;">Phiale</span>'s mission is just like a scene picked from a Hollywood movie; <span style="color: blue;">Moon Impact Probe</span> was a hard work of a small group of scientists from southern tip of India and their aim was ONLY to drop a 30-kg mass on the southern tip of moon. The mother space craft (<span style="color: red;">red</span>), Chandrayaan-I would re-orient to accommodate MIP separation. During this time the MIP (<span style="color: lime;">green</span>) would be detached and in a "<span style="color: purple;">pre-programmed</span>" sequence would fire de-orbit motor to reduce the forward velocity component while a set of thrusters fitted on the side would spin-up the probe to attain a stable descent journey. The selected target was close to the <span style="color: blue;">Malapert Mountain</span> near the south pole of the moon.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwyKw3Ud5y8QsNmCk5ptIBtqORAXl56b1CMtRxi09FNOAuzn_I7RD8aBUXC07WXUtg2NxIIhz9BsYI1rZZspAdy-VQ-iPKDUpJD9YCUT2jqlnZL4AvtxvDGT9mmvLbtOsDGj6PYUzbZQM/s1600/mip-seq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwyKw3Ud5y8QsNmCk5ptIBtqORAXl56b1CMtRxi09FNOAuzn_I7RD8aBUXC07WXUtg2NxIIhz9BsYI1rZZspAdy-VQ-iPKDUpJD9YCUT2jqlnZL4AvtxvDGT9mmvLbtOsDGj6PYUzbZQM/s1600/mip-seq.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6fgxzdxq-32p_GluGKiWI55ofZb-6NKfNfnUnHLoKEZ18EuLG9Ym9OPGF5-tMu-ankyheteyxHblyRM7NhzLQfmhyphenhyphenugt9BCTA7tTUabTJFF2YH-l4a9s9WoCSbu9MOWErFmKNNWWFp6o/s1600/MIP-impact.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><span style="color: blue;">MIP mission</span>; Credit: ISRO</td></tr>
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The MIP mission as it was called in the Chandrayaan-I project was the brain child of <span style="color: blue;">President Kalam</span>, as per his vision "let there be a messenger reaching moon from the Indian soil". This idea was to be realised at ISRO's <span style="color: blue;">Vikram Sarabha Space Center</span>, VSSC. Traditionally at ISRO's VSSC; it has been the hub of developing and realising the rockets, while the idea of MIP which comprises of an autonomous power, communication and instruments can almost be treated as a stand alone space craft. This was a unique experience for the entire group of MIP developers. The objective of MIP was a "<span style="color: purple;"><b>Technology Demonstration</b></span>" which means all other issues (science) would take a back seat; however, the development of a science instrument (<span style="color: blue;">CHACE</span>) in this mission with its members having least amount of experience were entertained by the core group of scientists; which allowed us to pull-off one of the most sensitive instrument (<span style="color: blue;">CHACE</span>) to study the nearest heavenly body. The plan: the MIP a cuboid of 1/2-meter size weighing around <span style="color: blue;">30-kg</span> would be detached from the mother space craft in the very first opportunity of Chandrayaan-I achieving its <span style="color: blue;">100-km polar orbit</span>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh31x1dIsQvX3fjdHHHnvhv9ZZuTrcrGqDCm30qcEGOLy5M9lmdl69uWMDVjlCO3E5mcSvld4y4MWGw01_VcsnkEnqqOK_oN6p57pc804V0JZmoUM9EmIy-FHpgMkD8YIu3OeUoBJSaMQQ/s1600/MIP-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh31x1dIsQvX3fjdHHHnvhv9ZZuTrcrGqDCm30qcEGOLy5M9lmdl69uWMDVjlCO3E5mcSvld4y4MWGw01_VcsnkEnqqOK_oN6p57pc804V0JZmoUM9EmIy-FHpgMkD8YIu3OeUoBJSaMQQ/s1600/MIP-3.jpg" width="333" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Moon Impact Probe</span>; Credit : VSSC-ISRO</td></tr>
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The MIP would carry 3-experiments during its approximate 22-minutes descend journey. <span style="color: blue;">1. CHACE</span>, (<b><a href="http://chace-isro.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: lime;">link</span></a></b>) the mass spectrometer would sample the nearby ambiance in 1-100 atomic mass range, <span style="color: blue;">2. Color Camera</span> would take pictures and <span style="color: blue;">3. Radar altimeter</span> would measure the distance from the lunar ground. Details of CHACE are <b><a href="http://moonatmosphere.blogspot.in/"><span style="color: lime;">narrated here</span></a></b>.<br />
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It was on <span style="color: blue;">14th November, 2008 around 8.22 pm IST</span> that we were all waiting for the confirmatory signal from MIP which would actually cease to exist (meaning "<b><span style="color: red;">die down</span></b>"). It indeed happened and the sacrifice of MIP (that is <span style="color: blue;">crash landing</span>) has brought immense wealth of data. The color camera sent stunning pictures as MIP was descending; while CHACE spectrometer measured almost a dozen gaseous species with the <span style="color: blue;">peak at 18</span> representing water standing very very tall indicating the presence of water unambiguously.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD7fnanVkq-UsjIGJPzp11uIMry8620cQKROzTn4HXr3Y_VZJf8ok-3ev2n_z4STebrjozax72xJPGdNcNxwzkK8Jq8OaTp9S-AehkUmkF_NwyzHD8bpfBC_BzU2JwoEwmBnZ0kotSm40/s1600/mip-crash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD7fnanVkq-UsjIGJPzp11uIMry8620cQKROzTn4HXr3Y_VZJf8ok-3ev2n_z4STebrjozax72xJPGdNcNxwzkK8Jq8OaTp9S-AehkUmkF_NwyzHD8bpfBC_BzU2JwoEwmBnZ0kotSm40/s1600/mip-crash.jpg" width="285" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">MIP landing</span>; Credit : SAC, ISRO</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: blue;">It was no ordinary feat for the MIP team members to design and develop a probe from scratch in a span of just around 4-years and achieve an amazing piece of success in the form of landing the probe within 2-kms of intended location.</span></b><br />
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S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-783070939372615122014-08-22T03:05:00.002-07:002014-08-24T21:25:27.258-07:00Comet Siding Spring visit of Mars<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The space enthusiasts around the globe were preparing for an exciting moment: on how the two visitors from earth would be able to make it to planet Mars in the <span style="color: blue;">3rd week of September</span>. The team at NASA was quite confident on their 485 million dollars worth baby, <span style="color: blue;">MAVEN</span>; while the <span style="color: blue;">Indian-MOM</span> ($ 75-millions) was carrying ONE billion hopes to be able become the <span style="color: red;">FIRST</span> country to make it on their first attempt to planet Mars. Suddenly the focus has shifted to an event which would occur a month later, truely a <b><span style="color: magenta;">Cosmic Spectacle</span></b> which is going to take place if you were to be on Mars on <b><span style="color: red;">Oct.19th</span></b>. The comet <span style="color: blue;">Siding Spring</span> will be zipping past almost at a distance of <span style="color: magenta;">1/3rd of that of earth-moon</span>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir1JvmiQPh_mQKQy-3_-KoBow3FC0WmrVkdQ84ikG30cBcESNJ-D68l9Vk6av5Lv9enySmSVvVatMxOnoo6ZMl3vdoUHl0C-tK_Z8vROLLi6q6eMm7VACmwkXEftdv2GcH3bGD8jYmhjo/s1600/comet-viral-global-news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir1JvmiQPh_mQKQy-3_-KoBow3FC0WmrVkdQ84ikG30cBcESNJ-D68l9Vk6av5Lv9enySmSVvVatMxOnoo6ZMl3vdoUHl0C-tK_Z8vROLLi6q6eMm7VACmwkXEftdv2GcH3bGD8jYmhjo/s1600/comet-viral-global-news.jpg" height="243" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Comet on MARS (artist's view)</span><br />
Credit : Viral Global news </td></tr>
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When the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission, MOM was getting ready; there were few whispers around on the <span style="color: magenta;">suspected visit of an intruder on Mars</span> (indicating whether the mission should go ahead ???) ; credit to the think tank of ISRO that they went on record to announce that the mission is ON. In one of my earlier posts (<a href="http://mom-mangalyaan.blogspot.in/2013/04/mars-orbiter-mission-mom-indian-mission.html"><i><b><span style="color: purple;">link</span></b></i></a>), on my personal behalf I had predicted that even if the comet were to make it; this would offer a life time opportunity to study this event. This is precisely what has been the mood all around the globe today.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">What is the fuss all about this event:</span></b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEceVtnxs6wl2YEzm0J64wY7hKwrnAT4KUkh0dNg4pMeiVcuvbP1mhDuEKrapv67pwNmsz46ns7k8RmqC6KozK1mnWsys1xDNPgOe7vi2MiWDi4qIxe5o47ljOmaTKwkLDuGWZgzyVHG8/s1600/mars-sats-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEceVtnxs6wl2YEzm0J64wY7hKwrnAT4KUkh0dNg4pMeiVcuvbP1mhDuEKrapv67pwNmsz46ns7k8RmqC6KozK1mnWsys1xDNPgOe7vi2MiWDi4qIxe5o47ljOmaTKwkLDuGWZgzyVHG8/s1600/mars-sats-1.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Orbiters, Rovers of NASA on MARS</span><br />
Credit : NASA</td></tr>
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It is a rare among rare opportunity that the space scientists would be getting to study a comet at such a close range. Siding Spring, a long period comet making its visit for the first time to the solar system has stirred huge interest among scientists and <span style="color: magenta;">a common man</span>. <span style="color: blue;"><b>The good news</b></span>: as per recently carried out modelling study (JPL and few other university teams) on comet's path around the solar system, the comet's nucleus with a size of around 2-kms will be moving within a distance of 132,000 kms from the planet; even then it is 17-times closer than the nearest recorded comet (L1 Lexell, 1780) in history. At this distance both the ion-tail and the dust tail is going to miss the Mars. <span style="color: blue;"><b>The bad news:</b></span> is all due to a trail of dust particles which would be moving at a very high relative speed of around 57-kms per second during the closest visit of this comet; this would start 90-minutes before and would be lasting for another 20-minutes of actual passing time. As per the estimate of scientists, at these speeds even a tiny dust particle of half millimeter size could cause appreciable damage; "<span style="color: magenta;">essentially they pierce the skin of any satellite; they would be like bullets, out there</span>" quoted by Rich Zurek of JPL. Presently there are two orbiters: <span style="color: blue;">Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter</span> and two rovers: <span style="color: blue;">Opportunity, Curiosity</span> of NASA while one orbiter from ESA: <span style="color: blue;">Mars Express</span>. The fuss is all due to the devastating effects this unexpected visitor to Mars would be causing; but... hey.. hang on.. this has now become a talking point on every possible popular scientific forum... because the fear of damage to the probes is turning into excitement of observing this <span style="color: blue;">unique phenomenon</span>.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">Ducking behind Mars:</span></b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipKttiIjF1RX_uuN8nyjYkCwYS-HwM9yScCwhmvcVAKddCpvuxTZoRUdIwsQtdy5djo571LG5clpFDNJnRAYDTH0zao44sgmcU4pLJ6W6lFRkyOKOH9WVdeyT69Mo85gRz9LcchgJpkIo/s1600/siding-cartoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipKttiIjF1RX_uuN8nyjYkCwYS-HwM9yScCwhmvcVAKddCpvuxTZoRUdIwsQtdy5djo571LG5clpFDNJnRAYDTH0zao44sgmcU4pLJ6W6lFRkyOKOH9WVdeyT69Mo85gRz9LcchgJpkIo/s1600/siding-cartoon.jpg" height="305" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: NASA</td></tr>
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The scientists at NASA have already come up with a plan of taking their orbiters behind the Mars planet during the passing-by phase of the trail of cometry particles. Both the orbiters of NASA have gone through the first level of orbit correction; they have also indicated that the newly arriving MAVEN would also be placed in an appropriate orbit to be placed itself behind the planet during the comet's transit. While the Indian team at ISRO is yet to make an official announcement to this effect. However, the scientists at NASA believe that the rovers on the ground will be under least amount of facing any kind of hazard and hence have not opted any protective measures.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">Observations for the spectacle:</span></b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJv8mOmjmkaYO5aT_fK3xMgnHfGXvALUuBt0uWtmToaTDcfuCsPPnc4HsfraV4qfQ3iBZd36tU-7WjtEq9_oiioR6vlctLg41QRd4Jt_F0zUJ4BOrzml3r57nbGQh621W6W1Uh8Je7ngU/s1600/siding-cartoon-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJv8mOmjmkaYO5aT_fK3xMgnHfGXvALUuBt0uWtmToaTDcfuCsPPnc4HsfraV4qfQ3iBZd36tU-7WjtEq9_oiioR6vlctLg41QRd4Jt_F0zUJ4BOrzml3r57nbGQh621W6W1Uh8Je7ngU/s1600/siding-cartoon-2.jpg" height="250" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Comet tails: explained</span><br />
Credit : NASA</td></tr>
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Though this may lead to a technical discussion (<i>and hence elaborations are avoided</i>); the indications leading us to believe that the NASA team has made elaborate arrangements in terms of preparing the suitable instruments on their orbiters and rovers to be ready for the <span style="color: magenta;">cosmic spectacle</span> to study the : <span style="color: blue;">comet/coma</span> as such, <span style="color: blue;">coma-mars</span> atmosphere interaction and also formation of <span style="color: magenta;">Martian Aurora</span> which may occur due to the interaction of coma and higher part of Martian atmosphere, as pointed out by David Brian, LASP, Univ of Colorado. Last but not the least, we, here in India will also be cheering for the <b><span style="color: blue;">MOM</span></b> to catch up with the huge amount of opportunities which are thrown open during the nature's display of <span style="color: magenta;">fire show</span>.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">Curious observation (Author's take) :</span></b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFalYwgb_rCvIQfxhicPBfDr1qQ07hg5sF8xnf9LYphXfxxEA1AW4DNNsn0FtULsceBRqxWXK1K6SThMXRxzf7wXDuSIjq7604J6zOjO19AJ7XE7DFcqX_3WTxfS_0jF5wybz3DqKvn3k/s1600/deimos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFalYwgb_rCvIQfxhicPBfDr1qQ07hg5sF8xnf9LYphXfxxEA1AW4DNNsn0FtULsceBRqxWXK1K6SThMXRxzf7wXDuSIjq7604J6zOjO19AJ7XE7DFcqX_3WTxfS_0jF5wybz3DqKvn3k/s1600/deimos.jpg" height="205" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">DEIMOS: images taken by MRO</span><br />
Credit : NASA</td></tr>
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The object which is furthermost away to planet Mars and still part of it is <b style="color: red;">Deimos</b>, the second moon, is going to take a heavy beating on October the 19th. Poor Deimos with a diameter of around 13-km which has been spending very quite time all around, but situated around 23,000 km from Mars would be awake to a violent shower of particles (<span style="color: magenta;">bullets</span>) both neutral and ions. It will be interesting to note the fate of this object which is having a porous regolith (1.47 gm/cm3) .</div>
S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-26429627135082449972013-12-31T00:56:00.002-08:002015-04-30T02:20:07.556-07:00Indian Universities - Rankings <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Just like the status of India in the world of football (SOCCER, <span style="color: magenta;">yet to fly their flag @FIFA</span>); the Indian universities are yet to make any mark in the academic world. Why.. why.. why is it that none of the Indian academic institutes have made it to appear in world's top 200 rankings; consistently in the past 3-years. The idea of this post is to bring out the bare facts and also to offer my own personal views for this pathetic show in the academic arena. <span style="color: magenta;">Arena???</span>, is it a good word, are we saying that the academicians need to be in a race; while many people shrug aside this topic calling it to be a meager "<span style="color: magenta;">rat race</span>". <b><span style="color: red;">No</span></b>, its a measure of where does the institution stands in imparting education and performing research, in a way it reflects on the worthiness of everything; <b><span style="color: lime;">YES</span></b>, it is indeed to make one realize whether the students one trains, after all have to enter the <span style="color: magenta;">ARENA </span>and hence <span style="color: lime;"><b>the correct word</b></span>.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeHr-T6zPDfeT79ItUyfExRMBF68yXzdhTOwrgoj6eaeRwYz-Fi2kwtWfB0WhaWS2_VoxjD4i5Dt6rXtvQ3d38XB9RRjjsYVWAYGgGqZZPEdhgtnUlLOnwhVH7p3KuY-f5QJR0xuCiMBM/s1600/univ-ranks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeHr-T6zPDfeT79ItUyfExRMBF68yXzdhTOwrgoj6eaeRwYz-Fi2kwtWfB0WhaWS2_VoxjD4i5Dt6rXtvQ3d38XB9RRjjsYVWAYGgGqZZPEdhgtnUlLOnwhVH7p3KuY-f5QJR0xuCiMBM/s320/univ-ranks.jpg" height="315" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><i><span style="color: magenta;">Ranking: Weightage Factors</span></i><br />
Credit : TIMES higher education rankings</td></tr>
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As we wind up the year 2013 (today being the last day); we learned 2-reports, first, the Indian Universities faring badly among the <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2014/brics-and-emerging-economies"><span style="color: blue;">BRICS countries</span></a>; next, a miserable performance among the <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/building-better-universities/article5508889.ece"><span style="color: blue;">World Rankings</span></a>. Lets analyze the first work done by the TIMES higher education <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2014/brics-and-emerging-economies"><span style="color: blue;">UK group</span></a> in gauging the academic institutions among the FIVE (<span style="color: magenta;">Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa</span>) major emerging national economies. The assessment seems to have been based on four major issues (<a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2014/brics-and-emerging-economies/methodology"><span style="color: blue;">complete details</span></a>): While 1. teaching (<span style="color: magenta;">30%</span>), 2. research (<span style="color: magenta;">30%</span>), 3. citations (<span style="color: magenta;">30%</span>) carry a large chunk, the remaining <span style="color: magenta;">10%</span> is calculated upon the industry income and international outlook. In addition, there were 13-carefully calibrated performance indicators; trusted by students, academicians and industry and governments. There is a minimum bar of around 200-published papers an year starting from 2007 and the institutions must teach undergraduate programs; with few exceptions permitted.<br />
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Coming back to what Indian universities have done among BRICS: while <span style="color: magenta;">China grabbed 4-slots among the top-10</span> (including 1st, 2nd); <span style="color: magenta;">Punjab University was placed at rank-13</span> (<span style="color: lime;">we are NOT averse to this number!!</span>). The other institute to represent India is IIT-Khargapur standing long long away at 30. There are 6-more institutes (<span style="color: lime;">so, 8-among 50</span>) within the 50-bracket; the notable one being Jadavpur university at 47 and Aligarh at 50.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">What can we say about this performance:</span></b><br />
Lets get some opinion from Phil Batey, editor, Times Education Higher Rankings, UK; as per his interview appearing in <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/features/education/indian-varsities-lag-behind-in-research/article5433479.ece"><span style="color: blue;">the Hindu</span></a>, he attributes the no.1 slot for <span style="color: magenta;">Peiking university</span> is primarily due to research impact and industry income along with an excellent teaching credentials. As per Batey, <span style="color: magenta;">the Chinese government made a significant effort starting from 1990</span> and pushed for a few number of highly specialized universities into world class level by pouring a significant amount of grants in developing infrastructure and research facilities (<b><span style="color: lime;">Is anybody listening ???</span></b>). The decision, a political, but very aggressively followed in attracting the reverse brain drain by offering a variety of incentives to the students, faculty coming back to their motherland. While the Punjab university seems to have done exceptionally well due to their research program; which is "<span style="color: magenta;">globally potential</span>". Commenting on the poor performance of IITs, Batey says <span style="color: magenta;">IITs lag on research front.</span> He also mentions very categorically that the funds flow towards education is poor in India and hence a poor set of infrastructure in all the educational institutes. Some other good universities were not appearing in the list as they had not participated in their ranking procedures (e.g. Delhi University).<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">My views:</span></b><br />
The simple logic of "what you sow is what you reap" is applicable. As Mr. Batey pointed out, the other developing countries who have made it big are the ones who have spent an enormous amount. It is interesting to come up with the actual numbers spend based on GDP among the BRICS. Though the recruitment procedures are very fair at the central universities and at the IITs in attracting bright researchers from abroad and within the country; what has been noticed is that of terrible deterioration in the research performance of these young faculty after joining. It is absolutely clear that the major reason behind this phenomenon is due to poor infrastructure on pursuing research mixed with many other non-academic reasons which will kill the remaining enthusiasm. While, <span style="color: magenta;">the lack of funding is playing a detrimental role in the fall of quality research in India</span>, the drying up of faculty strength is another crucial factor in the dwindling scenario of university output. There is a huge uncertainty in the governments to last their 5-year terms; and hence very few <span style="color: magenta;">long term plans</span> are envisaged in setting up of a esteemed places of higher education.<br />
<br />
Can we not identify universities of excellence which can offer world class teaching along with cutting edge research, <span style="color: magenta;">the ISERS is a good move in this direction</span>. Let us reinforce IITs on their research front; let there be few faculty who are taking less burden of teaching, but performing research alone (assessed by an independent body). No point in spending a fortune on attracting one type of fellowship (calling noble laureates); instead we can call many without the tag. Let there not be an aversion on PRIVATE universities (<span style="color: magenta;">they are the ones who sent the first probe into the space</span>), if they are bringing competitiveness let us have them into the foray; after all the new entrants need to be wary; not the other way round. <br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">On the occasion of 60th formation day of UGC, Prof. C. Raj Kumar, vice chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global university has come with a good discussion (</span><a href="http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/building-better-universities/article5508889.ece" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: blue;">the Hindu</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">) on "<span style="color: magenta;">Building better Universities</span>". While very first table showcases a pathetic show of Indian universities NOT appearing in the top-200 ranks all along the the years 2011, 2012 and 2013; at the same time China, Japan and South Korea taking 4-5 slots on an average among the lists of various bench markings. Raj Kumar has gone in greater depth of the working model of UGC; his comment " </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: magenta;">The current framework that require universities to be constantly regulated by laws, rules, regulations, guidelines and policies set by the government and the regulatory bodies have not produced the best results</span>". He emphasized on the issues of quality and accountability which need to be ensured by the regulating body (read UGC). As per this article; India in the pursuit of enhancing the education base (Gross Enrollment Ratio) has some how lost in </span></span><span style="line-height: 18px;">spending</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"> on the research and scholarships.</span></span></span><br />
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Bottom line, Issues to be debated: </span></b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="color: purple;"><b>How can we enhance investment in Higher education</b></span></li>
<li><span style="color: lime;"><b>Better ways and means to attract the reverse brain drain</b></span></li>
<li><span style="color: purple;"><b>Opening the gates for the foreign players (less averse to Private parties)</b></span></li>
<li><span style="color: lime;"><b>With the given situation; how to improve the standards (lessons from Punjab Univ.)</b></span></li>
<li><span style="color: purple;"><b>Where should the buck be stopping?? ... Student - Faculty - VC- UGC...........</b></span></li>
<li><span style="color: lime;"><b>Lack of Industry participation in research</b></span></li>
<li><span style="color: magenta;"><b>----------</b></span></li>
<li><span style="color: lime;"><b>----</b></span></li>
</ul>
<b><span style="color: red;">N.B.:</span></b> Here is the: <b><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013-14/world-ranking">Indian Universities World Rankings </a></span></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: magenta;">Another blow to the Indian Educational system;</span> <span style="color: magenta;">Sept-2014</span></span></b><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Here is another news appearing just now : </span><a href="http://www.thehindu.com/features/education/no-indian-university-on-top-200-list/article6416967.ece?homepage=true"><span style="color: lime;"><b>LINK</b></span></a><span style="color: blue;">, that the findings of QS-World University Ranking system finds IIT-Bombay holding the best representation from India.... at 222; while few universities (Delhi Univ., Calcutta Univ.) managing to be in the 420-440 range.</span><br />
<div>
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<b><span style="color: magenta; font-size: large;">Times Ranking-2015... India improves; Dec-2014</span></b><br />
India does well... on the expected lines; their top research institute, IISc (Indian Institute of Science) grabs 25th rank into the BRICS league... here are the other Indian institutes....<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhYo08P6Yrt8KSup1wKDfo_lXfDmxRh1vfLIEyxcNQuANSXiifPBOA0-0PGeFYqB80is4q1fZIbnnkH220h-s8_W2rbM6MtTgHawQ08yu1GUTTzY_yCr-47rAK-IzEALvVzMeF0EwrBBQ/s1600/latest-rank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhYo08P6Yrt8KSup1wKDfo_lXfDmxRh1vfLIEyxcNQuANSXiifPBOA0-0PGeFYqB80is4q1fZIbnnkH220h-s8_W2rbM6MtTgHawQ08yu1GUTTzY_yCr-47rAK-IzEALvVzMeF0EwrBBQ/s1600/latest-rank.jpg" height="556" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit : Times of India</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;">QS Rankings -2015 by subject:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Indian universities stood up in the subject-wise rankings brought out by the same agency (reference: </span><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.topuniversities.com/subject-rankings/2015"><b><span style="color: blue;">QS Rankings</span></b></a>)</span> <span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">where Indian institutions failed miserably as a whole.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Listed here are the 9-institutions from India, which grabbed under-100 rankings subject wise..</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: magenta;">1. IIT Bombay</span>: Art & design, computer science, & information systems, engineering-chemical, civin & structural, electrical & electronic, mechanical, aeronautical & manufacturing, materials science, statistcs & operational research </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: magenta;">2. IIT Delhi:</span> Computer science & information systems, engineering-chemical, civil stuctural, electrical & electronic, mechanical, aeronautical & manufacturing </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: magenta;">3. IIT Kharagpur:</span> Engineering-civil & structural, mechanical, aeronautical & manufacturing, material science</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: magenta;">4. IIT Madras:</span> Engineering-civil &structural, electrical & electronic, mechanical, aeronautical & manufacturing </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: magenta;">5. Indian Institute of Science:</span> Electrical & electronic, materials science </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: magenta;">6. IIT Kanpur:</span> Statistics & operational research </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: magenta;">7. Jawaharlal Nehru University:</span> Sociology </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: magenta;">8</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: magenta;">.Shanmugha Arts Science Technology:</span> Art & design </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: magenta;">9. University of Delhi:</span> Development studies</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span></div>
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S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943731656451713961.post-80272323021865199632013-12-19T02:46:00.001-08:002013-12-26T02:36:23.663-08:00Heavy Metals (??) on Moon by CHACE (Chandrayaan-I)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="color: blue;">Have we found heavy metals on Moon ??</span></b><br />
<br />
With an introduction to the present post, lets start with <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ladee/mission-overview/index.html#.UrK1g9IW3p8"><b><span style="color: blue;">LADEE</span></b></a>, then we will move over to the topic of <i>identification of heavy metals</i> (<b><span style="color: red;">?</span></b>) <i>on the moon</i>; the observations made by <b><a href="http://chace-water-1.blogspot.in/"><span style="color: blue;">CHACE </span></a></b>( <span style="color: blue;"><b>CH</b></span><span style="color: magenta;">andra's </span><b><span style="color: blue;">A</span></b><span style="color: magenta;">ltitudinal </span><b><span style="color: blue;">C</span></b><span style="color: magenta;">omposition </span><span style="color: blue;"><b>E</b></span><span style="color: magenta;">xplorer, </span><span style="color: blue;">a quadrupole spectrometer</span>) during the Moon Impact Probe Mission (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Impact_Probe"><b><span style="color: blue;">MIP</span></b></a>) of Chandrayaan-I (<b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-1"><span style="color: blue;">Ch-I</span></a></b>). The sole purpose of this blog is to highlight a recent note published in <a href="http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/105/11/1470.pdf"><b><span style="color: blue;">Current Science</span></b></a>; on the observation of two prominent amu (atomic mass unit) peaks at <span style="color: red;">80 and 94</span>.<br />
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The <span style="color: magenta;">CHACE</span> observations were made during the very first phase of actions taken having got the <span style="color: magenta;">Chandrayaan-I (<b>Ch-I</b>) </span> into 100 X 100 km polar orbit on 14th November, 2008. In a way, these were the very first set of experiments performed during the <span style="color: magenta;">Ch-I</span> project; while all the other payloads (instruments) were kept in hibernation. The <span style="color: magenta;">Moon Impact Probe (<b>MIP</b>) </span> got separated from the mother space craft, <span style="color: magenta;">Ch-I</span> near the northern pole of the moon and had a 22-minute descend journey before having an impact near the south pole at Shackleton crater. The <span style="color: magenta;">CHACE</span>, a most ambitious and carefully planned scientific instrument worked exactly, may be a less justified word, and collected around 300-mass spectra covering 1-100 amu (atomic mass unit). The peak at amu-18 (<a href="http://chace-water-1.blogspot.in/"><b><span style="color: blue;">water</span></b></a>), standing tall like the <span style="color: magenta;">Statue of Liberty</span> in front of NY city was mark of jubilation to the <span style="color: magenta;">CHACE</span> team on 14th Nov.-2008. The present post is to bring in some light on the fag end of 60-100 amu <span style="color: magenta;">CHACE</span> observations in view of <span style="color: magenta;">LADEE</span> being sent to the Moon by <span style="color: magenta;">NASA</span>.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As <span style="color: magenta;">NASA</span> calls it <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.390625px;">Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, <b><span style="color: red;">LADEE</span></b>, pronounced like "laddie" (<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ladee/mission-overview/index.html#.UrK1g9IW3p8"><b><span style="color: blue;">taken from NASA site</span></b></a>). <span style="color: magenta;">LADEE</span> was launched on 6th September, 2013; a robotic mission to study the lunar atmosphere; and/or environmental influence on the lunar dust. <span style="color: blue;"><b>Strange, but true; the dream of a group of scientists (the author was one among them) at ISRO was also the same while the Moon Impact Probe mission was getting conceptualized (2003); to sample the lunar "environment" during the descend mission of</b></span> <span style="color: magenta;">MIP</span> in <span style="color: magenta;">Ch-I</span>. The three instruments of <span style="color: magenta;">LADEE</span> are: 1. <span style="color: magenta;">UV/Visible Light Spectrometer</span>, 2. <span style="color: magenta;">Neutral Mass Spectrometer</span> and 3. <span style="color: magenta;">Lunar Dust Experiment</span>, the <span style="color: magenta;">LADEE</span> hopes to study the density, composition of lunar environment. A 100-day science mission is anticipated in an orbit ranging between 20-60 kms. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 22.390625px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As mentioned in the introduction; <span style="color: magenta;">CHACE</span> had acquired <span style="color: magenta;">1-100 amu</span> range spectra sampling the lunar ambiance during the 22-minutes of <span style="color: magenta;">MIP</span> descend till it had an impact near the lunar southern pole. We succeeded in our first publication on <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032063310000693"><span style="color: blue;"><b>discovery of water</b></span></a> with a laborious period of convincing the international scientific community for ONE year and 4-months (March-2010); the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032063310002291"><span style="color: blue;"><b>second paper</b></span></a> describing a large chunk of data appeared in August-2010. </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 22.390625px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 22.390625px;">We have just got a paper published in Indian journal <span style="color: blue;"><b><a href="http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/105/11/1470.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">Current Science</span></a> </b></span>on the heavy species observed by <span style="color: magenta;">CHACE in 60-100 amu</span>. The <span style="color: magenta;">CHACE</span> spectra also had shown some striking features on appearance</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 22.390625px;"> of high mass peaks at 77, 78, 79; however the species at amu=80 and 94 were very pronounced. A sample spectrum at an altitude of 100 km in the 60-100 amu range is shown here.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 22.390625px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 22.390625px;"><br /></span></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN2whlo-EvcTR9TgO8YcF0MSsjhQ5F4NDZ43KxLpxgs6Ubrhql6k4heD9ZWGEE-lDv3Abkiah-LkSYTobzUZbOjjHmQItuvzbXOFxc6PcfHcojPlT8sj2eb89TU1tVaB0i-GowxXNxR_Q/s1600/heavy-metals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN2whlo-EvcTR9TgO8YcF0MSsjhQ5F4NDZ43KxLpxgs6Ubrhql6k4heD9ZWGEE-lDv3Abkiah-LkSYTobzUZbOjjHmQItuvzbXOFxc6PcfHcojPlT8sj2eb89TU1tVaB0i-GowxXNxR_Q/s400/heavy-metals.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: blue;">CHACE Spectra; 60-100 amu </span></b><br />
(Credit: Current Science, 1470, 105, 2013)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 22.390625px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 22.390625px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Unlike earth, any particle in the lunar ambiance is known to have the surface boundary exosphere (<span style="color: magenta;">SBE</span>); meaning that the particles may not be having any collisions and each species is characterized by its own <span style="color: magenta;">SBE</span>. So, in a way, any identification of sampled species during the descent journey of <span style="color: magenta;">MIP</span> reflects the elemental presence of those species on the ground.</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 22.390625px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 22.390625px;"><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><b>What are amu nos. 80, 94 ??</b></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 22.390625px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Since these are <span style="color: magenta;">FIRST of its kind measurements</span>; it is very interesting to get an answer for this question. <span style="color: red;">THESE COULD BE ELEMENTS OR COMPLEX MOLECULES</span>. Elemental because the path traversed by <span style="color: magenta;">MIP</span> was over the <span style="color: magenta;">KREEP</span> region and hence could be of rare earth category. However, we all look forward to <a href="http://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/699/currentprojects699_3.html"><span style="color: blue;"><b>LADEE</b></span></a> picking up these and many more species upto 150 amu. </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 22.390625px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 22.390625px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 22.390625px;"><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><b>N.B.:</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I like to draw your attention to my blog on the Indian instrument, <span style="color: magenta;">CHACE, </span>which has observed for the <span style="color: red;">FIRST TIME EVER</span> the lunar daytime composition</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.390625px;"> </span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.390625px;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://moonatmosphere.blogspot.in/"><span style="color: blue;">YES, Moon does have an "atmosphere"</span></a> </span></b></span></div>
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S.M. Ahmedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11414709571290681931noreply@blogger.com0