The Buddh International Circuit

It promised to be spectacular and it has lived up to the billing. The Buddh International Circuit, India’s first Formula One circuit, was unveiled to the world on Tuesday -- just 12 days before the inaugural Airtel Indian Grand Prix on October 30 -- beaming in the mellow October sun. Jaypee Sports International Ltd has pumped in $400 Million (Rs 2000 Crore) in the construction of the track, which showed in its world-class look and finish. Over 5,000 workers and 300 engineers and officers have worked round-the-clock to get the track –spread over 350 hectares – ready in time. While F1 might be a new concept for India, people are getting ready to grab the opportunity to watch 24 of the world’s best drivers in the country.

Temple treasure worth over Rs.90,000 crore

Gold ornaments, gold and silver coins, stone studded crowns, idols and figurines inlaid with precious stones and jewels estimated to be worth a whopping over Rs.90,000 crore have been found from the cellars of Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple here.

The inventory list of jewellery after the opening of the chambers, some locked up for several decades, on Supreme Court orders, is expected to go up substantially. The exercise which began on June 27 to assess the value of the articles has been undertaken by a seven-member panel of observers, including two former High Court judges. It will continue tomorrow after a day’s breather today. According to the temple sources, the treasure trove has been so far estimated at around Rs 90,000 crore, throwing up security concerns with police as an interim step deploying two platoons of armed personnel to guard the area. While similar treasures possessed by many other princely states in pre-colonial India were plundered by attackers, or wasted on luxuries by members of the royal houses themselves, the Travancore kings are believed to have zealously guarded them as reserves of the state. Coins from other princely states like Vijayanagar empire and European countries have also been found which might be part of the gifts received by the rulers of the time. While all major temples of the area were handed over to the Travancore Devaswom Board after merger of the princely state with the Indian Union after 1947, control of Padmanabhaswamy temple was retained by the royal house through a covenant with the government. Narayanan, former Indian History Congress President said, "The state or Central government cannot take over these assets as they are part of the temple coffers according to the system followed by the Travancore kings." Courtesy : Deccan Herald.

Bulletin # 1 - Mukesh Ambani's new home Antilia Oct. 28 '10

India starts to develop its heaviest satellite

India will soon design and develop its heaviest communications satellite GSAT-11 to provide advanced telecom services from 2011-12, a senior official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said here Friday. At 4.5 tonnes, it will weigh more than twice as much as the biggest Indian satellite in orbit now.

“Activities to design and develop GSAT-11 will start immediately, as the project has been cleared by the government at a cost of Rs.5-billion (Rs.500 crore),” ISRO Director S. Satish said.

The advanced communications technology satellite will be launched in mid-2011 on board the Geo-Synchronus Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-Mark III) from ISRO’s spaceport at Sriharikota, about 80 km north-east of Chennai.

“The satellite will be designed at our satellite centre in Bangalore, payloads consisting of 40 transponders in Ku/Ka band will be built at the space applications centre in Ahmedabad and the 630-tonne rocket (GSLV-Mark III) will be rolled out from the liquid propulsion systems centre in Thiruvananthapuram,” Satish told IANS.

The indigenously developed GSAT series of satellites are aimed at revolutionising communications, spanning digital audio, data and video broadcasting. The earlier versions of GSAT such as GSAT-1 and GSAT-2 were designed with two S-band and three C-band transponders.

“With 16 high capacity multi-beams in Ku/Ka band, GSAT-11 will provide much faster uplinks for a host of communications and broadcasting services, including direct-to-home (DTH television). With a dry mass of 2.1 tonne, the spacecraft will provide 10 GHz of bandwidth, which will be equivalent to about 220 transponders of 36 MHz,” Satish pointed out.

The advanced satellite will employ a new 1-4K Bus (computer network). It will be configured with two-sided large solar array panels generating 11 KW of power.

In the run-up to GSAT-11, the space agency is scheduling the launch of other communications satellites in the GSAT series over the next two years.

“The two-tonne GSAT-4, slated for launch by this year on board GSLV-Mark II, will have a communication payload comprising multi-beam Ka-band pipe and regenerative transponder and navigation payload in C, L1 and L5 bands,” Satish said.

GSAT-4 will also carry a scientific payload, Tauvex, consisting of three ultra violet (UV) band telescopes developed by Tel Aviv University and Israel space agency for surveying a large part of the sky in the 1,400-3,200 Angstrom wavelengths.

Propulsion with four stationary plasma thrusters, Bus Management Unit (BMU), miniaturised dynamically tuned gyros, 36 AH Lithium ion battery, 70 V bus for Ka-band and on board structural dynamic vibration beam accelerometer are some of the new technologies developed for GSAT-4.

“GSAT-4 spacecraft will a power generation capability of 2,500 watts and will be positioned at 82 degrees east longitude in a geo-stationary orbit, about 36,000 km above the earth,” the official said.

GSAT-1 was launched on board a technology demonstrator (GSLV-D1) April 18, 2001 as an experimental satellite for performance monitoring, tracking, range safety/flight safety and preliminary orbit determination.

GSAT-2 was launched May 8, 2003 and is located at 48 degrees east Longitude and carries four C-band transponders and two Ku-band transponders.

“The dedicated satellite for distance education (Edusat), launched in September 2004, is part of the GSAT series and can be considered as GSAT-3. Its transponders and their ground coverage are specially configured to cater to educational requirements,” Satish added.

The remaining spacecraft in GSAT series such as GSAT-5, GSAT-6 and GSAT-8 will be equated with INSAT-4 series of communication satellites. In the series, the government has not yet approved the development of GSAT-7 and GSAT-10 satellites.

GSAT-5 or INSAT-4D will be configured as an exclusive C-band communication satellite. It will carry 12 normal C-band transponders and six extended C-band transponders with wider coverage in uplink and downlink over Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe as well as zonal coverage.

GSAT-5 will be launched on board GSLV in 2010 and positioned at 82 degrees east longitude.

The two-tonne GSAT-6/INSAT-4E will have a multimedia mobile S-band transponder to provide entertainment and information services to consumers and vehicles through digital multimedia consoles and multimedia mobile phones. It is also slated for launch next year and will have a mission life of 12 years.

GSAT-8/INSAT-4G is proposed as a Ku-band satellite with 24 transponders similar to that of INSAT-4A and INSAT-4B.

“It will also carry the second GPS aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) payload,” Satish told IANS. “The satellite is expected to be launched in the second half of 2010 and will be positioned at 55 degrees east longitude.”

Supersonic BrahMos cruise missile tested Successfully

The Indian Army Sunday successfully test fired the land attack version of the supersonic BrahMos cruise missile at the Pokhran test range in Rajasthan. The missile took off successfully and hit the “bull’s eye”, an official statement said. The missile, a joint venture of India and Russia, was fired at 11.15 a.m. Sunday.” Today (Sunday) land attack version of BrahMos block-II was tested from a mobile autonomous launcher at Pokhran test range by the Indian Army. The missile took off successfully and hit the desired target at bull’s eye meeting all mission parameters,” a statement issued by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said. This is the second launch this month and third this year for the block-II version for the army. In the first test, the missile failed to hit the target. The army kept the results of the second test under wraps even though DRDO termed it successful.” With this launch, the requirement of army for the land attack version with block-II advanced seeker software with target discriminating capabilities has been fully met and this version is ready for induction,” the statement said. According to the DRDO officials, the missile will provide an enhanced capability to the army for selection of a particular land target among a group of targets. The launch was witnessed by Director General Military Operations Lt. Gen. A.S. Sekhon, Commandant School of Artillery Lt. Gen. K.R. Rao and Additional Director General Artillery Maj. Gen. V.K. Tiwari along with other senior army officers. The CEO of BrahMos A. Sivathanu Pillai and other senior scientists were also present during the launch, the release added. Cruise missiles fly at low altitudes and have the ability to evade enemy radars and air-defense systems. They are also easier and cheaper to operate. The Indian Army has already begun inducting the land-fired version of the BrahMos, with the first battery entering service in June 2007. Each battery is equipped with four mobile launchers mounted on heavy 12×12 Tatra transporters. The army plans to induct three more such batteries. The anti-ship naval version has also been inducted into service with its integration on the destroyer INS Rajput, with two other ships of the same class to be similarly equipped. The missiles will also be mounted on the three 7,000 tonne Kolkata class destroyers currently being constructed at Mumbai’s Mazagon docks. The missile, which takes its name from the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers, has a 300-km range and carries a 300 kg conventional warhead. It can achieve speeds of up to 2.8 Mach or nearly three times the speed of sound.

India successfully tests Cryogenic rocket engine

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully conducted a test of its indigenous cryogenic (supercooled fuel) engine to be used in the next geosynchronous launch vehicle (GSLV-D3) mission, the space agency said here Saturday.” The flight acceptance hot test of the Cryogenic engine was carried out at the liquid propulsion systems centre at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu Thursday. This engine will be used in the next GSLV launch in April 2009 for carrying the 2.3-tonne geo-stationary experimental satellite (GSAT),” ISRO said in a statement. Cryogenic engines are rocket motors designed for liquid fuels that have to be held at very low ‘cryogenic’ temperatures, as they would otherwise be gas at normal temperatures. Typically, hydrogen and oxygen are used which need to be held respectively below 20 degrees Kelvin (-253 degrees Celsius) and 90 degrees Kelvin (-183 degrees Celsius) to remain in liquid form. ISRO plans to use its own first cryogenic engine in place of the Russian-made engine in the upper stage of the rocket that will deploy the satellite with navigation and technology payloads into the geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). The cryogenic engine develops a thrust of 73 kilo Newtons (kN) in vacuum with a specific impulse of 454 seconds (7.56 minutes) and can carry 2.2 tonnes. Working on a staged combustion cycle with an integrated turbo-pump, the engine will have 42,000 rotations per minute (rpm). It also has two steering engines developing a thrust of 2 kN each to enable three-axis control of the launch vehicle during the flight mission.” The hot test was carried out for 200 seconds (3.33 minutes) during which the engine was operated in the nominal and 13 percent up-rated thrust regimes. All the propulsion parameters were satisfactory and matched with predictions,” the statement mentioned. The cryogenic engine will be integrated with propellant tanks, stage structures and associated feed lines of the launch vehicle for the flight mission in April next from the spaceport at Sriharikota, about 80 km north of Chennai. The central government Friday approved the development of semi-cryogenic engines for space transportation at a cost of Rs.1,798 crore (approx Rs.18 billion) with a foreign exchange component of Rs.588 crore (Rs.5.88 billion).” This will be an important step towards self-reliance in advanced space transportation technology,” Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi. Cryogenic engine technology is currently present only in Russia and the US. The semi-cryogenic engines will facilitate applications for future space missions like the reusable launch vehicle, the unified launch vehicle and the vehicle for inter-planetary missions, Chidambaram added.

India tests ‘Swordfish’ radar with successful missile defence test

In a third successful test of its ambitious missile defence programme, Defence Research and Development Orgainsation (DRDO) scientists launched an indigenously developed interceptor missile that destroyed an incoming ballistic “enemy” missile at an altitude of 75 km.  The missile firing will have also tested long-range capabilities of its indigenously developed Swordfish radar.

As part of the test, an ‘enemy’ missile was fired from a naval ship in the Bay of Bengal simulating the terminal phase of the flight of a ballistic missile with a range of 1,500 km. As the incoming missile neared the Wheeler Island off the Orissa coast, a Prithvi air defence missile was launched to intercept the ‘enemy’ missile at an altitude of about 75 km and ‘killed’ it, an official said.

The ‘enemy’ missile was a modified Dhanush surface-to-surface missile (SSM), which is the ship-borne, naval version of the Prithvi SSM.

This was the third BMD test in the series and would have involved testing the indigenously developed “Swordfish” long-range tracking radar. The ”Swordfish is an acknowledged  derivative of the Israeli Green Pine long range radar, which is the critical component of that country’s Arrow missile defence system.

India had earlier imported two of these Israeli radars for its own use.

Earlier, in January, DRDO sources had said that a third test of the missile defence shield would involve both interceptor missiles and missile tracking radars.

While two earlier tests, in November 2006 and December 2007, successfully tested the Prithvi Air Defence (PAD -exo-atmospheric) and the Advanced Air Defence (AAD-endo-atmospheric) interceptor systems, the main thrust of the forthcoming tests would have been to validate the capabilities of the indigenously developed ‘Swordfish’ Long Range Tracking Radar (LRTR).

Swordfish is a target-acquisition and fire-control radar designed for the country’s missile defence  system.

“The missile to be hit will be fired from a longer distance than it was in the earlier test. DRDO will test whether the radar can track the incoming missile from that distance or not,” officials had said in January.

The radar will be instrumental in tracking an incoming hostile missile which will be intercepted by the PAD exo-atmospheric interceptor missile at an altitude over 80 km from earth, defence sources had said.

The programme is aimed at providing the country with a credible missile defence shield – primarily against missiles fielded by hostile neighbours Pakistan and China.

The Pakistani Hatf and Ghauri missiles, essentially hand-me-down versions of Chinese and North Korean missiles, have been touted as being India-specific. These tests are meant to simulate trajectories of these family of missiles.

Yesterday scientists had said that the ‘enemy’ missile would be a modified version of the Dhanush surface-to-surface missile and would simulate the terminal phase of the flight of a ballistic missile with a range of 1,500 km, similar to Pakistan’s Ghauri missile.

“As the incoming missile nears Wheeler Island, a Prithvi air defence missile will be launched to intercept it at an altitude of about 80 km and kill it,” the official added.

Scientists had also indicated yesterday that DRDO would need to carry out at least three to four further trials with both the endo and exo-atmospheric versions of the missile shield before declaring it operational.

“The test will mark the completion of the first phase of the programme and it will secure operational clearance by 2012-13,” a scientist said.

Interestingly, though baptised as the Prithvi Air Defence system, the interceptor has now been renamed Pradyumna.

DRDO has affirmed that its system would be superior to the Russian S-300 and the American Patriot systems, both of which systems have been offered to India by its manufacturers.