MESSENGER Spacecraft provides new details about Mercury Planet

The first measurements of Mercury planet's movements from a spacecraft orbiting the planet reveal new information about the make up of solar system's innermost world and its interactions with other planets.

Mercury does not rotate on its axis smoothly.  but it experiences regular fluctuations in speed over an 88-day cycle which is a year on the planet.  These fluctuations are caused by the planet's interactions with the Sun as it moves around it. The gravitational pull of Sun speeds up or slows down the Mercury's rotation depending on where the oblong shaped planet is on its elliptical orbit.

The new study details new measurements of Mercury's movements taken by the MESSENGER Spacecraft, which orbited the planet for more than four years before its propellant was exhausted and it purposefully crash landed on Mercury in April, 2015.  The new measurements from the spacecraft show that Mercury is spinning on its axis about 9 seconds faster than scientists had previously calculated,  It is not a huge difference but it is un expected.

The previous studies showed that Mercury rotates 3 times on its axis for every two revolutions around the Sun indicating that Sun was influencing the Mercury's spin.  The new study shows that Mercury has a more complex rotational behavior.

The scientists think that the rotational speed could come from Jupiter's large gravity field tugging on Mercury's orbit, changing the planet's distance to the Sun and its influence on its spin.   The authors of the new study propose that Jupiter, which travels around the sun roughly once every 12 years, has superimposed a 12-year, long-term libration on top of Mercury’s 88-day libration. This long-term libration could be causing the slight increase in speed observed during the time period of the new study and also cause a slow-down in Mercury’s spin at other times, according to the study’s authors.

Margot said the influence of Jupiter on Mercury is only one possible explanation for the new observations and additional measurements could unveil additional influences on the planet. The European Space Agency’s BepiColombo mission to Mercury launching in 2017 may be able to answer some of these questions, according to the study’s authors.

“It’s still a bit of a puzzle,” Margot said.

Robot Firefighter puts off its first Fire blaze

A firefighter Robot has been developed in USA which was tested recently to put off a fire.  The Robot looked on as a fire burned aboard the USS Shadwell.  The eyes of the robot scanned for the heart of the blaze.  Then it has grabbed the water hose and started spraying the water into the fire to put it off.

This is the first time a Firefighter Robot  - SAFFIR which is the Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot.  And this is the first time a Robot was used to put off a fire.  SAFFIR was developed at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg for the US Navy ship for tackling fire without risking the human life.

The Firefighting Robot has a mass of 65 Kgs. and it is 178 centimeters tall.  The Robot uses dual optical cameras to see, thermal cameras to peer through smoke and find fires.  The Firefighting Robot uses Laser sensors to guage distances to the fire.  The Fire fighting Robot can walk and pick up the water hose on its own.  All other actions are controlled by human operator.  The designer of the Robot say that it can withstand temperatures better than human beings and it does not get tired like humans.

The first demonstration of the Fire fighting Robot was made in November, 2014 and SAFFIR was successfully able to walk on un even surfaces too identifying the fire.  It was able to locate the hose and handle the situation.  SAFFIR had a human operator operating it via computer but Navy Engineers are expecting it to be able to work autonomously one day in future.

Navy is planning to design an improved version of the SAFFIR which would have improved battery and software.  They are also planning to make this Robot a multipurpose robot to handle works like ship board measurements, scanning for corrossion and leaks by using additional sensors.

Here is a video which demonstrates the Fire Fighting Robot on the job......

Asteroid soil could fertilize farms in space

Now it is possible to grow plants in space - Crops grown in asteroid soil could sustain vast human population off-planet.

So if you want to grow plants in space and want to start a space farm, you need to search for an asteroid.  There is enough fertilizer around the solar system to grow vegetables for future generations of space colonies.  Researchers have already began to grow edible plants in space.  Asteroids are a hot topic now with the launch of Japan's Hayabusa 2 spacecraft on 3rd December, 2014.  This spacecraft aims to return a sample from carbon-rich asteroid 1999 JU3.  

Astronauts are now spending longer time in space with first crew to spend a full year onboard the International Space Station due to launch in 2015.  Longer human missions in future will require the company of plants both in terms of providing food as well psychological comfort to them.  Mr. Bratislav Stankovic at the University of Information Science and Technology in Ohrid, Macedonia and his team is working on experiments to grow mini farms on the ISS  and is one of the first to grow plants in space. 

Nearly every space shuttle flight from 1980s and 1990s have carried out experimental plant payloads but plants struggled in micro gravity. The plants displayed strange genetic mutations, grew in undesirable shapes and seeds did not germinate or grow well.  

But now Dr. Stankovic and his team have made a capsule which enabled two generations of seeds to successfully grow on International Space Station.  The capsule tightly controlled soil moisture, light, humidity, air temperature and levels of carbon dioxide and ethylene - a hormone plants release into the air when they begin to open. A mesh held down a base of fertilized gravel in which the plants could spread the roots.   Once the system was installed by the astronauts, the system was remote controlled and monitored from the University of Wisconsin.  They grew a small edible flowering plant called Arabidopsis thaliana.  

The plants produced seeds and also 92% of them germinated successfully.  Some of these plants were grown on the ISS and others back on Earth.  There was little difference between the two.  The space seeds had their protein stores packed a little differently and the plants' branches grew in slightly different directions. But these are small details, Stankovic says. "It is likely that the previous failed attempts had to do with inadequate control of the growth environment," he says. "Microgravity per se is not a limiting factor."


For more details,  please read the article on growing farms in space

Seismic Cloaks developed to minimize damage to buildings due to Earth Quake

We all know how much damage can be caused due to an earth quake for the buildings.  Every one of us might be thinking of methods to reduce the damage caused due to earth quake and protect the houses and buildings.   There is a good news now...
 
Scientists have tested a prototype of a seismic invisibility cloaks experimentally in France.  So buildings vulnerable to earth quakes can be shielded from damage by surrounding them with these seismic invisibility cloaks.  The concept is to create protective barriers which divert earth quake energy away from sensitive facilities like nuclear power plants.


Computational Physicist Mr. Sebastien Guenneau and his colleagues at the Institut Fresnel have invented a method which involves modifying the ground around a building to divert the seismic waves thereby cloaking the structure from an earth quake. 

For more details please read the article on Seismic Cloaks to minimize damage due to Earth quake from the www.physicsworld.com website.

 

Sings of Water found on Water by Curiosity Rover

It is now clear that there are signs of water on Mars.  Almost every rover, lander or orbiter sent to MARS in recent times give some indications of the evidence of water on the Red Planet.  This gives rise to whether there was a life on Mars in earlier times.  The Curiosity rover of NASA landed on Gale Crater which is a place which used to hold a lake of water as per the latest findings of the Scientists of NASA and announced on 11th Dec., 2013.  

For more details please read the article about Signs of water found on Mars by Curiosity Rover.

China lands Jade Rabbit Rover on Moon

China has successfully landed a craft carrying a robotic rover on Lunar surface.   This is the first soft landing in the past 37 years.

The Jade Rover was landed on the surface of Moon on 14th December, 2013.  The touchdown took place on a flat plain called Sinus Iridum.   For more details,  please read the article on China's Jade Rabbit rover lands on Moon.

Send your own Spacecraft to Moon for just Rs. 20000 ( 199 Pounds)

Did you ever dream about exploring the solar system with your own spacecraft?   Yes it is now finally possible to explore the space using your own spacecraft.

If you are a space enthusiast, you have a unique chance to explore the solar system with your own space craft and that too at a very small cost - Just 199 pounds or Rs.20,000.

A British company is planning to launch thousands of mini spacecrafts on to the Moon.  Each of these spacecrafts can be bought for just 199 pounds and personalized by the sponsor.  A group of scientists, engineers and designers who worked on this concept at some of the world's leading Universities have come together to start this personal interplanetary space age and they have given an opportunity to you to join hands with them to become a space explorer.  So once you join this project, you can personalize your own spacecraft by adding a picture and customizing the message it transmits using just their web browser.  More technical explorers can even customize the software and hardware. The team has developed a website called www.PocketSpacecraft.com.  

The probes to be launched by Pocket Spacecraft, are of the size of a CD and as thin as a paper.  They will be released in June, 2015 over the Earth and over the Moon in June, 2016.

You can watch online at your spacecraft is being built in the lab and loaded into an Interplanetary CubeSat Mothership.    Once they are launched by a commercial rocket, some of the probes will be released into space to flutter to the ground in order to demonstrate landing on a planet with atmosphere (Earth).  The MotherShip will set off to Moon where, when it arrives many months later, the remaining probes will be released, photographed and then land on the Moon to complete the Mission.  

The owners of the probes can monitor the progress through out their own Pocket Mission Control App to track the progress of their Spacecraft as it is designed,built and travels through the space.  The data as it arrives from individual's spacecraft's instruments is relayed from space by a global ground station network direct to the owner's smartphone.  The users also can hold their phone up to the sky and use the augmented reality feature to point out exactly where their spacecraft is.

"As these spacecrafts are very light weight, they are extremely cheaper"  - says Mr. Michael Johnson who is the founder of Pocket Spacecraft.  The Bristol based company hopes to use similar probes elsewhere in the solar system.  If you are able to drop 1000 of these probes on Mars, you can do a planet-wide seismic survey. 

Read more about their current mission for details and join them on an expedition to the moon!

Are you interested  in exploring the space....    If you are interested to take part in the Pocket Spacecraft Mission to the Moon,  please fill up your details and submit.

You can see some details of the Pocket Spacecraft in the image shown below.

 

Eesha Khara - an Indian girl invents a device to charge mobile phones within 20 seconds

Eesha Khare, an 18 years old Indian girl student at Lynbrook High School in California made an excellent discovery which provides a solution to all recharging troubles for the portable devices like mobile phones in future. 
 
The device is known as Super Capacitor would enable mobile devices to recharge the battery in less than 20 seconds.  Eesha Khara was awarded Young Scientist award by Intel Foundation for developing the super capacitor device.



The Super Capacitor device is capable of holding a large amount of current or power in very small space.  The device can retain the charge for a longer time and the same can be charged within a very short duration of time.  The device has about 10,000 recharge cycles which is 10 times more than what is offered by most battery packs today.  The inventor claims that the device is flexible and is very small in size so it can be used in flexible displays and smaller devices.  The actual implementation for mobile devices and portable electronics is not yet been tested but inventor hopes for same in future.

50 new Earth like planets discovered

The Astronomers of Europe discovered 50 new planets.   All of them are behind the planets of our solar system.  Six of the planets resemble Earth very much.  The largest of these 50 planets is HD 85512 and it is 3 times by weight of earth.  It is 36 light years far away from Earth and is located in the Vela constellation.

Scientists believe that at  least 16 of these 50 planets have water, and assume that there is life on them.   Some of these planets have same weight as earth while some of them are 10 times heavier than our planet. 

World is not ending on 21st December, 2012 - Dooms Day

Most of the people all around the world are thinking that the world will end on Friday, 21st December, 2012.  Dec., 21, 2012 is the day when the 5,125 years old Mayan Calendar ends and some people have interpreted it as Dooms day.  For example the people in China have been buying tickets for a boat which will start sailing if the disaster strikes.  In Russia, many people are stocking the regular consumable supplies to ensure that they are prepared for the emergency.  And in Mexico, around 2,00,000 people are expected to flock to Chicken Itza, an ancient Mayan city as they are waiting for the world to end.

There is a wide spread and un necessary fear about the Dooms day on December, 21, 2012. Most of the people of the world are fearing about the end of the world on this day.  Opinion polls in America also indicate one in ten persons have a fear whether they will be able to celebrate Christmas this year.    A number of astronomical alignments and formulae were proposed pertaining to this date but none has been accepted by the scientific community.

So 21st December, 2012 will not be the end of the World as all people are thinking but it will be another winter solstice.  I have gone through NASA website where all the doubts regarding end of the world on 21st December, 2012 were answered by NASA scientists...  Here is a list of answers provided by NASA scientists for the questions related to 21st December, 2012 - Dooms day.  I am just copying the questions and answers which were published in the NASA website...  This is for the benefit of the people who are fearing about the end of world on 21st December, 2012.

Question (Q): Are there any threats to the Earth in 2012? Many Internet websites say the world will end in December 2012.

Answer (A):The world will not end in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012.

Q: What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in 2012?

A: The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012 and linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.

Q: Does the Mayan calendar end in December 2012?

A: Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar.

Q: Is NASA predicting a "total blackout" of Earth on Dec. 23 to Dec. 25?

A: Absolutely not. Neither NASA nor any other scientific organization is predicting such a blackout. The false reports on this issue claim that some sort of "alignment of the Universe" will cause a blackout. There is no such alignment (see next question). Some versions of this rumor cite an emergency preparedness message from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. This is simply a message encouraging people to be prepared for emergencies, recorded as part of a wider government preparedness campaign. It never mentions a blackout.

Q: Could planets align in a way that impacts Earth?

A: There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible. One major alignment occurred in 1962, for example, and two others happened during 1982 and 2000. Each December the Earth and sun align with the approximate center of the Milky Way Galaxy but that is an annual event of no consequence.

Q: Is there a planet or brown dwarf called Nibiru or Planet X or Eris that is approaching the Earth and threatening our planet with widespread destruction?

A: Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles.

Q: What is the polar shift theory? Is it true that the Earth's crust does a 180-degree rotation around the core in a matter of days if not hours? A: A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible. There are slow movements of the continents (for example Antarctica was near the equator hundreds of millions of years ago), but that is irrelevant to claims of reversal of the rotational poles. However, many of the disaster websites pull a bait-and-switch to fool people. They claim a relationship between the rotation and the magnetic polarity of Earth, which does change irregularly, with a magnetic reversal taking place every 400,000 years on average. As far as we know, such a magnetic reversal doesn’t cause any harm to life on Earth. Scientists believe a magnetic reversal is very unlikely to happen in the next few millennia.

Q: Is the Earth in danger of being hit by a meteor in 2012?

A: The Earth has always been subject to impacts by comets and asteroids, although big hits are very rare. The last big impact was 65 million years ago, and that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Today NASA astronomers are carrying out a survey called the Spaceguard Survey to find any large near-Earth asteroids long before they hit. We have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs. All this work is done openly with the discoveries posted every day on the NASA Near-Earth Object Program Office website, so you can see for yourself that nothing is predicted to hit in 2012.

Q: How do NASA scientists feel about claims of the world ending in 2012? A: For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, where is the science? Where is the evidence? There is none, and for all the fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the Internet, we cannot change that simple fact. There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012.

Q: Is there a danger from giant solar storms predicted for 2012? A: Solar activity has a regular cycle, with peaks approximately every 11 years. Near these activity peaks, solar flares can cause some interruption of satellite communications, although engineers are learning how to build electronics that are protected against most solar storms. But there is no special risk associated with 2012. The next solar maximum will occur in the 2012-2014 time frame and is predicted to be an average solar cycle, no different than previous cycles throughout history.

The above questions and answers were copied from NASA Website..

Ever Purse - A purse that charges your mobile phone

Purse that charges your mobile phone

Now you can charge your mobile phone by just putting it in a purse.  To charge your mobile phone,  you simply need to slip your phone into the charging pocket inside the purse.   Whether you are in the office or out of station,  the Everpurse will keep charging your mobile all day long.  When you come back to home, simply drop the Everpurse on the white charging mat for wireless charging!    So what is this Everpurse?:  Let us read something about the new purse that charges your mobile.

About Everpurse - purse that charges your mobile

27 years olkd  Chicago entrepreneur Liz Ormesher Salcedo has invented the 'Everpurse', the purse that charges your cell phone while on travel.   You simply drop your mobile into the pocket of the purse and it gets charged.  The Liz Ormesher Salcedo has developed the technology while working as a social worker where she regularly found her mobile phone running out of battery.  It was a big problem for her when mobile runs out of battery and so she looked for a solution and invented the Everpurse.

 Salcedo ahd her husband Dan who is a serial entrepreneur started experimenting with off-the-shelf parts of an electronic store and finally made the first prototype of Everpurse.   Now they have orders to make 1500 purses.

The Everpurse powers up when placed on a wireless charging pad, and holds a charge of two iPhone batteries when fully charged.  Salcedo said that the technology can easily be modified to hold even more charge.  For $600, you can have your existing purse fitted with Everpurse technology which they will sew into the lining of your bag by hand.

At present, Everpurse is compatible with iPhone 4, 4S and 5 as well as Samsung Galaxy S3 and will be expanded to work with more types of phones.

For more details about Everpurse please visit   Everpurse Website.

Bacteria discovered that can produce Gold

A bacteria has been discovered by scientists which has the ability to withstand huge amount of toxicity and is the key to create 24 carat gold.

Researchers at the Michigan State University found bacteria "Cuprividus metallidurans" which can grow on massive concentrations of gold chloride or liquid gold, a toxic chemical found in nature.  They fed the bacteria huge amount of gold chloride, mimicking the process they believe which happens in nature.  In a week's time the bacteria transformed the toxins and produced a gold nugget.

India's heaviest Satellite GSAT-10 launched succesfully

GSAT-10 - India's heaviest satellite launched successfully

GSAT-10 is India's heaviest and advanced communication satellite was successfully launched from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana in South America on 29th September, 2012.

GSAT-10 would augment telecommunications, DTH broadcasting and Radio navigation services.  GSAT-10 is 3400 Kg. at lift off is the heaviest satellite till now built by ISRO.  

 The GSAT-10 was launched by Ariane-5 rocket.  The Rocket blasted off from the launch pad at 2:48 AM (IST) and first injected European satellite ASTRA 2F into orbit followed by GSAT-10.

 GSAT-10 is expected to be operational from November, 2012 onwards with a design life of 15 years.

NASA’s Mars Rover “Curiosity” lands on Mars

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover successfully lands on the Red Planet Mars

 After travelling more than 300 million miles, the NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Mission has achieved one of the most complex landings of the spacecraft on surface of the Mars on Monday, 6th August, 2012.  The Curiosity will start investigating whether the  conditions on the Mars are favorable for life or not..   

The NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity successfully carried out the highly challenging job of landing on the surface of the red planet Mars early on Monday, 6th August,2012.  The Curiosity rover has sent its first photograph back to earth two hours after landing on the red planet.  

 This challenging Curiosity landing process involved a sky crane and the world's largest supersonic parachute which allowed the spacecraft carrying Curiosity to target the landing area exactly.   The Curiosity landed on the Gale Crater which may have contained a lake once upon a time.   The rover will arrive at Mount Sharp in the center of the crater after 1 martian year equal to 98 weeks of earth .   The Curiosity will drive up the mountains examining the layers of sediment.    The $2.6 billion Curiosity had made its dramatic arrival on the Martian surface in a spectacle popularly known as Seven minutes of Terror.

The Mission Control at the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL) burst into cheers as the Curiosity touched down on the surface of Mars.  The team members hugged each other and some shed tears when Curiosity beamed back its first picture.

The spacecraft carrying Curiosity has been traveling away from Earth since 25th November, 2011 and has made a journey of approximately 567 million kilometers.  The Curiosity which will be controlled by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has all the sophisticated tools for exploring the red planet.  These tools include 17 cameras, a laser which can survey the composition from a distance and instruments which analyze samples from rocks and soil.  The main aim of sending Curiosity to Mars is to know whether Mars ever had an environment to support life.

About Curiosity Rover 

  The Curiosity is a six-wheel nuclear powered  rover and is a much better technical experiment than any of the spacecrafts that landed on the red planet.  Some of the important things about Curiosity are given below.

• Curiosity carries a laser that can drill holes in rocks up to about 25 feet and identify the chemicals inside. 
• Curiosity has a 7 foot long robotic arm which has a power drill at the end which can bore into rocks and soils.  It can transfer the ground up powder into its onboard work bench to check for organics.
• Curiosity has a 2 mega pixel color cameras which can beam panoramic views back to earth. 
• Curiosity also has a video camera which records the last few minutes of its descent to Mars. 
• Curiosity also has a weather station to take daily temperature and pressure readings and record seasonal changes. 
• Curiosity has 20 inch aluminum wheels.
• The highest speed of Curiosity is  one tenth ( 1/10) of a mile.  

Curiosity landed on Mars Surface at 06:33 BST.  ( 11:03 AM  IST).

 Here is the sequence of events that happened from entry into Mars atmosphere and landing.

5.45 AM  BST:   During the descent phase,  the space craft has to shed tungsten weights to shift its center  of gravity and fly through the Martian atmosphere.  It has to pop a huge parachute, fire the retro rockets and finally lower down the Curiosity on to the ground.  During these Seven minutes of terror, the spacecraft will be reducing its speed from 13,000 mils per hour to a standstill on the Martian surface.  

5.53 AM  BST:   The MARS Science Laboratory spacecraft is now within 10,000 Kms from Mars planet.  The probe accelerates as it arrives at the red planet and then slows down as it enters the Mars atmosphere.  The first move by the spacecraft is to pull the heat shield into a forward position.  

5.57 AM  BST:   The spacecraft is now inside the orbit of the Martian moon, Phobos.  During the entry, landing and descent phases 76 pyrotechnic charges will be fired on board the probe to release the tungsten weights and release the parachute.  The spacecraft has to sense its position and atmospheric conditions and use the onboard thrusters to steer its way to the landing site.

  

6.03 AM  BST:   Mars size is around half of earth.  The target landing spot for Curiosity is the Gale Crater which is around 3.5 billion years old.   The Curiosity will spend most of its Martian year at this crater exploring Mount Sharp which is an enormous mount in the center of the crater which is 5 Kms above the ground.  The space craft is now 20 minutes for entry.

NASA's Curiosity Rover landing on MARS on 6th August,2012

Huge MARS Rover "Curiosity" set for nerve wracking landing on MARS on Monday 6th August,2012

After  eight and half months of journey crossing millions of miles between different planets,  the huge MARS Rover called "Curiosity" biggest and most complex rover ever sent to another world is now on its final approach for a hair-raising touchdown on Mars.

PSLV-C16 Launched Succesfully by ISRO

PSLV-C16 rocket carrying 3 spacecrafts which include India's latest remote sensing spacecraft "ResourceSat-2" was succesfully launched on 20th April,2011 from Satish Dhawan Space Center, SHAR, Sriharikota at 10:12 hrs. This is the 18th launch of PSLV and 17th succesful launch of PSLV.

PSLV-C16 has placed the three spacecrafts into an orbit of 822 Kms. above the surface of earth. Two are Indian spacecrafts and the third one is a Singapore spacecraft. The Indian spacecrafts are RESOURCESAT-2 (1206 Kg) and YOUTHSAT (92 kg) and the Singapore Spacecraft is X-SAT (106 Kg).

The Resourcesat-2 is indian remote sensing spacecraft which will help in applications which include natural resource monitoring, environmental assessment and also disaster management related activities. Resourcesat-2 would provide a three-tier imaging through AwiFS LISS-3 and LISS-4 cameras.

The Youthsat spacecraft contains three payloads, of which two payloads are Indian and the third one is Russian. Together these three payloads are useful to study and investigate the composition, energetics and dynamics of the Earth's upper atmosphere.

The X-SAT is mainly intended to demonstrate technologies related to satellite based remote sensing and onboard image processing.

You can see a video of the launch.

---

Biggest moon in 20 years - Super Moon 19th March,2011

The moon is going to come very closer to earth on 19th March,2011 which is the closest distance in the last 20 years. There are people who believe that when the moon passes near to us, the earth jumps up to greet moon and thus we see all kinds of volcanoes, earth quakes, floods, tidal waves, tsunamis etc.

Similar big moon happened in the year 2005 and we have seen a natural disaster in the year 2005. There was Tsunami in Indonesia which triggered by earth quake 9.2 in Ritcher scale in 2005. 2,00,000 people lost their lives in that earth quake in Indonesia.

The people of Japan observed many UFOs shortly before being hit by earth quake and tsunami. There is a belief that UFOs appear at places where there would be some natural disaster going to happen.

The big moon of 19th March,2011 was 221,565 miles ( 3,56,575 kilometers) away from earth. This is the biggest and brightest moon in the past 20 years. many people believe that this would trigger natural disasters like earth quake and tsunami on earth. But NASA scientists say that this kind of claims are non sense. The full moon of 19th March,2011 appeared 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other days.

This is the photograph of the big moon taken by a person in Washington. This is an amazing view of moon of 19th March,2011 when the moon was at perigee, the closest point to earth in its orbit - using a camera-equipped telescope.

This is another big moon photo taken by a sky watcher in Manipal in India on 19th March,2011.

Japan's Earth quake on 11th March,2011 gives rise to doubts on Nuclear power

There was an earth quake and Tsunami in Japan on 11th March,2011. Due to this earth quake and Tsunami there was a great loss to the properties and lives of people of Japan.

There were explosions at the three nuclear reactors in Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex after the quake. This has put a question mark on the future of the nuclear power and the nuclear industry. People are fearing about what would happen if the radiation was leaked. It is not known what would be the impact of the explosions on the health, and environment. This explosion has created lot of fears among the people there. The nuclear plant showed dangerously low water levels, which exposed the nuclear fuel rods which may increase the threat of radiation to reach nearby public. It is known that at least 190 people were exposed to the radiation. Nearly 1,85,000 people were vacated from the place near the nuclear power plant.

But according to Mr. Ravi Krishnaswamy, Frost & Sullivan's Asia-Pacific Vice President of Energy and Power systems practice, Japan's nuclear power sector has a safety record for several decades.

The Japanese government also assures the public and international community that the health danger from release of radio active steam from the explosions is very very low and it seems the containment wall for the nuclear plant seems to be intact.

There is an increasing list of plans for nuclear power plants. As of 2010, we can see almost 56 nuclear reactors constructed worldwide and Asia-Pacific region accounts for more than half of these nuclear reactors.

Now there is a requirement for all the nuclear power plants which are currently in operation to undergo a review of safety processes whether they are located in earthquake-prone zone or not.

GSLV F06 Launch fails

The GSLV-F06 carrying GSAT-5P spacecraft was launched on saturday, 25th Decembe,2010. But the launch ended in failure due to technical snag in the first stage of the rocket. After smooth and flawless countdown for 30 hours, the GSLV-F06 lifted off from the launch pad at 4:04 PM and ascended majestically into the sky. After few seconds the rocket lost its trajectory and exploded into a ball of fire. Immediately the sky filled with white, reddish-orange and dark-grey smoke.

The flames and the debris from the rocket came down like a shower into the Bay of Bengal.

For more details please read the news from Indian Express.

ISRO launches 10 rockets to study Solar Ecplise

The India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched 10 rockets in two days to study the partial annular solar eclipse, which was observed by many people on its path, which included many African and Asian countries.

The fleet of small suborbital rockets was launched for the purpose of studying the effects of a sun-moon alignment on Friday the 15th Jan,2010. The eclipse was the longest eclipse of the millennium. The Rohini series indigenous sounding rockets were launched by the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station and the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

The VSSC launched two each of the type RH 300 Mk II and RH 200 on Thursday while three sounding rockets of the type RH 300 Mk II and two sounding rockets of RH 200 from Thumba were launched on Friday.

The RH 300 Mk II and RH 200 rockets can attain an attitude of 116 km and 70 km, respectively. Another larger rocket of RH 560 Mk II series was launched from Sriharikota on Friday with the capability to attain an altitude of 548 km.

The rockets aimed at collecting relevant data on atmospheric structure and dynamics at different altitudes from the earth. The eclipse was at its peak at about 1:15 p. m. local time in India. The launch took place from Sriharikota at 1.15 PM.

The Solar eclipse gives us an opportunity to study how such events impact the photochemistry and electrodynamics within Earth's atmosphere and additionally drop in sunlight; lower temperatures and decreased levels of ionization within the atmosphere can also be observed.

The Solar Ecplise on 15th Jan,2010 offered a unique opportunity to scientists to investigate the effects of fast varying solar flux on the photochemistry and electrodynamics of the different atmospheric regions, especially the equatorial mesopause and ionosphere-thermosphere regions.”

The data collected by the rockets would be linked to the observations made from the ground to get insights into various phenomenas which occur during the eclipse.