Mission Perfect- Chandrayan 1(India's Moon Mission)

Bangalore (IANS): India's first probe into moon landed on the lunar surface on Friday night after riding on Chandrayaan-1, the country's first unmanned spacecraft to the moon, after travelling around 384,000 km in 24 days days after blasting off from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh Oct 22.
Soon after the launch at 6.22 a.m. the spacecraft carrying 11 scientific payloads was put in an orbit of 22,860 km apogee (farthest point to the earth) and 225 km perigee (nearest point to the earth).
This is how Chandrayaan-1 reached the lunar orbit and then sent the moon impact probe (MIP) with the colours of the Indian national flag painted on its sides to the lunar surface.
Oct 23, first orbit raising exercise: apogee 37,900 km, perigee 305 km, 11 days to go round the earth.
Oct 25: apogee 74,715 km, perigee 336 km. 25 and half hours to orbit the earth.
Oct 26: apogee 164,600 km, perigee 348 km. Enters deep space. Takes 73 hours to go round the earth.
Oct 29: apogee 267,000 km, perigee 465 km. Six days to orbit the earth.
Oct 29: The terrain mapping camera successfully tested. First pictures, of northern coast of Australia from a height of 9,000 km and of southern coast from a height of 70,000 km. ISRO says "excellent imagery"
Nov 4: Reaches 380,000 km from earth, just around 4,000 km from moon.
Nov 8: Chandrayaan-1 successfully enters lunar orbit around 5.15 p.m. and India becomes the fifth country to send a spacecraft to moon. The others are United States, former Soviet Union, Japan and China. The European Space Agency (ESA), a consortium of 17 countries, has also sent a spacecraft to moon.
Nov 9: Chandrayaan-1 nudges closer to moon, orbiting over its polar regions at 200 km periselene (nearest point from moon) and 7,500 km aposelene (farthest point from moon).
Nov 10: The spacecraft moves to 187 km from the moon (periselene) and 255 km away (aposelene), orbiting elliptically once in every 2 hours and 16 minutes over the polar regions of the moon.
Nov 11: Chandrayaan-1 moves into further lower orbit of 102-km periselene and 255-km aposelene.
Nov 12: Placed in the final circular lunar orbit of 100 km, spinning around the poles of the moon every two hours.
Nov 13: Excitement builds ahead of the landing of the moon impact probe (MIP) on lunar surface Nov 14 night.
Nov 14 morning: Countdown begins at ISRO's ground command and tracking centre in Bangalore.
Nov 14 afternoon: Former Indian president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam arrives at the command and tracking centre to be part of the 'India on Moon' mission.
Nov 14 evening: At 8.06 p.m. Chandrayaan-1 releases the MIP.
Nov 14: At 8.31 p.m., the MIP covers the 100 km distance, taking "beautiful pictures of the lunar surface" as it descends.
At 6.22 am on Oct 22, ISRO chief G. Madhavan Nair said: "Our baby is on way to the moon."
On Nov 14 night, he said: "We have given the moon to India."

Mission perfect- Chandrayan 1(India's Moon Mission)

The successful critical manoeuvre on November 8 that put Chandrayaan-1 in an orbit around the moon marked the completion of the most important phase of the Indian lunar mission. The rest of the mission involves only standard orbit manoeuvres, the likes of which the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is quite used to, and the performance of the on-board scientific instruments during the mission life of two years. The precision with which the crucial operation was exe cuted has unequivocally demonstrated ISRO’s capability to take up the more complex deep space missions as distinct from numerous near-earth missions in the past. The achievement has put India in the exclusive club of space-faring nations that have ventured beyond the sphere of earth’s gravitational influence. That ISRO brought this off in its first attempt is all the more commendable.
Although ISRO’s inherent scientific ability was never in doubt, Chandrayaan-1 — the maiden deep space endeavour — posed new technological challenges in telemetry, tracking, miniaturisation of on-board systems and devices, novel power packs and special thermal control of the spacecraft to withstand conditions of high solar load hitherto not experienced in the near-earth environment. The performance of the mission so far is testimony to ISRO’s advanced capabilities in all these respects. Nevertheless, as ISRO plans for Chandrayaan-2 in 2012-13 and a manned mission to space in 2015, when it will face even greater technology challenges, the question is whether the venture is worth the huge cost it will entail. A political factor that is relevant is the world’s constant India-China comparison and the latter’s demonstrated technological prowess in space technology. What is more, given the resurgent interest in tapping the moon’s resources, there is a strategic dimension to space missions. This becomes particularly relevant if one notes the discordance between the Moon Treaty, which very few countries have ratified, and the Outer Space Treaty, which most nations have. While the former emphasises the principle of ‘common heritage of mankind,’ the latter articulates it weakly. It is from this perspective that the rhetorical question posed by ISRO’s former chairman K. Kasturirangan, “Can we afford not to go to the moon?” and the basic question of whether India should venture into deep space need to be addressed. At the same time, as ISRO begins to think in terms of manned missions to space, which will cost a great deal more than unmanned missions, the cost-benefit analyses need to be done more rigorously than for relatively low-cost missions such as Chandrayaan. But these are policy issues that can be taken up later. Now is the time to congratulate ISRO on taking India’s exploration of space up a level — which very few developing countries have even aspired to reach.

RBI, SEBI unveil fresh measures to calm markets

Market regulator disapproves overseas lending by FIIs

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India on Monday reduced the repo rate — a short term indicative lending rate under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) — by 100 basis points to eight per cent with immediate effect, “in order to alleviate the pressures and, in particular, to maintain financial stability.”
The repo rate is the rate at which banks borrow from the central bank. The global financial situation continues to be uncertain and unsettled. Even as countries directly affected by the turmoil have taken aggressive action to manage the crisis, confidence and calm is yet to be fully restored in the financial markets. Due to financial integration, this uncertainty is transmitting also to countries outside the epicentre of the crisis. “India too is experiencing the indirect impact of the global liquidity constraint as reflected by some signs of strain in our credit markets in recent weeks,” the RBI stated in a press release on Monday.Global crisis
The RBI has taken a number of measures over the last one month to augment domestic and forex liquidity.
The RBI has been and will continue to monitor the impact of global developments on our financial markets and on our liquidity conditions and will take action as appropriate, it added. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Board of India on Monday disapproved overseas lending and borrowing activity of foreign institutional investors (FIIs). The market regulator stated that “SEBI disapproves of the overseas lending and borrowing activity of FIIs and the consequent selling pressure in the cash market in India. SEBI has communicated its disapproval to the FIIs. The lending borrowing activity of FIIs is being monitored and if necessary stronger measures will be taken by SEBI as considered appropriate,” it added. SEBI further stated that it has been reviewing the data submitted by (FIIs) with regard to their stock lending activities abroad. On the domestic stock lending mechanism, SEBI stated that, it finds that this facility has not been used by the institutions while the stock lending mechanism has been made operational in the Indian market. “SEBI is reviewing the difficulties in the use of the lending borrowing facility and would be taking steps to make this mechanism more effective.”

India hit by ripple effects of global financial crisis: FM

Confident of achieving 7-8 per cent economic growth
Banks have little exposure to sub-prime lending
Sound fundamentals of country’s financial system

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Monday maintained that India was only experiencing the ripple effects of the global financial crisis without any direct impact on its economy which would succeed in growing by close to eight per cent during the current fiscal.
Speaking at a function to mark the completion of 50 years of Indo-German bilateral development cooperation here, he pointed out that even the most pessimistic estimates have projected a growth rate of not less than seven per cent. “But I am confident that the economy will grow between seven and eight per cent,” he said.
Elaborating as to why he hoped that the Indian economy would grow at an average of over eight per cent despite the global slowdown, Mr. Chidambaram said: “The global financial crisis will not directly affect India as Indian financial system has sound fundamentals and the Indian Government has put in place, systems and practices to promote a safe, transparent and efficient market to protect market integrity. Most of the Indian banks have negligible exposure to sub-prime lending.”
The Finance Minister, however, conceded that the cash crunch prevailing in the world would certainly affect the country’s financial markets indirectly, though at a limited scale.
“Credit crunch that the world faces has also impacted us. We have taken a series of measures to infuse greater liquidity and to restart the process of credit…We are moving at a calibrated pace. Our banking system is very strong and our banks are well capitalised and well regulated,” he said.
Echoing similar sentiment at a function organised by Controller General of Accounts (CGA) here, Minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal noted that owing to the strong fundamentals of the Indian economy, the Government would be able to ward off the adverse impact of the global slowdown through swift actions. “The government will remain vigilant and take a quick action wherever required,” he said.
Mr. Bansal pointed out that one of the biggest challenges in the medium-to-long term would be to effectively sustain the high growth rate witnessed in recent years.
This, he said, would necessitate development of diverse, regionally balanced, physical and social infrastructure for which there was a need to find ways and means to mobilise resources and complete infrastructure projects without any cost or time overruns.