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Future Plans of NAL by Dr Upadhya at Zephyr 2007
2007-10-17 14:48:00
Dr AR Upadhya, director of National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), gave a lecture on ?Future Plans of NAL? at Zephyr 2007, an aero festival organised by aerospace engineering department of IIT Bombay, Powai, on 6th October. The lecture was really an eye opener for students for making an interesting career in NAL. Dr Upadhya clearly showcased the quality of work done in NAL and as a final note made an appeal to the IIT students to consider the kind of work at NAL, which the private companies, who are right now attracting brightest and the best talents in the country by giving high salary, could in no way match.NAL is already ready with two prototypes of the rear mounted twin-engine Saras. The prototypes are powered by Pratt & Whitney engines and had had a successful maiden flight on 14 April 2007. The flight certification is expected in 2009. Dr Upadhya pointed out that the aircraft overweighed 500kg earlier but with the use of light carbon-fibre composites, the weight has been r...

Future Plans of VSSC and Chandrayaan Mission ? Dr Suresh?s Lecture at Zephy
2007-10-14 08:30:00
On the second day, October 6th at Zephyr 2007, Dr Suresh, Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) gave an lecture on ?ISRO?s Chan drayaan Missi on and Future Plans of VSSC?. As I said in the previous article, the eagerness in the audience could be noticed clearly as the auditorium was jam-packed with bubbling students on the very morning of the day. Everyone was very keen in listening to his lecture. Like the day before, his lecture was excellent with lots of information to digest. In his lecture, he spoke about the projects currently undertaken by VSSC, step by step development in the Indian space program, objectives of ISRO and VSSC, application of space technology and the Chandrayaan moon mission. He said that VSSC is currently working on the Chandrayaan unmanned moon landing mission, air-breathing hypersonic launch vehicles, reusable launch vehicle like the space shuttle, indigenous cryogenic engine and cheaper launch vehicles. Then, he started briefing ...

Dr Suresh Lecture at Zephyr - Investigation of Failures in Launch Vehicles
2007-10-13 18:05:00
Zephyr is an aero festival organised by aerospace engineering department of IIT Bombay. This year, Zephyr 2007 was organised from October 5th to 7th. On the evening of October 5th, Dr B Suresh, Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), gave an inaugural address on failures experienced by ISRO and VSSC in the Indian space initiatives. He pointed out that ISRO's failure rates were more or less comparable with those of space programmes the world over, which is very remarkable because ISRO learned and developed only by its own experience, as the space programmes all over the world maintain secrecy and doesn?t share with their experience or data.Starting from the failure of its first ever rocket, the SLV3, on 18 august 1979, he said that failure and success are separated by a very thin, but extremely critical line. Failure is expensive, as each PSLV and GSLV mission that fails costs between Rs 300-350 crore.He also said that among India's four major launch vehicles - SLV, AS...
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Zephyr 2007 at IIT Bombay
2007-10-11 10:47:00
Zephyr is an aero festival organised by aerospace engineering department of IIT Bombay . Over the past six years, Zephyr has drawn huge crowd with good participation from eminent colleges across the country. This year, Zephyr 2007 was organised from October 5th to 7th. The three-day long festival saw a variety of events including workshops, competitions, paper presentations, debates and guest lectures by eminent personalities. Also, it was held along with golden jubilee celebrations of IIT Bombay.On the evening of October 5th, the festival started with an inaugural address by Dr B Suresh, Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). Before Dr Suresh's address, the film ?16 days: Columbia's Final Mission? on the disastrous space shuttle flight that resulted in the death of Kalpana Chawla and six other astronauts and another film on the Challenger space shuttle disaster was screened. On the second day, Dr Suresh was the first speaker. He spoke about ISRO's Chandrayan missi...
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Dr. Annadurai Lecture on Chandrayaan
2007-10-08 16:06:00
Dr. M. Annadurai, Project Director of Chan drayaan 1 , came to Chennai for delivering a lecture on Chandrayaan in Shaastra, a technical festival conducted by IIT Madras, on October 6. The Key information from his lecture is as follows The main aim of the project was not just to develop lunar science but to understand the moon itself. Previous coverage of the moon was restricted only to some areas, but Chandrayaan will cover entire moon. Also, nine lunar missions from the earth that took place between 1958 and 1976 were mainly due to the competition between the USA and the USSR, to prove their technical supremacy. But, Chandrayaan will look for fossil fuels on moon and thus becomes more important. By the year 2010, Chandrayaan will provide for the first time the entire coverage of the moon, including its polar regions. The lunar mission also gains importance in the light of space tourism and as an alternative establishment for human civilization due to the burgeoning population ...

Yu Fly Air Show in Shaastra
2007-10-05 11:32:00
Shaastra, the technical festival of IIT-Madras started with overwhelming response. ?Yu-Fly?, a project undertaken by the second year students of IIT-M, featuring Vertical Take Off and Landing) VTOL aircrafts was demonstrated yesterday. The Yu-Fly project implements a working model of the VTOL aircraft based on a principle called the ?Coanda Effect?. In general, a lift is produced when there is a pressure difference in the wings of the aircraft, i.e, low pressure in the top and high pressure in the bottom of the wing. Since atmospheric pressure is high enough, if we just create a low pressure on the top of the wing, we can generate lift. This is where the Coanda Effect can help us in providing vertical thrust. The Coanda Effect states that fluid flowing on a surface sticks to the surface rather than flowing tangentially to it. It is easily demonstrated by holding the back of a spoon vertically under a thin stream of water (See the figure below). The Coanda Effect works with any...
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More Information about Chandrayaan
2007-10-03 16:20:00
The primary objective of the Chan drayaan-I mission is high resolution remote sensing of the moon in visible, near infrared, low energy X-rays and high energy X-ray regions. To know more about specific objectives, spacecraft, payloads, ground segment and launch vehicle of Chandrayaan, visit the official ISRO site given below. ISRO?s Official Site about Chandrayaan You can also get very good information on Wikipedia. The direct link is given below. Wikipedia Information on Chandrayaan Videos on ChandrayaanOfficial Video about the lunar mission had been released. The video gives lot of information about the mission objectives, how the lunar craft is going to be launched, the trajectory it is going to follow before placing it in the orbit and the data we are going to get about the moon from the payloads on board. This is a nice video. Watch it!ISRO Video on ChandrayaanThejes Inc, has done a another good video about Chandrayaan. The video gives details about the launch vehicle, th...
More About: Chandrayaan 1

How Chandrayaan Started?
2007-10-02 10:59:00
Chandrayaan is a common name for all moon missions by India. Chandrayaan-I is the first mission where a lunar craft will be launched using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The lunar craft will orbit around the moon at a distance of 100 km from the moon?s surface. The idea of moon mission was considered in a meeting of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1999. The idea was then discussed in the Astronautical Society of India in 2000. Based on the recommendations of the members of these scientific groups to ISRO, National Lunar Mission Task Force was formed. Leading Indian scientists and technologists participated in the Task Force and discussed the feasibility of the mission. The Task Force recommended that given the technical expertise of ISRO it will be extreme worthwhile to plan an Indian Mission to the Moon. It also provided primary scientific objectives of such a mission as well as launch and spacecraft technologies that need to be developed. About 100 eminent ...
More About: Chandrayaan 1 , Chan

ISRO Missions In The Near Future
2007-09-29 21:48:00
With more and more successful missions every year, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is not just going to schedule only four missions every year like this year. Right now, ISRO has 60 proposed missions. With Chandrayaan-I mission next year, India will become only the fourth country to involve in a lunar venture. On the proposed 60 missions, a series of communication satellites including Oceansat and the radar imaging satellite had been lined up to meet national needs. Ten missions will increase capacity of our communication satellite from 200 to 500 transponders and about 10-12 missions are earth observation satellites. Also, between 2009 an 2011, a series of seven satellites for an independent, stand-alone constellation called Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) is to be launched. These satellites would help ships, aircrafts and vehicles in navigation. The satellite design had been completed with total project cost of about Rs.1600 crore.
More About: Future , Missions , Chandrayaan 1 , Missi

58th International Astronautical Congress
2007-09-28 18:58:00
58th International Astronautical Congress began on 24th of this month in Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC), Hyderabad. About 2000 delegates from 45 countries attended and shared their knowledge. Fifty college students from India were among them. They were selected out of several thousands by competing in contest organised by ISRO. James V. Zimmerman, president, International Astronautical Federation (IAF), who was here for IAC said that "India has excelled in practical applications of space technology and has been a model to many other countries". The scientists gathered in IAC stressed the need for a global protocol, as the treat of Near Earth Objects (NEOs) hitting our planet Earth is not-so-distant in the future. A 400 meter asteroid, Apophis, is likely to hit the Earth in 2036. There are many other asteroids creating potential threat to the planet. Thus evolving a global protocol and policy framework for developing technologies useful for deflecting these objects...
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Chandrayaan in Shaastra
2007-09-25 20:11:00
Chandrayaan, India's first moon mission is all set for launch in February next year. It is one of our Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam's visions. With successful launch of our satellite INSAT-4CR by Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F04), Chandrayaan project has gained momentum and gained lot of foreign participation and attention. This is the first time various agencies including National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space Agency (ESA) work under a project headed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).So, what does this mean for a developing country like ours? What information is this craft going to provide which its predecessors like 'The Ranger' haven?t? What is the effort that is going into it?Shaastra, the annual technical festival of IIT Madras scheduled from October 3 to 7, has answers to all these questions. It is the only ISO 9001:2000 certified student-organised event in the world. Shaastra is organising Chandrayaan workshop featuring le...
More About: Chandrayaan 1 , Chan , Astra

A Brief History
2007-09-22 22:53:00
The modern age of aviation began with the first human lighter-than-air flight on November 21, 1783, in a hot air balloon designed by the Montgolfier brothers. Balloon flight became increasingly common over longer and longer distances throughout the 19th century, continuing to the present. On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers flew the first fully-documented, successful powered, heavier-than-air flight, though their aircraft was impractical to fly for more than a short distance because of control problems. The widespread adoption of ailerons made aircraft much easier to manage, and only a decade later, at the start of World War I, heavier-than-air powered aircraft had become practical for reconnaissance, artillery spotting, and even attacks against ground positions. Aircraft began to transport people and cargo as designs grew larger and more reliable. On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded aircraft to make a spaceflight, opening the possibility of an avi...
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What is Aviation?
2007-09-22 22:45:00
The wiktionary meaning of aviation is 'the art or science of flying'. The word 'aviation' came from Latin word 'aves' meaning birds. If you think aviation is just a dumb subject, then you have greatly mistaken, as the subject fascinates right from the day it was all started to current day. It?s endless frontier. Apart from just flying using aircraft, the term describes the activities, industries, and regulatory bodies associated with aircraft. Also, aviation just doesn?t limit itself to aircrafts even spacecrafts are dealt in it.
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Introduction
2007-09-19 06:37:00
My name is Akilan. I had finished masters in avionics this year. In India, general awareness about the aviation industry is very less. As I belong to the aviation industry, I thought I can share my ideas with my people. Thus, I created this blog for making a general awareness among the people. The latest happenings, careers and much more in the aviation industry will be dealt in this blog. Your comments are more valuable to me. So, I kindly request you to post your comments on all my post. Hope you enjoy the stay.
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