Space Thread

[Neel Here]

Originally Posted by Alien
Space race lasted till 75 after which they didnt compete much when it came to space. They had joint mission like Apollo-Soyuz project, and when Americans started using Mir space station.

Overall it was more cooperation than competition.

by that time the americans had already won the race and russians had given up.
cooperation before the break-up of SU was still limited to the lone Apollo-Soyuz docking exercise and unofficial coordination among space scientists on both sides on which planets to send probes at.(US and USSR sent probes to different planets so as not to repeat studies)
US astronauts on Mir happened after the break-up of the SU.

Cooperation is the way to go if mankind is to move forward in the final frontier.

very true, I hope sanity prevails.

[Neel Here]

India Launches Five Satellites Into Orbit
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news...-98229374.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_a...t/10599774.stm
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/St...satellite.html

The 17th flight of PSLV C-15 successfully launched five satellites: The 694 kg Indian remote sensing satellite (IRS) CARTOSAT-2B, which is its main payload; the 116 kg ALSAT-2A of Algeria, 6.5 kg NLS-6.1 AISSAT-1 of Canada, NLS-6.2 TISAT of Switzerland and STUDSAT, a picosatellite weighing less than 1 kg built by a consortium of seven engineering colleges in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

but this is now routine for ISRO and not why I wanted to highlight it. the reason I'm posting this news is one of those satellites.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article512468.ece

Studsat, a satellite built by students
T. S. Subramanian

Team members from different colleges who built the first Inidan PICO Statellite
The HinduTeam members from different colleges who built the first Inidan PICO Statellite "STUDSAT" seen with dignitaries while handing over the 1st Indian PICO Satellite STUDSAT to ISRO in Bangalore . Photo: K. Gopinathan

It was more than three years ago that D.V.A. Raghava Murthy, Project Director, Small Satellites Projects, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Satellite Centre, Bangalore, was addressing a group of college students in that town on what a fascinating subject space was and how students should get interested in it. His speech was so riveting that at the end of the meeting, a group of students met him and asked him why ISRO could not help them in building a satellite. Thus began the story of Studsat, a tiny satellite that was built by 35 students belonging to four engineering colleges in Bangalore and three in Hyderabad. Studsat was put in orbit by the PSLV-C15 from Sriharikota on Monday. “Studsat is part of the encouragement given by the ISRO to colleges and universities to learn space technology and learn how to build, nano, micro and pico satellites,” said Mr. Raghava Murthy. Indeed, Shewata Prasad, one of the students from Bangalore, was fascinated enough by the Studsat project that she gave a wide berth to a well-paying job, her teachers said.

“The contagion” has caught on, and four other nano satellites are in the pipeline. According to Mr. Raghava Murthy, these are a three-kg “Jugnu” satellite being built by the students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur; a 3.5 kg satellite called Pradhan being built by the students of IIT-Mumbai; and two other satellites, each weighing less than 10 kg, that are being assembled by the students of SRM University and Sathyabhama University, both in Chennai. Anusat, a 40-kg satellite, built by Anna University, Chennai, had been put in order by one of the earlier PSLV missions.

The Studsat employed several frontline technologies that were designed and developed by the 35 students themselves with guidance from ISRO. “It was a multi-disciplinary effort,” said Professor B.S. Satyanarayana, Principal, R.V. College of Engineering, and Prof. S. Jagannathan, Head of the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering in the same college. It took the students about a year and a half to design, build and test the Studsat. (The project began in August 2008). The lead institute in the project was Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology (NMIT), Bangalore.

How it works

The satellite has a camera which can take pictures in the HAM code. The camera can take pictures of the earth, which can help in predicting the weather. The resolution of the images, taken from an altitude of 637 km, was 90 metres, said H.C. Nagaraj, Principal, NMIT and Professor Jharna Majumdar, Professor, Department of Computer Science Engineering in the same college.

“The ground station built by the students in Bangalore is one of the achievements of this project,” said Prof. Satyanarayana. It received the signals from the satellite soon after the Studsat was put in orbit and the students also built a clean room for testing the satellite.

While NMIT contributed Rs. 45 lakh for the project, six other colleges chipped in with Rs. 45 lakh. The six colleges are Rashtriya Vidyalaya College of Engineering. M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology and B.M.S. Institute of Technology, all located in Banglore, and Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, Institute of Aeronautical Engineering and Vigyan Institute of Technology and Science, all located in Hyderabad. The Department of Science and Technology, Karnataka Government, gave Rs. 5 lakh to the project.

I have highlighted this once earlier, building pico or nanosats are a great way to build up space capabilities in Bangladesh, what's more it's affordable and well within the technical abilities of students at places like BUET. what do you people think ? I know some of you are connected to the all powerful politicians and are influential people in your own right. can't you jump-start something like this ?

[deshifan]

That's not a bad idea but I wonder we don't have an Aerospace Engg. department in BUET. So, we are missing some relevant lab and technical facilities which some of those IIT's have (specially IIT bombay, IIT kanpur, IIT kharagpur and IIT madras).

I have highlighted this once earlier, building pico or nanosats are a great way to build up space capabilities in Bangladesh, what's more it's affordable and well within the technical abilities of students at places like BUET. what do you people think ? I know some of you are connected to the all powerful politicians and are influential people in your own right. can't you jump-start something like this ?

[Neel Here]

you don't need an aerospace department to make a picosat, just robust electronics and communication skills. the space agency, in this case ISRO will handle the other stuff. the launch costs too aren't that much, international rates are around $2000/kg and ISRO rate is half that. these sats weigh around 1 kg, ISRO might even do it for free if approached through proper channels.

btw, this sat wasn't made by IIT students but by students from 2nd rung engineering colleges, I'm sure BUET students can match that. IIT kanpur students are making another satellite called jugnu(firefly)

[Neel Here]

on the lines what I posted above, singapore got its first satellite, X-SAT launched today atop ISRO launcher PSLV C-16, along with the primary payload, India's resourcesat-2 and Indo-Russian joint student satellite youthsat.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/isro-succ.../149706-3.html

Sriharikota: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday successfully launched Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C16 from Sriharikota.
This is the 18th launch for the PSLV by ISRO, which has a fairly impressive track record of 16 uninterrupted launches.
The PSLV-C16 has injected into the orbit three satellites - India's remote-sensing satellite Resourcesat-2; an India-Russian satellite named Youthsat; and a mini-satellite, X-Sat, from the Nangyang Technological University of Singapore.

Resourcesat-2, weighing 1206 kg, has a rare combination of three cameras with high, medium and coarse resolutions. The high resolution cameras can take both black & white and colour pictures. It can take images of land as wide as 70 km. The images can be used for locating ground water or minerals, estimate crop acreage, find out the health of the crops, identify rich fishing zones in the sea, categorise wastelands that can help in their reclamation, map coastal zones, keep a watch on water-bodies such as reservoirs, lakes and canals, and so on.

Resourcesat-2 has an additional payload called Automatic Identification System from Canada. This can provide information on the position of ships, their speed etc. The satellite has a mission life of five years.

The 92-kg Youthsat has three payloads - one from Russia and two from the ISRO. They can be used to study the ionosphere, solar X-ray fluxes and their effect on the upper layers of the earth's atmosphere.

The 106-kg X-Sat is a remote-sensing satellite. It can take images of the earth, process them and transmit more refined images to the ground.

an old report on X-SAT
http://www.topnews.com.sg/content/21...atellite-built

--------------------------------
a list of student satellite projects under ISRO.
http://www.indianspacestation.com/st...nitiative.html

[Nasif]

If you are on Western hemisphere, don't miss out Venus transit tomorrow. It will start around 6pm Eastern Time and will last about 20 mins. Unfortunately, most of Asia, Middle-east, Europe, Africa would be blacked out (sorry guys, you should have watched the last one at 2004).

Pretty much no one alive will be able to see it again. Child that is born today would have to be 105 to see the next one at 2117.

Following article gives some tips and strategies on observing the transit. Following is partial copy/paste (no its not the full article). Read the Full Article for more details.

Good luck.

How to safely watch the transit of Venus on Tuesday



Paul HyndmanPaul Hyndman captured this stunning view of Venus crossing the face of the sun in hydrogen-alpha light on the morning of June 8, 2004 from Roxbury, Conn. He used an Astro-Physics 105-millimeter Traveler telescope fitted with a Coronado Solarmax90/T-Max and 30-mm blocking filter, a TeleVue 2X Powermate lens, and an SBIG STL-11000M CCD camera.

By Joe Rao


Many people are planning to watch the transit of Venus on Tuesday, but it's extremely important that prospective viewers be warned to take special precautions (as with a solar eclipse) to view the silhouette of Venus against the brilliant disk of the sun.
For the United States and Canada the transit will begin when the dark disk of Venus first touches the outer edge of the sun, an event that astronomers call Contact I. From the Eastern U.S. and Eastern Canada, Contact I should occur around 6:03 p.m. EDT. From the Western U.S. and Western Canada, Contact I should occur around 3:06 p.m. PDT.
It will take about 18 minutes for the black disk of Venus to move completely onto the sun's face; ultimately bringing its black disk just inside the sun's upper left edge. If you imagine the sun's disk as the face of a clock, Contact I will occur between the 11:30 and 12 o'clock position. Venus will then progress along a track that will run diagonally from the upper left to the lower right.
If you wish to generate predictions for the transit times from where you live, the Astronomical Applications Department of the US Naval Observatory has produced an online Transit Computer at: http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astron...ces/transit-us


In particular, observers in Eastern North America, where the transit will happen in the early evening, your observing site should have a low horizon to the east-northeast. It is a good precaution to check the sun's setting point, to verify that trees or buildings do not block your view. As Venus moves across the face of the sun, it will appear absolutely jet black in contrast to the lighter gray of any sunspots that may also be present on the solar disk.
By far, the safest way to view the transit is to construct a so-called pinhole camera. A pinhole, or small opening, is used to form an image of the sun on a screen that is placed about three feet behind the opening. [Video: How to Make a Solar Eclipse Viewer]

NASAThis still from a NASA video shows the positions of Venus on the face of the sun at various stages during the upcoming transit of Venus.

Binoculars or a small telescope mounted on a tripod can also be used to project a magnified image of the sun onto a white card. Just be sure not to look through the binoculars or telescope when they are pointed directly at the sun! Venus should appear as a distinct, albeit tiny, dot on the projected image.

Next time?
Should poor weather hinder or completely obscure your view of the Venus transit, the next opportunity will not come until Dec. 10, 2117. Unfortunately, most who are now reading these words are not likely to be around when that date finally comes around. [Last Venus Transit In Your Lifetime (Video Show)]

Edwin Aguirre and Imelda Joson

Furthermore, much of North America will miss out on the 2117 event, as the transit will not begin until the sun has set. Only observers in the far west will be able to see the very beginning of Venus’s march across the sun before sunset.
The Venus transit of Dec. 8, 2125, however, will be kinder to North America. Venus will begin its passage across the sun soon after sunrise for the East Coast. For the rest of the continent, Venus will already be on the sun as it rises. The final two or three hours of the transit will be visible from the west coasts of Canada and the U.S.
Editor's note: If you snap a great photo of the Venus transit and would like to share it with Space.com for a story or gallery, please send images and comments to Space.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y.

[Nasif]

Live now:
http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/webcasts/mtwilson/

http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/webcasts/nasatv/

[Nasif]

And I was able to take shots! Taking more shots now.... pretty cool stuff.

[Nasif]

Taking sun's image is not as easy as it seems. I wish I had better filters.

Took this one about 15mins ago. Yes, that dark spot at the top is the Venus!



I know image quality isn't that good , but taking it yourself is priceless

[Boomerang]

Anyone wish to travel to the extreme? Then watch thttp://youtu.be/6QoEEGySGm4

[goru]

Curiosity lands at 05:31 UTC on August 6th!

[Ajfar]

^ Awesome! Thanks for sharing Goru bhai

[bujhee kom]

Thank you Goru bro, that was indeed super. felt really thrilled, awed and excited watching it.

[Naimul_Hd]

Thanks for sharing that video Goru bro. Really exciting stuffs.

[goru]

Originally Posted by bujhee kom
felt really thrilled, awed and excited watching it.

Originally Posted by Naimul_Hd
Really exciting stuffs.

The "epic" background music (The Dark Knight / Inception style) does wonders for our excitement levels, doesn't it?

[goru]

Success!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19144464

The one-tonne vehicle, known as Curiosity, touched down at 0614 BST (0514 GMT) in a deep crater near the planet's equator after a plunging through the atmosphere.

[al Furqaan]

Why is this one getting so much attention...or is just the facebook effect? The 1997 landing was way more monumental, no?

A manned mission and a permanent station out there would be sick...wonder if that can happen in our lifetimes.

[Zeeshan]

Originally Posted by al Furqaan
Why is this one getting so much attention...or is just the facebook effect? The 1997 landing was way more monumental, no?

A manned mission and a permanent station out there would be sick...wonder if that can happen in our lifetimes.

Ditto. I feel like i missed the second coming or sth.

[Zunaid]

The 1 ton payload is the heaviest ever and needed new technology to land safely on Mars.

[Zunaid]

From NBC:

Risky descent

The final phase of the Mars Science Laboratory's journey from Earth to Mars relied on technologies that had never been tried before in outer space — which is why it was called the "seven minutes of terror."

Seven minutes before landing, Mars Science Laboratory threw off its cruise stage and began its plunge through the planet's atmosphere at a speed of 13,200 mph (5,900 meters per second). It jettisoned two solid-tungsten weights, shifting the spacecraft's balance to become more like a wing. Small thrusters fired to put the craft through a series of "S" turns to adjust the trajectory.

The heat shield weathered temperatures ranging up to 3,800 degrees Fahrenheit (2,100 degrees Celsius). At an altitude of about 7 miles (11 kilometers), the spacecraft deployed its parachute, even while it was traveling at supersonic speeds.
First the heat shield dropped away. Then the parachute and the back shell flew off, leaving behind the rover and its rocket-powered "sky crane."

The sky crane handled the final phase of the slowdown by firing eight retro rockets. It descended to a height of about 65 feet (20 meters) and lowered the rover to the surface on the end of three cables. When the rover hit the ground, the cables were cut loose, and the sky crane blasted itself away from the landing site.

Adam Steltzner, the engineer in charge of drawing up the landing plan, said 79 explosive devices had to go off in just the right sequence — otherwise, the landing would have almost certainly failed.

NASA went with the seemingly crazy system because the 1-ton Curiosity is the heaviest payload ever delivered to the Martian surface. That weight is too heavy for the airbag-cushioned system that was used for previous Mars rovers, and too unstable to put on a lander with legs, Steltzner said

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by Zunaid
The 1 ton payload is the heaviest ever and needed new technology to land safely on Mars.

Ahh its a size issue...so its like all the girls giggling and whispering to one another after one of them just set a new *ahem* personal record.

[Zunaid]

Originally Posted by al Furqaan
Ahh its a size issue...so its like all the girls giggling and whispering to one another after one of them just set a new *ahem* personal record.

Not only dad, this one did it on its own. Did not have to be finished up by hand.

[Zunaid]

The landing simulation.



Video streaming by Ustream

[Zunaid]

[cluster11]

Curiosity's landing was the most difficult in space exploration history so far, a distant second would be NASA'a asteroid landing few years back. I was fortunate enough to watch live on NASA tv the MER landing of Opportunity back in 2004 as well as this landing - both events were exciting. I just want to mention some notable events on this mission:

- MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) acted as a relay station for this mission which is a giant-leap forward. The benefit was clear considering how fast Curiosity sent its first pic after landing.

- MRO was able to snap a picture of Curiosity on its final descent with the HiRISE camera. Nothing like this has ever been captured! Curiosity was going down at 8000 mph vertically; while MRO was in orbit moving a speed of few thousand mph laterally. If the pic was 1-second late the spacecraft would disappear from camera view. This is almost sci-fi stuff.

- During descent Curiosity had to reduce the speed from 13000 mph to just a few hundred mph, have a carrier crane popup with a parachute, gently lowering it down further at 2mph, drop it on surface from safe altitude, and then the crane had to fly away at a safe distance and crash. The whole journey from entry to landing was done in 7 mins that mission engineers are referring to "7 mins of hell" .. LOL! But it was great to see them cheering and crying (some worked on this for 10 yrs)

- Curiosity is the first spacecraft to be tweeting. My wife has been following the rover's tweets and some of the comments are hilarious!

- As Dr. Z pointed out this is a 1-ton spacecraft, actual name is MSL (Mars Science Laboratory). It is 5 times bigger than Opportunity and carries 10 times more instruments. It can fire laser to disintegrate rocks and test samples in the on-board minilab. Also for the first time a rover in Mars is able to take videos. Just to compare the size, Pathfinder was about the size of a PC desktop and could drive itself a few feet per day. Curiosity is as big as a compact SUV and can drive itself 3km/day .

- The rover landed in Gale crater, next to Mount Sharp. That area is though to be construct of large sediments over many epoch and hold the secret to geological (and possible biological) evolution in Mars over the past hundreds of millions years (i.e. like badlands in Montana which gave paleontologists a great insight into pre-historic evolution).

The landing site is quiet important. Back in '76 Viking lander program (led by the great Carl Sagan) had 2 spacecraft land on Mars and come up with no evidence of water or life (past or present). Hopes were dashed and to make matter worse, Russia and U.S. continued to lose spacecrafts sent to Mars. Then in '96 one Orbiter called MGS (Mars Global Surveyor) managed to succeed in its mission and mapped Mars diligently over next few years. In 2001 Odyssey managed to start taking even higher resolution pics showing features that looked like past waterflow. This helped NASA determine where to send the MER spacecrafts in 2004. When Opportunity landed in a crater it was like a hole-in-one, in Golf terms, 70 million miles from Earth! The rover took just weeks to discover an ancient lake, proving Mars did have large water body long time ago. In 2008 Mars Polar Lander landed in the planet's north pole and analyzed the soil - proving Mars even currently, has water ice, just inches from the surface. Hopefully, Curiosity mission will show we can send heavy equipments to Mars, and can eventually start colonization there some day.

In the next few years India, Finland, ESA/Russia and NASA all have Mars mission planned from orbiter to broadcast station to lander-aircraft hybrid. So could be a busy time in the red planet!