Life Of Navin

Random Musings, Random Bullshit.

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Chandrayaan 2 Launch Details Emerge!!

As I've said in earlier posts, I'm eternally on the hunt for news on India's moon mission Chandrayaan. And after getting you news that the Chandrayaan 2 designs have been finalised, here comes some more fresh news, this time pertaining to the launch details of India's second lunar mission.

Chandrayaan II will be launched on the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) as opposed to the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) (which, as we all know was used to launch the Chandrayaan I satellite and impact probe).

In all probability, the GSLV III will be used for the launch. What makes this so special is the fact that the GSLV III is a completely different three stage launch vehicle and is completely unlike its predecessor the GSLV I.

Fact for the DumDums: There is no GSLV II!! There's the GSLV Mark I (Mk I), the GSLV Mark II (Mk II) and now the GSLV III (Some even call it the GSLV Mark III). GSLV III is made completely from scratch by Indian scientists with almost no external help. The Russian developed cryogenic third stage of the first GSLV will be replaced with an Indian-built cryogenic engine in the GSLV III. Also, the GSLV III will also be able to launch heavier payloads than its predecessor. As such, its success will really push India up on the space exploration front as it will not only prove that we can handle an entire exploration programme with 100% Indian technology, but also that we no longer have to depend on foreign countries for heavier payloads.

Speaking to reporters, Dr. Madhavan Nair, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), also outlined the immediate plans of ISRO. “An ocean satellite, which is in the offing, would be launched by March or April. The satellite will be used to detect surface temperature and extra sensors to map the colour of the ocean have also been added to the satellite.” he said.

Now obviously, this doesn't mean that the Chandrayaan II mission will take the back seat until mid-2009. Preliminary tests on the recently finalised designs have already begun and as of now, its been pretty much smooth sailing for the team.

Meanwhile, top scientists, who were involved in India’s successful unmanned mission to the moon Chandrayaan I will meet on January 29 to analyse the preliminary data generated by the payloads of the satellite. ISRO officials said a day-long deliberation will be held in the city for the first time since the lunar probe blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on October 22 last year.

Details of the second mission are at their preliminary stages and I cannot really get more details at this stage. But I'll surely keep you posted once details emerge. Lets just keep our fingers crossed guys!! ;)

Update: 8:30 AM Jan 29 2009: Chandrayaan 1 just completed 100 days in space..... a huge round of applause for the Chandrayaan team!!

Related Posts:
Chandrayaan 2 Design Finalised!! Woot Woot!!

Chandrayaan I, locked and Loaded

Virus Busting Beyond The Final Frontier!!

A Desi Flying Saucer!!

Mars Orbiter To Phoenix-"Say Cheese"!!


11 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Read My Blog!!

Well, since there isn't much happening in the areas of technology, space,movies etc etc etc........(atleast not much that interests me!!), I'm left with only one kind of post which I can resort to to unleash my creative/moronic/perverted imagination: PERSONAL POSTS!!

Hmm.... So what do I write about?? Loads of people actually read this stuff, right from friends and family to online colleagues and perhaps even *her*!! The number of compliments/brickbats I've received for this blog are proof of that!!

Now how on earth did all this happen?? I mean, how on earth could this blog of a 17 year old weirdo manage to get so popular?? (It got a page rank of 1 in less than 5 months of its inception!!)

Whats so great about this blog??

My Answer: NOTHING (English), KUCH BHI NAHI (Hindi), НIчOгO (Ukrainian), NADA (Portuguese), INGENTING (Swedish), KITEY NAA (Konkani), NON-EXISTANTE (Latin??)

You don't believe me huh?? Well, perhaps this post will convince you why "not" to visit my blog

So here we go:

1) Firstly, there are millions, if not billions, of other blogs out there. Many of them are written by famous people. I'm not one of them!! I'm just that random guy you saw yesterday on the street next to yours. My only claim to "fame" is that I'm involved in a few network security related projects (Make that "was involved", as most of which are currently lacking funding and are on the way down the drain). My name is not Amitabh, or Aamir, or Salman.... its Navin!! Now how many famous Navins do you know?? Yeah I Know............ Null set!!

2) This blog has no personality, Its not even got a cool swanky name. Its "lifeofnavin-mere dil ki baat..." for heavens sake!! C'mon how unimaginative is that?? My friends have blogs with names like sathyabh.at, santo.sh and morphianrealm while I have lifeofnavin. Yech!!

3) Usually there's a theme to blogs, but mine comes across as the rantings of some technologically obsessed space freak who enjoys the occasional movie or two. I accept that the above description is eerily true, but c'mon, that's not gonna get anyone to visit this blog regularly.

4) Unless you know me personally, you have no reason to read this blog, and even if you do, why would you bother?? I wouldn't bother either!!

5) I don't update this blog very often (Believe me, I try to maintain a one-post-a-week blog but it rarely works!!), and even when I do it's sometimes bull$hit on topics which have very few takers, if any. For eg. this, this, this, this and this!! My reasons are simple......



6) I don't write on topics that most the "dudes" from college like to read about (read Girls) for reasons which are pretty much obvious. I write equally from my brain and heart, generally devoid of any adulteration.

7) Once you finish reading my posts, you don't really feel like you've learnt anything....... infact some of my posts involve concepts so complex that by the end you are feeling much more inferior than you ever felt before, while others simply make you want to bang your head against the screen and scream out my name followed by a slew of words which we all called "Bad words" till we were in the 8th.

8) My writings seem amazingly well written (in case of personal post like this one) or well researched (in case of technical posts), but the fact of the matter is that they aren't!! My posts are all of the read once and dispose type. For me, this blog is simply an opportunity to waste your time, so that you study less, bring down the class average and make my grades look better at the end of the semester.

9) You don't like my face and that's why you don't like my blog. (*peep* you!! You can ask guys who know me...... I don't give a *peep* about physical appearances anyways!!)



10) If you visit my blog on a daily basis, you will force me to waste my *precious* time updating the blog and forget my priorities. Because it is 2:30 AM ( yeah, in the night dufus!!) and I have other much more important stuff to do....... seriously stop laughing!!

11) There is barely any original content on this blog!! Even this post, which is specifically telling you to never visit this blog again because of its boring content, has probably already been done by someone else, and perhaps a lot better, complete with a video documentary on why the blog stinks with a voiceover by Morgan Freeman (and a Bhojpuri version voiced by Ravi Kissen).

So that was it.....

I bet you're gonna laugh your head off after reading this and congratulate me the next time you meet me for my writing *skills* and then forget about this post, and (over the course of time) this blog too.

I gotta go now...... Hopefully, we'll meet again next week!! (Read Point No. 5 Again!!)

P.S. I'm planning to do a post or two on my first BBA Project (note tht I'm an engineering student), and yes, Shohaib AKA S^2 AKA The "Inno-WEIGHT" man, teri toh phatne waali hai!! To know more about S^2, I guess you'll just have to wait for the next post.

cheers!!

Awesome Quotes By MIT Professors!!

Another day, another email: This time from one of my good friends from the capital of India, Nayi Dilli. I'm simply copy-pasting it for your reading pleasure:


Hey Navin,

I found this site that gives some assorted quotes from professors in premier higher degree educational institutes. (read: Massachusetts Institute Of Technology) I found some of them absolutely hilarious, and I daresay those who are going abroad for higher studies can expect some really geeky humor. Here are some of the most hilarious ones:
The best way to do that is with… reagents that probably don’t
exist, which is why that’s not such a great way to do that.


After finishing his presentation:
Why is everyone watching me?


Titanic is just Romeo and Juliet. And an iceberg.


There are (N + f - 1)! / [N! (f - 1)!] ways to permute my balls.

The partition function is an animal which was invented in chapter 6.
It is not a fundamental animal, but it is a convenient animal.


When multiple metal atoms get together, their valence electrons run
wild, like kids in a hippie commune.


I won’t give you a transparent proof. I’ll give you the most obscure proof I can find.


That’s outside the scope of this course. That’s in the next course, which I'm pretty sure you won’t take.


This is a true fact, like all facts.


How many people don’t know omega is the cube-root of unity?
- a couple of hands go up
That’s a lie; I just told you.


When something is beautiful and elegant, it is of no help in actual computation.


“F” isn’t a function anymore. It’s just the letter that comes after “e”.


A finite plane is a very good approximation to an infinite plane.


My efforts to simplify it have led to complexifying it.


OK. I'll work on it, and you'll work on it, and we'll discuss it when it's too late.


It looks like the hypothesis has nothing to do with the solution. That makes a good theorem.


Set theory is ... the kind of muddy water where logicians like to swim in.


This proof requires some thinking. So let’s omit proving that.


At certain critical values of b, something terrible is going to happen.


These are Maxwell’s equations, and you can find them on any MIT T-shirt.


We do what mathematicians always do: we assume all physical constants are equal to 1. Well, except maybe the square root of 2 pi, but I usually assume the square root of 2 pi is equal to 1, too.


Let’s take a tube of toilet paper without the ends — this is often called a cylinder.


Before giving some twisted derivation:
There is no motivation for doing what we’re going to do.


Riemann wrote this in an eight-page paper around 100 years ago, and mathematicians have been trying to understand it ever since. Of course, it was written in German…


This is one of those things which you probably already understand but won’t after I’m finished explaining it.


We’ll call this one mu. Do you all know what mu is? If nothing else, higher education gives you a deeper understanding of greek.


While discussing multivariable max/min problems:
It’s obvious that there’s a maximum… it’s obvious to me, anyway, and I’m giving the lecture.

Oh my god, it’s working!

I misunderstood your question, but it was a good one.


If not a biggest element, then certainly an element than which no other element is bigger.


Clearly spoken by a computer science professor:
In digital systems you have to take into account things that almost work. And when I say `almost work’ I mean it doesn’t really work.

This would be visible if it were visible, but it’s not.


While calculating the number of expected childern a couple would have before they had a girl:
So a girl is like a system failure.


There is a point I want to make.
*pause*
That was my point.


No hardcore math people here…?
There was no reply
then I can get away with this.


Don’t worry, I can’t pass the exams either.


I’m not trying to say anything interesting


I have a feeling I must be a windbag, since my notes for this lecture
consist of 4 lines, and [in 44 minutes] I've only covered 2.

Look - a review session is just like sex. You can tell me what you want, and I’ll give it to you, or you can not tell me what you want, and you’ll just get screwed.


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Rolling on the floor??

I Googled some of these quotes and stumbled upon the actual site where these quotes were first published. Its http://diswww.mit.edu/bloom-picayune.mit.edu/pqb/?1

Check it out.... there are quite a few good ones that I haven't posted here as well!!

What say??

BTW: This is my first post this year..... and before I forget......... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

cheers!!

Prologue

Finally after all these years, here's to the beginning of what was there, what is there and hopefully what will remain!! So here are my thoughts & words -Online!!

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