space frontiers

  • Photo: ESA-C.Carreau/ATG-medialab

    Here We Come(t): Success of the Rosetta Mission

    The landing of ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) Philae lander on the comet 67P last week (on November 12th 2014) was reported pretty widely as a “failure”. The primary reason was twofold: the legs that were the landing mechanism for Philae failed to fire; and when it did finally land (using backup mechanism), it landed in a shadow region of...

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  • Photo: Nestad/Wikimedia Commons

    Success of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission

    On September 23, India’s Mangalyaan spacecraft completed its 11-month long journey to Mars, and began its orbit of the Red planet the following day. An unusually long time to traverse the 100 million mile distance, its cause is the innovative new technique of escaping Earth’s orbit this mission has pioneered, allowing ISRO (India’s space agency) to keep its cost...

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  • Photo: Ding Ling Xinhua/AP

    The Legend of The Jade Rabbit

     Issue 25

    The Chinese were over, or is it on, the moon as their rover, the Jade Rabbit landed on the moon’s surface on 14th December. It’s the first mission to the moon by a country in the last 40 years and the third country to land a rover on the moon after the United States and the former Soviet Union....

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  • Photo: KWTV

    The New Age of Privateering

     Issue 25

    Mars One, a dutch non profit organisation ,SpaceX with its founder Elon Musk are all working towards setting up a Human colonies on Mars . This year –MarsOne received 2lakh applications for the one way trip to Mars –the schedule is something like this :In the next 2 years 40 of the applicants will be selected for the 7...

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  • Photo: ESA-D. Ducros, 2013/Wikimedia Commons

    Gaia: Eye In The Sky

     Issue 25

    Imagine a billion pixel camera!!! that’s right – that’s the scale of the camera fitted on the Gaia – a space telescope that blasted off successfully, 6 days before Christmas from French Guiana. Built by the European Space agency (ESA) ,Gaia has the mission of making a three dimensional picture of our galaxy-the Milky Way. The telescope is so...

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  • Photo: Arun Sankar K/AP

    India To Mars

     Issue 25

    India’s first mission to Mars was launched successfully on November 5th and on 1st December ,it left it Earth’s orbit ,having now gone the farthest any Indian spacecraft has ever travelled .It is expected to reach Mar’s orbit on Sept 24th 2014 – no country has succeeded in reaching Mars in its first attempt and no Asian Country has...

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  • Photo: Anand Murali/ISRO

    Mangalyaan Escapes Earth’s Orbit

     Issue 24

    India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) cleared its first critical hurdle on Sunday (3rd Dec), when it completed its Earth orbiting phase and left Earth’s sphere of influence. It is the first Indian mission ever to leave the Earth’s sphere of influence (which incudes the Moon), and go beyond, into interplanetary space. Mangalyaan, as it’s known, had already orbited the...

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    ISON – Resurrection?

     Issue 23

    Every skygazer worth their salt (astronomers I mean) is waiting with bated breath this week to see if Comet ISON (widely billed as the Comet of the Century) has survived its close shave with our Sun which took place on Thursday evening – while everyone was busy with their Thanksgiving dinners and family reunions. The event is significant for...

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  • Photo: NASA

    Our Bipolar Sun

     Issue 22

    In the next few weeks, we will witness one of the more mysterious phenomena in the solar system as the local star, our Sun, flips the polarity of its colossal magnetic field. The Sun like all stars and most celestial objects has a magnetic field with north south polarity. The field is massive and extends to billions of kilometers,...

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  • Photo: Arun Sankar K/AP

    Mangalyaan: Why India’s First Mars Mission Is Very Important to the World

     Issue 21

    I’m sure everyone’s heard about it – some (including me) watched the whole thing on TV – India’s first Mars mission was a much anticipated and much-celebrated event. But what I, and many others I’m sure, did not realize at first is the global importance of Mangalyaan, the cheapest Mars mission ever. The Mars Orbiter Mission, adorably acronymed MOM,...

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