Egyptian scientists look to space to shed light on Hepatitis C virus

Two Egyptian scientists managed to crystallize two proteins of the hepatitis C virus in space in an effort to discover new cures.

Rehab Abd Almohsen

Scientists hope that sample crystals of two proteins of the hepatitis C virus which have just returned from space can help in the search for new drugs to fight it.

In a four-week period, the crew of the International Space Station experimented on the samples, crystallizing them under microgravity conditions. The project was developed by two Egyptian scientists, Akram Amin Abdellatif and Hanaa Gaber of Technische Universität München after they beat 600 other submissions in an international space station research competition' last month.

It was the only project to be chosen from outside the US and is the first experiment involving Egyptian scientists to have been conducted on the ISS.

The samples crystals returned, frozen in canisters, early this week (26 October), after being delayed by adverse weather. They were sent to diffraction facilities for analysis.

“The proteins are HCV genome 4 as the purpose of this mission is to try understand the behaviour of this specific type which is located heavily in Egypt,” Abdellatif, also a researcher at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and principle investigator of the space mission, told Nature Middle East.

Abdellatif says crystallizing proteins enables researchers to study them in three dimensions, unraveling the molecular compounds involved in protein structure and function.The research team includes Hanaa Gaber a PhD student at the Technical University of Munich, Institute of Virology and is supervised by Ulrike Protzer, the institute’s head.

The idea behind the project, Abdellatif explains, is to produce a space-developed protein that gives a clear, crystalline version of the proteins comprising hepatitis C, which is rife in Egypt.

Studying the virus with X-ray diffraction techniques provides new insight into virus structure, behavior and replication techniques, he adds. “A greater understanding of these processes leads to new methods for treating or preventing viral infection.”

Egypt has one of the world’s highest prevalence of hepatitis C. Around 15% of 15-59 year-olds are infected, according to an estimate by the Egyptian health ministry in 2008. The virus attacks the liver and can cause cancer and organ failure.

Besides a target treatment, Abdellatif hopes the project will foster a new connection between Egypt and international space programs. “The higher the resolution of this picture of the target's three-dimensional structure, the more accurate our guesses will be as to what drugs can potentially be effective.” says Fareed Aboul-ela, associate professor of Biophysics at the University of Science and Technology at Zewail City, who was not involved in the project.

Aboul-ela says: Generally, treatment developed in the West is mainly effective against HCV genotype I, “which is the most prevalent genotype in the US and many western countries. In Egypt, and other parts of Africa and the Middle East, the most prevalent genotype is type 4 and it’s sometimes susceptible to the standard treatment with interferon plus ribavirin, but in many cases it is not.”

He adds that there is a need for new therapies that are effective against genotype 4. There is a large number of Egyptian patients who are not responding to the standard therapy and who have little hope of responding to the new ones that are so far available.

Determining the three-dimensional structure of NS5B from genotype 4 will help us understand, at the molecular level, why some patients may not respond to the new HCV drugs, and what can be done to try to improve the response rate, Aboul-ela adds

Speech on Space Research in India

Here is your speech on Space research in India!

SPACE research is no longer considered as a high-tech venture whose costs make it an irrelevant luxury for a developing country like India.Indeed, the benefits of space research have great relevance for developing countries—revolutionising communications, natural resources management, study of agricultural potential, weather monitor­ing, and disaster management. Furthermore, the spin-offs from space technology find applications in fields ranging from food storage to open- heart surgery, from fishing to automobiles.

Elements of Space Research and Technology

A spacecraft may make several kinds of trips into space. It may be launched into orbit around the earth, rocketed to the moon, or sent past a planet. For each trip the spacecraft must be launched at a particular velocity (speed and direction). The job of the launch vehicles is to give the spacecraft this velocity. If the spacecraft carries a crew, the spacecraft itself must be able to slow down and land safely on the earth.

Overcoming gravity is the biggest problem in getting into space. Gravity pulls everything to the earth and gives objects their weight. A rocket overcomes gravity by producing thrust (a pushing force). Thrust, like weight, can be measured in newtons or pounds.

To lift a spacecraft, a rocket must have a thrust greater than its own weight and the added weight of the spacecraft. The extra thrust accelerates the spacecraft. That is, it makes the spacecraft go faster and faster until it reaches the velocity needed for its journey.

Rocket engines create thrust by burning large amounts of fuel. As the fuel burns, it becomes a hot gas. The heat creates an extremely high pressure in the gas. The gas leaves the rocket engine at high speed through the rocket nozzle.

The reaction force created by the acceleration of the gas particles leaving the rocket engine causes the forward push on the rocket. This forward push on the rocket is the thrust, which is strong enough to lift the rocket from the ground.

Rocket fuels are called propellants. Liquid-propellant rockets work by combining a fuel, such as kerosene or liquid hydrogen, with an oxidiser, such as liquid oxygen (LOX). The fuel and oxidiser burn violently when mixed. Solid-fuel rockets use dry chemicals as propellants.

Engineers rate the efficiency of propellants in terms of the thrust that 1 kilogram of fuel can produce in one second. This measurement is known as the propellant’s specific impulse. Liquid propellants have a higher specific impulse than most solid propellants. But some, including LOX and liquid hydrogen, are difficult and dangerous to handle. They must be loaded into the rocket just before launching. Solid propellants are loaded into the rocket at the factory, and are then ready to use.

Space Shuttle

The primary vehicle for research and exploration in the United States space programme is the space shuttle. The space shuttle takes off like a rocket, orbits the earth like a spacecraft, and lands like an aeroplane. It consists of an orbiter, an external tank, and two solid rocket boosters.

The orbiter resembles an aeroplane. It carries the crew and the payload (cargo). The orbiter has three liquid rocket engines near its tail. Propellants are fed to the engines from the external tank.

The external tank holds the propellant, which consists of liquid hydrogen and LOX. The orbiter’s engines, combined with a solid rocket boosters, provide the thrust to launch the space shuttle. After two minutes of flight the boosters separate from the orbiter. The orbiter continues into space and releases the external tank just before entering orbit.

Returning to the earth involves problems opposite to those of getting into space. The spacecraft must lose speed instead of gaining it. The space shuttle orbiter has two smaller engines that are fired to slow down the spacecraft and modify its orbit for the return to earth. These engines are also used for manoeuvring during orbit.

The orbiter enters the earth’s atmosphere at a speed of more than 25,800 kilometers per hour. As the spacecrafts slows down, friction with the air produces intense heat. The temperature of the wings may reach over 1500 °C. A thermal protection system shields the orbiter from this heat.

The thermal protection system consists of more than 25,000 ceramic tiles bonded to the body of the spacecraft. About an hour after the shuttle’s engines are fired to bring it out of its orbit the spacecraft glides down, using its wings to manoeuvre and lands on a runway. The shuttle touches down at a speed of about 320 kilometers per hour.

Artificial Satellites

An artificial satellite is a manufactured ‘moon’. It circles the earth in space along a path called an orbit. An artificial satellite may be designed in almost any shape. It does not have to be streamlined, because there is little or no air where it travels in space. A satellite’s size and shape depend on its job.

Artificial satellites stay in space for varying lengths of time. The lifetime of each satellite depends on its size and its distance from the earth. Whenever a satellite swings close to the earth, it runs into many air particles that slow it down.

To stay in orbit, a satellite must keep a certain speed. If it slows below this speed, it plunges into the atmosphere and burns up because of friction with the air. The slowing of a satellite by air is called decay. Large satellites in low orbits decay rapidly. Small ones in high orbits decay slowly.

Most satellites carry some type of radio transmitter and receiver. One kind of transmitter is called a radio beacon. It sends signals that enable engineers to track the satellite. Tracking means finding the satellite’s exact position in space.
Another kind of transmitter sends to the earth the scientific information gathered by the satellite’s instruments. This sending of information is called telemetry. Telemetry transmitters usually serve also as beacons. A satellite’s receiving equipment is turned on and off by means of signals beamed from the earth.

Most satellites stop working long before they fall into the earth’s atmosphere. Their batteries go dead, or their electronic equipment breaks down. They become “silent” and of no further use.

Artificial satellites may be classified according to the jobs they do as (1) weather satellites, (2) communications satellites, (3) navigation satellites, (4) scientific satellites and (5) military satellites.

Orbits

Selecting the orbit is one of the first steps in planning the launch of an earth-orbiting spacecraft. Early manned spacecraft usually orbited less than 320 kilometers high. In this way, they avoided the radiation in the Van Allen belts. A communication satellite may orbit at a much greater distance in order to serve many ground stations.

Most orbiting spacecraft do not stay the same distance from the earth all the time. Their orbits have the shape of a flattered circle called an ellipse. One end of the ellipse comes closer to the earth than the other. The point closest to the earth is called the orbiting spacecraft’s perigee. The farthest point is called the apogee. Many scientific satellites follow orbits that have a low perigee and a very high apogee. These satellites can explore a wide range of space.

Satellites may also be launched in various directions around the earth. They may circle in an east-west direction, in line with the equator. Or, they may travel north and south, passing over the earth’s poles. Most satellites travel in a direction between these extremes.

The low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite operates in an elliptical orbit usually at a range of 200-600 km. Most of the current satellites are in LEO.

An inclined orbit forms an angle with the equator. Because the spacecraft does not pass over the same points on earth during each orbit, the path of the spacecraft appears as criss crossed lines on the earth.

A polar orbit carries a spacecraft over the north and south poles. As the earth rotates, the spacecraft passes over different points on the earth during each orbit. A polar orbit is useful in scientific satellites which, by orbiting almost directly over the poles, can photograph the entire earth once a day.

A synchronous orbit carries a spacecraft around the earth once every day. As mapped on the earth, the path is a figure eight, because the orbit is slightly inclined. If the craft were launched directly in line with the equator, it would stay above one spot on the earth without moving north or south.

It would then be geo-synchronous, with a period of 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.1 seconds, that is equal to the earth’s period of rotation on its axis. If the orbit lies in the equatorial plane and is circular, the satellite will appear from earth to be stationary, and the orbit and orbiting body are termed geostationary.

A geostationary orbit has an altitude of about 36,000 km (35,786 km to be exact). Satellites in such orbits are used for communications and navigation, etc. Most commu­nication satellites are now geostationary. INSAT class of satellites come under this category.

Sun-synchronous—as opposed to geo-synchronous equatorial satellites-means that the orbital plane of the satellite will always be at the same constant angle relative to the sun-earth during all reason. These satellites operate in a near-circular polar orbit running nearly north to south at a fixed altitude ranging from 500- 1000 km.

Every time the satellite passes from north to south, it has a consistent and constant sunlit view of a swath (around 150 km) of earth’s surface. Indian remote sensing satellites (IRS) come under this kind. The son-synchronous mode also enables the satellite to cross above a given place on the earth a; the same local time so that repeated observations of a given area car be compared as well as conjoined.

Another type of satellite is one of long-elliptical Molniva-orbit (for example, Molniya 1-73 satellite with 504 and 39,834 km altitudes at perigee and apogee respectively).

Search For Intelligent Aliens Near Bizarre Dimming Star Has Begun

The search for signs of life in a mysterious star system hypothesized to potentially harbor an "alien megastructure" is now underway.

Astronomers have begun using the Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a system of radio dishes about 300 miles (483 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco, to hunt for signals coming from the vicinity of KIC 8462852, a star that lies 1,500 light-years from Earth.

NASA's Kepler space telescope found that KIC 8462852 dimmed oddly and dramatically several times over the past few years. The dimming events were far too substantial to be caused by a planet crossing the star's face, researchers say, and other possible explanations, such as an enormous dust cloud, don't add up, either. [13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Alien Life]

The leading hypothesis at the moment involves a swarm of comets that may have been sent careening toward KIC 8462852, possibly after a gravitational jostle by a passing star. But it's also possible, astronomers say, that the signal Kepler saw was caused by huge structures built by an alien civilization — say, a giant assortment of orbiting solar panels.

That latter possibility, remote though it may be, has put KIC 8462852 in the crosshairs of scientists who hunt for signals that may have been generated by intelligent aliens.

"We are looking at it with the Allen Telescope Array," said Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View, California.

No problem with that; I think we ought to, for sure," Shostak told Space.com. But, he added, people "should perhaps moderate their enthusiasm with the lessons of history."

Shostak cited the example of pulsars, fast-spinning, superdense stellar corpses that emit beams of high-energy radiation. These beams are picked up by instruments on and around Earth as regular pulses, because they can only be detected when they're fired straight at the planet (an event that occurs at predictable intervals because of pulsars' rotation).

Astronomers know all this now. But in the 1960s, when the first pulsar signals were discovered, some scientists interpreted them as possible alien transmissions.

"So history suggests we're going to find an explanation for this that doesn't involve Klingons, if you will," Shostak said of the KIC 8462852 mystery.

But until such an explanation is found, the intelligent-aliens hypothesis will still be on the table, even if the ATA and other instruments like it come up empty. The lack of a detectable signal, after all, does not establish that KIC 8462852 is a lifeless system.

The star may support lifeforms that do not emit signals we can pick up, for example. Or it may once have hosted a civilization that has since gone extinct, leaving the strange megastructure as a sort of monument.

Kepler's main planet-hunting work suggests that the Milky Way galaxy teems with billions of rocky, potentially habitable planets. So KIC 8462852 is far from the only lead that Shostak and his colleagues will be chasing down in the coming years.

"It almost doesn’t matter where you point your telescope, because there are planets everywhere," Shostak said. "If there's somebody out there, there are going to be so many of them out there that I do think there's a chance."

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SPACE EXPLORATION

Humans have dreamed about spaceflight since antiquity. The Chinese used rockets for ceremonial and military purposes centuries ago, but only in the latter half of the 20th century were rockets developed that were powerful enough to overcome the force of gravity to reach orbital velocities that could open space to human exploration. 

As often happens in science, the earliest practical work on rocket engines designed for spaceflight occurred simultaneously during the early 20th century in three countries by three key scientists: in Russia, by Konstantin Tsiolkovski; in the United States, by Robert Goddard; and in Germany, by Hermann Oberth.

In the 1930s and 1940s Nazi Germany saw the possibilities of using long-distance rockets as weapons. Late in World War II, London was attacked by 200-mile-range V-2 missiles, which arched 60 miles high over the English Channel at more than 3,500 miles per hour.

After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union created their own missile programs. On October 4, 1957, the Soviets launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into space. Four years later on April 12, 1961, Russian Lt. Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth in Vostok 1. His flight lasted 108 minutes, and Gagarin reached an altitude of 327 kilometers (about 202 miles).

The first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, went into orbit on January 31, 1958. In 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American to fly into space. On February 20, 1962, John Glenn’s historic flight made him the first American to orbit Earth.

“Landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth within a decade” was a national goal set by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. On July 20, 1969, Astronaut Neil Armstrong took “a giant step for mankind” as he stepped onto the moon. Six Apollo missions were made to explore the moon between 1969 and 1972.

During the 1960s unmanned spacecraft photographed and probed the moon before astronauts ever landed. By the early 1970s orbiting communications and navigation satellites were in everyday use, and the Mariner spacecraft was orbiting and mapping the surface of Mars. By the end of the decade, the Voyager spacecraft had sent back detailed images of Jupiter and Saturn, their rings, and their moons.
Skylab, America’s first space station, was a human-spaceflight highlight of the 1970s, as was the Apollo Soyuz Test Project, the world’s first internationally crewed (American and Russian) space mission.
In the 1980s satellite communications expanded to carry television programs, and people were able to pick up the satellite signals on their home dish antennas. Satellites discovered an ozone hole over Antarctica, pinpointed forest fires, and gave us photographs of the nuclear power-plant disaster at Chernobyl in 1986. Astronomical satellites found new stars and gave us a new view of the center of our galaxy.

In April 1981 the launch of the space shuttle Columbia ushered in a period of reliance on the reusable shuttle for most civilian and military space missions. Twenty-four successful shuttle launches fulfilled many scientific and military requirements until January 1986, when the shuttle Challenger exploded after launch, killing its crew of seven.

The Challenger tragedy led to a reevaluation of America’s space program. The new goal was to make certain a suitable launch system was available when satellites were scheduled to fly. Today this is accomplished by having more than one launch method and launch facility available and by designing satellite systems to be compatible with more than one launch system.

The Gulf War proved the value of satellites in modern conflicts. During this war allied forces were able to use their control of the “high ground” of space to achieve a decisive advantage. Satellites were used to provide information on enemy troop formations and movements, early warning of enemy missile attacks, and precise navigation in the featureless desert terrain. The advantages of satellites allowed the coalition forces to quickly bring the war to a conclusion, saving many lives.

Space systems will continue to become more and more integral to homeland defense, weather surveillance, communication, navigation, imaging, and remote sensing for chemicals, fires and other disasters.

SATURN FACTS

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the most distant that can be seen with the naked eye. Saturn is the second largest planet and is best known for its fabulous ring system that was first observed in 1610 by the astronomer Galileo Galilei. Like Jupiter, Saturn is a gas giant and is composed of similar gasses including hydrogen, helium and methane.

Facts About Saturn

• Saturn can be seen with the naked eye.
• It is the fifth brightest object in the solar system and is also easily studied through binoculars or a small telescope.
• Saturn was known to the ancients, including the Babylonians and Far Eastern observers.
• It is named for the Roman god Saturnus, and was known to the Greeks as Cronus.
• Saturn is the flattest planet.
• Its polar diameter is 90% of its equatorial diameter, this is due to its low density and fast rotation. Saturn turns on its axis once every 10 hours and 34 minutes giving it the second-shortest day of any of the solar system’s planets.
• Saturn orbits the Sun once every 29.4 Earth years.
• Its slow movement against the backdrop of stars earned it the nickname of “Lubadsagush” from the ancient Assyrians. The name means “oldest of the old”.
• Saturn’s upper atmosphere is divided into bands of clouds.
• The top layers are mostly ammonia ice. Below them, the clouds are largely water ice. Below are layers of cold hydrogen and sulfur ice mixtures.
• Saturn has oval-shaped storms similar to Jupiter’s.
• The region around its north pole has a hexagonal-shaped pattern of clouds. Scientists think this may be a wave pattern in the upper clouds. The planet also has a vortex over its south pole that resembles a hurricane-like storm.
• Saturn is made mostly of hydrogen.
• It exists in layers that get denser farther into the planet. Eventually, deep inside, the hydrogen becomes metallic. At the core lies a hot interior.
• Saturn has the most extensive rings in the solar system.
• The Saturnian rings are made mostly of chunks of ice and small amounts of carbonaceous dust. The rings stretch out more than 120,700 km from the planet, but are are amazingly thin: only about 20 meters thick.
• Saturn has 150 moons and smaller moonlets.
• All are frozen worlds. The largest moons are Titan and Rhea. Enceladus appears to have an ocean below its frozen surface.
• Titan is a moon with complex and dense nitrogen-rich atmosphere.
• It is composed mostly of water ice and rock. Its frozen surface has lakes of liquid methane and landscapes covered with frozen nitrogen. Planetary scientists consider Titan to be a possible harbour for life, but not Earth-like life.
• Four spacecraft have visited Saturn.
• Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and 2, and the Cassini-Huygens mission have all studied the planet. Cassini continues to orbit Saturn, sending back a wealth of data about the planet, its moons, and rings.

Saturn’s Rings

While all the gas giants in our solar system have rings none of them are as extensive or distinctive as Saturn’s. The rings were discovered by Galileo Galilei 1610 who observed them with a telescope. The first ‘up close’ view of the rings were by Pioneer 11 spacecraft which flew by Saturn on September 1, 1971.

Saturn’s rings are made up of are billions of particles that range in size from tiny dust grains to to objects as large as mountains. These are made up of chunks of ice and rock, believed to have come from asteroids comets or even moons, that broke apart before they reached the planet.

Saturn’s rings are divided into 7 groups, named alphabetically in the order of their discovery (Outwards from Saturn; D, C, B, A, F, G and E). The F ring is kept in place by two of Saturn’s moons, Prometheus and Pandora, these are referred to as ‘shepherd moons’. Other satellites are responsible for creating divisions in the rings as well as shepherding them.

Saturn’s Atmosphere

Saturn’s atmosphere is composed primarily of hydrogen (96%) and helium (3%) with traces of other substances like methane, ammonia, acetylene, ethane, propane and phosphine. Winds in the upper atmosphere can reach speeds of 500 metres a second, these combined with heat rising from within the planet’s interior cause yellow and gold bands.

Similar Facts

The Width of Saturn’s Rings The rings of Saturn are composed of billions of icy particles ranging in size from tiny grains to kilometres across. There are 14 major divisions in...

Neptune Facts Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun making it the most distant in the solar system. This gas giant planet may have formed...

Uranus Facts Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It’s not visible to the naked eye, and became the first planet discovered with the use...

NASA And Virgin Galactic Select Payloads For First Space Research Flight Onboard SpaceShipTwo

MOJAVE, Calif. – June, 3 2014 – NASA and Virgin Galactic, the privately-funded spaceline owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi’s aabar Investments PJS, have identified twelve innovative research payloads that will fly to space onboard SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic’s reusable spacecraft. Each of these payloads was selected by NASA through its Flight Opportunities Program to conduct research during the prolonged microgravity environment experienced on board SpaceShipTwo.

This NASA flight will be the first of its kind for Virgin Galactic. SpaceShipTwo is widely known for its pioneering potential for human spaceflight, but another key function will be enabling new research by offering scientists, engineers, and educators a unique research experience in space. SpaceShipTwo adds an important new research platform by providing a safe, affordable, and high-capacity environment (by volume and by weight) that offers several minutes of high quality microgravity and exposure to outer space and the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

The twelve payloads are each designed to deliver important and technically rigorous results to researchers at universities and organizations, spanning a diverse range of topics that include biological monitoring, on-orbit propellant storage, and next-generation air traffic control systems. As required by the Flight Opportunities Program, each payload is an engineering experiment designed to advance a field relevant to NASA’s overall technology roadmap.

“Virgin Galactic is thrilled to be working with NASA and researchers at such a range of prestigious institutions, and we look forward to flying these research payloads into space,” said Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides. “Our vision for Virgin Galactic is to increase access to space, not just for individuals to experience spaceflight, but to advance humanity by driving significant technological advancement and research. We are proud to have NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate as a customer and to be able to facilitate their important work.”

The twelve payloads manifested for testing on the first SpaceShipTwo research flight include

Made in Space, Inc., Moffett Field, California, has designed an advanced manufacturing experiment intended to feed the development of future 3D printers customized for use in space.

The On-Orbit Propellant Storage Stability investigation by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Florida, continues a microgravity research program to determine stability data for a prototype orbiting fuel depot that could enable future long duration space missions.

The Electromagnetic Field Measurements payload from John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, will characterize the electromagnetic field environment inside the spacecraft. This payload will serve as an integration platform for scientific research and instrument development while providing insight into interference from the spacecraft.

The Collisions Into Dust Experiment from the University of Central Florida, Orlando, will fire an impactor into simulated regolith to observe the subsequent behavior of the fine particles ejected in microgravity. The knowledge of this behavior can help in understanding future operations on asteroids or low gravity moons for scientific study or resource collection.

The Validating Telemetric Imaging Hardware for Crew-Assisted and Crew-Autonomous Biological Imaging project from the University of Florida, Gainesville, will test biological fluorescent imaging instrumentation for suborbital applications. Fluorescent protein-based, gene-expression techniques allow direct observation of how biological entities react to the stresses of spaceflight.

The Variable Radiator demonstration from Texas A&M University, College Station, will test a modulating fluid-based spacecraft thermal energy rejection solution. Fluids behave differently in microgravity; understanding that behavior is critical to the operation of spacecraft radiators and other systems that transfer fluids.

A Micro Satellite Attitude Control System from the State University of New York, Buffalo, will test the application of a carpal wrist joint to the momentum management and control of small satellites. Use of the wrist joint to articulate a reaction-control gyroscope should enable precision pointing of a small satellite on multiple axes.

The Saturated Fluid Pistonless Pump Technology Demonstrator from the University of Colorado, Boulder, is a cryogenic fuel pump system developed by Flometrics, Inc, which can pump fuel without turbo machinery. This potential advancement for in-space and rocket propellant propulsion would reduce the weight, complexity and cost of spacecraft fuel systems.

The Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) transmitter is an experimental payload sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation and based on aviation equipment designed by MITRE Corp. and modified by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Florida. ADS-B technology will enable integration of suborbital reusable launch vehicles and stratospheric balloons into the FAA’s next-generation air traffic control system.

Controlled Dynamics, Inc., Huntington Beach, California, has built a Facility for Microgravity Research and Submicroradian Stabilization that is a prototype system using active vibration suppression to increase the quality of microgravity experienced by an attached payload.

Ames Research Center’s Suborbital Flight Environment Monitor is a suite of sensors designed to measure the flight accelerations and microgravity quality achieved.

Johnson Space Center’s Microgravity Multi-Phase Flow Experiment for Suborbital Testing will assess the sustained microgravity operation of a two-phase flow system with a passive gas and liquid separator. This technology is applicable to a number of space applications including water purification.

Team Indus, ISRO aim for January 26, 2018 to plant Tricolour on moon

The fledgeling Team Indus will tie up with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with the aim of hoisting India’s flag through an unmanned spacecraft on the lunar surface on January 26, 2018, the 69th Republic Day. Team Indus is a group of youngsters who are hedging their bets on winning the $20 million Google Lunar X Prize. Team Indus comprises about 100 people mostly engineers and are led by a visionary Rahul Narayan who in his earlier avatar was a software worker and calls himself a serial entrepreneur but who in 2010, when the Google Prize Lunar X Prize was almost closing, decided to take a shot at the moon.

Team Indus is the only Indian team in this Google-sponsored global effort. Narayan says they have personally explained the mission to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has extended his blessings to the young team. Since 2010, Narayan has collected a bunch youngsters mostly students fresh out of college who have made it their single minded desire to become the first private Indian company to reach the moon.

Team Indus has roped in angel investors like Nandan Nilekani and Ratan Tata and space sages like K Kasturirangan as advisors and have till date managed to garner some Rs 100 crore in funding for a total expected mission cost of about Rs 400 crore. Narayan confirms they have already spent the first one hundred crore. To make up for the thin experience in flying to distances as far as 400,000 km away the founders of Team Indus have recruited some two dozen retired hands from ISRO who provide the necessary brain that the young brawn ably provides.

Team Indus has just procured a launch services agreement with Antrix Corporation Ltd., the commercial arm of ISRO to source India’s highly reliable Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV. Rakesh Sasibhushan, Chairman Cum Managing Director, Antrix Corporation, Bengaluru confirms, “Yes we have signed a launch services agreement with Team Indus which essentially provides a PSLV launch for launching a lunar orbiter and lander sometime in the fourth quarter of 2017.”

This is for the very first time ISRO is making what it calls “a precious national resource in PSLV” available albeit at a still undisclosed cost to a private Indian company. As part of the Google Lunar X Prize competition which after an extension of two deadlines is likely to end by 2017 before which all the competing teams which number about three dozen have to kick off their moon shot.

As off now, one Israeli team and two American teams have procured launch contracts and are close contenders for the prize. Towards what Team Indus calls ‘Har Indian Ka Moonshot’ in the next 12 months it has to build from scratch a satellite that will lift off from India’s space port Sriharikota atop riding on the PSLV, the same then has to make a soft landing on the moon and then a rover will have to slip out

.

To finally win the prize the rules stipulate that the rover has to move 500 m on the lunar surface and should be able to beam back high definition images back to earth. Team Indus claims they are now among the top four contenders for the prize and they already bagged USD 1 million milestone prize from Google. This has buoyed their spirits and today among the half a dozen other serious contenders only Team Indus has a “verified contract” to launch on a highly reliable globally acclaimed rocket.

Vivek Raghavan, lead for technology at Team Indus also called Jedi Master (Tech) – bringing an aura of a Star Wars like setting – says, “As part of the Google Lunar X Prize, there are obviously many teams in the beginning. There are still 16 teams in the competition. But the number of teams that actually have a launch contract are very few. We’ve been ranked among the top 3 teams in the world in the competition.”

In contrast ISRO has been plodding along since 2008 with its much anticipated Chandrayaan-2 mission a massive exercise to indigenously make an orbiter, a soft lander and a rover that will be blasted into space according to Jitendra Singh, the Minister for Space Affairs in the Prime Minister’s Office in the first quarter of 2018.

ISRO is hoping to deploy its heavy weight launcher the Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) which has had a rather patchy record and was dubbed by ISRO as its ‘naughty boy’ for this prestigious mission. Chandrayaan-2 is a heavy weight over 3000 kg satellite in comparison Team Indus’s puny satellite weighing 600 kg baby, but with broadly similar goals. Truly a race between a truck and a Nano!

Rahul Narayan says ISRO and Team Indus are not competitors in the unfolding ‘Indian moon race’. He likens ‘Team Indus to be playing a T-20 cricket match as against ISRO playing full-fledged Test match with Chandrayaan-2’.

A S Kiran Kumar, Chairman, ISRO who in a statement to Team Indus said, “If you treat space as the new frontier, then who better than the next generation of people who bring in new innovative approaches. We want to see there is enough capacity to make use of the knowledge in India for the world market.”

For Team Indus, the launch window starts on December 28, 2017, the PSLV will inject the spacecraft into an orbit 880 km x 70,000 km around the Earth. The spacecraft will then undertake a soft land in Mare Imbrium, a region in the north-western hemisphere of the Moon.

Narayan adds, “We have a very young team and I must say we’ve got a bright bunch of folks here. We’ve managed to break down the problem to many pieces and till date we’ve done reasonably well.

“We’ve had a few failures, but I think we’ve had more success than failures. In addition to our young team, we obviously have several retired ISRO scientists who are architects of what we’re building today. It is a challenging task, but I think we set out to be able to build the spacecraft.”

But now that ISRO has positioned itself and given a green signal for Team Indus to use the PSLV a rocket that in its heritage has the 2008 Chandrayaan-1 launch can the upstart team from Bengaluru expect a cake walk to the rocket port.

When asked if ISRO was taking a risk by allowing an inexperienced player to launch on the PSLV, Sasibhushan, said, “Not really, all satellites that have to fly on the PSLV have to undergo a qualification test and we will ensure that the [Team Indus] satellite is worthy of flying on the PSLV and unless it passes all tests we will not be able to fly it in PSLV.”

In 2008, India fought and lost a marathon race to reach the moon against China when Chandrayaan-1 lost out to China’s maiden mission to the moon Chang’e-1, the Indian government never really pardoned ISRO for that loss of face. ISRO is still smarting on not becoming the first Asian nation to reach the lunar orbit so will it be large hearted to let an Indian start up once again take lead in placing India’s flag on the moon.