India plans big for space

After basking in the glory of a successful mission to moon, Indian space scientists are now planning to send a man to space in an Indian spacecraft.

The scientists expect to realise the dream by 2015.

The project will involve an expenditure of Rs 12,000 crore.

The proposal for the mission has been submitted to the government and the pre- project clearance has already been given.

"It will be a major turning point for Indian space scientists after the successful mission to moon," G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said at the 96th session of the Indian Science Congress.

Though sending a manned mission to moon is still quite far, the space scientists have started working on designs and logistics of a space capsule that will carry humans around the earth at a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) - an orbit which extends from the earth's surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km - and bring them back, Nair said. "We have postulated the idea." The capsule will have the capacity to carry three persons to the space and return to a pre- determined destination on earth. The mission duration will be up to seven days.

The designing of the spacecraft will involve many technologies.

It has to be equipped with radiation protection system and life- support system. It will also have a waste management system. ISRO has developed a conceptual design and has envisaged the technologies that need to be developed. It will take three to four years for the ideas to materialise.

Managing the crew's safety will be a crucial part of the mission.

If anything goes wrong, the capsule should be able to abort the mission and implement a crew escape system.

The mission will involve creating ground stations and launch facilities, besides crew training.

Nair said a preliminary review and assessment of India's first moon mission will be carried out at the end of this month.

India's mooncraft Chandrayaan has started mapping the lunar surface to see whether there are any minerals like helium or water on the moon.

The cameras on the Chandrayaan have caught over 35,000 images of the moon.

Nair said sending the mission to moon was not simple as the challenge was to escape earth's gravity and influence of the sun and the moon.

However, India's moon mission was more precise than those launched by other countries.

Thirty per cent US missions have crashlanded on the moon, he said.

Indian scientists also overcame challenges managing temperature on the moon, which is quite hot. In fact, subsystems had started failing due to the high temperature.

However, scientists could reorient the spacecraft. "All is now well," Nair said. The next mission to moon will involve sending a lander which will go around the moon and pick up samples.

From Mail Today

Gajini collects 100 crore in just seven days.

The year 2008 will be remembered in Bollywood as a Blockbuster year. Aamir Khan emerged as the biggest Superstar.

Aamir Khan's "Ghajini" left Shahrukh's Rab ne bana di jodi and Akshay's Singh Is Kinng much behind. Ghajini" made history by becoming the first Indian movie to collect Rs. 1 billion (100 crore) in just 7 days.

Ghajini will be dubbed in Spanish too.

Ghajini got huge response in overseas too where usually Aksay, shahrukh and Amitabh has been doing good for few times.

NIA comes into effect

The National Investigating Agency (NIA) has come into force from today - January 1, 2009. The NIA 2008 bill, which was passed by the Parliament, became a law, after President Pratibha Patil gave her assent to it.

The National Investigating Agency will be headed by a Director-General level officer. He will be appointed in a few days. The cases of NIA would be taken by a committee of two judges. At least 20 counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism schools will be set up in the country.

External debt races to $223 b

India's total external debt stock declined marginally to $222.61 billion at the end of the second quarter (July-September) this fiscal from $223.81 billion at the end of the first quarter (April-June) of the year.

In terms of components, long-term external debt at $172.51 billion at the end of the second quarter, after posting a decline of $2.69 billion, constituted about 77.5 per cent of the total debt.

According to an official statement here on Wednesday, the July-September quarter witnessed a decline in both NRI (non-resident Indian) deposits as well as commercial borrowings. Export credit, however, increased during the period. Short-term debt, which includes trade-related credits, FII investments in government securities and external liabilities of the banking system, increased by $1.49 billion to $50.10 billion at the end of the three-month period. As per the information relating to countries whose external debt data are reported in the quarterly external debt statistics (QEDS) of the World Bank, India has the lowest level of external debt to GDP (gross domestic product) ratio, the statement noted.

Current account deficit reaches $12.5 b

India's current account deficit ballooned three times to a record $12.5 billion in the second quarter of this fiscal on account of spiralling crude oil prices, indicating the impact of developments in the international market on the country's external sector. The global financial crisis also took a toll on the country's net capital flows, which came down from $33.2 billion to $8.2 billion, said a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report on India's Balance of Payments developments in the second quarter of the current fiscal. The current account deficit includes gap between the country's export and imports in goods and services. as well as receipts and payments.

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