aviation – Page 17 – Take off with Natarajan

International Space Station Transits the Sun….

September 9, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

This composite image made from five frames shows the International Space Station, with a crew of nine onboard, in silhouette as it transits the sun at roughly 5 miles per second, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2015, Shenandoah National Park, Front Royal, VA. Onboard are; NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren: Russian Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Mikhail Kornienko, Oleg Kononenko, Sergey Volkov, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, Danish Astronaut Andreas Mogensen, and Kazakhstan Cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Source…..www.nasa .gov

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Combining Two Giants: Indian Railways & ISRO Come Together to Make Our Train Journeys Safer …

September 7, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Indian Railways and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) are coming together to utilise technology in a way that our train journeys can be made a lot safer and easier in terms of navigation.

With the vision of making our railway journeys safer and more efficient, Indian Railways will tie up with Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to get satellite images of all the track routes, and to help in navigation.

With the use of geospatial technology, it will be possible to map the complete rail routes including buildings, land, workshops etc. on the way.

The technology involves GPS (global positioning systems), GIS (geographical information systems), and RS (remote sensing) features.

Photo Credit: Feng Zhong/Flickr

This service will be provided by GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) system of ISRO. GAGAN is an indigenous navigation system which was jointly developed by ISRO and Airports Authority of India (AAI) to assist aircrafts in accurate landing. It can now be used to assist trains as well, and Indian Railways will be able to receive online satellite images which will help in mapping the train routes in detail.

“We will sign an MoU with ISRO shortly to avail the online satellite images to create a GIS platform,” informed a senior Railway Ministry official to PTI.

This is how the GAGAN system can help Indian Railways:

It will be very helpful at the time of train accidents when it is difficult to find out the exact location of trains.
With the help of remote sensing facility, it will also help in devising solutions for safety at unmanned railway crossings.
Drivers on the road can be warned about an approaching train by activating hooters at the crossings.
With the use of GAGAN software system, trains would know the location of any unmanned level crossing and a warning signal can be given for their reference.
The images will also be used for geo-fencing, which will be utilised for the recently launched paperless ticketing system app. Geo-fencing is a feature which makes use of GPS and radio frequency identification (RFID) to define geographical boundaries.
It will also be easier to track trains with the technology on a real time basis. As of now, the train movements are tracked manually.

“There is specific information provided for aligning the railway tracks, particularly in mountainous regions, and also identifying tracks which are most stable when you are going through tunnels. In all these things, space technology is useful,” ISRO Chairman, A.S. Kiran Kumar was quoted saying earlier this year.

Source….. Tanaya Singh ….www.the betterindia.com

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India’s Successful Missile Testing Site, Wheeler Island Will Now Become Abdul Kalam Island …

September 6, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Wheeler Island, which is considered the most advanced missile testing site in India, will be renamed after Late Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. For the man who was fondly called the “Missile Man”, this seems like a fitting tribute.

It has been over a month since we lost our beloved Missile Man, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. And every now and then, we keep finding different ways to pay tribute to him and to keep him alive in our memories.

This time it is the Odisha government which has paid an extra ordinary tribute to Dr. Kalam, by naming the Wheeler Island after him.

Photo: www.abdulkalam.com

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made an announcement about the decision on Monday. He said that the move will inspire youngsters to work passionately and dedicatedly in the field of science. The 2km long and 390 acres big island will now be known as Abdul Kalam Island. The island is located off the coast of Odisha and is approximately 150km from Bhubaneswar.

This is a fitting tribute to the great man since the island is considered to be the country’s most advanced missile testing site.

Wheeler Island was named after an English commandant, Lieutenant Wheeler and has been used to test many successful missiles of India including Akash Missiles, Agni Missiles, Astra Missile, BrahMos, Nirbhay, Prahaar Missile, Prithvi Missiles, Shaurya Missile, Advanced Air Defence (AAD), and Prithvi Air Defence.

Here are a few of them:

Akash Missile Launch from Integrated Test Range (ITR), Wheeler Island

Advanced Air Defence Launch

Shaurya Missile Launch

All pics: Wikipedia

Source….Shreya Pareek…..www.thebetterindia.com

Natarajan

Image of the Day… ” Crescent Venus …” !!!

September 4, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Venus in daytime on August 30

Venus appears as a crescent for the same reason the moon does. It’s because, at times like now, its lighted side – or day side – is facing mostly away from us

Maximus Photography kindly granted us permission to publish his daytime image of the planet Venus, taken on August 30, 2015. He wrote:

On a short trip to Targoviste [a city in Romania], where I was hopefully going to catch the ISS in transit over the disc of Venus (transit duration: 0.02seconds!)

I had the luck of some very good seeing conditions for a short imaging session with Venus.

Unfortunately the ISS transit was a total failure due to technical problems (hard drives, focusing…) despite perfectly clear skies, and good seeing conditions.

Too bad about ISS, but the Venus image is wonderful! Thank you, Max.

Why does Venus appear as a crescent now? It’s because it recently passed more or less between the Earth and sun, in the course of its smaller, faster orbit. This inner world’s inferior conjunction, when it passed 8 degrees S. of the sun as seen from Earth, was August 15. Now the day side of Venus is still facing mostly away from us. We’re mostly seeing Venus’ night side. And thus this world appears through telescopes as a crescent, which will wax larger in the months ahead, as Venus flies ahead of Earth in orbit.

Bottom line: A photo of a crescent Venus in daylight by Maximus Photography. See the image and read more at his blog

Source,….www.earthskynews.org

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Image of the Day… Mars’ Early Atmosphere…Image Credit NASA

September 3, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

This view combines information from two instruments on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to map color-coded composition over the shape of the ground in a small portion of the Nili Fossae plains region of Mars’ northern hemisphere.

This site is part of the largest known carbonate-rich deposit on Mars. In the color coding used for this map, green indicates a carbonate-rich composition, brown indicates olivine-rich sands, and purple indicates basaltic composition.

Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on early Mars reacted with surface rocks to form carbonate, thinning the atmosphere by sequestering the carbon in the rocks.

An analysis of the amount of carbon contained in Nili Fossae plains estimated the total at no more than twice the amount of carbon in the modern atmosphere of Mars, which is mostly carbon dioxide. That is much more than in all other known carbonate on Mars, but far short of enough to explain how Mars could have had a thick enough atmosphere to keep surface water from freezing during a period when rivers were cutting extensive valley networks on the Red Planet. Other possible explanations for the change from an era with rivers to dry modern Mars are being investigated.

This image covers an area approximately 1.4 miles (2.3 kilometers) wide. A scale bar indicates 500 meters (1,640 feet). The full extent of the carbonate-containing deposit in the region is at least as large as Delaware and perhaps as large as Arizona.

The color coding is from data acquired by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), in observation FRT0000C968 made on Sept. 19, 2008. The base map showing land shapes is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. It is one product from HiRISE observation ESP_010351_2020, made July 20, 2013. Other products from that observation are online at http://www.uahirise.org/ESP_032728_2020.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been using CRISM, HiRISE and four other instruments to investigate Mars since 2006. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, led the work to build the CRISM instrument and operates CRISM in coordination with an international team of researchers from universities, government and the private sector. HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the orbiter and collaborates with JPL to operate it.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHUAPL/Univ. of Arizona

Source…www.nasa.gov

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Image of the Day… ” Good Night From Space…”

September 3, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Earth’s thin atmosphere stands out against the blackness of space in this photo shared on Aug. 31, 2015, by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly on board the International Space Station. The station’s solar panels can be seen in darkness at the right of the image.

Kelly, in the midst of a year-long stay on the orbital outpost, shared the photo in a tweet: “Day 157. At the end of the day, #sunrise will come again. Good night from @space_station! #YearInSpace.”

Source…..www.nasa.gov.

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World’s worst airlines named in Skytrax rankings…..

August 27, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

North Korea’s Koryo Air has been named the world’s worst airline again for the fourth year running by Skytrax, which holds the annual World Airline Awards. It is the only airline listed by Skytrax to receive a lowly one-star rating out of a possible five, due to its Soviet-era planes, rudimentary safety belts, and questionable safety.

Koryo Air has been named the world’s worst airline again for the fourth year running by Skytrax, which holds the annual World Airline Awards for best airline in the world.

It is the only airline listed by Skytrax to receive a lowly one-star rating out of a possible five, due to its Soviet-era planes, rudimentary safety belts, and questionable safety.

The next worst airlines, according to the Skytrax rating system, are those given two stars out of five. There are 21 airlines in this category, which Skytrax says indicates “a lower quality performance, below the industry quality average across many of the rating sectors.”

Ryanair is one of these.

Two star-rated airlines (in alphabetical order)

Bahamasair – Bahamas

Passengers saeem to agree with Skytrax here – the customer reviews on the same website give the airline an average 2/10.

“A two-star airline rating,” Skytrax’ website states, “normally signifies poorer or inconsistent standards of product and front-line staff service for the cabin service and the home-base airport environment.”

Biman Bangladesh – Bangladesh

Customer rating: 5/10

“Checking in was totally disorganised.”

Bulgaria Air – Bulgaria

Customer rating: 6/10

“It seemed that the best I could get from them [the crew] was ignorance”.

China United Airlines – China

Customer rating: 8/10 (from only two reviews)

“China United is the only airline that uses Beijing Nanyuan a former military airport in the South of Beijing. Check-in was quick easy but the check-in area is noisy and dilapidated. Toilets at the airport weren’t great.”

Cubana Airlines – Cuba

Customer rating: 4/10

“So many things went wrong with this flight but the customer service or lack of was ridiculous.”

Iran Air – Iran

Customer rating: 5/10

“IranAir does not serve any alcohol but that’s part of the current Iran experience I guess.”

Lion Air – Indonesia

Customer rating: 4/10

“Once seated another passenger showed me his boarding pass that was the same seat as mine.”

Mahan Air – Iran

Customer rating: 7/10 – shortly to be moving out of the two-star catgory perhaps?

“I always select Mahan for my Dubai – Tehran trips. It’s a budget airline but the food service and staff hospitality are on par with any top airlines of the world.”

Nepal Airlines – Nepal

Customer rating: 5/10 (from only two reviews)

“New plane but limited legroom between seats.”

Onur Air – Turkey

Customer rating: 5/10

“The seat was very uncomfortable. Water was not free, they charge 3 Euros for a small bottle.”

Pegasus Airlines – Turkey

Customer rating: 5/10

“I had four flights booked on Pegasus for business and vacation and the four of these flights were delayed – not by a few minutes, at least an hour or hour and a half.”

Rossiya Airlines – Russia

Customer rating: 5/10

“Meal service is the worst in the air.”

Ryanair – Ireland

Customer rating: 5/10

“In Dublin, when I approached the desk to say that we had our boarding passes on a laptop, the customer service worker starting yelling at us. “How am I supposed to stamp your boarding pass if it’s on a device?””

SmartWings – Czech Republic

Customer rating: 5/10

“Flight was on time (sic), but that was the first and last good thing about it. Flight staff was rude, there is almost no service, you get 1 glass of water or cheap soda and one distasteful sandwich, seats were not comfortable and plane looked old.”

Spirit Airlines – USA

Customer rating: 3/10

“Everything negative everyone has said about Spirit is true. Spirit ruined my trip with unnecessary stress and anxiety.”

Sudan Airways – Sudan

Customer rating: 1/10 (from only one review)

“Aircraft very scruffy inside and needed some real attention and cleaning.”

Syrianair – Syria

Customer rating: 2/10

“The cabin staff on the way out smoked behind the curtain and when my husband challenged them about this they actually offered him a cigarette.”

Tajik Air – Tajikistan

Customer rating: 0/10 (from only four reviews)

“The whole plane was as smelly – in brief the worst of all airlines.”

Turkmenistan Airlines – Turkmenistan

Customer rating: 4/10

“Worst airline and customer service I’ve seen miserable staff who don’t smile.”

Ukraine Int’l Airlines – Ukraine

Customer rating: 5/10

“Long drive (again no air-conditioning) to the airplane. It was a very old 737-500, with signs in Portuguese and Russian.”

Yemenia – Yemen

Customer rating: 4/10

“Seats standard economy not too clean though and interior showed serious signs of wear.”

Source…..www.traveller.com.au

Natarajan

When APJ Abdul Kalam charmed his way into Boeing’s nerve centre…

August 26, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Nostalgia: APJ Abdul Kalam with Dinesh Keskar during his 2009 visit to Boeing’s Seattle plant – PICTURE COURTESY: BOEING

The sudden demise of former President APJ Abdul Kalam on July 27, left people mourning in India. Over 12,000km away in Seattle too, a pall of gloom descend on Boeing’s manufacturing plant, where the former President had charmed and impressed the employees during his visit in 2009. Later Dinesh Keskar, Senior Vice-President, Asia-Pacific and India, Boeing Aeroplanes called Kalam “a friend of a lot of people, including Boeing.”

During the 2009 visit, the former President had shown an interest in meeting Joe Sutter, the man who designed the double-decker aircraft, the Boeing 747, which is popularly known as the Jumbo Jet. “The former President knew of him (Sutter) and wanted to meet him,” recalls Keskar.

The 2009 visit to the Seattle plant was Kalam’s first to the Boeing’s manufacturing facility. The 88-year-old Sutter, often called the Father of the 747, was there. The two had a 20-minute meeting which Keskar too attended. “The former President wondered how Sutter had come up with the idea of the upper deck. Kalam also asked Sutter about the support he had in designing the Boeing 747,” Keskar recalled. Perhaps Kalam, who was involved with the Light Combat Aircraft project, was hoping to replicate the same in India. The Missile Man also gave a lecture to an audience that included scientists and top technologists during the Seattle visit. Kalam, however, was not just interested in the Jumbo Jet. During his visit he also got a first-hand feel of the first Boeing 787 aircraft, the long-range, wide-body, twin-engine jet airliner . The 787 aircraft that Kalam saw in Seattle was the first of the 27 aircraft that are joining the Air India fleet.

Kalam was impressed with the aircraft, particularly its wings. The crystal model of an aeroplane that Boeing presented Kalam to commemorate the visit is still displayed in Delhi.

Bengaluru days

Kalam’s relationship with Boeing did not end at Seattle. He also visited the Boeing research centre in Bengaluru. Keskar says that the former President spent over three hours talking to the 15 people present, inquiring about their work. Many of the people were picked from the National Aeronautics Lab, where Kalam was the Chairman of the organisation’s research council.

It was during this visit that Kalam said that one of the things Boeing must do is to get India into the aeroplane market. “He was obviously very interested in getting Boeing to do something in India in terms of building an aeroplane in India. We are still working on smaller pieces of that. We have not gone to the stage of the aeroplane but that was his vision,” Keskar added.

Source…ASHWINI PHADNIS ….www.thehindubusinessline.com

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What flight attendants want you to stop doing….

August 26, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

The galley isn’t for yoga. Picture: PassengerShaming.com Source: Facebook

SURE, it’s uncomfortable being jammed into an airline seat the width of a pizza box (if you’re lucky) for hours on end, listening to the shriek of babies and engaging in elbow wars with your seat-mate while you try to shove down food that tastes like feet.

But that’s the reality of flying these days, you didn’t score that $199 flight without making some sacrifices.

So just remember that for you it’s a temporary descent into hell. But for the flight attendants helping you out, it’s their everyday reality.

Perhaps you wonder how to make their job a bit less painful? Here’s a list of the things that flight attendants really wish passengers would stop doing.

• Leaving rubbish in the pocket on the back of the seat

“We walk up and down the aisle throughout the flight with a trash bag to collect trash.” — Abbie Unger, flight attendant, author and founder of the Flight Attendant Career Connection.

Nappies, socks and rubbish. Picture: PassengerShaming.com Source: Facebook

• Taking ages to decide what you want to drink. And having bad timing

“You’ve seen me walking down the aisle with the drink cart for 20 minutes already.” — Facebook user Corinne Spring from the Flight Attendant Career Connection.

• “There is nothing more irritating than when a passenger comes straight onto the plane and asks for a soft drink. I’m like, ‘Seriously?’” — Nick Stracener, a flight attendant with American.

• Being a space hog

“My head literally just exploded. #TheSenseofEntitlement.” — Shawn Kathleen, who runs the blog PassengerShaming said of the below photo showing items such as heels and a hat taking up precious overhead space.

Got enough room? Picture: PassengerShaming.com Source: Facebook

• Poking or grabbing me

“Please don’t touch, poke, or tug on a flight attendant. You could say ‘ma’am’ or ‘sir’. You can say ‘miss,’ ‘excuse me,’ ‘pardon me’ — or just wait until I make eye contact with you. But please don’t touch my rear end again!” — Abbie Unger.

• Blocking the aisle

“Attention all passengers: Stop. Doing. This.” — Shawn Kathleen said of the photo below showing passengers sharing earphones across the aisle.

Please be considerate. Picture: PassengerShaming.com Source: Facebook

• Making yourself at home, including clipping your nails and walking to the bathroom barefoot

“It’s just so gross. And people in first class are even worse — they think it’s their house.” — Nick Stracener.

“We are always reminding people to put their shoes on because the wetness on the floor is not water.” — Sydney Pearl, author and creator of the website Diary of a Pissed Off Flight Attendant.

Eww. Picture: PassengerShaming.com Source: Facebook

• Using the toilet when the plane is about to land — or meals are being served

“My main pet peeve is when people get on the plane and immediately go to the bathroom all the way in the back.” — an anonymous flight attendant told theNYPost.

• Hanging out in or near the galley

“I came out of the galley and she scared the crap out of me!!” — Shawn Kathleen said on spotting the woman in the photo below in such a strange place, and position.

What’s she doing there? Picture: PassengerShaming.com Source: Facebook

Source….www.news.com.au

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NASA Scientist Turns Mars Rover Selfie Into Art….

August 24, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

A ‘selfie’ taken by NASA’s Curiosity Rover has become such a hit that it inspired one of the scientists on the team that created the camera taking the selfie to turn into an artwork.

NASA shared the picture on its Facebook page. It’s titled Le Petit Rover – a reference to French writer-aviator’s book Le Petit Prince or The Little Prince, a book about a planet-hopping ‘prince’ who falls to Earth from an asteroid.

Photo Credit: Facebook/NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover

The original image is a low-angle self-portrait of the Mars Rover, which shows the vehicle above the “Buckskin” rock target in the “Marias Pass” area of lower Mount Sharp.

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The artwork inspired by the original selfie has almost 3,000 likes so far.

Source….www.ndtv.com

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