Author: Pradeep

  • SEDSAT-2 Update

    Note: I wrote this on my earlier blog hosted as https://blogs.seds.org/pradeep. I recovered the text from the WayBack Machine. This post appeared on June 26, 2007 as per the timestamp. I’m trying to collect here again all my old writings spread on various blogs.

    I thought now that I don’t have to submit a darn long essay to ISRO since I’m out, I can settle down and think about what has happened with SEDSAT2 all this time. These are my personal opinions..and all that.

    SEDSAT2 started out in mid-November about two weeks before my semester exams. Cool no?

    Before I could even decide whether I should participate in the project, the wiki page, the mailing list and all were setup. So, all I had to do was join in. We had a very small but great team of people who came together to begin thinking on this project – Chris, Kirk, Tom, Geoff, Michael, ME and Lavina. It was we who finally (after many delays) finally put our heads together and wrote the paper which basically said – yes, this crazy idea is possible.

    To describe this crazy idea – we are thinking of designing and building a cubesat (a 10×10 cms 1 kg satellite orignially designed by CalPoly) but not in one university but by linking through a string of universities all throughout the world. The major aim of the project was also to take a look at how international collaboration projects in space look like at the student level of things. The idea, as I have mentioned above was crazy to say the least.

    But the more we thought about it, the more we believed that it could be done.

    So, we invited people via mailing lists to submit their applications to become members of the team and boy, did we have a great response – 30 people from 12 countries.

    In between all of the babble, we finally defined our goal –

    to build a cubesat using international collaboration

    small and sweet, no?

    Also, we got a lot of support from SEDS alumni like Chris, Aaron and Kirk. Aaron gave us a software that he’s being putting together which he calls ProtoForge. Protoforge is sort of like a check list which helps us with our thinking and also makes sure we are following logically and helps us manage our “huge” team. It’s great thing to have on a satellite project.

    Fast forward to the present, I’m now looking after the structures team on SEDSAT2. I’ve brushed up on all the basics that I might get hit by and hope that I’m now prepared to read more complicated stuff. Hmm..I think that’s it for now…

  • Sem V studies begin

    I joined tutorials for Fluid Mechanics (FM) and Data Structures and Arrays (DSA) today. These are two subjects out of 6 that a mechanical engineering undergraduate has to study in order to get his bachelor’s degree.

    Both subjects are thought to be tough along with Heat and Mass Transfer (HMT). Let’s see. College is scheduled to re-open on the 16th of July.

  • New Stuff…

    I just signed up for emurse.com (some resume generator) and tumblr.com (a tumblog).

    Both are strange things for me here in India but I have decided to give both a try. While, I’m still thinking about what to put in my resume, I have a ton of stuff to put on my tumblog.

    For the uninitiated, if a blog is a journal/diary, a tumblog is a scrapbook where you post on tumblr.com (like wordpress.com). You can post videos, chat transcripts, cool websites, text, pics and I haven’t looked any further.

    Will give both a test-run.

  • Water and Wind

    It’s been raining heavily here for the past two days. The roads are a wreck with branches, overflowing drains et. all. Still people are on their way to work.

    We only have Sunday’s off and on that day the rains got pretty heavy. It’s not as if you can’t go out because of the rains. You can’t go off because the winds might break the heavy water laden branches just hanging on their edges.

    Want to make a bag? Try this. (I know it’s totally unrelated)

    And some more, I went upto Dadar today morning in the bus and Bombay looks great and lush green for a change. No stink, now overflowing drains. BMC has also managed to clear the King’s Circle stretch which gets flooded quickly and cuts off the suburbs from the city. Hopefully, we’ve learnt a few lessons that 26/7 thought us. Cross fingers.

  • Communicating my ideas

    Note: I wrote this on my earlier blog hosted as https://blogs.seds.org/pradeep. I recovered the text from the WayBack Machine. This post appeared on June 25, 2007 as per the timestamp. I’m trying to collect here again all my old writings spread on various blogs.

    One of the things that I learnt at the meeting at ISRO Bangalore is how I lack the idea of communicating what I am doing to a group of people who may or may not know about space. In the end, it all comes down to communication.

    The bad part is I get only one chance.

    A guy to whom I tried to explain what being in SEDS entailed and who was not interested in it is not likely to listen to me a second time when I know a bit more and have a clearer picture of what I am saying than when I said it before. He’s already created a block against space thinking of it as very murky water. All thanks to me =(

    That has not happened yet and I hope it never will. It is one of the worries that a person who is trying to start a SEDS chapter might face. Startup fear?

    I am thinking about this and I am also simultaneously trying to solve this problem. But, my solving this problem won’t help others besides people in India since every country has a different outlook on space. India uses space as a means of self-reliance and telecommunications. We don’t want to rely on NASA pictures all the time :).

  • Quick Long Update

    I returned from Kerala on the 17th. And there has been no blog posts since then. So, that needs some explanation.

    Stuff that I did –

    • Changed the theme to Unsleepable by Ben Gray
    • Read all the emails
    • Read all the blog posts
    • Updated Orkut and Facebook. Still catching up on that front.
    • Trying to get back into SEDSAT2

    So, in between all that, I didn’t have time to update my blog. Sorry. Had tons to write about. Forgot all of it. Sorry :(.

  • Return trip from ISRO

    Note: I wrote this on my earlier blog hosted as https://blogs.seds.org/pradeep. I recovered the text from the WayBack Machine. This post appeared on June 18, 2007 as per the timestamp. I’m trying to collect here again all my old writings spread on various blogs.

    Returning in the evening from ISRO Headquarters to a quarter of Bangalore called Majestic, we found our way out of maze of criss-crossing exits and finally pinned down a hotel where we could eat something light. As we settled down in the hotel, my mom called me asking if I was boarding my train.

    The re-booking that I talked about caused this confusion. I thought my train was at night and so decided to print my ticket only in the evening.

    I was now running across the crowded streets of Bangalore trying to find an internet cafe. Nagappan accompanied me and helped me in locating a cafe. Thanks a lot, Nagappan. In the run, we finally found a cafe where I got my tickets printed.
    Didn’t have the time to bid all the people there good-bye, but I hope that they’ll forgive me for that short-coming.

    Lo and behold. My train is in the next 45 minutes. I had to travel atleast 1 hour for getting to the station which I thought I should go to. But luckily my father booked the wrong station and that ended up being 15 minutes away. I have to say that Bangalore Station is a very confusing maze and more confusing when you’re confused.

    Finally jumped onto the train and I slept all the way to my hometown.

    I woke up realizing my station had come. I got up and ran to get down. I realized the train was moving and waited until it stopped but when I looked ahead I noticed that the train was moving out and not in. Luckily, it hadn’t gathered speed and so I just closed my eyes and jumped out.

    My dad, who had come to pick me up at the station had surmised that I might get out at the next station, but I managed to catch up with him. Most of that was a dream. All in all, a fun trip. Hope I was able to contribute something positive to the discussion we had at Bangalore.

    I’ve just returned from a month’s worth of vacation. Have lots to catch up on. Will reply to all emails and requests soon. Hang on!!

     

  • Somewhere in Kerala

    post dated post.

    I am in Kerala till 17th June 2007.

  • Failure (Part 2)

    Although, academically, I approached many people for help, where I really needed help was at the personal level. I tried to get that but failed. This happened, I theorized because of the difference in the way people viewed things.

    My way of thinking is not really shared by many people. I viewed this failiure as a result of a string of internal failiures. Others viewed it as one failiure – academic.

    So, I basically needed to introspect. And I discovered this fact about Bombay. You can’t go on these long introspective walks that you see in the movies. You do that in croweded places like local trains, public toilets and BEST buses.

    Luckily for me, I was not thrown out of my house and I had the emptiness of my balcony to shut myself up in. I took Krishnamurti’s Commentaries on Living and the notebook that I later burned and wrote, copied and talked to myself.

    The result was a change in my life without much external changes. I thought seeing sudden changes may lead my parents to believe that I am mentally disturbed.

    But my father not having released his anger physically, began to quip on my uselessness and my inability of becoming an engineer. I would have preferred a few beatings. Physical strain is infinitely better than mental strain. Maybe, in his wisdom, he prefferred to give me that punishment.

    I am sorry to say though that all this failiure did was replace one set of qualities with another. There was really no total revolution. enough for today. More later.

  • Discovering hidden Google Stuff

    Found this and this via Google Operating System blog. I am reading through some of it.