ISRO postpones remote sensing satellite’s launch

Not wanting to risk a failure of its lucrative Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and to be doubly sure about the on-flight performance of the various subsystems, India's space agency has postponed the launch of the rocket carrying remote sensing satellite Resourcesat-2 by nearly a month.

"A realistic date of launch could be estimated only by the end of this month as it depends on the results of tests that are being done to know the high temperature tolerance levels of a key component," an official of Indian Space Research Organisation told IANS.

The PSLV launch, scheduled for launch this week, was supposed to sling Resourcesat-2 and two other small satellites - Youthsat and X-Sat - into orbit. Remote sensing satellites like Resourcesat send back pictures and other data for various uses. India is a major player in providing such data in the global market.

The Youthsat, an Indo-Russian micro satellite, carries two payloads - one Indian and the other Russian. Singapore's X-Sat is also a micro satellite.

ISRO officials told IANS the space agency's chairman K. Radhakrishnan wanted to be sure about the parameters of the rocket's subsystems as he was of the view that ISRO cannot afford another failure and that too involving the PSLV rocket.

ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation is earning a sizeable sum launching third party satellites using PSLV rockets.

The Indian space agency's last two missions involving its heavy rocket - Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) - ended as a failure resulting in a total loss of around Rs.600 crore -- cost of two rockets and two satellites.

According to ISRO officials, even if the test results turn out positive and the launch decision is taken, it would require minimum of around 20 days to get ready the PSLV rocket for the launch.

India has the largest constellation of remote sensing satellites in the world providing imageries in variety of spatial resolutions from better than a metre ranging up to 500 metres.

The remote sensing satellites that are operational are: Cartosat-2B, Oceansat-2, RISAT-2, Cartosat-2A, IMS-1, Cartosat-2, Resourcesat-1 and TES.

For some time Resourcesat-2 and Resourcesat-1 would work together before the latter would go into oblivion.

Launched in 2003, Resourcesat-1 has outlived its original mission life of five years.

Compared to Resourcesat-1, the multispectral swath of Resourcesat-2 has been enhanced from 23 km to 70 km based on user needs.

Suitable changes including miniaturisation in payload electronics have been incorporated in Resourcesat-2.

The other remote sensing satellites that ISRO plans to launch are RISAT, Megha-Tropiques, INSAT-3D a meteorological satellite, Astrosat (astronomy satellite to observe celestial bodies)

ISRO suspends telecast of edu channels, students suffer

Indian space agency ISRO has suspended the telecast of popular educational programmes in many states due to an unidentified glitch in its ground equipment, says a senior official. As a result, millions of students have been affected.

"This is the first time we have been asked to suspend conducting virtual classroom teaching for over three weeks since Feb 3, affecting about six million students in 12,000 schools across the state," a top Kerala education department official told IANS.

In a note Feb 12, a copy of which is with IANS, state-run Indian Space Research Organisation directed the Kerala education department to keep the hub used to telecast its 17-hour educational classes in switch off mode due to 'inference issues' in channel 12 of Insat-4CR communication satellite till Friday.

Other states where telecasting of state-funded educational programmes is severely affected include Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir.

The space agency shifted beaming the educational programmes in November last year to Insat-4CR from its dedicated satellite (Edusat) after its mission life ended prematurely. Meant for distant classroom education from school to college levels, Edusat was launched in September 2004.

"Due to malfunctioning of the ground equipment, we are not able to relay the signals from the transponder to telecast the programmes," a senior scientist associated with the satellite communication and navigation programmes (SCNP) said.

"We are trying to locate the problem and fix it in the next three-four days so that we can resume the channel," the scientist added but declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The glitch has, however, not affected the operations of other users of Insat-4CR that was launched in September 2007.

Other users of the satellite include the country's largest telecom player Airtel, Utkarsh channel, Orissa Space Application Centre and Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-Informatics though their programmes are beamed through different transponders.

In addition to the Virtual Classroom Technology on Edusat for Rural Schools (ViCTERS) of the Kerala education department, Visvesvaraya Technology University (VTU) and Vidya Vahini in Karnataka too are users of the satellite for educational programmes.

"This is the second time in 10 days we have been directed to keep the hub switched off for two weeks more. We are not sure if we will be able to resume the programmes after Friday, as there is no further directive from ISRO yet," Anwar Sadath, Kerala IT @ School Project executive director, said.

Launched by former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in 2006, ViCTERS is Kerala's Rs.120-crore IT School Project to provide high speed net connectivity to schools and implement learning management solutions.

Veteran journalist Anand Parthasarathy, who anchors a weekly programme "IT For All" on the channel in Kerala, countered the official claim and wondered how ISRO was adhering to quality of service (QoS) conditions by providing its channels to commercial users from the same satellite, assuring an uptime of 99.9 per cent.

"I find it outrageous that a state-run organisation, which meets its obligations to its paying customers, can with impunity cut off for weeks a vital educational umbilical that assures distance education for millions of students," Parthasarathy asserted.

As ISRO is under cloud over the now annulled controversial deal for allotting scarce S-band spectrum to a private firm (Devas) without bids, its officials and scientists are wary of admitting that shortage of transponders and other priorities are forcing them to shuffle the usage pattern of its channels to users.

With the loss of about 50 transponders due to twin launch failures and operational glitches in Insat-4B during the last 12 months, ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation has been forced to lease a whopping 70 transponders from foreign satellites such as Intelsat and Measat of Malaysia to meet the demand for space-based services from private and state-run agencies.

According to a source associated with the programmes, ISRO is forced to allot the satellite channel meant for Edusat programmes to its commercial end-users, including television channels, radio broadcasters and private/public institutions as part of its service commitments and contractual obligations.

"Due to non-availability of the terrestrial channel, we are suffering a lot, as preparation for the board exams from next month is affected. We conduct revision classes to students appearing in the final exams through the channel, which is also aired by thousands of cable operators as part of the package," Sadath lamented.

Indian defence scientists develop bio-toilets for soldiers

Indian defence scientists have recruited a small army of bacteria and harnessed solar power to build bio-toilets for managing the human waste of soldiers stationed at glaciers and other low temperature areas.

"Human waste disposal in high altitude and low temperature areas is a burning problem," a spokesman for the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE) in Gwalior told IANS on phone. "The problem is further aggravated in glaciers where ambient temperature drops to minus 40 degrees Celsius and lower."

When left buried in the ice, the low temperature prevents natural biodegradation of waste, leading to their accumulation for a long time. Due to heating by direct sunlight, the melting ice takes the waste to rivers, polluting them as well, scientists said.

Traditional methods of burying human waste or incineration and chemical treatment are not possible in glaciers. Biological treatment is an attractive approach for solving the problem but micro-organisms that decompose the waste in normal temperatures are inactive at freezing temperatures. Technology developed by DRDE overcomes the problem.

The key to DRDE's bio-toilet technology is a consortium of anaerobic bacteria --organisms which do not require oxygen to live and multiply -- that has been formulated and adopted to work at temperatures as low as five degrees Celsius, the scientists said.

The bacterial consortium acts as inoculum (seed material) to the biodigester converting the organic waste into methane and carbon dioxide. The biodigester buried below the ground serves as a reaction vessel whose temperature is maintained between 5 and 30 degrees Celsius by solar heating. Charging of the biodigester with the bacterial inoculum is done only once during the entire life of bio-toilet.

DRDE scientists say their technology allows the human waste to be disposed of in an eco-friendly manner in places with extremely low temperatures. They claim their process results in treated effluent free from pathogens, and biogas (methane) is generated as a byproduct, which can be used for cooking and room heating.

According to scientists, the biodigester developed by DRDE is suitable for below zero temperatures of the Himalayan region and is maintenance free. Around 90 DRDE bio-toilets have been installed at 24 locations, including several places in Leh, Sikkim and at the Base Camp in Siachen glacier, DRDE said.

The scientists said as a spin-off, the same technology has been used to develop bio-toilets for Indian Railways. These toilets were successfully run on the Gwalior-Barauni Mail for two years and the technology has been transferred to eight firms, scientists said.

World’s first 3D mobile phone from LG

The LG Optimus is the world's first mobile phone capable of capturing and showing 3D images and footage - that too without bulky glasses.

There are two camera lenses on the back of the handset which capture two views of a favourite scene, friends and family.

These are then played back simultaneously on the Optimus 3D screen with one eye seeing the images captured by one lens and the other the images from the second lens.

The technology is commercially confidential. However, it is understood that the screen is covered with a polarising see-through material similar to that used in 3D cinema glasses, the Daily Mail reports.

This material separates the two sets of images on the screen and diverts them to the correct eye. A sweet spot is created about 20 inches from the screen to get the full 3D effect.

The system uses similar technology to the latest Nintendo 3DS games console, which is about to go on sale and also offers 3D images without the need for glasses.

While the technology has a wow factor, there are currently very few 3D films and TV programmes available on a commercial basis to be watched on the Optimus.

To off-set this problem, LG has announced a partnership with YouTube to allow the Optimus 3D footage to be swiftly uploaded to the web and shared.

Similarly, owners of the phone will be able to download 3D footage created by other amateurs to be viewed and enjoyed on the landmark handsets.

Said LG chief executive, Jong-seok Park: "The Optimus 3D is LG's newest flagship smartphone. It is our answer to two major pain points of the current 3D experience - limited mobility and specialised glasses."

The phone is to be available on the Orange network in Britain, however no prices have yet been announced.

New smartphones give instant access to Facebook

Mobile phone giant HTC has launched two handsets - called Salsa and ChaCha - that will provide instant access to Facebook.

By punching in the 'F' logo, users will be able to instantly share photos, music and even their exact location on an inbuilt map from their mobile phone.

At the moment, owners of iPhones and similar products have to use a touchscreen process to access pages on the popular social networking site.

In a clear attempt to target the teenage market, the Taiwanese phonemaker called the two phones Salsa and ChaCha, the Daily Mail reports.

Salsa is a touchscreen-only phone with a 3.4-inch screen. ChaCha has 2.6-inch touchscreen with a separate keyboard, which looks a lot like a Blackberry.

Parents faced with children badgering them for one of the new gadgets may only have weeks to save up the cash as the phones may be on sale in Britain in April.

HTC and Facebook have spent two years developing the two phones. The devices have Facebook built into their contacts system, allowing users to see Facebook friends and message them.

When taking photos, the user simply has to press the F button and the images will appear on their Facebook profile. Similarly, when using Google maps, owners of the phone can press the F button to give friends their exact location.

Peter Chou, CEO of HTC, said: "We wanted to create the ultimate socially connected phones with mass market appeal."

Apple’s future could be uncertain without Steve Jobs

55-year-old Jobs, who has been admitted at the Stanford Cancer Centre in Palo Alto in California since Jan 17, has just six weeks to live.

Though the reports have not impacted the Apple stock much, analysts and observers are uneasy about Apple's future without its co-founder who has become synonymous with its unique products.

According Jeffery Young, who co-authored the book "iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act the History of Business,'' Jobs' illness will have a "significant" impact on Apple as the iconic company braces for a stand-off with a brand-new Microsoft.

"They're facing a challenge that's akin to what happened with Windows vs. Macintosh back in the 80s and 90s, where one very well-heeled challenger offered its operating environment to many different users at many companies to build its products,'' Young told Canada's CTV network in a morning interview from San Francisco Friday.

"The same thing is happening now in the tablet and iPhone markets, where there are many different players and many products all competing against Apple with its integrated platform,'' he told the network.

Young said he won't say that Jobs will not return to lead Apple again. But his departure will have "significant" implications for the company, he added.

"Not so much in the short term - I think Apple will continue to execute and deliver the products. I think the real risk for Apple is in the mid-term, in the next couple of years, because it's facing a major challenge from Google and Android in both the tablet and the iPhone markets.

"That's going to require the kind of insight and foresight that the company will be hard pressed to deliver without Steve there.''

Apple currently sits on a pile of cash to the tune of $60 billion and its share closed $350.56 on Wall Street Friday - down 2.16 per cent.

Sixty one CD-ROMS for every man, woman, and child on Earth

Its true Sixty one CD-ROMS for every man, woman, and child on Earth...Massive Information Stockpile Guides Humanity's Course.

That's the amount of global data humankind stored on devices of every kind in 2007 -- 295 exabytes, or 80 times more information per person than exists in the historic Library of Alexandria, Egypt, according to a study published in the journal Science.

"We tracked 60 analog and digital technologies from 1986 to 2007," said study co-author Martin Hilbert, Ph.D., an information researcher at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.

"Our computing capacity grew at an annual rate of 58 percent, roughly nine times faster than the world economy," Hilbert told TechNewsWorld. "Our information storage capacity has grown four times faster, and telecommunication capacity has grown roughly five times faster than the world's economic power."

"As fundamental as steel was in the industrial age, information technologies which enable us to store information and analyze it efficiently are the most valuable tools in the business world today," said Tom Cook, CEO of Permabit.

The study reflects how "we now monitor and measure almost every activity in our personal and business lives,"