Bharat Rakshak

Vishnu wrote:I had the entire Mangalyaan team in our studios for a very special programme last night at 9 pm ...

Enjoy ....


http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/ndtv-s ... ion/344672

I have written a criticism of the isro reply to one question in the international space thread.

by default all our space missions including regular earth bound satellite launches must contain communication data routers/relays installed. the maven is doing this. such a capability can take us into much more into future deep space missions.

What is amazing to me about all these pictures of the comet, as well as Mars, is not how different they seem in comparison to earth, but how similar. Damn, these could be pretty much any rugged desert environment on earth!

Damn sure it is only a matter of time (and not much of it) before traces of life are discovered outside earth.

especially as water seems to be quite pervasive - found on moon, on asteroids, mars and of course on comets.

If the chemical analysis should not differ any between that water found on Earth to water say now being analyzed by philae! Voila! comets were actually the ones delivered water to Earth.

May be giant frozen comets/moons crashed into Earth some billions of years back.

SaiK wrote:If the chemical analysis should not differ any between that water found on Earth to water say now being analyzed by philae! Voila! comets were actually the ones delivered water to Earth.

May be giant frozen comets/moons crashed into Earth some billions of years back.

There is a theory called panspermia by Chandra Wickramsingh and Fred hoyle. Very fascinating. They have been speculating for long that many of these interstellar clouds exhibit spectral lines very close to live molecules and such like.

Recently the red rain in Kerala has attrated a lot of attention and research and Wickramsingha was there to look
at studies conducted by a local researcher.

Btw, does water have to be delivered by another body? Couldn't it form by itself on a plnaet given the existence
of its constituent elements?

have anyone found how much energy is required to create water from h and o?

that will give a lot of pointers to the actual source of water. also note, if it has to be formed in Earth, a consistent state of that energy state might not lead to form water as it might split back to h and o due to heat. it has to be a much cooled down earth (after its formation), then the event happened like a big bang process, or series of such big bangs.

if a comet delivered water to earth, did it land gently and offload an iceberg or million to fill up the oceans...
finding it hard to believe this scenario

Read up on "heavy bombardment period in planetary evolution". The early solar system would have billions of comets racing towards a newly born sun. Most of them are filled with primordial materials belonging to stars that went nova long back.

Water is a common material in the pre-solar material mix. Understanding the true composition of the pre-solar material mix is the reason why studying a comet is extremely important, since the oort cloud objects and comets are completely "pristine" and have not been influenced by the sun for long periods of time.

Anyway, the theory is that during the "late heavy bombardment period" massive commets the huge size (10s - 100s of kilometers) that carried mostly water either landed on earth or skimmed the earth like rocks skimming the pond leaving behind watervapor.

One single comet may seem small. But think of millions of comets per year over a period of a few hundred million years. Can easily fill up a few oceans.

the impact of the comet on the planet would have released energy sufficient to not only create water vapour but possibly to disassociate the molecules back to its elements?

Yes, but when they cool down they re-associate themselves.

and the planet hasn't been bent out of shape, orbit, orientation, atmosphere, etc., by the time all this H2O has re-associated, instead of forming other H or O based molecules

has anyone worked out how many comets would have to have hit us to deliver the amount of water we have?

I believe they have. Infact there is a group in one of the oxbridges or harvard/mit (dont recall) that have large scale simulations of planetary evolution and they came to a conclusion that you will almost always find a water rich planet in the Goldilocks zone of a sun-like star.

This is the reason why many people (including myself) believe that our Galaxy (and universe) is teeming with life. Just a matter of time before we come across something.

am happy to believe that we are not alone - in fact on my home planet we find earthlings quite amusing
don't believe that life has to be water based
still struggling with the concept of comet borne water delivery

You are not alone (in finding it hard to believe the comet theory). Here is a page from NASA on the yes-to-cometary-water side:

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/sc ... st18may_1/

thanks for sharing, interesting - but still highly speculative

Yes, there is no definitive proof yet. Unlike you I am a believer Inshallah the proof will be found soon.

till then, live long and prosper

I am a believer too. Look at Titan Ganyemede. Simulations have shown even complex molecules will survive the impact on land. The inner core apparently remains cool . I will have to look up the references.

I grew from this small town in Northern Karnataka and this is the a welcome side effect of MOM. Long may it continue!

I grew from this small town in Northern Karnataka and this is the a welcome side effect of MOM. Long may it continue!

Reg : MOM imaging Slding Spring

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-la ... -mars.html

I'm not exactly sure what, if anything, to take away from these photos. They are not of very high quality, but part of the problem seems to be a severe amount of JPEG compression applied to them before posting -- I assume the original data look somewhat better. The original image (posted on Twitter November 12) included caption information describing the top center image as showing a comet jet, but I'm quite dubious of that interpretation -- it looks like stray light to me, an imaging artifact. I post them here mostly in order to complete the set of Mars mission observations of comet Siding Spring! I look forward to future science meetings where scientists will present and discuss all the Mars spacecraft work on the comet.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/201411 ... ews.htm#11

India's Mangalyaan among best inventions of 2014

NEW YORK: Mangalyaan has been named among the best inventions of 2014 by Time magazine which described it as a technological feat that will allow India to flex its "interplanetary muscles."

"Nobody gets Mars right on the first try. The US didn't, Russia didn't, the Europeans didn't. But on September 24, India did. That's when the Mangalyaan ...went into orbit around the Red Planet, a technological feat no other Asian nation has yet achieved," Time said about Mangalyaan, calling it "The Supersmart Spacecraft."

Mangalyaan is among the 25 'Best Inventions of 2014' listed by Time magazine that are "making the world better, smarter and—in some cases—a little more fun."

Developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation, the Mars spacecraft cost India just USD 74 million, less than the budget for the multi-Acacdemy Award winning science fiction thriller film Gravity. Time said at that price, the Mangalyaan is equipped with just five onboard instruments that allow it to do simple tasks like measure Martian methane and surface composition.

"More important, however, it allows India to flex its interplanetary muscles, which portends great things for the country's space programme and for science in general," Time said.

The list also includes inventions by two Indians for developing an exercise space for prisoners in solitary confinement and a tablet toy for kids.

Nalini Nadkarni, forest ecologist and college professor helped develop the 'Blue Room' with Snake River Correctional Institution in Oregon for inmates in solitary confinement, who for 23 hours a day see nothing but a tiny, white-walled cell, an experience some research suggests heightens mental illness and makes prisoners prone to suicide attempts and violence.

Last year, officials began letting some of them spend their free hour in a first-of-its-kind Blue Room, an exercise space where a projector plays video of open deserts, streaming waterfalls and other outdoor scenes. Nadkarni says the imagery is designed to calm prisoners, "much in the way we walk through a park" to relax.

Former Google engineer Pramod Sharma developed 'Osmo', a tablet toy that gets physical. Sharma got the inspiration when he saw his daughter playing with the iPad, but did not want her to be glued to the tablet all day long.

The toy, which debuted in October, has helped Osmo raise USD 14.5 million in capital and is now being sold in the Apple Store.

The other inventions are a reactor developed by aerospace company Lockheed Martin that could realize nuclear fusion, Apple's smart watch that besides telling time, can send messages, give directions, track fitness and make wireless payments and Microsoft's Surface Pro 3, a "hybrid" that bundles laptop into a 12-inch tablet and can run desktop apps. -PTI

Technically, it is a 2013 invention, but heck, it is good free publicity.

SBajwa wrote:http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/201411 ... ews.htm#11

India's Mangalyaan among best inventions of 2014 ............{Snipped}...........

ISRO’s Mangalyaan Mars Orbiter is the second one on TIME Magazines 25 Best Inventions of 2014 and appears after the “Hendo Hoverboard”:

The Supersmart Spacecraft
Mangalyaan
Developed by the Indian Space Research Organization

Nobody gets Mars right on the first try. The U.S. didn’t, Russia didn’t, the Europeans didn’t. But on Sept. 24, India did. That’s when the Mangalyaan (Mars craft in Hindi) went into orbit around the Red Planet, a technological feat no other Asian nation has yet achieved. Building the craft cost India just $74 million, less than the budget for the film Gravity. At that price, the Mangalyaan is equipped with just five onboard instruments that allow it to do simple tasks like measure Martian methane and surface composition. More important, however, it allows India to flex its interplanetary muscles, which portends great things for the country’s space program—and for science in general.

The 25 Best Inventions of 2014

Any more data from this mission? Nothing on facebook, twitter, official website. Maven's data also seems spotty by NASA but MOM seems stone cold silent.

Nothing seems to ber released once the launch team handed it over to the science team

I am sorry, neither NASA (to some extent okay) nor ISRO has satisfying images.. but Eus have done much better on their philea/rosetta and it is sumptuous for the eyes.

Nov 17, 2014 :: MAVEN Completes Commissioning And Begins Its Primary Science Mission


Nov 20 :: MAVEN Mission Status Updates

Small snippet of information

"Study is under progress on the construction of a third launch pad. We have to take into consideration the kind of launch vehicles - GSLV-Mark III - and other future rockets to be developed while building the third launch pad," Radhakrishnan said.

He added that the health of the Mars Orbiter - launched last year - is good.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... IIndiaNews

any updates on this?

Dat collection is going on.They are waiting for the 15 day "Eclipse" when they will lose contact with it and want to study if they can reestablish communication after the batteries have run out and are recharged.

TLS Team Confirmed the existence of Methane in Mars Atmosphere.

More on Emily's blog

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-la ... m-agu.html

Want to know what ISRO has in its store from MOM's Methane Sensor

prasannasimha wrote:Dat collection is going on.They are waiting for the 15 day "Eclipse" when they will lose contact with it and want to study if they can reestablish communication after the batteries have run out and are recharged.

They can draw some results by using the existing data ( and acquiring some new data before solar noise blackout and solar eclipse of satellite ) .

You do not have to wait for only the new data after the eclipse ( if available ..if batteries wrk ... )

I think for future deep space mission, we should surge ahead with miniaturized nuke power as NASA does

SSSalvi wrote:

prasannasimha wrote:Dat collection is going on.They are waiting for the 15 day "Eclipse" when they will lose contact with it and want to study if they can reestablish communication after the batteries have run out and are recharged.

They can draw some results by using the existing data ( and acquiring some new data before solar noise blackout and solar eclipse of satellite ) .

You do not have to wait for only the new data after the eclipse ( if available ..if batteries wrk ... )

I don't think that they have stopped working till the eclipse occurs- what was said is that this will be a next "waypoint" or "hurdle" for the orbiter .
I presume the data they are analyzing will probably be submitted to a peer reviewed journal and be released to the public only after acceptance from a journal. I don't know in physical sciences but in medicine we have often an embargo not to communicate till publication date when we submit articles to reputed journals.

hello mom! are you ok?

^^ isro has released a pic of mars taken from methane sensor. its on their fb page.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/ ... da8ad09729

Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM) payload onboard MOM intends to detect the presence of Methane and measure the column density of the same. One of the secondary objectives of this payload is to measure the reflectance of Martian surface in 1.65 micron. MSM has two channels, Methane and reference to measure the radiance from the surface of Mars.
All planets in the Solar system receive Sun’s radiation to varying degrees depending on their distance from the Sun. Observing the surface of the planet depends on how this radiation is reflected back. Reflected solar radiation from Mars is a diagnostic signal of the planet which provides lot of information about the planet’s surface as well as its atmosphere. When we measure the radiance in a specific wavelength of light (in this case, 1.65 micron), then we can generate a reflectance map.
The map presented here shows the surface reflectance of Mars as viewed at 1.65 micron from the reference channel of MSM till December 16, 2014. In the map, the blue colour indicates low albedo features and the red shows high albedo features on the Martian surface.
The map resolution is 0.5°x0.5° in Latitude-Longitude. By correcting the data for CO2 absorption, a major part of atmospheric effects is taken care of. This data along with the reflectance measured by Mars Colour Camera will be useful to study the surface properties of Mars.
(Image credit: SAC, ISRO)