Indigenus

ISRO today released the first pictures of its Ocean satellite Oceansat-2 launched on September 23. Oceansat-2 is India's second remote sensing satellite in the series that will study the ocean atmosphere. It replaces Oceansat-1 launched in 1999.

Global area coverage. © ISRO

Mosaic of Indian region. © ISRO

Northern and western India. © ISRO

ISRO said the three payloads on-board Oceansat-2 -- ocean colour monitor (OCM), scatterometer and radio occultation sounder (ROS) for atmospheric studies -- have been successfully turned on.

The OCM, a multi-spectral imaging radiometer, provides information on chlorophyll concentration and helps locate potential fisheries zones. The scatterometer, an active microwave sensor, facilitates retrieval of sea-surface wind speed and direction, and monitoring polar sea-ice. The ROS measures parameters pertaining to lower atmosphere and ionosphere.

The data provided by the different sensors on-board Oceansat -2, will also facilitate monitoring of turbidity and suspended sediments, sea-state and sea-surface winds, and meteorological/climatological studies. The satellite collects data over the entire globe once in two days.

Posted by Subhra Priyadarshini on October 12, 2009
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©ISRO

Close on the heels of Chandrayaan's Moon water find, ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair has taken over as the President of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) headquartered in Paris. He is the first Indian space expert to be elected to the post. Among all the 25 Indian space missions under his tenure, the most significant was the successful launch of India’s first Moon mission Chandrayaan-1.

Madhavan Nair was the Vice-President of scientific activities of the IAA for the last four years. He is the recipient of two of India's biggest civilian honours Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan.

His election as President of IAA recognises India's growing presence and expertise in space sciences and exploration. It also raises the bar for future ISRO missions.

IAA is an independent organisation of 1200 distinguished members from 85 countries elected by their peers for their outstanding contributions to astronautics and the exploration of space. It is the only international academy of elected members in the broad area of astronautics and space. IAA membership consists of individuals who have distinguished themselves in one of the fields of astronautics or one of the branches of science of fundamental importance for the exploration of space. The Academy has a strong scientific program this year with about 16 stand-alone conferences around the world.

Posted by Subhra Priyadarshini on October 12, 2009
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New revelations from Indian's moon mission Chandrayaan-1, despite its short lived glory, seem to be in the offing.

Last week at the European Planetary Science Congress in Postdam, Germany, Manuel Grande, principal investigator of Chandrayaan-1's X-Ray Spectrometer (C1XS) made announcements on some interesting data India's lunar mission had gathered. During its 10 month long journey in outer space, Chandrayaan-1 gathered data for a total of 30 solar flares, giving the most accurate measurements to date of magnesium, aluminium, silicon, calcium and iron in the lunar surface.

© ISRO. A lovely picture of earth taken by Chandrayaan-1's terrain mapping camera way before it started gazing at the Moon.

Adding some vital pieces to the jigsaw of the mineralogy of the lunar surface, the C1XS instrument investigated the lunar surface using an effect whereby X-ray illumination from the Sun causes rocks to fluoresce, emitting light at a different wavelength. This re-emitted light contains spectral peaks that are characteristic of elements contained in the rock, revealing its composition. Solar flares acted like flash bulbs, giving added illumination and allowing C1XS to ‘see’ more elements.

Grande said the results will help us further our knowledge of the Moon and planetary formation. "We were able to separate clear peaks for each of the target elements, allowing us not only to identify where they are present but give an accurate estimate for how much is there. The technology developed for C1XS opens up some exciting opportunities for future missions,” he was quoted as saying in a release.

Here's hoping we will hear more earth shaking stories -- water or no water on the Moon -- soon!

Quick update: Looks like the water stories are absolutely right, after all. More coverage on Nature India .

Posted by Subhra Priyadarshini on September 23, 2009
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