Most senior scientists have complained of repeated questioning by the expenditure department, bureaucratic delays in clearances, more focus on procedure than on result and the lack of an environment for science to grow, reports Akshat Kaushal
The murky controversy raging over damning debar on former Indian Space Research Organisation Chief and secretary of Department of Space G Madhavan Nair and three other scientists is blamed on its current chief Dr K Radhakrishnan for misleading the government in the Antrix-Devas deal probe for a sadistic revenge.
What kind of a nation have we become where the commanders of the country's armed forces and satellite mission are trashed without a whimper, asks Tarun Vijay.
The Department of Space is in the process of getting clearances for release of reports of two committees on the controversial Antrix-Devas deal, on the basis of which former Indian Space Research Organisation chief G Madhavan Nair and three other scientists were barred from holding any government posts. This was announced on Tuesday by ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan, who is also the DOS secretary, in a brief statement in his first comments on the issue.
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The challenge before space scientists was to make exploration more affordable by substantially reducing the cost of access to space, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair said Saturday.
Chandrayan's operations will be controlled by robots and cover 3.50 lakh kilometre within a period of two years, ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said.
The government on Sunday said it was ready to hear the points of view of four scientists, including former Indian Space Research Organisation chief Madhavan Nair, who have been barred from occupying any government posts in connection with the controversial Antrix-Devas deal.
Reflecting a sense of disquiet, senior ISRO scientists, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was a sad episode and the space agency's image has certainly taken a severe beating.
The Indian Space Research Organisation has declined to give details of its correspondence with former chief G Madhavan Nair on the report of a high-level probe into the Antrix-Devas deal, on the basis of which he and three others were barred by the central government from any re-employment.
India's ambitious unmanned lunar mission `Chandrayan' is likely to soar into the skies in the second week of October, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair said on Wednesday."The satellite integration is almost complete. And we would be entering the thermovac in about a week's time. It takes about 45-50 days for the launch after thermovac, after which we would declare the date. The earliest is October," he said.
G Madhavan Nair was in Thiruvananthapuram to mark the 40th anniversary of the launching of 'sounding' rockets from the Thumba Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.
"The Resourcesat-1 launched today was equal to half a dozen people in space for a period\n\nof five to six years," ISRO chief Dr Madhavan Nair said.
The decision to provide Z grade security was taken by the Karnataka government following specific threats to ISRO scientists by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Dawaood Ibrahim.
India has initiated steps to build its first indigenous civilian transport aircraft under a public-private partnership project that will be undertaken in a national mission mode.
India will develop its own version of the Global Positioning System by launching seven satellites in 6 years. The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, to be functional by 2012, will be used for surveillance, telecommunications, transport etc.
ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair told PTI that the agency has invited the scientists and expects representation from scientists behind Indian payloads (scientific instruments) as well those from guest instruments, including from NASA and the European Space Agency. An ISRO official said, "It will be a closed-door meeting. The scientists will analyse data from preliminary findings".
It's a fast-track spacecraft for rural connectivity, chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, G Madhavan Nair told PTI in Bangalore. Primarily aimed at rural areas, it's an INSAT-class (three tonne) satellite but the speciality would be that instead of having an all-India beam, it would have spot beams covering different parts of the country, and there would be a control hub by which it would be connected to national network.
The agreement for cooperation in space technology was signed between Astrium and Antrix -- commercial arm of the ISRO -- entailes utilisation of the PSLV launch services. It enables Astrium to offer attractive solutions in international markets for in-orbit delivery of its earth observation satellites, using the PSLV launch services from Antrix/ISRO.
India's first mission to Moon -- Chandrayan-I -- is tentatively scheduled to be launched on September 19 this year, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman Madhavan Nair said. He said that all the preparations have been nearly completed and the exact date of the launch will be decided within a month. He described September 19 as the 'earliest opportunity' for the historic launch. The final stage of integration of instruments with the spacecraft was going on.
India has completed the design of Chandrayaan-2, its next mission to the moon -- this time in collaboration with Russia -- that would have a lander and rover that can collect samples of the lunar soil and analyse them and send back the data.
The government has sanctioned seed money of Rs 10 crore to carry out various studies on experiments to be conducted, route of the mission and other related details necessary to scale the new frontier, said ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair.
Seven months after its launch, India's maiden mission to the moon Chandrayaan has reportedly developed a technical snag. Reports suggest that the star sensor on board Chandrayaan has malfunctioned, thus partially crippling the spacecraft.Due to the malfunctioning of the critical component, it has now become difficult to steer Chandrayaan. Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation, which had successfully launched the moon mission, have patched two sensors.
India and the US have agreed to cooperate in the exploration and use of space for peaceful purposes, including in human space flight, under an agreement signed between their space agencies.
ISRO officials said GSAT-4 is a technology demonstrator. Its communication payload comprises multi-beam Ka-band beam pipe and regenerative transponder and navigation payload.
Besides the two US payloads, Chandrayaan-I will carry five Indian instruments, three developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and one from the Bulgarian Space Laboratory.
India and Russia held discussions on the possibility of cooperation in space exploration, including missions to the moon and Mars. Russia's head of Federal Space Agency met the Indian Space Research Organisation chairman.
There was no major design flaw in the Indian Space Research Organisation's Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle, which crashed seconds after take-off on December 25 last year, said a fact- finding panel.
"If every country tries to attempt and destroy another satellite and (space-based) resources, it is almost like a war-like situation," Nair, also chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, told PTI in Bangalore.
"They (China) should not have done that. It's against international convention. First of all, we are not supposed to weaponise outer space," Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation G Madhavan Nair told PTI in Bangalore.
Indian Space research Organisation Chairman G Madavan Nair said on Monday that India would launch a mission to Mars by 2013.Earlier, on August 13, the government sanctioned seed money of Rs 10 crore for the Mars project, to carry out various studies on the experiments to be conducted, the route of the mission and other related details necessary to scale the new frontier.The ISRO has begun the preparations for sending a spacecraft to Mars.
K Narayana, former director of SDSC-SHAR and currently senior advisor to the Centre, will chair the 15-member panel
two US scientific instruments will be on board India's mission to the Moon 'Chandrayaan-1'.
It is raining heavily at Sriharikota where the Satish Dhawan Space Centre is located
ISRO is developing a 100-kg "satellite bus" as demand has picked up for launching nano-satellites, chairman G Madhavan Nair said.
The successful landing of the Moon Impact Probe on the lunar surface has not only boosted the confidence of ISRO to undertake inter-planetary travel in future, but also conveyed a firm message to the world that India means business in the field of space, ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair said in Bengaluru on Friday.
"It (the cost of setting up the launch pad) is around Rs 600 crore. A major national facility (for training astronauts) will be established in Bengaluru, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair told PTI.
He said in almost all areas of security-related activities, the space -- earth observation, communication and electronic intelligence, among other things -- plays a very major role.
The TV broadcasting and VSAT networks, he said, have become `niche' market for satellite services in India and half of the satellite TV channels and their news feeds covering India are in the INSAT system.
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