These are not things to get angry about since anger won’t bring back power or water over the next 24 hours. The anger should be streamlined towards looking for a solution. Rain water harvesting, solar panels, wind mills and various other methods that were innovated in the Indian villages need to be brought to Indian cities. Learn about and from these people and create your own solution.

Breaking glass and wood work will only get the companies to use the money you pay them the next time to get their office re-worked. Instead spend your money on a solution and ensure that the next time the people who troubled you don’t get your money or stop complaining. If you’re still angry, perhaps you could dig a well?

just landed in Mumbai India… will explore over weekend, meetings with Ratan Tata on Monday!

As an immediate reaction, I tweeted back requesting him if we could meet and then informed my journalist friend from the Times of India, Srinivas Laxman, who using his journalistic powers secured an interview with him on the evening next day. I myself took the advice of Kirk and emailed him. Peter invited me at the same time at the lobby of the Taj Mahal Hotel, where he was staying here in Mumbai.

I met Srinivas at the Doordarshan Kendra at Worli and we took a bus to the Taj. Enroute, Srinivas received a call from M. Annadurai, the Project Director for the  first two Indian lunar spacecrafts, Chandryaan I & II.

Entering the lobby of the Taj Mahal Hotel was a great experience – especially since it was my first. We met with Peter in the Lobby and proceeded to the pool side. Srinivas started off with the Interview beginning from the idea of X Prizes, delving into the first X Prize and going through the Progressive Auto X Prize and ending up squarely on the Google Lunar X Prize. He asked me why there were no teams from India participating in the  Lunar X Prize for which I didn’t (and still don’t) have an answer. Between all of these, he revealed that Anousheh Ansari was here too and would be joining us soon! At the pool side he also talked about Guy Laliberte and also told us of an impending announcement of the 19th GLXP team next week (this was preponed for Linux Tag in Germany and was announced yesterday as The Part Time Scientists).

We then moved in to Shamiana as the humidity was getting a tad unbearable. It had rained on the day before and on this day, it just made the day more uncomfortable. Anousheh Ansari later thanked us for holding off the Monsoon until their visit.

Anousheh came in at this moment and besides exchanging how we had followed her blog during her visit to the ISS, we also learnt of her role as Space Ambassador and her work with the X Prize Foundation. She had been to a school that afternoon where she had talked to higher secondary kids of Cathedral about space exploration while Peter went away to IIT – Bombay. Anousheh said that her book had been completed and would be published soon.

Peter had expressed interest at creating an X Prize Lab in IIT-Bombay and said that they had expressed a lot of interest in creating the Lab. It would be great to have an X Prize Lab here in Mumbai.

We then talked about the Indian Space Programme – the success of Chandryaan I, the upcoming Chandrayaan II mission and India’s launch vehicles. Peter revealed how Prof. U R Rao , former Chairman, ISRO had helped him during his graduate years and later helped by sending Indian students to the International Space University. He was interested in knowing about India’s launch vehicle capabilities and their commercial availability in putting payloads in space. He expressed how India’s low labour cost (which are a major part of most mission costs) were attractive and helped India keep its cost to orbit very low. We talked about the PSLV, GSLV and about the new cryogenic engine and Indians into LEO by 2015.

Talk then went on to SEDS, which Peter co-founded as a graduate student way back in 1985 and about SEDS here in India. It was about this time he sent out this tweet:

meeting with Pradeep Mohandas founder of SEDS India… 6 chapters and 1200 students!

He was interested in knowing about a SEDS International Conference and whether there will be one this year as well. Anousheh was interested in learning that a SEDS chapter was starting up in Iran. Peter said it would be great to see which got to lunar surface first – a Government backed vehicle (Chandrayaan II) or a private prize driven vehicle (a GLXP team?). Both have a first deadline of 2012. That, would really be interesting to see! He also talked about the private space industry here in India, which although participates in the Indian space programme as contractors and sub-contractors has not broken off and started offering satellite or launch development opportunities yet. Under the conditions, it would be great to see an Indian team participating in the X Prizes.

Well, Peter and Anousheh were both here for a meeting with Ratan Tata, who is a member of the Board of Trustees of the X Prize Foundation. To summarize, it was great to meet Peter and a surprise to meet Anousheh here in Mumbai. Srinivas managed to publish this interview of the meeting in the next day’s edition of the Times of India!

Peter sent this message to members of SEDS India:

Our future in space is up to you, not to anyone else.  Not to governments or private companies, but to each of us that dare to dream about the future of the human race beyond the bounds of Earth.

It is during our generation that humanity will irreversibly move to the Stars.  It is not a dream, it is within our reach to make it real to make it happen.

Thousands of years from now when the history is told of humanity’s first bold steps to the stars, they will tell your stories and tell of your courage and your vision.

Make it happen!

Best,
Peter

It is a message that I think should be shared not only with all members of SEDS India but with every space enthusiast in India! As he says, “Lets make it happen”!

Today and yesterday, JAXA released a string of images from the last shots taken by Kaguya, to the scene in the Control Room and a previous image of the impact site.

The week also ended off with the launch of LRO/LCROSS, due to a problem in the shuttle launch on June 18. All in all, this has been a great lunar week and I am glad that India got to be part of this event.

Japan’s Kaguya will crash into the Moon on Wednesday, June 10th, around 1830 UT. The timing favors observers in Asia and Australia, who might be able to see a flash of light or a plume of debris rising from the Moon’s southeastern limb.  The spacecraft masses 2,600 kg and it will slam into the lunar surface at 6,000 km/hr.  No one knows, however, how bright the flash might be or whether it will be visible even through large telescopes.  Images of the crash, if any are captured, will be posted on http://spaceweather.com.

Friends in astronomy here in India tell me that the cloud cover might play spoil sport while some are skeptical of its visibility since the Moon has only recently passed through its Full Moon phase and the Moon’s brightness might cover up any plume. Whatever may be the case, I urge you to look at the Moon’s North East corner around midnight tonight to catch a glimpse of the historical end of the Kaguya mission.

It might also be possible that Chandrayaan 1 might catch the debris using the Terrain Mapping Camera onboard. If it does, the image would be great testimony to a piece of Japanese engineering on the Moon and signal India’s shift as the lone watch keeper of the events of the Moon from lunar orbit. Best of luck to the Kaguya team!

Expected Kaguya crash site. Image Credit: JAXA

Soon after Kaguya crash lands on the Moon, India will be placed in a very unique situation to be the only country near the moon. *jumping up and down with joy*. OK. But, this will not last long, as NASA’s Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter will catch up and join India in orbit around the Moon. The Chinese Chaang’e 1 also ended up something like this.

One of the only cycles left from my childhood is this one that my grandpa bought for me. This, according to my grandma was made by an ex-millitary personnel who was on the streets trying to make a living. The cycle was made using a single piece of insulated wire. It was meant to be a showcase piece but my grandma allowed me and enough people to play with it so that it got slightly deformed. I have no recollection of having bought it but I do remember playing with it. Below is a photograph of the cycle and if you like to have a 360 degrees view, check out the video below. Hopefully, you will also enjoy its craftsmanship.

A bicycle made of single string

Image: A cycle that I used to play with as a kid. Image Credit: Pradeep

the-bicycle

Many of the posts here come under the category of cycling. I do plan to cycle whenever I can and get a chance, mostly after exams. But, during my preparatory leave I managed to do some cycling and have made a brief jotting of it (in the following posts). I am yet to map those rides but until then you can perhaps enjoy my writing or have a look at the Video above.

Note: As I said earlier, I’m terribly bad at thinking up names for blog post titles, even after 3 years of writing posts. Hopefully, it will improve.

I’m happy that the Bharatiya Janata Party, a right wing party standing for ideologies of communalism was defeated in this elections but not that substantially. For their part, despite their seperatism, they tend to do well on governance, pushing for good administrations in traditionally bureacratically overwrought states like Bihar and even bought a sembelance of speed into India’s growth engine. But still, their seperatism is something I cannot accept and I would rather have slow and unified growth rather than the other. They still retain a sembelance of power to sit in the Opposition and is seen as a viable replacement for several Congress governments in various states, which is worrying.

I think the Left dug its own grave when it forgot all about NREGA and several other measures that the UPA Government took under pressure from the Left and projected itself more as an alliance built solely on the fact that it tried to give a non-Congress and non-BJP Government at the Centre. First, its act of walking out on a Government on a nuclear issue threatening to endanger the political stability of the country put them in the wrong side. Next they pushed it further by trying to pull together a variety of parties that were at best, hungry for power at the Centre. In that sense, I am happy that the Left was shown its place. Now, it is time for the Left to look at the tree its barking at, reform its methodology for the attainment of the Socialist state, embrace technology and Worker advancement and emerge as a stronger contender to be the second largest alliance in the country. I believe the Left can play the role of a useful opposition and may even one day play the role of a very good Government.

But, preliminary indications are that the Left has not learnt its lessons. The CPI (M) Politburo communique seems to be unaware of ground realities and how vociferously they have been rejected by the people of India. The CPI’s statement was much more sober and called for introspection in defeat and humility in victory. Beating the Left seems to be as simple as pointing to their mistakes.

Which leads us directly to the Indian National Congress. The Party has emerged as the single largest party in the country and its Allies put together bring the numbers needed for Government formation which is likely to happen in this Week. To the Congress, I would hope that they continue on the track of the unfinished Common Minimum Programme before taking the country into a new trajectory. Hopefully, if not the Left, the Congress will manage to keep the BJP away from power.

Initially the plan was to go to all the observatories at one go. Begin from the North of India and make my way down South. Because of India’s variable climate condition and because of my variable financial condition, I decided to break this tour into legs. Turns out that this is a nice way to do the trip, since I get to choose places as per climatic conditions of the Observatory and will hardly if ever be disappointed. Also, this allows me to stretch my trip and possibly watch the launch of the coolest observatory of them all, Astrosat – India’s own space telescopes in early 2010!

I will post most of the tour updates on a Blogger blog while I will throw in some of my personal views on this blog. The Blogger blog is to be an educational resource. Eventually, I also hope to turn a few things into a PDF document which can be printed and distributed by people who reach out to the students in rural India who may not have Net connectivity. As far as possible, this will be done for free. 

Since this news got out people in Europe and the US said that this was possibly ISRO’s fix for a thermal issue that it was faced with since January this year. But, according to this Hindu report, ISRO’s thermal management system was working (it kept temperature at 50 degrees, which otherwise would have shot up to 100 degrees by making instruments operate intermittently) and they hoped to get back to normal conditions by mid-January. So, atleast by February, Chandrayaan 1’s thermal problem should have been solved. No one questioned, nor ISRO provided information on whether that problem has actually been solved or continued to persist. This lack of clarification was interpreted as continued problems with thermal management. So could heat might have been one of the problems faced by Chandrayaan 1 which caused it to raise its orbit?

A point was brought to light by ESA’s contact for Chandrayaan 1, Detlef Koschny in his blog post for Cosmic Dairy (International Year of Astronomy project) talking about how Chandryaan 1’s orientation was changed to solve some of the “thermal issues”. This led to the point where Chandrayaan 1 was only able to downlink with Earth once every three orbits instead of every orbit. Interestingly, Koschny did not reply to a question by an Indian asking about how this may be interpreted as a failiure of the Chandrayaan 1 mission for all purposes (since you’re getting less data than expected). He only pointed at a longer mission.

The final point (at the time of writing this post) comes from The Telegraph, which says scientists on board were not aware about why this change in orbit was done, had not completed their mapping cycles (contrary to ISRO’s press release) and also attributed it to thermal issues.

So, by the end of all this, ISRO now stands to be questioned on:

1. Not totally, since the instruments are working when switched on. But the space craft instruments collectively seem not able to handle the heat at the low orbit for which they are designed for. So, essentially the spacecraft failed from keeping all instruments working as per mission requirments? If true, I’d rather ISRO accepted this since it is a common sight in space exploration.
2. If Koschny, an ESA contact for the mission to ISRO – almost like an Ambassador of a country and hence important – says that there were thermal issues, why does ISRO say according to the Hindu report that the thermal management systems were working fine? Also on the point of completition of all mapping cycles?

If you also included that Telegraph report, you also get the charge of poor mission management. Mission scientists on the team not being aware of change in orbit or Mission Control not being aware of the non-complettion of the mission cycles is a bit hard to believe. But, the Telegraph has only one quote from the Swedish scientist who just says the obvious – higer orbit on the moon leads to more stability and lesser use of the fuel leading to a longer mission life. The rest are all just references to unnamed mission scientists and officials. Not good reporting, in my opinion.

To end, I still believe the official ISRO word on this since they’re in mission control and know what’s happening. The outside world is speculating at best and may even be trying to damage ISRO’s reputation. I would like to believe that ISRO has completed the mapping cycle and has gone to a higher orbit to take a different resolution views of the lay of the Moon. I would suggest ISRO to revise their information sharing system and make it easier and more accessible to get the latest information on the Mission to end unwanted speculation in not only India but around the world. I am trying to get an written (email) clarification on this and will share it with all as soon as I get it.

News special: ISRO will get a new website after the July launch of the OceanSat satellite. Fingers crossed

I have been blogging since 2005 when I started on Blogger. I
discovered WordPress on the noluv4google website. I was on
WordPress.com since. In early 2008 the-get-my-own-domain bug bit me and I decided to move to WordPress’ full installation. Although I was happy with WordPress, I wondered what other CMS offerings were. Over the past year, I tried MediaWiki, TextPattern, Joomla and Drupal. Although, these are good my familiarity with WordPress and my comfort levels with using it brought me back to WordPress.

So now that all my curiosities are settled, I can get down to building
my website and my blog. I have deleted my earlier posts and will start afresh. Things will be messy as I pull this site up together. Expect everything to be normal by May 31 or so.