MISSILE AND TECHNOLOGY:
Primarily BRAHMOS is an anti-ship missile. It has the capability to engage land based targets also. The missile can be launched either in vertical or inclined position and will cover 360 degrees.
The BRAHMOS missile has identical configuration for land, sea and sub sea platforms. The air-launched version has a smaller booster and additional tail fins for stability during launch.
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The Army on Tuesday tested the land-attack version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from a firing range near Pokhran in Rajasthan, in a move to fine-tune its use as a precision-strike weapon in future battles.
This comes shortly after the air-breathing missile, with a strike range of 290-km, was tested for the first time from a vertical launcher fitted on a moving warship in the Bay of Bengal on December 18.
``The test was successful, meeting all parameters,'' said a defence ministry official. Incidentally, the Army has begun the progressive induction of its BrahMos LACM (land-attack cruise missile) version, with the first battery being handed over to it in June 2007.
Army plans to progressively induct three batteries, each with four road-mobile autonomous launchers on 12x12 Tatra vehicles, to constitute its first BrahMos regiment shortly to use the missile as a "precision strike weapon''.
Last month's launch of BrahMos, which flies at a speed of 2.8 Mach (almost three times the speed of sound), took place from a vertical launcher fitted on Rajput-class destroyer INS Ranvir. The missile has already been fitted "in an inclined configuration'' on destroyer INS Rajput.
The "universal vertical launcher'' used on December 18 is significant since it is fitted under the warship's deck, protecting it from the atmospheric conditions and imparting some stealth to the weapon system, and allows the missile to be fired in any direction.
"Eight missiles come in one such launcher module. Two such modules, with 16 missiles, will be fitted in each of the three Kolkata-class P-15A destroyers being built at Mazagon Docks (at a cost of Rs 11,662 crore),'' said a source.
Three more Talwar-class "stealth'' guided-missile frigates being built at Yantar shipyard in Kaliningrad (Russia), at a cost of Rs 5,514 crore, will also be armed with BrahMos missiles to give them more punch. "The same vertical launchers will be fitted on submarines,'' said the source.
Incidentally, India and Russia have now begun preliminary work on a "hypersonic'' BrahMos-2 missile capable of flying at a speed between 5 and 7 Mach.
But the work on the submarine and air-launched versions of BrahMos-1 is still quite some time away from successful completion. While the air-launched version will now be integrated with a naval TU-142 aircraft for tests, defence scientists say they are waiting for a suitable platform for testing the submarine-launched version.
Pakistan is also going in for large-scale induction of its 'Babur' cruise missile, which is touted as being capable of carrying nuclear warheads to a distance of 500 km. It was tested for the first time in August 2005, with a clear Chinese imprint behind its development.
The long-term plan of the Indian armed forces is, of course, to have nuclear-tipped LACMs, with strike ranges in excess of 1,500 km. Unlike ballistic missiles, cruise missiles do not leave the atmosphere and are powered and guided throughout their flight path.
Cruise missiles, which can evade enemy radars and air defence systems since they fly at low-altitudes, are also much cheaper as well as more accurate and easier to operate.
WASHINGTON: Cloaked in the clouds of emissions and exhaust that hang over the city are clues about the polluting culprits. A University of Houston (UH) research team, headed by Shankar Chellam, is hot on their trail. The case hinges on unique identifiers found in fine particulate matter, a mixture of organic, inorganic or metal material.
This material is given off by natural sources, such as sea spray and grassfires, and manmade sources, such as vehicles and industrial operations, and then suspended in the air.
"Fine particulate matter is tiny - about 30 times smaller... than a human hair - but it carries in it a lot of information about where it came from," explained Chellam, environmental engineering professor at UH's Cullen College of Engineering.
Like any good detective, Chellam has enlisted a team with varying expertise, including urban air quality expert Matthew Fraser of Arizona State University, UH doctoral students of engineering and a NASA scientist.
Chellam, who did his B.Sc and M.Sc in mechanical engineering and chemistry respectively from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India, and Ph.D in environmental science and engineering from Rice University, Houston, said scientists are only beginning to understand the biochemical basis of how airborne fine and coarse particulate matter and its individual components affect human health.
When their investigation started six years ago, Chellam said: The team was surprised, "maybe naively," that most research at the time focused on ozone, which is formed when emissions mix with sunlight. Much less attention was paid to airborne particulate matter in the Houston area.
"Most previous studies have been concerned with gases, particularly ozone," Chellam explained.
"It is the particulate matter - both fine matter that is smaller than 2.5 micrometers and coarse matter that is larger than 2.5 micrometers, but smaller than 10 micrometers - that we are interested in."
Chellam said identifying pollution sources - even if only by industry or machine type, rather than individual factory or operator - is a public safety issue, because fine particulate matter is easily absorbed by the lungs and enters the bloodstream, said a UH release.
"Studies show that people living close to highways and refineries are more likely to become seriously ill," said Chellam.
YOU gotta love the Hubble Space Telescope. It's been up there for 18 years, orbiting Earth and snapping, literally, out-of-this-world photographs: stars, galaxies, swirls of dust and gas. Breathtaking.
As they say in science circles, Hubble has revolutionized astronomy and fired up the imaginations of people back here on terra firma.
But alas, the show will soon be over.
Just as the International Year of Astronomy begins, Hubble is preparing for its final act. In March the space shuttle Atlantis will make NASA’s fifth and final Hubble service mission.
With luck the mighty machine will continue capturing more knock-out images until, with the click of a command from Earth, Hubble will turn itself off and get ready to plunge into the sea.
What a story. Does this National Geographic documentary tell the tale in the style it deserves? Sort of.
Certainly, the pictures are great.
Added to Hubble’s more famous images such as the Pillars of Creation are excellent animations from NASA and its ilk, artists’ illustrations and historical footage. It sounds like a dog’s breakfast but it works.
So, too, do the scientific talking heads. They’re articulate and passionate about Hubble and the discoveries it has helped them make. We get basics on the life cycle of stars and the formation and shenanigans of galaxies, along with the visible evidence Hubble revealed about invisible black holes and the expansion of the universe. Full marks to the production crew at Skyworks Digital.
There is, of course, a but. In fact, there are two: the soundtrack and the narration. The adventures of Hubble and its friends are sufficiently interesting that there’s no need to present them like a sci-fi thriller with dramatic sound effects and over-the-top musical punctuation. Nor is there any need to assume viewers are morons, capable of taking in only simple sentences, or fragments thereof.
‘‘Space (pause) is big (pause).
Really big (pause). You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mind bogglingly big it is.’’ OK, that last bit is from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by the late, great Douglas Adams. When he does it, it’s fabulous.
When the narrator of Hubble’s Final Frontier does it, it drives me insane.
So, too, does her breathy ‘‘come up and see my etchings’’ voice-over. On top of an absurdly melodramatic script littered with gems such as ‘‘the death throes of stars’’ and ‘‘we are Hubble’s only chance of surviving’’, the result is unpleasant. In space no one can hear you scream. Not so next door, where my shut-up-just-shut-ups resounded. There’s one consolation, though: you can hit the mute button during her monologues and just enjoy the visuals.
A day after Kingfisher Airlines announced a fare cut, national carrier Air India on Monday announced a similar fare reduction from Jan 1.
"In view of the slackening demand in post-peak season and continued decline in fuel prices, Air India will be adjusting domestic fares downwards on various sectors shortly," an Air India spokesperson said here.
The spokesperson, however, did not divulge the quantum of fare cut, saying it was still being worked out. "We would be able to come with reduced fares by January 1," he said.
Private air carrier Kingfisher Airlines Sunday said it would cut fares from the New Year.
Kingfisher chairman Vijay Mallya said in a statement that the airline would begin the New Year on an aggressive note by slashing fares. But he did not quantify the reduction either.
Low cost carriers are also expected to follow suit, said an industry official.
Despite the fall in fuel prices, Indian air operators have been unwilling to cut fares, demanding that aviation turbine fuel (ATF) be brought under the "declared goods" category, which would bring down sales tax from an average of 32 percent at various airports to a uniform 4 percent.
The proposal is now before parliament.
Sales tax varies from 4% to 32%, and accounts for over 35% of operational costs of airlines.
Last month, Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal said at a function here that he did not favor fare cuts as long as the aviation fuel was not classified as a declared good.
However, air operators started cutting fares following pressure from the government, especially as aviation fuel costs have been slashed, with civil aviation minister Praful Patel urging air carriers to pass on the benefit to travellers.
The lean season ahead also forced the issue for operators.
State governments are likely to oppose the uniform taxation policy as it would lead to revenue loss due to lower sales tax collection.
Over the past four months, there has been a sharp decline in aviation fuel prices. While some air carriers earlier this month reduced the fuel surcharge on the ticket price by Rs.200 to Rs.400, they did not touch the basic fare.
Oil companies have reduced aviation fuel prices seven times since September. The fuel is now sold at Rs.32, 691.28 per kilolitre in Delhi after prices were slashed by Rs.4, 208.37 in the first week of December.
India is not a suitable country for low-cost airline operations as it not only lacks infrastructure like low-cost secondary airports but also the cost of their staff is at par with full service carriers (FSC), a study has claimed.
Also, the LFCs have to face tough competition from Indian Railways and road transport for destinations of shorter durations.
"India has very few secondary airports from which the low fare carriers (LFCs) could operate. Of the 127 airports with the Airports Authority of India, only 80 are operational," aerospace expert Harmoz P Mama claimed in a study 'Civil Aviation in India: Challenges and Prospects'.
Highlighting the poor airline coverage of smaller airports of the country, he said, "The top five airports in India handle about 70% of all domestic passenger traffic in India, which indicates poor airline coverage of most of the other airports."
Beyond these are primarily small, crumbling airstrips with huts masquerading as terminal building which are totally unsuitable for airline operations, he claimed.
The low fare airlines in order to save their staff -- particularly the pilots and engineers -- from being poached have to pay salaries on a par with those of FSCs, he said. Apart from it, low-cost airlines also have to bear the brunt of the high price of Air Turbine Fue(ATF), which actually is a high percentage of their total costs.
Air New Zealand and Boeing Announce December Date for Sustainable Biofuels Test Flight:
