Tag: ISRO

  • Space Spin-off presentation at ISHRAE competition

    The Indian Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ISHRAE) held their Mumbai eliminations of the national Project Idea competition in our college. I participated in the same and presented an idea that explored a possible space spin-off that I am eager to follow up on.

    I presented the idea of using composite materials used in space crafts and which was recently tested by Space Reentry Experiment 1 by ISRO in use in building material so that they provide heating and cooling to the room inside.  Right now, the idea works only for totally insulated situations (like in space crafts). I am yet to work out how air circulation can be achieved within the room.

    In the end, I visualise, temperature control by simple turning of fan dials and also adding a coat of composite material to be as simple as adding a coat of water proof paint on buildings. I wasn’t able to present it so well that they might select me to represent the Mumbai region for the national level competition but I am keen on following up with the technology aspects of this. It requires sufficient idea of material sciences.

    (This idea is protected under the Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution and ShareAlike license as are rest of the content on this blog)

  • Space and Ham Radio

    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 December 15, 2007 as per the timestamp. I’m trying to collect here again all my old writings spread on various blogs.

    I fell in love with ham radios in 2004 when I was an electronics student (as an elective) in my junior college. In the same year, I read Maryam’s blog and saw that ham radios can be used in space arena too. It was only the exams that I had to give to obtain a ham license that made me think twice. At that point, I had written a string of engineering admission tests that was driving me nuts and I couldn’t handle another test.

    At the SEDS International Conference 2007, some of the earlier interest was re-kindled and also an amazing ‘discovery’. ISRO had a ham radio club.

    2 + 2 = 4 !!!

    It would be really great if we could establish a ham radio club in every SEDS chapter in India. Besides performing scientific experiments and performing basic satellite communication operations if needed, it also opened another door – a way of talking to ISRO and literally!

    ISRO has a ham radio club at most of its centres – Thumba Amateur Radio Club (VU2TRC) at VSSC, ISTRAC Amateur Radio Club (VU2FBS) at Bangalore, at the Master Control Facility (VU2MCF) at Hassan and the more famous Upagraha Amateur Radio Club (VU2URC) at Bangalore. This provides a great opportunity to talk to ISRO scientists who are not always phone and email friendly.

    Besides that, we could also talk to SEDS chapters all over the world for free (Internet and telephone still include costs) besides networking in India. Who wants to take the challenge first? This is also an opportunity for all hams who have a space interest!

    For more info, visit www.amsatindia.org.

  • 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!!

     

  • A Few Links…

    It’s really very funny experience if you want to blog about space. You love the subject. You can talk for hours, given the chance, but to write a good blog post will take you days and days.

    Well, all said and done, I have nothing useful to add today. Here are some links –

    1. India’s Chandrayaan-I project scheduled for departure on 30 March, 2008. Chandrayaan-II coming up in 2010.
    2. The recent testing of SRE and the launch of 3 sats together on the PSLV-C7.
    3.India’s best offering in terms of images of the Earth from  space – CARTOSAT-2.

  • Interesting Stuff from ISRO

    India has today announced the launching of its own navigation satellite system. The date for the launch of Chandrayaan-I has also been announced as 30 March, 2008. Mark the date in your calendars.

    There has also been talks of having a lunar lander by 2020. Interesting stuff coming from ISRO.