“I suggested to both ISRO and NASA to work on future mission of Chandrayaan-II using moon surface robotic penetrator during my recent visit to California Institute of Technology in US, where NASA scientists presented the findings of Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) to Indian scientists,” Kalam told students during an interaction today.

The missile man was here to inaugurate the national science seminar on ‘Chandrayaan: Promises and Concerns’ for school students, organised by the National Council of Science Museum. He said more validations are being carried out by the scientists on India’s Moon Impact Probe (MIP) about the presence of water on lunar surface.

Kalam told students that he had also suggested space scientists to make spacecrafts weighing one-kilogram by 2050 to cut costs and bring it down to USD 2,000 from USD 20,000.

India’s own device MIP on ‘Chandrayaan-I’ detected the presence of water on lunar surface, a finding confirmed by NASA which also had an instrument on board the craft.

The MIP while descending from Chandrayaan-I to moon, picked up strong signals of water particles giving a clear indication that hydroxil (OH) as water molecules are present on the surface. 

Source: PTI

‘Moon water is more precious than gold,’ an Indian space scientist told IANS, declining to be named.
He said the presence of water makes a lot of difference for future explorations. ‘For instance, we may not have to carry water from earth,’ he added.
However, he said that a whole lot of tests have to be done to determine whether the water is consumable by humans.
The immediate fallout of the current find on the Chandrayaan-2 mission slated for 2012/2013 is that the moon lander that would go there can land precisely near the moon water and conduct the necessary tests there.

According to the scientist, the data from other equipments carried by Chandrayaan-1 are being studied and the result will be announced in due course of time.

‘It includes the data generated by the Indian equipments on Chandrayaan-1. Peer reviews of data generated by Indian equipments and the findings are on,’ he remarked.

The spacecraft carried 11 scientific instruments built in India, the US, Britain, Germany, Sweden and Bulgaria.

The Indian scientific payloads were terrain mapping camera, hyper spectral imager, lunar laser ranging instrument, high energy X-ray spectrometer and moon impact probe.

The overseas payloads were Chandrayaan-1 X-ray spectrometer, near infrared spectrometer, sub-keV atom reflecting analyser, miniature synthetic aperture radar, moon mineralogy mapper and radiation dose monitor.

Former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) K. Kasturirangan had categorically said that ‘India’s lunar mission is not lunatic mission’ when controversy raged on the necessity of such a mission. Now his views have turned prophetic

IANS

Western Air Command (WAC) chief Air Marshal N A K Browne told reporters in New Delhi on Thursday that different types of radars would be put in place along the 667-km LAC with China, the air defence of which is WAC’s responsibility.

“The Air Force is keenly examining the option of special type of radars, which we call the mountain radars and we are also looking at Low Level Light Weight Radars (LLLWR). So there is a definite plan,” Browne said to a question on the future air defence systems along the LAC.

The IAF’s move comes close on the heels of reports of recent incursions by Chinese military helicopters into Indian airspace.

Browne said the IAF would put in place these radars in the next four to five years to make the air defence system along the LAC robust.

“When I talk of operational infrastructure to be improved in the northern sector, the mountainous terrain is very tricky. Because you have huge peaks and normal conventional systems are very difficult to maintain there,” he said.

Browne said the IAF had already given contracts for 19 of LLLWRs and that the WAC itself had some of these. “More are in the pipeline. They are coming starting from next year itself,” he added.

Browne said the IAF also had the option of an indigenously developed LLLWR. At present, the IAF has placed along the LAC two Rohini radars developed by DRDO and manufactured by BEL.

“One more Rohini radar is to be inducted next year and placed along the LAC,” he said.

“These, I think, will take care of detection of any threats that come from across the LAC,” he added.

Browne parried queries on the IAF’s response to Chinese helicopters violating Indian airspace in Ladakh, but he said India needed to keep talking to all its neighbours and at the same time maintain highest levels of military preparedness.

“We do need to talk to everybody…every one of our neighbours and at the same time keep our gun powers dry. We should maintain our preparedness at the highest levels,” he said.

The WAC chief also admitted that the IAF was fully aware of what was going on along the LAC, but reiterated that there were issues such as differing perceptions of the LAC on both sides.

On the recent remarks of IAF chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik that India’s Air Force fleet was just one-third of China’s, he said the IAF was extremely well-balanced on all fronts such as numbers, technology, modern platforms and equipment.

“It is not just a question of numbers, there are other issues such as technology and capability too,” he said, dismissing the Chinese fleet strength as a threat.

Source: PTI

In a major leap for India?s space programme, the Moon mapper on-board the Indian space probe made the unexpected discovery that water may still be forming on the moon surface overturning the long accepted view that lunar soil is dry.

There are strong chemical signatures of water on the moon in its high latitudes, said Carle Pieters, Principal Investigator of NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument

Chandrayaan-I, whose mission also included sniffing for water on Earth’s only natural satellite, had made the discovery before it was prematurely aborted on August 30.

Source: PTI

He acknowledged that incursions were taking place but said there was “hardly any increase” in these activities and situation was not “alarming”.

The NSA disagreed that China was trying to put pressure saying “India of 2009 is not (India) of 1962″ and said both nations are keen to maintain peace and transquility at the border.

“In terms of number of incursions, there has been hardly any increase. Occasionally inroads are a little deeper than what it might have been in the past. I don’t think so that there is anything alarming about it. I think we have a good understanding about the whole issue,” Narayanan told Karan Thapar on his ‘Devil’s Advocate’ programme on CNN-IBN.

“I really am unable to explain why there is being so much media hype on this question,” he said.

Asked if over reaction by media could create problems, he replied in the affirmative and said,”I have been through 1962. I was aware of the problem then…. What we need to be careful of is that we don’t have an unwarranted incident or an accident of some kind.

“That’s what we are trying to avoid. But there is always concern (that) if this thing (media hype) goes on like this someone somewhere might lose his cool and something might go wrong.

Army chief on incursions: Don’t over-react

Meanwhile, a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh played down reports of increasing Chinese incursions along the border, Indian Army chief General Deepak Kapoor Saturday also said there has been no increase in infiltration.

“There has not been any more incursions or transgressions. As compared to last year, they are almost at the same level. So there is no cause for worry or concern. I request the media to restrain and not overplay,” Kapoor told reporters here.

Some recent media reports had indicated that there was increasing infiltration and firing from Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control that separates the two countries.

Talking to reporters at an Iftar party at his residence the prime minister had Friday stressed that there was no reason for concern as there are no inputs to suggest anything serious happening along the border.

Manmohan Singh had also said he was in contact with Chinese authorities.

Source: Agencies

Speaking to IANS over phone from ISRO’s launch centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, M.Y.S. Prasad, associate director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre said: “Preparations are already on for the launch of GSAT 4 — the communication satellite using the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The rocket assembling process has started.”

The first stage of GSLV with four strap-on motors has been assembled and assembling of the second stage is to start soon.

The third stage — cryogenic stage — will come from ISRO’s Thiruvananthapuram facility, he said.

“GSLV will blast off from the second launch pad with its third stage fitted with an India built cryogenic engine thereby making the country absolutely self reliant in building the bigger rocket,” S. Sathish, ISRO’s director of publications and public relations, told IANS over phone from Bangalore.

For all the five earlier GSLV missions, ISRO had used Russian cryogenic engines.

Last December, the indigenously developed cryogenic upper stage engine passed the flight acceptance test with the engine tested for 200 seconds.

The development of cryogenic engines involves mastering materials technology, operating rotary pumps and turbines which run at 42,000 revolutions per minute (RPM).

Weighing around two tonnes, GSAT 4 will carry a multi-beam Ka-band bent pipe and regenerative transponder and navigation payload in C, L1 and L5 bands. The satellite can guide civil and military aircraft.

GSAT 4 will also carry a scientific payload, TAUVEX, comprising three ultra violet band telescopes developed by Tel Aviv University and Israel space agency (ELOP) for surveying a large part of the sky in the 1,400-3,200 A wavelengths.

Meanwhile, ISRO officials are gearing up the next week’s PSLV launch carrying the 960 kg Oceansat 2 and six nano satellites totalling around 20 kg.

“We conducted the pre-launch rehearsal — all activities that have to be carried out ten hours before the actual launch — starting at 2 a.m. Saturday and completed at 12.30 p.m. Everything went off well,” said Prasad. He said the actual 49-hour countdown process will start Monday 8 a.m. The rocket will fly at 11.51 a.m. Wednesday.

According to Satish, Oceansat 2 will be placed in a sun-synchronous orbit 720 km above the earth.

Prasad added: “Oceansat 2 will cover the whole earth as the coverage strip will be moving since it is not geostationary satellite. The orbit is designed in such a way that the satellite will cross the Equator at 12 noon near India.”

Along with Oceansat 2, four overseas Cubesats each weighing 1 kg will be ejected from the rocket, while the two Rubinsats each weighing 8 kg will orbit attached to the rocket’s fourth stage, he added.

This will be the second time that ISRO will launch a cluster of nano satellites. In 2008 ISRO — launching its cartography satellite (CARTOSAT-2A) and Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1) — also sent up eight nano satellites and set a world record of maximum number of satellites sent up in a single launch.

“The increased launch of nano satellites from foreign countries is expected to propel Indian universities to follow the footsteps of Anna University to build satellites,” Satish remarked.

Chennai-based Anna University became the first Indian university to build a small satellite Anusat which ISRO launched in April this year.

Source: IANS

He said that the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), which comprises a peer group of scientists, had last week come out with the “most authoritative” statement on the efficacy of the 1998 nuclear tests and no more clarification was required from the government on the matter.

“They (AEC) were satisfied in 1998 and they were satisfied in 2009. Now what are you going to discuss?” he told on a private channel.

Narayanan said that the AEC, an independent Commission and the highest body in such matters, was asked to study the data of the 1998 nuclear tests once again in the wake of the controversy over the efficacy of the hydrogen bomb following the statements of former DRDO scientist K Santhanam.

“I think, we have done what we have done. Beyond that I do not know what we can do,” he said.

Eminent scientists like C N R Rao, P Rama Rao and M R Srinivasan were members of the AEC and the doyen of the nuclear programme Raja Ramanna was part the apex nuclear body which went into the test results in 1998.

“The thermonuclear device had a yield of 45 kilotons. I have chosen my words carefully 45 kilotons and nobody, including Mr Santhanam who has absolutely no idea what he is talking about, can contest what is proven fact by the data which is there,” Narayanan said.

The NSA claimed that a “very authoritative piece” about the nature of the tests written by AEC Chairman Anil Kakodkar and senior scientist S K Sikka was being “examined by physicists all over the world.”

Narayanan said that former AEC chairman P K Iyengar had admitted that the yield of the thermoculear test “might have been 45 kilotons and had raised doubts on the fission and fusion reactions happening at the same time.

“All the atomic scientists are part of the establishment. Those who are sceptics, the same ones Dr Iyengar, Dr A N Prasad, the same ones were sceptical about the civil nuclear initiative,” he said.

Narayanan said Santhanam was not privy to the information on which the test measurements were taken. “As the NSA, I know what the DRDO is supposed to do and what it knows. I think he is not merely exaggerating, I think he is talking something which is horrific,” he said.

He said there was no need for a public debate on the issue as it required to have a clear idea of the explosive ballistics, neutron physics, material sciences and computer simulation. Asked about the doubt former Army Chief V P Malik had raised about the efficacy of the hydrogen bomb, the NSA said

“I think the person to answer that is the present chief and not the past chief on this matter.”

“We have thermonuclear capabilities. I am absolutely sure. We are very clear on this point. If you hit a city with one of these you are talking about 50,000 to 1,00,000 deaths,” the NSA said.

Narayanan said it was a matter of concern for the government the “kind of interested propaganda being put by various people” in media.

On US move to press for a UN Security Council resolution calling upon all countries to sign the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), he said that the issue had already been raised with the Americans who have assured India it would not affect the civil nuclear agreement. Narayanan said India also talked to countries with whom it has signed nuclear agreements against the backdrop of US bid to get G-8 group of countries to ban sale of enrichment and reprocessing technologies to non-nuclear states.

He termed as an “old story” ex-Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s admission that Islamabad was deploying American military aid meant for fighting terrorism against India. He said Pakistan’s acquisition of sophisticated weaponry from America in the last three to four years was more worrying than any modification of Harpoon missiles. Strongly refuting the need to rethink the ‘no first use’ doctrine, Narayanan said:

“It is a very well thought out doctrine. We are clear for various reasons. For us it is only a deterrent. We are committed to it.”

On reports of Pakistan enhancing its nuclear arsenal, he said “the fact that the country which is not particularly friendly to us is building up its nuclear arsenal is certainly a matter of concern.”

Source: PTI

India’s nuclear bomb tested 11 years ago in the wild and wind-swept regions of Pokhran range in Rajasthan has now `exploded’ into a full-blown controversy `yielding’ embarrassing details. Three top Indian nuclear scientists have asked the government to set up an enquiry committee so that the nation can know the truth.

Being very critical, three former nuclear leaders — M R Srinivasan, P K Iyengar and A N Prasad - have said that only a probe can bring out the truth. Prasad was highly critical saying he was ashamed that information on the May 1998 thermonuclear test was hidden. The scientists have now asked the government to institute an inquiry to determine whether the test yielded the expected results or failed.

K Santhanam, the project leader of Pokharan II, who first stoked the nuclear yield issue, has also favoured a probe, saying that creation of nuclear power could not be based on myths.

“I think this is standard procedure in science and if there are claims then an impartial group of scientists is normally formed to look into the relevant facts,” Santhanam said.

Asked whether such a probe will affect the country’s image as a nuclear power, he said one should not be carried away by “images or imagery” and that the image must be rooted in solid facts and cleared by competent group of scientists. “So the creation of a myth must be avoided,” he said.

The latest authority to question former president APJ Abdul Kalam and R Chidambaram, former chairman of AEC (Atomic Energy Commission, is A N Prasad, former director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Former Barc director, Prasad has always been maintaining that the thermonuclear test was anything but a success.

Reacting to the fallout, he was quoted in The Times of India on Friday as saying that “The painful fallout of this episode is that the credibility of the nuclear scientific community and the respectable name of Barc is being damaged by a few at the top.” 

In a direct attack on Kalam and Chidambaram, Prasad said: “If all that Santhanam has written is true, then people occupying high places have misled the country. If all the data about the thermonuclear test has been held by one man (Chidambaram), then how can it be scientifically contested or debated? He has kept it under wraps.”

Stressing that there should be a probe by a committee constituted by the government, Prasad said that the team should comprise those having serious doubts about the yield of the test as well as experts who can include former nuclear scientists who have been raising their voices. “It should not consist of only yes men. It should consist of those who are knowledgeable, who have the capacity to investigate such a serious matter,” he said.

“If this committee concludes that the thermonuclear test had completely failed then the government has played a major fraud on the people of this country,” he said.

It may be recalled that Santhanam had gone public on August 26, claiming that the yield from the test was far lower than what the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government had claimed. In a recent newspaper article, he had some embarrassing details to disclose - that the test was a failure because the yield was only 25 kilotons, nearly half of what the scientists had then claimed. Soon after the test, senior scientists had met to discuss the failure and decided to bury the Pokharan truth. 
What has bolstered Santhanam’s claim is that there was no disturbance to the shafts at ground zero - a proof that the test was unsuccessful.

Now the worrying factor: If the yield was not as expected, India does not possess a credible nuclear deterrent, indicating that warheads on India’s long-range missile could have far less punch than expected. 
On August 28, Abdul Kalam contradicted Santhanam’s August 26 statement and took the stand that Pokhran II was successful. But on Sept 1, former Atomic Energy Commission chief Homi N Sethna openly criticised Kalam in television interviews saying that the former president was not a nuclear scientists and suggested that Santhanam was the authority on the nuclear yield.

Santhanam was earlier criticised by Chidambaram, former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and the architect of the nuke tests and Anil Kakodkar, then director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. They agreed with Kalam who in 1998 led a team from Hyderabad-based Defence Research and Development Organisation and insisted that the yield was 45 kilotons.

When the issue started snowballing into a controversy, the AEC convened a meeting on September 5 and held Santhanam wrong. The committee said different types of analysis had come to the conclusion that the yield of the thermonuclear test was indeed 45 KT.

But not many are impressed with the committee’s findings. Scientists in Barc, the nation’s top nuclear weapon establishment, have expressed serious reservation.

M R Srinivasan, former AEC chairman, was quoted in the paper as saying that it was time for both Chidambaram and Kakodkar to clarify the position. “In such circumstances I think a peer review is certainly warranted. A lot of information has been published and is on record. So I have really no reason to disbelieve at this stage either Chidambaram or Kakodkar on this issue. However, because of the current controversy, I think the best recourse would be for both of them to clarify the position.

Another former AEC chief, P K Iyengar said, “The government should undertake an active investigation immediately following the statements made by Santhanam in the article. I am feeling really ashamed.”

India conducted five nuclear tests on May 11 and 13, 1998 at the Pokhran range in Rajasthan which included a 45 kiloton (kt) thermonuclear device, called as hydrogen bomb in common parlance.

Source: PTI.

The touchdown by the medium lift transport aircraft signifies India’s capability to move its troops quickly to the forward areas, whenever required.

The IAF move comes in the wake of reports of recent Chinese intrusions into the Indian side of the LAC, including airspace violations by their helicopters and painting Mandarin letters on rocks in red.

The AN-32 aircraft, flown by Shaurya Chakra awardee Group Captain S C Chafekar and carrying Western Air Command (WAC) chief Air Marshal N A K Browne and Northern Army Commander Lt Gen P C Bhardwarj, landed at Nyoma at 0625 hours, WAC spokesperson Flt Lt Priya Joshi said in New Delhi.

Nyoma ALG is situated at an altitude of 13,300 feet above sea level and is the third such ALG opened by IAF in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir in the last two years.

The ALGs opened earlier were Daulat Beg Oldi, the world’s highest airfield at 16,200 feet, in May last year and Fuk Che in November that year.

The IAF had, before this AN-32 landing, used Nyoma airstrip only for helicopter operations. Only recently, the IAF took up work to convert it into an ALG for transport fixed-wing aircraft operations by laying a compacted airstrip, IAF officials said.

Source: PTI