Category: Space

  • Lessons Learnt running a Student Space Organisation in India

    From the Wikipedia posts last month, I have been dwelling a bit in the past. This has been for two reasons, to re-establish some connections with the space community and to make sure that I have closed all the old open loops. One of the open loops that I found was sharing what I had learnt from running a space organisation in India. This post hopes to close that loop. This is also a post that my friend Srinivas Laxman has been after me to finish and publish. This is also the result of various conversations that I have had since then. Although unnamed, I’d like to thank these people for putting several things in perspective.

    I started the Indian chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) as an information-sharing, project based and activist space organisation. While it fulfilled the objectives of information sharing, the number of projects it did or the space activism it did or does can be found lacking.

    For starters, there are quite a few people who love to stop you from running a space organisation in India. There are very few who will encourage you. I got stuff like, “You already have enough on your plate getting a mechanical engineering degree from Mumbai University, why do you want to burden that trying to run a space organisation?” or jabs that was even taken to my final semester practical exams by jealous professors in front of the external examiner. It requires thick skin, personally and the ability to laugh at yourself and have the strength to push through. You also need the wisdom to learn when to stop. When your life goes or begins to go for a toss, it is usually a good time to pause and fix your life. If you still want to start and run a space organisation, do consider some of the things I share here and make your call. Please take some time out to share what you learned, in the end so that some one else can benefit from what you learned.

    When you begin a space organisation and seek people who can become members, some of the common things you will hear is what benefit they will get out of it. This is a fair question. Only thing, just the chance to discuss with a bunch of strangers your passion for space exploration and some activities is not sufficient for them to put in money, which you need to legally register the organisation in India. You do not get help unless they are close friends, who help reluctantly. You do not see people offering to share telescopes with you so that you can put a star gazing session. You see people asking for free stuff – newsletters, t-shirts, badges and what not. Mind you, this is not just for a space organisation but any non-profit that you want to start in India. Later on, even if you get people to work with on or for various activities, you will find it difficult to find people who can help you with paperwork or administration. This is stuff you need to do – given India’s non-profit laws and structure.

    In SEDS, I used the information sharing to spark in a few peers interest in various areas – rocketry, satellite building, cansats etc. These turned out to be projects that started off, worked well into the planning and design phase but got stuck in the hardware stage. This was mainly due to the lack of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) stuff available for space in hobby shops and other stores and limited access to workshop in engineering colleges. Even with access to workshops, very few found it worth their while to actually manufacture hardware. Very few SEDS projects reached the hardware stage.

    When faced with challenges in accessing and testing hardware in India, students found it easier to just give up on the projects rather than raise questions with officials and try to open communication lines with people in India’s space agency, ISRO or the Government. Students seemed averse to the idea of activism that would enable space activities to progress beyond the design stage. For reasons that I am not able to figure out, this activism did not come even for information sharing by ISRO prior to launches, etc. For me, this led to a frustrating phase. Coupled with frustrations in my own studies, I found it easier to leave space for a while and fix my life.

    SEDS continues to function today. I have kept away from it deliberately to encourage the students of today to take a call on what they think they should work on.

  • Antrix-Devas Agreement – ISRO Responds

    Today morning, I found a link to another Indian Express story on the Antrix-Devas agreement on Twitter via @sonaliranade. After reading the report, I immediately browsed the ISRO website to find that it had tabled the High Power Committee Report on the Antrix-Devas Agreement. I shared this on twitter and got a few packets of biscuits while sitting down to read the Report, the conclusions and recommendations of the High Level Team and a note from ISRO on the same that puts both these documents in context. I just finished reading the Report now.

    My first set of immediate reaction is I still think the Chairman, ISRO, Radhakrishnan must have issued a statement to the press to publicise the efforts he was taking. I still think people of the stature of Madhavan Nair should have been handled more appropriately when action was to be taken against him and others. I also must apologise because I misconstrued Radhakrishnan’s silence as a sign of Madhavan Nair’s allegations against him were true in regard to not giving him ample opportunity to speak. Radhakrishnan has still not responded on Madhavan Nair’s charge that he was out to get him. I think Madhavan Nair must also apologise publicly for his outburst in the media making false claims based on press reports.

    The Report of the High Power Review Committee is a very instructive read on what they sought out to achieve through Antrix Corporation and India’s Satellite Communication Policy. I still think ISRO has not been able to move more nimbly through its ever expanding mandate. It is a period of change but it is also a period of stagnation with hardly any launches but perhaps with internal technological developments. ISRO has not been very enthusiastic on communicating these. The note responds to some of the accusations made by the former ISRO Chairman.

  • ISRO-Devas deal: Ex-ISRO chief banned from future government office

    The Indian Express carried an exclusive report today morning stating that former ISRO Chairman, Madhavan Nair; former Scientific Secretary, A Bhaskarnarayana; former Managing Director, Antrix Corporation, K R Sridharmurthi and former ISRO Satellite Center chief, K N Shankara have been penalised in connection to their role in the ISRO-Devas deal. The order signed by the Director, Department of Space states that the accused would not be able to hold any future office in the Governments of India, her states or Union territories. Further, the order also asks the accused to remit any office that they may currently hold.

    The media seems to be more taken in by the implications to Madhavan Nair than the other three accused. It seems rather too early to make a comment on this story. A reaction (NDTV) is coming in from Madhavan Nair as I write this out and I am trying to follow the news given the lack of a television set, the best I can.  He also raises many points in this news story (Real Time News).

    The ISRO-Devas matter is sub-judice and comment is not allowed on that matter. However, the way in which the Government has acted is rather on shaky ground. Given the stature of people it has acted against, I would have thought the Government would have taken more care to present a solid case. We’re still waiting for a clear statement from the Government on this issue.

    Update – 11:55 AM A glance through the archives on Google News led me to this news item from the Deccan Chronicle. This seems to have been before an “order” came out and seems like Madhavan Nair protested well before the order was made in the way the enquiry was conducted. In light of this article, the Indian Express article is not breaking news or an exclusive, just an update on the situation.

    Update – 12:20 AM The former ISRO Chairman has now hit out at the present ISRO Chairman.

  • The Gemenids

    This article originally appeared on my blog http://lifeofpradeep.wordpress.com. I recovered the post using Wayback Machine.

    It’s stunning how two streaks across the sky can fill up your heart with so much joy! Standing in my balcony in the cold climes of Bharuch with mosquitoes buzzing around, that was what my heart felt – pure joy.

    Every December, the asteroid 3200 Phaeton causes the Gemenids. The meteor shower this year was thought to have been spoilt by the Moon light. This did not deter me from going out into the balcony at 1130 PM and look out at the sky. The sky was clear, the light from Bharuch was slightly obstructive to the viewing, the brightly lighted industries in the west, did not help matters either. I was able to see Orion clearly, though.

    As I stood there, brushing away mosquitoes on my neck and slightly shivering in the chilly December air, a meteor streaked right across the sky. It was the first meteor that I had spotted – ever, in my life! Another streaked past barely ten minutes later. Then, for a long time there was nothing.

    As the clock creaked past, 0030, I went back to bed, slightly disappointed that I did not see (missed, rather?) any more but happy to have sighted a meteor shower.

  • Phobos-Grunt

    This article originally appeared on my blog http://lifeofpradeep.wordpress.com. I recovered the post using Wayback Machine.

    Phobos-Grunt was to launch at the very early hours in the morning in India and hence I did not look up the time before the launch.

    The first reminder on the upcoming launch came from Srinivas Laxman whom I rang up on Sunday. After exchanging notes on the recent visit of Yuri Gagarin’s daughter to Mumbai and the upcoming unveiling of the Gagarin bust at the Nehru Planetarium, Mumbai. Talk inevitably turned to the two Mars missions – the Mars Science Laboratory and Phobos-Grunt (I like the way Russians name their spacecraft!).  We recollected the link between Chandrayaan-II and Phobos-Grunt but were not too enthused by the early morning launch hour. Both share similar lander design and Phobos-Grunt was sort of a dry run for the Chandrayaan-II lander.

    Early morning as I headed to work, Twitter was flooded with news about problems with Phobos-Grunt. The Phobos-Grunt was launched into its first orbit by the Russian Zenit rocket. Apparently an orbit boost maneuver which was to be performed was not performed. This was spotted by veteran Satellite watcher, Ted Molzcan who wrote about it. Russia confirmed that this was the case today morning after a lot of speculation on Twitter. First, it was predicted that they had 3 days to fix the problems on the spacecraft. As the day progressed, news came in that data indicated that the batteries on-board were recharging and hence they had about a 2 week period to be “saved”.  Interestingly, the story put out by ROSCOSMOS chief say that they expected this mission scenario during the planning stage and have a fix planned out.

    Emily Lakdawala updated via Twitter and her Planetary Society blog while Anatoly Zak provided a more complete picture on his website. Emily’s blog provides a better picture of the confusion that prevailed among folks after there was no word from Russia’s space agency, ROSCOSMOS. If you, like me, are interested in the technical nitty gritties, do head on over to the discussions on NASASpaceflight.com Forums where this event is being discussed live with updates and translations.

    This has been an interesting story to follow. It brings out the need for more information and the work of amateurs in the contribution – to help in such scenarios even while such installations such as the Deep Space Network’s of the various space agencies of the world exists. It is an interesting world that we live in.

  • An Apology to Indian Amateur Astronomers

    This article originally appeared on my blog http://lifeofpradeep.wordpress.com. I recovered the post using Wayback Machine.

    I first explored the world of Astronomy on the Internet when I was 17 years old. I registered in the forums of Astronomy.com and wrote a few posts there urging the Indian amateur astronomers to collect data. Well, this was a point I made to various amateur astronomers across India when ever I had the chance to meet them. I re-iterated that it was the collection of data that seperated us from the amateurs in the West.

    The concern is real. There is really very little online data available. However, where this changes is the doing. While I had a concern, and shared it with a few like minded individuals, I never did anything to fix the problem.

    I never progressed to observational astronomy. I never observed – much less collected data – night in and night out. I never sought to do this even in a notebook offline. Given this, I realised that I am not the right guy to suggest that amateur astronomers in India must rigorously collect and store data.

    This realisation hit me pretty hard. It is a realisation from which I have still not recovered. I realised I had no idea what I was talking about. I never stood in a dark place which was kilometers outside of a city and looked up and observed the night sky. I never have sketched what I saw through a telescope’s eye piece. I have never setup a telescope and let other people observe the night sky. I have so far only looked up and urged others to look up.

    I have had this realisation only recently. Three months ago. I have been totally numbed by this realisation. I have not moved an inch beyond what I have written in the above paragraph in the last three months. This is because I felt I had done something wrong. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to all the amateur astronomers in India to whom I have suggested this.

  • Talk by Susmita Mohanty at the American Center

    It was Srinivas Laxman who forwarded me the email and invited me over since it was a public talk (video) to be held at the American Center, New Marine Lines. Given the rains and a talk about the Shuttle were not really great pull to go attend the event. At the end of the day, though, I am glad I attended the event.

    Even though I was born in the ’80s and a video of the Space Shuttle Discovery lifting off with Hubble is what pushed me into space, I have never taken the trouble to sit down and get to know the Shuttle, the vehicle. Watching the last few sets of shuttle launches, space walks, pictures tweeted and shuttle landings have reduced the ignorance but I have never known about the anatomy of the shuttle, which is where Susmita started her talk today from.

    Going from there she described the various activities – standing, moving, sleeping, use of the bathroom, controlling the spacecraft, bathing, spacewalking, repairing the Hubble. She tried hard to get the audience to understand how hard it is to do simple tasks inside the shuttle.

    She ended her talk talking about the Virgin Galactic spacecraft, SpaceX’s Dragon, Bigelow Aerospace’s space hotels and lunar bases and an EADS Astrium video on space tourism.

    The question and answer session was as interesting as any for a science outreach event held in Mumbai. The teens and children asked the really interesting questions – prospects of space entrepreneurship in India, shielding astronauts from cosmic rays and other effects (put by a kid as “are astronauts damaged by air from galaxies”) and prospects of Middle East in space exploration. The university kids (which included people from IIT-B and the Pratham small satellite team) remained silent. The older people asked really weird questions – showing they had selective information which they could not make sense of.

    An interesting question that did not get answered was what was the mode of communication between spacewalking astronauts and the spacecraft – audio feed or radio.

    The final space shuttle launch will be on July 8, 2011. The space shuttle Atlantis will fly for this mission.

  • Russian Cosmonaut visiting Nehru Centre

    June 9, 2011 is the day when Russian cosmonaut Viktor Savinykh will be visiting the Nehru Center, Mumbai. In the morning he’ll inaugurate an exhibition on space. The exhibition will be open to the members of the public on the first floor of Nehru Planetarium till June 18, 2011.

    In the evening Savinykh will talk on “50th Anniversary of the first human Space flight“. Savinykh became a cosmonaut in 1978. He’s flown in space for 252 days 17 hours and 38 minutes on three spaceflights. He flew to the Soviet Salyut 6 in 1981, Salyut 7  in 1985 and the Mir in 1988. On Salyut 7, Savinykh helped restore Salyut 7 with which ground control was lost. He, along with Vladimir Dzhanibekov manually docked with Salyut 7, replaced batteries and restored power and control to the station. 

  • PSLV-C16 ready for lift-off on April 20

    So, this ISRO press release was posted on the web on April 17, 2011 which stated that the Launch Authorisation Board has given the green signal to the scientists and engineers to proceed with the launch on April 20, 2011. As per press reports, this Launch Authorisation Board is a bunch of people who come and inspect the launch vehicle and spacecrafts and ensure everything looks okay and then give the thumbs up.

    Thence, engineers and scientists spring into action and in ISRO’s words –

    During the Count Down, propellant-filling operations of the liquid propellant second stage (PS2) and fourth stage (PS4) of the launch vehicle will be carried out. Mandatory checks on the launch vehicle and spacecraft – including charging of batteries and pressurisation of propellant tanks will be performed. Readiness of launch infrastructure such as tracking radar systems and communication networks will also be checked.

    The countdown, does not start at 15 seconds before the lift-off. It actually starts 54 hours before lift-off and that is when all the things described above takes place. So, the lift off will begin around 4 am (IST) on April 18, 2011.

    ISRO scientists and engineers have been a worried lot. Two of their rockets have fallen into the Bay of Bengal and their top brass have been embroiled in a “scam” that it has never witnessed before. Word is that ISRO is taking extra precautions on this one. Some are even saying that ISRO is in a mess. The PSLV has so far had a great track record and they are pinning their expectations on this vehicle to mark the turning point in its fortunes in the past few months. Whatever others might say, I believe that ISRO engineers will give it their best shot.

    ISRO has not written or aggregated information about the various satellites in one place and I thought I could do that here and use it as a reference, just in case. So, first we look at our main payload – Resourcesat-2:

    RESOURCESAT-2 is a follow on mission to RESOURCESAT-1 to provide data continuity to Indian and global users. It carries three optical Remote sensing payloads, LISS-3, LISS-4 & AWIFS. It also carries additional AO payload known as AIS (Automatic Information System) from COMDEV, Canada as an experimental payload for ship surveillance in VHF band to derive position, speed and other information of ships. Compared to RESOURCESAT-1, LISS-4 multi-spectral swath has been enhanced from 23 km to 70 km based on user needs. Suitable changes including miniaturisation in payload electronics have been incorporated in RESOURCESAT-2. The satellite is slated for launch during first quarter of 2011.

    Then we look at the Indo-Russian collaboration, YOUTHSAT:
    In recent years, it has been realised that there is a need to develop a comprehensive understanding of the complex processes of the ionosphere-thermosphere system including its response to the various external forces such as solar radiation during active space weather conditions so as to reach a level of predictive capability. One of the most important aspects still to be understood is the temporal and spatial variability in electron density distribution over the low and equatorial latitudes, and the role of certain large scale neutral and plasma processes therein. To address these issues related to the cause, i.e. solar variability and effect, thermosphere-ionosphere changes, an Indo Russian satellite mission ‘YOUTHSAT’ is planned, which is scheduled to be launched in the first quarter of 2011.Apart from the Russian payload SOLRAD for monitoring the solar X- and g rays fluxes, two Indian payloads: a dual frequency beacon payload for ionospheric tomography named RaBIT (Radio Beacon for Ionospheric Tomography) and an airglow imaging payload namely LiVHySI (Limb Viewing Hyper Spectral Imager), will be onboard this satellite. These two Indian payloads have been developed and undergoing different stages of tests and evaluations at VSSC/SAC/ISAC respectively.For the RaBIT experiment, the already existing CRABEX ground network to receive the beacon signals will be extended to stations located in Russia in the polar latitudes. This would make this receiver chain to be the longest in the world, enabling development of ionospheric tomograms spanning equator to the North Pole.Through the LiVHySI experiment, simultaneous altitudinal profiles of a range of airglow emissions (Hyper Spectral) emanating from the atmosphere between 80-600km altitudes and their spatial distribution across the globe will be obtained. These profiles, in conjunction with the tomograms and solar flux measurements, will help us in understanding and quantifying various chemical, neutral and electro-dynamical processes prevalent in the ionosphere-thermosphere system. 

    The last one is on the Singaporean XSat-1:


    This is a developmental project undertaken by CREST (Centre For Research in Satellite Technologies) with partners such as CRISP (Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing, NUS), and overseas collaborators (SaTReCi, ISRO, DLR, DTU etc.).

    Objectives

    The XSAT project objectives are:
    (1) To develop a low cost micro-satellite bus capable of performing remote sensing operation in near real-time scenarios
    (2) To build-up in country capability (resources and facilities) in satellite engineering
    (3) To promote academic interest for R&D in this areaThe two bits about RESOURCESAT-2 and YOUTHSAT are from the ISRO Annual Report 2010-11 and the information on XSat-1 is from here.

    Best of luck, team ISRO!

  • ISRO Annual Report – Space Access Component

    Note: I wrote this on my earlier blog hosted as https://parallelspirals.blogspot.com. I recovered the text from the WayBack Machine. This post appeared on April 9, 2011. I’m trying to collect here again all my old writings spread on various blogs.
    ISRO has posted the 2010 Annual Report on its website. We now take a look at the space access component of this report which is titled, “Space Transportation”. The Prime Minister in his speech on March 26, 2011 at the Space Applications Center urged ISRO to reduce cost of access to space and to pay attention to the GSLV. The Report makes no particular mention of these objectives but are in line with ISRO’s overall continuing development strategy.

    PSLV

    The report seems to indicate that 2011 will see only two flights of the PSLV. These are the PSLV-C16 carrying Resourcesat-2, YOUTHSAT and XSat-1 and PSLV-C17 carrying GSAT-12. These are currently said to be in “preparatory stages”.

    GSLV Mk-I and Mk-II

    This is what the Prime Minister has asked ISRO to pay attention to. The Report repeats that a series of ground tests will be done before flight testing the indigenous cryogenic upper stage in 2012. The report still keeps all the reports expected to have submitted in February 2011 as “expected”. The GSLV programme review is still on and the report related to this is “expected” as well.

    GSLV Mk-III

    ISRO has been building up towards the development of this Medium Lift Vehicle capable of delivering 5 tons to GTO. This is the component of the GSLV Programme that is seeing good development. Last year saw the successful testing of the solid and liquid stages of this vehicle. The development and testing of the cryogenic stage is in progress and also the flight test in 2012 will be crucial for all future projects.

    Human Spaceflight Programme

    The wording in the Report seems to point to the fact that ISRO has decided on a course to take on the Human Spaceflight Programme. Buzz was that the ISRO was debating between the single shot approval and incremental steps approval methodologies. It seems ISRO has selected the incremental steps approval methodologies. This puts SRE-2 in line for launch in 2012-13 to “realise a recoverable capsule with Carbon-Carbon nose cap and to provide a platform to conduct microgravity experiments”. These technologies are expected to be built into the Crew Vehicle. On the way forward, the report says:

    The programme is proposed to be implemented in defined phases, with the first phase concentrating on design, development and performance demonstration of critical technologies leading to human spaceflight. Systems developed during this phase are to be utilised for unmanned flights in PSLV.

    Testing these systems on PSLV is the best thing to do since this is India’s most reliable launch platform.

    Advanced Technology Vehicles and Sounding Rockets

    This is where the most interesting space access technology testing is happening today. The development and testing of the Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV) in March last year paves the way for a platform to test air breathing engine technologies. ISRO aims to use the platform to test the active scramjet engine, ramjet engine and finally the Dual Mode Ramjet (DMRJ) which would take Indian vehicles to speeds close to 10 times the speed of sound (or Mach 10). Commenting on possible applications of the ATV, the report says:

    Advanced Technology Vehicle has the unique capability to take a payload of 200-400 kg up to an altitude of 800 km. Ascent of the vehicle in a direct vertical profile makes it an excellent platform for space research, best suited for the studies of upper atmospheric features and short period transient phenomena / events in the atmosphere. ATV also provides a cost-effective platform for the study of microgravity conditions with up to 10 minutes of microgravity at levels better than 100 g which can be used for microgravity experiments in fluid physics, combustion research, materials sciences, biology as well as to perform precursor experiments for launch vehicles, satellites and manned missions.

    The lack of comment on the sounding rocket programme is of concern.

    Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstration (RLV-TD)

    This project also seems to be progressing smoothly. This is the first stage of Indian efforts to make a Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) vehicle. The report says:

    During the year, all design options were finalised with titanium elevon, composite movable fin and metallic wing leading edge. Mission design has been completed with revised vehicle mass. All design related issues have been addressed and presented to the National Review Committee and clearance obtained to go ahead.

    This is of-course for the Hypersonic flight experiment (HEX).

    There are also improvements on the ground facilities at the Sriharikota High Altitude Range (SHAR). It is interesting to note that the commissioning trials for the new Mission Control Center are progressing along with efforts to improve launch support for 5 to 6 launches per year.