Categoría: Technology

India has sent its first ever observational space telescope, called ASTROSAT, into orbit, after a successful launch from the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C30) rocket.

From its low-Earth orbit altitude of approximately 650 km, ASTROSAT’s mission is to help astronomers develop a more detailed understanding of the Universe. The satellite, launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is a multi-wavelength space observatory effectively designed to be India’s answer to NASA’s Hubble telescope.

According to the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), which helped develop many of the optical instruments onboard the spacecraft, ASTROSAT features “unprecedented capability” to simultaneously observe cosmic objects in visible light, the ultraviolet waveband and the x-ray waveband, from very low-energy through to very high-energy x-rays.

“ASTROSAT is a quantum leap from previous modest-sized payloads on other Indian satellites,” said Prahlad Agrawal, a professor with TIFR, in a press release. “It is an internationally competitive observatory that will enable Indian scientists to work in frontier areas of high-energy physics.”

“The instruments developed by TIFR will give us a capability unrivalled in the world for the next five to 10 years,” added Sandip Trivedi, director of the institute. “We look forward to some great science results.”

Within this timeframe, the satellite’s primary objectives are to study binary star systems containing neutron stars and black holes, estimate the magnetic fields of neutron stars, and study star birth regions and high-energy processes in systems beyond our galaxy. ASTROSAT will also detect new x-ray sources in the sky and perform a limited deep field survey of the Universe in ultraviolet.

While ASTROSAT might seem like a competitor to the Hubble telescope, in some regards India’s observatory platform is not actually as powerful, despite being launched a quarter of a century later. Its multi-wavelength capabilities are one of a kind, but it’s a much smaller satellite with an intentionally limited lifespan, and the images it produces will be less precise than those from Hubble.

“This will bring little commercial advantage,” Mayank Vahia of TIFR told Reuters, “but will show India’s new capability in space research.”

The launch of ASTROSAT comes almost exactly a year after the country’s crowning space achievement, when its Mangalyaan orbiter spacecraft successfully made the journey to Mars. “History has been created today. We have dared, to reach out, into the unknown,” said Indian prime minister Narendra Modi at the time, celebrating the feat.

ASTROSAT’s successful launch further cements India’s fast-growing astronomy credentials, marking only the fifth time a space program has succeeded in sending a space observatory into orbit, following the US, Russia, the European Space Agency, and Japan.

See more: http://www.sciencealert.com/india-launches-it-first-astronomy-satellite-astrosat-into-orbit

Microsoft is the latest company to rush into the lucrative emerging Indian market, with the promise to connect 500,000 villages in the subcontinent to the internet.

The announcement is hot on the heels of Google’s plan to set up free public Wi-Fi coverage across 100 of the nation’s busiest train stations.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, said of his act of altruism: “We believe that low-cost broadband connectivity coupled with the scale of cloud computing intelligence that can be harnessed from data can help drive creativity, efficiency and productivity across governments and businesses of all sizes.”

The Chocolate Factory has been desperately trying to tap into the Indian market, having already repeated an attempt to flog super cheap smartphones to the market.

The ad flinger now reckons its plan to connect 10 million train users a day will rank as the largest public Wi-Fi project in India.

Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google, said of his company’s equally selfless move: «We’d like to help get these next billion Indians online — so they can access the entire web, and all of its information and opportunity.»

Last week Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg pledged to help bring internet access to everyone across the planet by 2020.

However, Facebook’s attempts to supply free internet via its Internet.org initiative have been scuppered by a number of Indian companies fleeing from the project on the grounds that the scheme was anti-competitive.

The free content ad network’s plan apparently aims to offer access for free websites and applications signed onto the scheme over participating net providers.

According to reports, 60 per cent of the world remains offline, representing a huge untapped market for companies looking to boost their flagging growth rates.®

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/28/microsoft_google_colonise_india/

Indian business giant Tata is investing up to $100 million in ride hailing app Uber as it plans to develop new products and services in India, its biggest market outside of the U.S.

The investment came from Tata Opportunities Fund (TOF), the private equity fund advised by Tata Capital, the group’s financial services arm. The exact investment was not disclosed but was between $80 million and $100 million, according to sources close to the deal.

Uber has been making a big push into Asia and the latest partnership comes after the San Francisco-based company said last month that it would pour $1 billion into expansion in India. The taxi firm said this would see it hit 1 million daily rides by March 2016.

The exact terms of the partnership with Tata was not made clear but is expected to focus on the development of new products and solutions, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the deal. The money would not only be used in India but globally, the source added.

Info: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/20/uber-just-got-up-to-100m-from-indias-tata.html

The southern Indian city of Kochi is now the proud home of the world’s first solar-powered airport.
On Aug. 18, the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL)—India’sfourth largest international airport in terms of passenger traffic—commissioned a 12 mega watt (MW) solar power project. The airport already had a 1MW solar power plant, which can produce 4,000 units of electricity daily.
With its new solar plant, the airport can now produce 60,000 units of electricity every day, which is more than enough to meet its daily requirement.
“We initiated a pilot project in February 2013 as part of our plan to shift to renewable energy by setting up a 100 kilo watt unit,” VJ Kurian, managing director of CIAL told Quartz in a telephone interview. “When we found that feasible, we set up a 1MW unit in November 2013.”
“We did not want to be identified as just another airport and be confined to it,” Kurian added.
After the airport found the 1MW project financially viable, it invited tenders to set up a 12MW project within the airport complex. “Work on the 12MW project started in February 2015 and was completed in less than six months” Kurian said.
Spread across 45 acres of land—equivalent to 25 football fields—the project was built by German engineering company Bosch for Rs62 crore ($9.5 million). The area for the solar unit was earlier designated for setting up a cargo handling facility.
Since the airport expects to produce more than what it is likely to consume, CIAL is planning to feed some of the power into the state grid.
“Over the next 25 years, this green power project will avoid carbon dioxide emissions from coal fired power plants by more than 3 lakh metric tons, which is equivalent to planting 3 million trees or not driving 750 miles,” CIAL said in a statement.
Meanwhile, close on the heels of Kochi, another Indian airport has also laid out plans to focus on solar. On Aug.18, Kolkata’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, said that it plans to set up a 15 MW solar power plant on 60 acres of land.
India is currently in the midst of ramping up its solar power generation. The Narendra Modi government has plans to increase the country’s solar power capacity from the existing 4GW (gigawatt) to 100GW (gigawatt)by 2022.
To fund such an ambitious expansion, the government expects aninvestment of $100 billion in the sector in the next seven years. Some of Asia’s biggest billionaires—including SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, Gautam Adani and Anil Ambani—have already promised massive investments in the sector.

Info: http://qz.com/482985/kerala-india-has-the-worlds-first-solar-powered-airport/

The world’s cheapest Mars mission has managed to capture a stunning 3D photo of the Red Planet. The beautiful image, snapped by India’s Mars Orbiter, shows part of the solar system’s largest canyon.
The photo, taken at an altitude of 1,857km (1,154 miles) on July 19, shows the many layers of Ophir Chasma – a system of steep valleys and scalloped terrain measuring 62km (38.5 miles) wide and 317km (197 miles) long.

The image was sent back to Earth on August 15, India’s Independence Day.

Ophir Chasma is part of Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the solar system. It is shown to be bordered by high-walled cliffs revealing rough terrain alongside smoother areas.

Source: http://www.rt.com/news/312732-mars-orbiter-canyon-photo/