As Chandrayaan-3 braces to land on moon, here's why Pakistan lagged behind

 While 'Chandrayaan-3' - India's moon mission is paving its way through the space towards Moon, neighbouring country Pakistan is still struggling with a dwindling economy, the huge pile of debt and religious extremism-fuelled politics.

Qaisar Rashid in his piece in the Daily Times said that while India ticked one after the other boxes right from ISRO, focusing on IT to opting for a modern education system, Pakistan kept on struggling with its internal conflicts and orthodox education system.

On July 14, the Chandrayaan-3 spaceship lifted off from the launchpad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The moon mission is expected to reach the Moon's South Pole for a soft landing with a lander and rover on the lunar surface (where water is expected) by August 23-24. By doing so, India would join the group of elite nations (United States, Russia and China) that had achieved the feat.

According to the author, this moon mission means that India remained unfaltering in trying again and again to taste success. It also means that India relied on its scientists working in the space program to justify high expenditures in carrying out space research against all odds.

Taking forward the initiative of first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who founded the Indian National Committee for Space Research in 1962, India founded the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on August 15, 1969.

The main objective of the ISRO was to develop space technology and apply it to study space and its phenomena to meet various national needs such as developing satellite launching vehicles, throwing unipurpose or multi-purpose satellites into required orbits, and sending space missions for exploration of extra-terrestrial life. Currently, ISRO happens to be the world's sixth-largest space agency, Daily Times reported.

As per the author, India also benefitted a lot by focusing on Information Technology. It helped ISRO in satellite communication, satellite tracking and navigation, remote sensing, spacecraft monitoring and control, ground station operations, and data analytics and processing.

Even in the Chandrayaan-3 space mission, IT would help it to explore the Moon through a lander and a rover. These machines would not only communicate with each other the gathered data through sensors but they would also communicate with the ISRO ground station through relay centers and satellites to transmit the data.

India's IT industry was born in 1967 in Mumbai, with the help of Tata Industries. The first software export zone called Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ) was developed in 1973 also in Mumbai. The SEEPZ is the precursor to the modern-day IT park. Rajiv Gandhi is greeted as the Father of Information Technology and the Telecom Revolution of India because, in August 1984, he established the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), which made possible the concept of Digital In ..

Notably, it was the time of the Cold War, and the Soviet Union also helped India in developing its space program. After the end of the Cold War in 1991, India laid more emphasis on the IT sector, especially on software development.

The Indian education system with a focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) offered a large pool of highly skilled and educated IT professionals. By formulating and implementing various policies (such as offering tax incentives, subsidies and other benefits) to grow the IT sector, the Indian government hastened the entry of the Indian IT workforce into the export sector, Daily Times reported.

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The moment when lightning strikes a tree is captured in unprecedented detail.

Hot lightning" or long continuing current strikes can last from around 40 milliseconds to nearly a third of a second and are more likely to ignite wildfires than typical lightning strikes. Here's why.

Soaring global temperatures could lead to more “hot lightning” strikes in many parts of the world, a new study has found. It added that this type of lightning is more likely to ignite wildfires than typical lightning.

Published in the journal Nature Communications, the study, ‘Variation of lightning-ignited wildfire patterns under climate change’, has been done by Francisco J. Pérez-Invernón and Francisco J. Gordillo-Vázquez of the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (Spain), Heidi Huntrieser and Patrick Jöckel of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (Germany).

According to the researchers, lightning is a major cause of triggering wildfires and is responsible for producing the largest wildfires in some regions, including the Western United States. Lightning-caused wildfires are dangerous as they spread rapidly before a strong response can be implemented and release substantial amounts of carbon, nitrogen oxides and other trace gases into the atmosphere.

Although previous studies have demonstrated that climate change might lead to an increase in lightning strike incidents, the latest research is the first time that scientists have focused on the relationship between “hot lightning” strikes and rising global temperatures. Moreover, they have also examined how this form of lightning might affect the incidents of wildfires across the world.

What are the findings of the latest study?

The researchers analysed 5,858 selected lightning-ignited fires based on satellite images of US wildfires between 1992 and 2018 and found that approximately 90 per cent of them might have started by “hot lightning” strikes. Also known as long continuing current (LCC), this type of lightning strike can last from around 40 milliseconds to nearly a third of a second.

Explaining why “hot lighting” has more potential of triggering a wildfire than typical lightning, Francisco J Pérez-Invernón, co-author of the new study, told The Indian Express, “Lightning with continuing currents can transport more energy from cloud to ground than typical lightning. When lightning with continuing currents attach to ground or vegetation, they produce more Joule heating and higher temperature than typical lightning, increasing the probability of ignition.”

With the help of computer simulations, the researchers also looked at the frequency of “hot lightning” strikes and observed that as the atmosphere warms, there might be an increase of 41 per cent in the incidents of LCC strikes by 2090. This means that the rate of such lightning flashes could jump from three strikes per second globally to four strikes per second. Meanwhile, the frequency of all cloud-to-ground strikes might increase to nearly eight flashes per second, a 28 per cent jump.

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Astronauts explain why nobody has visited the moon in more than 45 years - and the reasons are depressing

 The last time a person visited the moon was in December 1972, during NASA's Apollo 17 mission. Over the decades, NASA planned to send people back to the moon but has yet to succeed. Astronauts often say the biggest reasons why humans haven't returned to the lunar surface are budgetary and political hurdles - not scientific or technical challenges. Private companies like Blue Origin or SpaceX may be the first entities to return people to the moon.

Landing 14 people on the moon remains one of NASA's greatest achievements, if not the greatest.Astronauts collected rocks, took photos, performed experiments, planted some flags, and then came home. But those week-long stays during the Apollo program didn't establish a lasting human presence on the moon.

More than 45 years after the most recent crewed moon landing - Apollo 17 in December 1972 - there are plenty of reasons to return people to Earth's giant, dusty satellite and stay there.Researchers and entrepreneurs think a crewed base on the moon could evolve into a fuel depot for deep-space missions, lead to the creation of unprecedented space telescopes, make it easier to live on Mars, and solve longstanding scientific mysteries about Earth and the moon's creation. A lunar base could even become a thriving off-world economy, perhaps one built around lunar space tourism.

A permanent human research station on the moon is the next logical step. It's only three days away. We can afford to get it wrong, and not kill everybody," former astronaut Chris Hadfield recently told Business Insider. "And we have a whole bunch of stuff we have to invent and then test in order to learn before we can go deeper out."

But many astronauts and other experts suggest the biggest impediments to crewed moon missions over the last four-plus decades have been banal if not depressing.

It's really expensive to get to the moon - but not that expensive

A tried-and-true hurdle for any spaceflight program, especially for missions that involve people, is the steep cost.

A law signed in March 2017 by President Donald Trump gives NASA an annual budget of about $19.5 billion, and it may rise to $19.9 billion in 2019.Either amount sounds like a windfall - until you consider that the total gets split among all of the agency's divisions and ambitious projects: the James Webb Space Telescope, the giant rocket project called Space Launch System, and far-flung missions to the sun, Jupiter, Mars, the Asteroid Belt, the Kuiper Belt, and the edge of the solar system. (By contrast, the US military gets a budget of about $600 billion per year. One project within that budget - the modernization and now expansion of America's nuclear arsenal- may even cost as much as $1.7 trillion over 30 years.)

Plus, NASA's budget is somewhat small relative to its past.

"NASA's portion of the federal budget peaked at 4% in 1965. For the past 40 years it has remained below 1%, and for the last 15 years it has been driving toward 0.4% of the federal budget," Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham said during a 2015 congressional testimony.

Trump's budget calls for a return to the moon, and then later an orbital visit to Mars. But given the ballooning costs and snowballing delays related to NASA's SLS rocket program, there may not be enough funding to make it to either destination, even if the International Space Station gets defunded early.

A 2005 report by NASA estimated that returning to the moon would cost about $104 billion (which is $133 billion today, with inflation) over about 13 years. The Apollo program cost about $120 billion in today's dollars.

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Venera timeline: The Soviet Union's Venus missions in pictures

 Learn all about the Venera missions, which launched between 1961 and 1983.

Of the 30 space missions to successfully fly by or orbit Venus to date, more than one-third were part of the former Soviet Union's Venera series of robotic probes.

Launched between 1961 and 1983, the Venera (or "Venus" in Russian") missions were focused on studying the second planet from our sun. Of the 28 spacecraft launched, 13 entered the Venusian atmosphere and eight successfully touched down on the surface.

The Soviet program set several firsts, including the first probe to descend into the atmosphere of a planet other than Earth; the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on another planet; and the first missions to return images and sounds from the surface of another planet.

Roscosmos, Russia's federal space corporation, is now developing the first new Venera mission since the fall of the Soviet Union. Venera-D, targeted for launch in 2029, would include an orbiter and a lander and serve as a model for future missions to Venus.

Click through the slideshow to learn all about the Venera probes and their discoveries.

Venera 13 was a Soviet space probe that successfully landed on the surface of Venus on March 1, 1982. It was part of the Venera program, which consisted of a series of missions designed to explore Venus. Once Venera 13 reached Venus, it deployed a lander, which descended through the planet's thick atmosphere. The lander collected and transmitted data about the Venusian environment, including temperature, pressure, and composition. It also took photographs of the surface using color cameras. The Venera 13 lander operated for approximately two hours before succumbing to the harsh conditions on Venus. During that time, it sent back valuable information and captured several images of the surface. These images provided the first-ever glimpse of the Venusian landscape from ground level.

#Venus #SpaceExploration #PlanetaryScience #Astrobiology #ExploringVenus #Venera13 #Venus

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NASA Awards Millions in STEM Research Grants

 NASA announced the recipients of its annual STEM grants, providing nearly $4 million in total funding, to support scientific and technical research that aligns with the agency’s strategic research and technology development priorities. By providing resources to STEM research, NASA helps create a stronger and more vibrant scientific community to drive innovation and push the boundaries of what is possible in space exploration.

“We’re excited to announce the awardees of this year’s grants that will help the agency answer some difficult questions regarding research capabilities,” said Kathy Loftin, manager for NASA’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) project. “These grants are a vital component of NASA’s science, technology, engineering, and math strategy to foster collaboration and stimulate growth in research and development in underserved areas across the country.”

NASA STEM provides a unique opportunity for researchers to solve science and exploration issues impacting its programs and missions.

Forty research projects from 21 universities and organizations were selected based on their merit and alignment with agency missions. Each grantee will focus on a range of agency research needs, including repair, manufacturing, and fabrication technology for deep space missions; methods for detecting and eliminating bacteria in spacecraft; and studies on lunar and Martian regolith, including potential toxicity, suitability as soil for crops, and its ability to be used as construction material.

The grantees include Wichita State University in Kansas, which will receive funding to develop a compact, more efficient thermal management system for electric motors for vertical takeoff and landing vehicles. With the growth of electric, turbo-electric, and hybrid electric propulsion systems, development of smaller, more efficient, and easily manufactured cooling systems for electric motors could have significant applications for the automotive, aviation, and space industries.

With NASA returning to the Moon through Artemis, new technologies are necessary to help achieve the goal of a long-term lunar exploration. With efforts like NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative, focusing on in-situ resource utilization of lunar materials, research from Louisiana State University will build upon in-space manufacturing advancements by studying the physical, chemical, and structural properties of alloys created from simulated regolith, including melting range, heat capacity, viscosity, and density.

To help NASA achieve its mission of unlocking the mysteries of the universe for the benefit of all, a research team from West Virginia University will develop a new concept in localization and guidance, navigation, and control algorithms for exploring Earth-like planets such as Venus. 

The team’s orbiter-assisted balloon navigation will use a variable-altitude balloon and orbiter to provide accurate geotagging and enable autonomous exploration of Venus, generating critical data to help understand Earth's own formation and habitability change over time.

The remaining grantees are:

• Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
• College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina
• Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
• Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana
• Nevada System of Higher Education, Reno, Nevada
• New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico
• Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma
• South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota
• University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska
• University of Alabama, Huntsville, Alabama
• University of Arkansas, Little Rock, Arkansas
• University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware
• University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho
• University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
• University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi
• University of Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska
• University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
• University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming

The grants are funded through NASA’s EPSCoR’s R3 (Rapid Response Research) project. The EPSCoR project is directed at jurisdictions that have not participated evenly in competitive aerospace and aerospace-related research activities.

For the EPSCoR R3 grants, universities and schools across the country submitted proposals, with each jurisdiction eligible to submit a total of six proposals for competitive agreement awards of up to $100,000 each. Twenty-five states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam currently participate in the program.

NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, in collaboration with several of the agency’s mission directorate programs and offices, established these grants to support research and development in areas critical to NASA's mission and to contribute to the overall research infrastructure, science, and technology capabilities of higher education and economic development in the jurisdictions receiving funding.

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The Psyche mission is a journey to a unique metal asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.

 The Psyche mission is a journey to a unique metal asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. What makes the asteroid Psyche unique is that it appears to be the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet, one of the building blocks of our solar system.

Deep within rocky, terrestrial planets – including Earth – scientists infer the presence of metallic cores, but these lie unreachably far below the planets' rocky mantles and crusts. Because we cannot see or measure Earth’s core directly, Psyche offers a unique window into the violent history of collisions and accretion that created terrestrial planets.

The mission is led by Arizona State University. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is responsible for mission management, operations and navigation. The spacecraft’s solar-electric propulsion chassis will be built by Maxar Technologies with a payload that includes an imager, magnetometer, and a gamma-ray spectrometer.

Science Goals

• Understand a previously unexplored building block of planet formation: iron cores.
• Look inside terrestrial planets, including Earth, by directly examining the interior of a differentiated body, which otherwise could not be seen.
• Explore a new type of world. For the first time, examine a world made not of rock and ice, but metal.

Science Objectives

• Determine whether Psyche is a core, or if it is unmelted material.
• Determine the relative ages of regions of Psyche's surface.
• Determine whether small metal bodies incorporate the same light elements as are expected in the Earth's high-pressure core.
• Determine whether Psyche was formed under conditions more oxidizing or more reducing than Earth's core.
• Characterize Psyche's topography.

Mission Timeline

• Launch: 2022
• Solar electric cruise: 3.5 years
• Arrival at (16) Psyche: 2026
• Observation Period: 21 months in orbit, mapping and studying Psyche’s properties

Mission Events

• 2022 – Launch of Psyche spacecraft from Kennedy Space Center, Florida
• 2023 – Mars Flyby of Psyche spacecraft
• 2026 – Psyche spacecraft arrives in asteroid’s orbit
• 2026-2027 – Psyche spacecraft orbits the Psyche asteroid

Scientific instruments and Investigations

• Multispectral Imager
• Gamma Ray and Neutron Spectrometer
• Magnetometer
• X-band Gravity Science Investigation

Deep Space Optical Communication (DSOC)

The Psyche mission will test a sophisticated new laser communication technology that encodes data in photons at near-infrared wavelengths (rather than radio waves) to communicate between a probe in deep space and Earth. Using light instead of radio allows the spacecraft to communicate more data in a given amount of time. The DSOC team is based at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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