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  01 MAIN
   
   
  02 NEWSMAKERS
   
   
  03 INVESTMENT UPDATE
   
   
  04 TRADE & ECONOMY
   
   
  05 TECHNOLOGY
   
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  06 CULTURE
   
   
  07 TRAVEL
   
   
  08 CALENDAR
   

   
  HIGHLIGHTS
   
 

India driving Global Business Confidence
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  Healing Traditions
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  Visit Madurai
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  05. TECHNOLOGY
   
 
  ISRO MOON PLANS
 
  As a part of its second Chandrayaan mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) hopes to land a motorised rover on the moon in 2010 or 2011, the rover will be designed to move on wheels on the lunar surface, pick up samples of soil or rocks, do in situ chemical analysis and send the data to the mother-spacecraft Chandrayaan-II, which will be orbiting above. Chandrayaan-II will transmit the data to the ground.
 

 

Courtesy: www.thehindu.com

According to ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair: "We are trying to conceive of an experiment in which the system will land on the lunar surface, move around and pick up samples, do their chemical analysis and transmit the data back to the ground."

 

Chandrayaan-II will consist of the spacecraft itself and a landing platform with the moon rover. The platform with the rover will hive itself off after the spacecraft reaches its orbit above the moon, and land on lunar soil. Then the rover will roll out of the platform. M. Annadurai, Project Director, Chandrayaan-I, said: "Chandrayaan-II will carry a semi-hard or soft-landing system. A motorised rover will be released on the moon's surface from the lander. The location for the lander will be identified using Chandrayaan-I data."

The technological forerunner to the rover will be the moon impact probe (MIP) of Chandrayaan-I. The MIP is a 29-kg instrument that will detach itself from Chandrayaan-I, descend some 100 km and crash land on the moon.

 

The rover will weigh between 30 kg and 100 kg, depending on whether it is to do a semi-hard landing or soft landing. The rover will have an operating life-span of a month. It will run predominantly on solar power.

A dish antenna with a diameter of 18 m has been installed at Byalalu village, 40 km from Bangalore, to track the spacecraft. Chandrayaan-I will carry 11 items of payload including five from ISRO and six from countries other than India.

         
 


PSLV-C7 set to lift off


 

A polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV-C7) placed in orbit advanced remote sensing satellite, CARTOSTAT-II on January 10, 2007 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.

“ India seeks to demonstrate its capability to bring orbiting capsules back to earth with this launch and the experiment will be a precursor to developing a reusable satellite launch vehicle,” said BN Suresh, director of the Thiruvananthapuram-based Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, at the 94th Indian Science Congress.

 

The mission sequence for the space recovery experiment would be for about 10 to 12 days after which it would be brought back to earth station. “The reusability of launch vehicles will result in a significant reduction in satellite launching costs,” said Suresh.

The reusable launch vehicle will look like a small aircraft. It is designed for retrieval of spacecraft for refurbishment and re-use and enable manned missions, he said.

  Simultaneously, ISRO is also developing SCRAMJET, an air-breathing jet propulsion system in which the rocket uses atmospheric oxygen for its propulsion. SCRAMJET will travel six times faster than the speed of sound.
         

Second Indian Woman in Space

 

 

Sunita Williams is the second women of Indian heritage to go into space. She interacted with the audience gathered at the United States Information Service centre in New Delhi for just 10 minutes over a hook-up facilitated by NASA.
Sunita was asked whether, in these times of terrorism, space provided an avenue for peace. "Absolutely," she replied. "From here the world looks like a beautiful place where people live peacefully. The space station, in which 16 countries are involved, is an example of how we can all work together peacefully."

She felt India should determinedly push ahead with its programmes for manned space travel. "It is a great way to look at Earth and the galaxy, and provide for further explorations to the Moon and to Mars," she said. "It can give further insights on how to save the planet for future generations."



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