Russia's Reusable Rocket Plan a Step in Right Direction: Elon Musk
SpaceX Founder Elon Musk supported Russia's plan to spend about $880 million on creating its first reusable carrier rocket with a methane propellant.
Russian space agency Roscosmos and the Progress Rocket and Space Centre signed a contract to develop the 'Amur' reusable space rocket.
The Russian reusable methane-fuelled rocket will get a reusable first stage and its launches will be carried out from the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East.
The cost of the work on creating the reusable rocket will not exceed 70 billion rubles (around $880 million) while the price of a launch service is stipulated at the level of $22 million.
The reusable rocket is set to blast off for the first time together with a payload in 2026. The launch vehicle will be able to orbit up to 12.5 tonnes of payload.
Roscosmos also plans to develop a larger rocket with an increased lifting capacity.
Oct 06, 2020
India's Fastest AI Super Computer
The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) commissioned the largest HPC-AI supercomputer. HPC-AI is High Performance Computing and Artificial Intelligence.
PARAM-Sidhi has put India among top countries in global AI supercomputing research and innovation. The supercomputer will accelerate cyber security, education, health care, education, space, agriculture and automotive. It will help in catalysing partnerships with MSMEs, Start ups, Academia and Industries.
India has been implementing National Supercomputing Mission to build a network of 70 supercomputers.
The first super computer that was built under the National Supercomputing Mission was named "Param Shivay". It was also built by C-DAC. Param Shivay used more than 1,20,000 compute cores and 833 TeaFlops. TeaFlop is a measure of processing speed of computer.
The IIT-Kharagpur was the first institute to get supercomputing facility under the National Supercomputing Mission.
The Super Computers in the world are ranked based on their speed. The following are Indian Super computers and their world ranking
Pratyush: It holds 39th position and is operated under the speed of 4,006 TFlop/sec. It is located in Indian Institute of Meteorology.
Mihir: It holds 66th It operates at a speed of 2,808 TFlop/sec. It is located in National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting.
InC1: 206th rank, 1,413 TFlop/sec.
SERC: SERC is Supercomputer Education Research Centre at Indian Institute of Science. 327th rank, operating at 1,244 TFlop/sec.
iDataPlex: 496th rank operating at a speed of 790 TFlop/sec.
Oct 05, 2020
India and France to Launch a Constellation of Maritime Surveillance Satellites
India and France are to launch a constellation of maritime surveillance satellites to monitor illegal spillage of oil in the Indian Ocean Region.
In August 2020, the ISRO and the French Space Agency CNES agreed to develop and build a constellation of satellites. CNES is Centre National d'etudes spatiales, the National Centre for Space Studies. The satellites will carry optical-remote sensing instruments, telecommunication and radar instruments. This system is the first space-based system in the world that is capable of tracking ships continuously.
The monitoring centre is to be based in India. The satellites are to be operated jointly by both France and India. The system will also cover the entire world at the benefit of French Economic Interests.
The Indian Ocean Region has several Sea Lanes of Communication that are used by many ships every day. The main purpose of the surveillance satellites is to trace illegal oil spillage by ships. The CNES-ISRO are already operating a number of climate-monitoring satellites together. TRISHNA, a thermal infrared observer will also be a part of the constellation. Both TRISHNA and Oceansat-3 Argos Mission will augment the maritime surveillance constellation.
India and France are also working together on Gaganyaan. It is the first manned space mission of India. Also, France is also a part of ISRO's Venus Mission, Shukrayaan.
Oct 04, 2020
Intel Wins Second Phase of Contract to Help Pentagon Develop Chips
Intel Corp won a second-phase contract in a project aimed at helping the U.S. military make more advanced semiconductors within the United States.
Under the project, Intel will help the military develop prototypes of chips using its semiconductor packaging technology at factories in Arizona and Oregon. The packaging technology allows pieces of chips called "chiplets" from different providers to be combined into one package, helping cram more features into a smaller finished product while lowering its power consumption.
Intel`s work with the Defense Department comes as U.S. officials focus on boosting domestic semiconductor manufacturing in response to the rise of China as a strategic competitor. About 75% of the world`s chipmaking capacity is in Asia, with many of the most advanced plants in Taiwan and Korea, within the reach of the Chinese and North Korean militaries.
Intel is one of three companies in the world that can make highly advanced computer chips. The other two - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd <2330.TW> and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd <005930.KS> - have packaging technology similar to Intel`s.
Oct 03, 2020
NASA Launches SS Kalpana Chawla Cargo Spacecraft
NASA launched a commercial spacecraft named after Indian Origin deceased NASA Astronaut "Kalpana Chawla". The spacecraft carried 4 tonnes of cargo including refined radishes for the International Space Station.
The spacecraft was built by a Virginia based company Northrop Grunman. It currently holds space station resupply contract with NASA. It is an aerospace and defence technology company. The company has named the space craft after Indian born astronaut Kalpana Chawla who died along with six other astronauts in 2003 Columbia Space Shuttle tragedy.
The spacecraft carried a new space toilet called the Universal Waste Management System. The 23 million USD commode is to be tested for future use in the International Space Station. It is 65% smaller and 40% lighter than the current toilet at the International Space Station. It also carried a radish-growing experiment to learn about survival and feasibility of growing plants in space.
The space craft has also carried cancer treatment technique requisites to test cancer drugs in micro gravity conditions.
Chawla was the first India-born woman to enter space. She also flew in 1997 as a primary robotic arm operator and also as a mission specialist. The Columbia spacecraft disintegrated during its return to earth that led to the death of the crew. The hot plasma entered the wing of the aircraft resulting in loss of control.
Chawla is regarded as the National Hero of India.
She was born in Haryana and moved to the US in 1982 to obtain a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering.
The Government of Karnataka instituted Kalpana Chawla Award in 2004 to recognise young women scientists. An Eoan asteroid in the outer Asteroid belt of solar system has been named after Chawla.
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