Russia Announces Plan to Build New Space Station With Nasa

Russia on Saturday announced initial plans to build a new orbital space station together with Nasa to replace the International Space Station (ISS), which is set to operate until 2024.Russia and Nasa recently agreed to keep operating and financing the ISS until 2024, but future joint space projects have remained in doubt, as relations between Russia and the US have plunged to post-Cold War lows over the Ukraine conflict.

"Roscosmos together with Nasa will work on the programme of a future orbital station," the head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency, Igor Komarov said, quoted by Interfax news agency.

Komarov made the announcement flanked by Nasa administrator Charles Bolden at Russia's Baikonur launchpad in Kazakhstan.

"We agreed that the group of countries taking part in the ISS project will work on the future project of a new orbital station," Komarov said.

The Russian space chief said that the project to build the new station would be "open" and could include countries that are not currently involved in the ISS."The first step is that the ISS will operate until 2024," he added. Russia had threatened to pull out in 2020 but said earlier this year it would keep up its role until 2024.

Roscosmos and Nasa "do not rule out that the station's flight could be extended," Komarov added.

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Solar-Powered Aircraft Leaves Myanmar for China

The Solar Impulse (Si2), the solar-powered aircraft on a mission to fly around the globe without a drop of fuel, left Mandalay in Myanmar for China on Sunday on the fifth leg of its journey.The aircraft, piloted by the Swiss project chairman Bertrand Piccard, left Mandalay at 3.36am on Monday morning, and is heading for Chongqing in China, according (http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32110747) to a BBC report.

Leg five of the aircraft will be a long one - about 1,375 km - and is expected to take roughly 19 hours.It will see the Si2 landing around midnight at the Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport.

The plan of the project team is to make a brief stop in Chongqing, and then try to reach Nanjing on the east coast of China.

This would set up the Si2 for the first of its big ocean crossings - a five-day, five-night flight to Hawaii.

Capable of flying over oceans for several days and nights in a row, the single-seater Si2, which started its journey from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on March 9, will travel 35,000 km around the world in 25 days.

Mission control will not make a decision on the Nanjing leg until late on Monday.The decision may rest on the state of the energy reserves held in the plane's batteries.

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Nasa's Mercury 'Messenger' Mission Given Last Lease of Life

Nasa engineers have lifted the orbit of the Mercury probe - currently operating on an extended mission and almost out of fuel - and delayed its inevitable impact into Mercury's surface by up to a month.

Launched in August 2004, the $450 million MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (Messenger) mission is currently orbiting our solar system's innermost planet.In March 2011, Messenger became the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.

"We decided on a strategy that includes five manoeuvres in as many weeks to keep the spacecraft within a tight altitude range of 5 to 39 km above the surface of Mercury at closest approach," said Jim McAdams, Messenger mission's design lead engineer from Johns Hopkins University in a statement.

The next such manoeuvre is scheduled for April 2.With these manoeuvres, Messenger could keep observing Mercury till April 30.After this, the probe will succumb to the force of the Sun's gravity and spiral down to its doom on Mercury, Space.com reported.

So far, the probe has yielded the best-ever maps of Mercury.It also discovered carbon-containing organic compounds and water ice inside permanently shadowed craters near the rocky world's north pole.

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Asus ZenFone 2 to Launch in India by Last Week of April

The Asus ZenFone 2 is set to launch in India by the last week of April, as per a company statement on Monday - in-line with an earlier statement by Asus Taiwan that'd tipped an April launch. The much-anticipated smartphone has several variants, including one with a 5-inch display and a few with 5.5-inch displays, and with memory up to 4GB of RAM.

The top-end Asus ZenFone 2 model (ZE551ML) with 64GB of built-in storage and 4GB of RAM was also recently revealed by the firm, with a price of TWD 9,990 (roughly Rs. 19,900).

Earlier this month, Asus Taiwan had revealed the pricing of all the models of the new ZenFone 2 series. The Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB RAM, and 32GB storage) was priced at TWD 8,990 (approximately Rs. 18,000); the Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (2GB RAM) at TWD 6,990 (approximately Rs. 13,900); the Asus ZenFone 2 ZE550ML at TWD 5,990 (approximately Rs. 11,900), and the Asus ZenFone 2 ZE500CL priced at TWD 4,990 (approximately Rs. 9,900).

All variants of the Asus ZenFone 2 run the company's new ZenUI based on Google's Android 5.0 Lollipop, and feature Intel Atom SoCs. The Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB) features a 64-bit 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3580 processor, while the 2GB of RAM model features a 1.8GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3560. The ZenFone 2 ZE550ML is also powered by the same Intel Atom Z3560 chipset. The basic ZenFone 2 ZE500CL model features a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 processor. All the versions support expandable storage via microSD card (up to 64GB).

 

 

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Isro Says Saarc Satellite Configuration Will Be Finalised Soon

The configuration of the Saarc satellite will be finalised soon and it launched within 18 month, said the Indian space agency chief on Saturday.

"The configuration of the Saarc satellite will be soon decided. Then within 18 months, the satellite would be launched," Indian Space Research Organisation(Isro) chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar told reporters in Sriharikota after the successful launch of India's fourth navigation satellite.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has mooted the idea of a satellite serving the needs of Saarc members.

Kiran Kumar said Isro has a busy year ahead with several satellite launches slated.

He said Isro will be launching a British satellite for a fee; two more Indian navigation satellites; a GSAT series communication satellite using an Indian rocket; and a heavier communication satellite using Arianespace rocket.

India will also launch a technology demonstrator for reusable launch vehicle this year.

According to Kiran Kumar, in couple of weeks time the tests on reusable launch vehicle will be over and in three months time, Isro will be able to launch the same.

Queried about the data received from the methane sensors in India's Mars Orbiter, he said: "To conclude what the methane sensors have seen takes time."

On the question of third rocket launch pad, M.Y.S.Prasad, director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre said: "The construction would take around five years time. A study report has been submitted and the government has to take a decision after reviewing the report."

 

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Researchers Find Fresh Evidence for Groundwater on Mars

Scientists investigated the Equatorial Layered Deposits (ELDs) of Arabia Terra in Firsoff crater area of Mars to understand their formation and potential habitability, according to a new study published in GSA Bulletin.

On the plateau, ELDs consist of rare mounds, flat-lying deposits and cross-bedded dune fields.

The scientists interpreted the mounds as smaller spring deposits, the flat-lying deposits as playa, and the cross-bedded dune fields as aeolian.

They wrote that groundwater fluctuations appear to be the major factor controlling ELD deposition.

They noted that the ELDs inside the craters would likely have originated by fluid up-welling through the fissure ridges and the mounds, and that lead to evaporite precipitation.

The presence of spring and playa deposits points to the possible presence of a hydrological cycle, driving groundwater upwelling on Mars at surface temperatures above freezing, according to lead researcher Monica Pondrelli from Italy-based International Research School of Planetary Science.

Pondrelli and colleagues wrote that such conditions in a similar Earth environment would have been conducive for microbial colonization.

As a basis for their research, Pondrelli and colleagues produced a detailed geological map of the Firsoff crater area.

The new map includes crater count dating, a survey of the stratigraphic relations, and analysis of the depositional geometries and compositional constraints.

They noted that this ELD unit consists of sulphates and shows other characteristics typical of evaporites such as polygonal pattern and indications of dissolution.

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EU to Launch 4 More Galileo Navigation Satellites in 2015

Four more satellites will be launched this year for the European Union's (EU) indigenous satellite navigation programme, Galileo, the EU has said, following the successful launch of two satellites last week.

The next launch of Galileo satellites was scheduled for September 2015, the European Commission (EC) stated, according to a Xinhua report on Sunday.

The EC aims to ensure initial Galileo services by 2016 and full services by 2020.

The EU's Galileo satellite navigation system now has eight satellites in orbit following the launch of the latest pair on Friday night.

Friday's launch represented the resumption of Galileo satellite flights after two satellites launched in August 2014 were delivered to a wrong orbit.

Once completed by the end of 2020, the Galileo system will consist of 30 satellites and the necessary ground infrastructure to control the satellites and enable positioning, navigation and timing services.

The Galileo system is fully financed out of the EU budget and the EU will spend EUR 7 billion (about $7.62 billion) on satellite navigation, according to the EC.

In 2013, the annual global market for navigation satellite products and services was valued at 175 billion euros (nearly $190.6 billion). It is expected to grow over the next years to an estimated EUR 237 billion (nearly $258.1 billion) in 2020.

 

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Isro Working on Ion Propulsion System for Future Satellites

The Indian space agency is looking at the possibility of having ion propulsion system to power its future satellites, said a senior space scientist on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre director K.Sivan said: "In order to reduce the satellite mass, we are looking at ion propulsion system."

The centre is part of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).

Presently, satellite fuel occupies space and make it heavy. According to Sivan, the proposed technology would be tested in a communication satellite.

The other technology that the centre is working on is semi-cryogenic engine.

He said the centre has tested the Isro developed cryogenic engine for 20 seconds, and the duration of the tests will be increased in the future.

India's heavy rocket - Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-MkIII - will be powered by the cryogenic engine.

 

 

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Another Blogger Hacked to Death in Bangladesh

A blogger was hacked to death in the Bangladesh capital on Monday, in the latest brutal attack on the country's independent writers, a senior officer said.

Police have arrested two men over the murder which comes just weeks after an American atheist blogger was also hacked to death in Dhaka, a crime that triggered international outrage, the officer said.

"He was brutally hacked to death this morning with big knives just 500 yards (460 metres) from his home at Dhaka's Begunbari area," local police chief Wahidul Islam told AFP.

Islam said the men were arrested immediately after the attack trying to flee the scene.

Police said they were unsure whether the victim, Washiqur Rahman, 27, was also an atheist blogger but another social media writer said that he was known to write "against religious fundamentalism".

"It appeared Rahman used to write using a pen-name Kutshit Hasher Chhana (Ugly Duckling)," Imran Sarker, head of Blogger and Online Activists Network in Bangladesh, told AFP.

"He was a progressive free thinker and was against religious fundamentalism," he said.

Police have also arrested a suspect over the killing in February of American atheist writer and blogger Avijit Roy.

Roy was the second atheist blogger to have been murdered in the Muslim-majority country in the last two years and the fourth writer to have been attacked since 2004.

His killing sparked an uproar at home and abroad with hundreds of secular activists holding protests for days to demand justice.

They also slammed the country's secular government for not doing enough to protect humanist writers.

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Lava Iris 444 Available Online at Rs. 3,199; Lava NKS 101 Listed on Company Site

Lava seems all set to launch two new products in India - the Lava Iris 444 smartphone and the Lava NKS 101 tablet.

While the Lava Iris 444 is already available through online retailer for Rs. 3,199, the Lava NKS 101 tablet has been listed on company's site without any pricing or availability details.

The Lava Iris 444 is a dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) smartphone which runs Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box. It features a 4-inch (480x800 pixels) WVGA TFT display, and is powered by a 1GHz single-core Cortex -A7 processor coupled with 256MB of RAM.

The Iris 444 comes with 512MB of inbuilt storage, which is further expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB). It sports a 2-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, while there is a secondary 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera also onboard.

On the connectivity front, the Lava Iris 444 includes GPRS/ EDGE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Micro-USB, and Bluetooth options. The smartphone packs a 1400mAh battery, which according to the listing is rated to deliver up to 12 hours of talk time on 2G networks. The handset measures 123x63.2x11mm, and weighs 116 grams. The smartphone is available through Flipkart in a dual-tone Black and Blue colour option.

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