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Pilots of AI flight 829 de-rostered

September 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Mumbai, Sep 5(ANI): The pilots of the Riyadh bound Air India flight (AI-829) whose engine caught fire in the Mumbai International Airport have been de-rostered on Saturday.

According to reports, Director General of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Nazeem Zaldi, has confirmed that the pilots have been de-rostered.

Meanwhile, it has also been reported that preliminary reports of the four-member in-house committee, which has been set up to probe the incident, suggest that there have been lapses on part of the pilots.

Nearly 200 passengers were onboard the flight, when the aircraft’s left engine caught fire while taking off.

Many passengers who had suffered bruises and cuts while sliding down from the chutes, who were immediately taken to the Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL) casualty centre and given first aid. (ANI)

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Four-member team set up to probe Air India fire incident

September 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Mumbai, Sep 5 (ANI): A four-member in-house committee has been set up to probe the Air India fire incident that took place at Mumbai International Airport on Friday.

Nearly 200 passengers were onboard on Riyadh bound Air India flight (AI-829) while the aircraft’s left engine caught fire while taking off.

Many passengers suffered bruises and cuts while sliding down from the chutes but were taken to the Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL) casualty centre and given first aid.

Ruling out the possibility of a technical snag leading to the grounding of the aircraft at Mumbai Airport, aviation experts said the fuel leaked onto the heated engines of the aircraft and that had caused the fire.

They said that timely information provided by a passenger led the crew to stop the flight from taxing off the runway for Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.

Flight 829 was immediately grounded when sparks were detected flying out of one of the engines.

The 213 passengers onboard were evacuated by slides to safety. Four fire engines were rushed to the spot, as also other equipment and personnel. (ANI)

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DGCA recommends derostering of Air India maintenance engineer for fuel leak

September 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Mumbai, Sep.4 (ANI): The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered the derostering of the maintenance engineer who was working on Air India flight 829 after it developed a fuel leak.

The DGCA has ordered a detailed probe into the fuel leak from the wings of an Air India flight that caused one of the engines to catch fire.

Ruling out the possibility of a technical snag leading to the grounding of the aircraft at Mumbai Airport on Friday morning, aviation experts said the fuel leaked onto the heated engines of the aircraft and that had caused the fire.

Had it not been detected, they said it could have led to a major catastrophe in the air.

They said that timely information provided by a passenger led the crew to stop the flight from taxing off the runway for Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.

Flight 829 was immediately grounded when sparks were detected flying out of one of the engines.

The 213 passengers onboard were evacuated by slides to safety.

Four fire engines were rushed to the spot, as also other equipment and personnel. (ANI)

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Fuel leak behind Air India flight fire: Experts

September 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Mumbai, Sep.4 (ANI): Aviation experts on Friday said that a fuel leak from the wings of an Air India flight caused one of the engines to catch fire.

Ruling out the possibility of a technical snag leading to the grounding of the aircraft at Mumbai Airport on Friday morning, the experts said the fuel leaked onto the heated engines of the aircraft and that had caused the fire.

Had it not been detected, they said it could have led to a major catastrophe in the air.

They said that timely information provided by a passenger led the crew to stop the flight from taxing off the runway for Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.

Flight 829 was immediately grounded when sparks were detected flying out of one of the engines.

The 213 passengers onboard were evacuated by slides to safety. Four fire engines were rushed to the spot, as also other equipment and personnel. (ANI)

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Air India flight grounded in Mumbai as engine catches fire

September 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Mumbai, Sep.4 (ANI): A major tragedy was avoided at Mumbai Airport on Friday morning when an emergency was declared after one of the engines of an Air India flight caught fire while getting ready to taxi off the runway.

Reports said the flight, which was bound for Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, was immediately grounded when a passenger detected sparks flying out of one of the engines.

The 213 passengers onboard were evacuated by slides to safety. Four fire engines were rushed to the spot, as also other equipment and personnel.

Officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation are investigating the causes for what would have been a huge tragedy.(ANI)

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Terror suspect held in Thiruvananthapuram

August 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 30 (ANI): Thiruvananthapuram-Kuwait flight take off was delayed on Sunday after the airport police arrested one person named ‘Kabir’.

Airport police arrested Kabir onboard KU-334 on information of a lookout notice against him.

Kabir is being questioned by the airport police. (ANI)

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Bihar flood victims allege government apathy

August 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Kevati (Bihar), Aug 27 (ANI): Angry and anguished villagers have blamed government apathy for the flood-related havoc across Bihar.

Thousands of people have been displaced after the Misraulia dam broke in theState’s Darbhanga district inundating several villages in the region.

The water has flooded the National Highway 105 Highway, taking away tracts of road with the flow.

Villages have turned into mini islands and are cut off from the rest of the region. Floods have affected around a million people in eleven districts of the state.

Reportedly, over 100 villages are reeling under floods in Darbhanga district.

The death toll due to floods has risen to 23 in the state, with seven fresh cases being reported on Wednesday.

The villagers alleged the government has turned blind eye to their woes and want the government to provide relief to them.

“The flood water has cut away large tracts of land in Khirma. The administration is turned a blind eye towards us. A boat was provided to the villagers, which was broken and hence it sunk with 25 people onboard. Till now, there has been no help from the government. Further on, there is a bridge, which has also been washed away by the flood water. There is around five to seven feet of water on the road but there is no rescue work being carried on to save the people,” said Janki Ahmed, a flood victim.

Movement is also restricted due to the washing away of roads in the region.

Paramilitary forces have been called in to rescue stranded people, but according to some paramilitary officials, it is impossible to carry out rescue work in inundated villages.

“Our main aim is to rescue people. But villages here are cut off from the rest of the region. We conducted a survey and found that the villagers here did not want to leave their homes, instead, they want the government to provide them with relief material. It is impossible to carry out rescue operation here,” said Manoj Kumar Chwarsla, a paramilitary official.

State Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is conducting an aerial survey of the flood-affected regions to assess the damage.

“I will conduct an aerial survey of the flood affected regions and hold discussions with the officials there. Instructions have already been issued to the officials there as to how to deal with the situation in the flood-affected areas. How people have to be rescued, how to provide relief material to them and all this work is being carried on by the disaster management department,” said Nitish Kumar.

The villagers are forced to remain indoors and are even facing food shortage in some areas.(ANI)

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If reconciled, Taliban militants could turn on India: Nicholas Burns

August 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Aug.18 (ANI): Expressing reservations over the idea of opening up communication channels with certain sections of Taliban, the former United States Deputy Secretary of State, Nicholas Burns, on Tuesday said that the US should resolve the problem keeping in view the regional context.

“Reconciling with Taliban is very complex and there is a risk that after the talks these militants could turn on India. We (US) should go ahead to look at the problem in the regional context,” said Nicholas Burns in the capital.

Burns, who retired from the U.S. foreign office a year-and-a-half ago, on Tuesday was here in Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) where he addressed ex-diplomats and strategists.

U S has been suffering major setbacks in combating Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and under its new AfPak policy, it is planning to hold talks with what it calls “Good Taliban” and would carry on its offensive against the ‘Bad Taliban’.

New Delhi is however skeptical about any reconciliation with militants and does not believe in the “Good Taliban theory”.

Burns further stressed that the U.S should deal with India and Pakistan singularly and there should be no ‘hyphenation’.

“The US should have independent relationship with Pakistan and India,” he added.

Calling India’s role in Afghanistan as “positive and constructive”, Burns said that Pakistan equipped with nuclear bombs and high instability is creating worries like no other country.

Burns said: “India could play an instrumental role in bringing Iran onboard as a nuclear Iran is not in the interest of India.”

On the issue of Mumbai terror attack on 26/11 last year, Burns said: “Mumbai attack had evoked lot of sympathy in the United States and we should use this to motivate the two countries in countering terrorism not only in south Asia but other parts of the world as well.”

Burns had played a key role during negotiations related to the Indo-U.S nuclear deal. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)

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China cites technical hitches for not supporting ban on Jaish.

August 13, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Aug.13 (ANI): China continues to remain reluctant about supporting India’s proposal at the United Nations to place sanctions on the Jaish-e-Mohammad.

ANI has learnt that in the recent meeting between the Special Representatives of the two countries led by National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo, the Chinese Representative cited “technical” reasons for not supporting the ban on the Jaish-e-Mohammad.

China is the only country in the Security Council which is blocking sanctions on the Jaish and its chief Maulana Masood Azhar.

New Delhi’s argument has been that Azhar benefited from a terror act – the hijacking of IC 814 – and, therefore, there can be no objections on the grounds of evidence.

According to sources, during the 13th round of Special Representatives talks in New Delhi, India handed over more details and documents about Azhar which establish that he is a terrorist.

Beijing’s response, however, was tepid.

India has already submitted detailed documents on the Jaish-e-Mohammad’s terrorist activities to the United Nations, which in turn has been circulated to other nations, including China.

Beijing, however, has been denial mode about receiving the document.

The Maulana Masood Azhar led Jaish-e-Mohammed is a Pakistan based terrorist organization which has orchestrated series of attacks against India.

Once sanctions on an individual or the origination are imposed under UN resolution 1267 which is also known as Al qaeeda and Taliban sanctions, it empowers India to demand action from Pakistan.

After being released from the Indian jail, Masood has been seen in various Pakistani cities addressing huge congregations and is reportedly living undercover within the patronage of the ISI.

Security experts believe that Pakistan is using its close tactical and strategic relations with China to block India’s attempts in the UNSC to ban the Jaish-e-Mohammad.

Earlier, the United Kingdom had shown reluctance to support the ban on the Jaish, but once India submitted details about the group, it agreed to come onboard and support the ban. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)

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‘India can sustain 8 to 9 per cent growth rate’

July 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

On Board special flight, July 11 (ANI): Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has said India should be able to sustain with little bit difficulty growth rate of 8 to 9 per cent notwithstanding difficulties on the international front.

Addressing a press conference onboard after attending the G8-G5 summit at L’Aquila in Italy, Dr. Singh said, “India’s saving is 35 per cent with normal capital output 4:1. I am confident that India will come out of this crisis stronger, but it will be a difficult road to travel.”

“Our exports have suffered, capital flows from abroad have declined, and international bank lending to the developing countries have declined. Therefore, challenge for us is to sustain and revive the growth which we have built up in last five years notwithstanding the deterioration,” he added.

The Prime Minister further said: “All available indicators of 2009 points to weakening of US and European economies and therefore one can say that the global environment for development of the countries of third world has undergone on sharp deterioration.”

Earlier, Dr. Singh expressed confidence that the country can achieve eight to nine per cent growth rate in the coming two to three years and the government will be working to achieve it.

The Prime Minister emphasized that though the fiscal deficit is high, there is a need to rapidly expand economy, create jobs and resources for spending on flagship programmes on education, health, rural development and scope for expansion in infrastructure development. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)

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PM says court’s verdict on Article 377 to be discussed with cabinet

July 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

On Board special flight, July 11 (ANI): Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has said the matter related to the Delhi High Court’s ruling on gay sex legalization will be discussed with his cabinet colleagues to seek their views in this regard.

Addressing a press conference onboard after attending the G8-G5 Summit at L’Aquila in Italy, Dr. Singh said, “I haven’t discussed the matter with my cabinet colleagues. Therefore, when I will go back, I will seek their views as to which anything further needs to be done or said in this regard.”

In a landmark verdict on July 2, the Delhi High Court legalized the homosexual behavior of consensual youths, which received a lot of opposition from the religious leaders.

It was earlier a criminal offence under Section 377 of Indian Penal Code (IPC).

On July 9, a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice K. G. Balkrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam issued notice to the Union Government to explain its stand on a petition challenging the Delhi High Court’s ruling.

The apex court posted the matter for hearing on July 20.

The Bench said that any interim order against the High Court verdict, if necessary, would be considered only after hearing the parties concerned.

The Bench also said they would hear the opinions of all the parties concerned before giving any interim order in this matter.

The apex court was hearing a plea filed by Suresh Kumar Kaushal, an astrologer. Notices were also issued to NAZ Foundation, and other respondents who were parties before the Delhi High Court. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)

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MJ’s body stored in LA crypt until family decides what to do with his remains

July 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New York, July 10 (ANI): If reports are to be believed, late King of Pop Michael Jackson’s kin have stored his body in Motown maestro Berry Gordy’s crypt in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, until they sort out what to do with the superstar’s remains.

Sources have revealed that Jackson’s brother Jermaine and father Joseph are insistent the Gloved One be buried at Neverland Ranch so that the family can profit from a proposed Graceland-style museum there, a process that may take years.

“Jermaine is the one that wants him at Neverland-he and Joseph — because of the whole Elvis thing and the money potential. They are seeing dollar signs,” the New York Post quoted a family source as saying.

On the other hand, adds the source, Jackson’s mother Katherine and most of his siblings want that his body be laid to rest elsewhere out of respect for his wish, following his acquittal on child-molestation charges, to never return to Neverland.

The source says that her son’s physical purgatory has left Katherine shaken.

“She is still upset that Michael isn’t buried and he is at Gordy’s spot in Forest Lawn. This fighting has to stop. We can never unite, and that’s an injustice,” the source said.

The newspaper report suggests that the fight between the clan has become so contentious that Jermaine rode in a separate Rolls-Royce limousine to Jacko’s public memorial at Los Angeles’ Staples Center, even though his mother had wanted all the brothers to ride together.

Meanwhile, most of the kids and Katherine are said to be onboard with a proposed documentary about the family, which can earn them 20 million dollars.

“They’re doing this documentary because with the kids, they will get 20 million dollars,” the source said, adding that Katherine was pushing all her children to be a part of it. (ANI)

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Space and robotics technology used to improve forest planning and harvesting

June 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 30 (ANI): Space and robotics technology have been combined to develop an advanced Precision Forestry Positioning System, which allows more efficient forest planning and harvesting.

Invented by researchers at the Institute of Man-Machine-Interaction at the RWTH Aachen University in Germany, the system has helped catalogue 240 million single trees in the German region of North Rhine-Westphalia. he system combines remote-sensing maps from airplanes with satellite navigation data to map each tree in a forest.

This information is then used to plan which trees are to be cut, and when.

Finally, the plan is used on harvesters to identify which trees to cut. This helps make the harvesting more efficient, optimises overall wood production and reduces costs.

The system won the North Rhine-Westphalia Region’s 2008 European Satellite Navigation Competition, which was supported by ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme Office.

“We already have one harvester in operation with our system onboard. As the prototype works well, we are fairly close to the stage where we can go into production. Another 6 to 12 months, and we should be there,” said Professor Dr Jurgen Rossmann from RWTH Aachen University, who developed the system together with Petra Krahwinkler, Arno Bucken and Dr Michael Schluse.

The objective of the Precision Forestry Positioning System is to automate and optimize all the work involved in foresting, from the early planning of the forest to the final cutting of single trees, in order to be competitive on the worldwide market, and to overcome efficiency problems related to the forest ownership structure of the region.

“Precision farming is important in today’s agriculture, where farmers can save money with the use of satellite navigation systems,” explained Arno Bucken.

“However, the accuracy of the GPS navigation system, which is of 20 to 30 m, is not enough to identify single trees in a forest. Much higher accuracy is needed,” he added.

“We found a solution to this problem, which increases the accuracy to 50 cm, by using GPS as the initial reference position, and then taking remote-sensing data to identify the single trees in the forest,” he explained.

To help the planning, a virtual computer-based forest has been developed with all trees being identified by their location, based on the GPS and remote-sensing data.
In addition, a fourth dimension, ‘time’, has been added, and is of the utmost importance for this system.

“All trees are not only known by their geo-coordinates, but they are also time-stamped, and all measurement data are archived.

This makes it possible to see ‘how trees grow’, as well as look back to learn from the past,” said Rossmann. (ANI)

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Mars had warmer weather in its recent past than previously thought

June 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, June 30 (ANI): A new research led by a UK scientist has indicated that Mars had significantly warmer weather in its recent past than previously thought.

Dr. Matthew Balme, from The Open University, made the new discovery by studying detailed images of equatorial landforms that formed by melting of ice-rich soils.
is work indicates that the Martian surface experienced “freeze thaw” cycles as recently as 2 million years ago, and that Mars has not been locked in permafrost conditions for billions of years as had been previously thought.

The high-resolution images, which show a variety of interesting landforms, were taken with NASA’s HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging science Experiment) which is onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission.

According to Dr. Balme, “The features of this terrain were previously interpreted to be the result of volcanic processes. The amazingly detailed images from HiRISE show that the features are instead caused by the expansion and contraction of ice, and by thawing of ice-rich ground. This all suggests a very different climate to what we see today.”

All of the landforms observed are in an outflow channel, thought to have been active as recently as 2 million to 8 million years ago.

Since the landforms exist within, and cut across, the pre-existing features of the channel, this suggests that they too were created within this timeframe.

The pictures show polygonally patterned surfaces, branched channels, blocky debris and mound/cone structures.

All of these features are similar to landforms on Earth typical of areas where permafrost terrain is melting.

“These observations demonstrate not only that there was ice near the Martian equator in the last few million years, but also that the ice melted to form liquid water and then refroze. And this probably happened for many cycles,” Dr. Balme said.

“Given that liquid water seems to be essential for life, these kinds of environments could be a great place to look for evidence of past life on Mars,” he added.

According to Professor Keith Mason, CEO of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), “Understanding current processes on the surface of Mars and the past and present role of climate improves our knowledge of the planet’s history and thus the chances of one day detecting evidence for past or present life.” (ANI)

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Saturn’s moon Enceladus may host a salty ocean

June 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, June 25 (ANI): A new research by European scientists has provided evidence that an enormous plume of water spurts in giant jets from the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus is fed by a salty ocean, a discovery that may have implications for the search for extraterrestrial life.

The Cassini spacecraft made a surprising discovery about Saturn’s sixth largest moon, Enceladus, on its exploration of the giant ringed planet in 2005.

Enceladus ejects water vapor, gas and tiny grains of ice into space hundreds of kilometers above the moon’s surface.

Enceladus orbits in Saturn’s outermost “E” ring. It is one of only three outer solar system bodies that produce active eruptions of dust and vapor.

Moreover, aside from the Earth, Mars, and Jupiter’s moon Europa, it is one of the only places in the solar system for which astronomers have direct evidence of the presence of water.

New understanding of how this plume is produced was revealed in 2008 by Juergen Schmidt of the University of Potsdam, Germany, and Nikolai Brilliantov of the University of Leicester, and colleagues.

They explained how the water vapor jets are blasted out much faster than the dust particles. To work their theory required that Enceladus has an ocean of liquid water below its surface.

The same team, working with Frank Postberg of the University of Heidelberg and the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, in Heidelberg, has now found the direct experimental evidence for the presence of this ocean, which was previously lacking.

Current theories of satellite formation suggest that should a moon have a deep liquid ocean in contact with the body’s rocky core, for many millions of years, then it should be a salty ocean.

The team now reports the detection of sodium salts among the dust ejected in the Enceladus plume.

Postberg and colleagues have studied data from the Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) onboard the Cassini spacecraft and have combined this data with laboratory experiments.

They have shown that the icy grains in the Enceladus plume contain substantial quantities of sodium salts, hinting at the salty ocean deep below.

The theory, proposed by Brilliantov and Schmidt, has allowed the team to relate the detected salt in the CDA with the likely concentration in the water vapor above the ocean, which proves the consistency of the experimental data.

The results of the study imply that the concentration of sodium chloride in the ocean can be as high as that of Earth’s oceans and is about 0.1-0.3 moles of salt per kilogram of water. (ANI)

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Admiral Mehta commissions fifth Landing Ship Tank ‘Airavat’

May 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Visakhapatnam, May 19 (ANI): Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta on Tuesday commissioned Indian Navy’s fifth Landing Ship Tank (Large) ‘Airavat’ here.

On the occasion, Mehta said the Airavat would augment the operational capabilities and reach of the Eastern Naval Command, in addition to enhancing the amphibious and disaster relief potential of the fleet.

Airavat, previously known as Yard 3016, was christened and launched by Maria Teresa Mehta in Kolkata on March 27 2006.

The ship was formally handed over to the Indian Navy on March 30, 2009 at Kolkata’s M/s Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited.

Airavat is the fifth LST (L) of the Indian Navy and third of the Shardul class. As a platform designed for amphibious operations against the enemy, it is a further upgrade on the Magar Class (the First LST (L)) in its suite of weapons, sensors and indigenous content.

With a significantly enhanced Weapon package, latest Control Systems and better Habitability conditions, Airavat delivers considerable punch and amphibious capabilities to the fighting prowess of the Indian Navy.

The ship can carry 10 Main Battle Tanks, 11 Combat Trucks and 500 Troops and has a considerable range and endurance at sea.

Besides undertaking amphibious operations, the ship is a potent assault platform capable of operating both Seaking 42C and the indigenous Dhruv helicopters.

It is fitted with two indigenous WM 18A Rocket Launchers to support successful amphibious operations. The threat from air is dealt with through two indigenous CRN 91 Anti-Aircraft Guns auto-controlled by Optronic Sights and shoulder launched IGLA Surface to-Air Missiles.

It also has soft kill ability through Chaff Rockets, which can be used to clutter the sensory inputs of an incoming enemy aircraft or missile.

The ship is fitted with Remote Propulsion Control, Battle Damage Control System and Automated Power Management System. These are fully integrated, microprocessor based, digital control systems for providing control and for monitoring ships machinery and systems.

The ship also has a microprocessor based anti-roll Flume Stabilisation System and Smoke Curtains to impede spreading of smoke and toxic gases in case of fire onboard.

In addition, the ship can act as a Fleet tanker through stern refueling of other naval vessels and as a hospital ship. The ship can be effectively tasked for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) missions during natural calamities like tsunami, cyclone, earthquake etc, and can operate independently at high seas for as long as 45 days. (ANI)

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Robo submarine all set to dive deep into Pacific Ocean

May 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, May 7 (ANI): A robotic submarine is undergoing final preparations to dive to the deepest-known part of the oceans.

According to a report by BBC News, if successful, Nereus, the robotic submarine, will be the first autonomous vehicle to visit the 11,000m (36,089 ft) Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean.

Only two other vehicles have ever visited the spot before, both of them human operated.

The 5 million dollars submarine will make the attempt in late May or early June after a series of increasingly deep dives.

“Instead of jumping directly into the deep end of the swimming pool with the vehicle, we’ll probably dip our toe in first,” said Andy Bowen of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and one of the designers of Nereus.

“We’ll work at 1,000m, 4,000m, 8,000m and then take a deep breath and see if we can get to 11,000m,” he added.

Ian Rouse, head of the deep platforms group at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, described the project as a “great technical challenge”.

“Below 6,500m deep (21,325ft), there are vehicles that can do a better job than Nereus due to its compromises in design,” he told BBC News. “However, from 6,500m to 11,000m, Nereus has the field pretty much to itself,” he added.

Other teams, notably the British, French, Russian and Japanese will be watching the mission “with interest”.

“The Nereus team is very experienced in designing and building other underwater vehicles, so I have no doubt they will succeed,” said Rouse.

The tests will take place on a research cruise between the 23 May and 6 June.

The Challenger Deep is the deepest-known part of the ocean, located in the Marianas Trench near the island of Guam in the west Pacific.

It is the deepest abyss on Earth at 11,000m-deep, more than 2km (1.2 miles) deeper than Mount Everest is high. At that depth, pressures reach 1,100 times the pressure at the surface.

Nereus aims to give researchers access to 100 percent of the seafloor. In its intelligent, autonomous mode, Nereus can map large areas of the ocean floor.

“The autonomous vehicle, as the name sounds, has autonomy from the human operators onboard the ship,” explained Bowen.

In this configuration, Nereus is able to fly pre-programmed missions, mapping vast swathes of the seafloor.

“It has sufficient onboard intelligence and batteries to find areas of particular interest through the use of chemical sensors, sonar and digital photography,” said Bowen. (ANI)

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NASA selects future projects to study Mars and Mercury

May 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 5 (ANI): NASA has selected two science investigations that will aid in the interior examination of Mars and probe the tenuous atmosphere of Mercury.

The projects, valued at approximately 38 million dollars, also establish new alliances with the European Space Agency, or ESA.

“The selections will further advance our knowledge of these exciting terrestrial planets,” said Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

“The international collaboration will create a new chapter in planetary science and provide a strong partnership with the international science community to complement future robotic and human exploration activities,” he added.

The Lander Radio-Science on ExoMars, or LaRa, will use NASA’s Deep Space Network of radio telescopes to track part of ESA’s ExoMars mission.

Scheduled to launch in 2016, the mission consists of a fixed lander and a rover that will roam Mars collecting soil samples for detailed analysis.

Data relayed from the lander back to the network will allow scientists to measure and analyze variations in the length of the day and location of the planet’s rotational axis.

This data will help researchers further dissect the structure of the Red Planet’s interior, including the size of its core.

When combined with the lander’s onboard instruments, the data also may help confirm whether the planet’s interior is still, at least partially, composed of liquid.

The second selection, named Strofio, will employ a unique mass spectrometer.

The instrument will determine the mass of atoms and molecules to reveal the composition of Mercury’s atmosphere.

The investigation will study the atmosphere, which is formed from material ejected from its surface, to reveal the composition of Mercury’s surface.

Strofio will investigate Mercury as a key component of the Italian Space Agency’s suite of science instruments that will fly aboard ESA’s BepiColombo mission.

Scheduled for launch in 2013, the mission is composed of two spacecraft.

Japan will build one spacecraft to study the planet’s magnetic field. ESA will build the other to study Mercury directly. (ANI)

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PML-N refuses to join Pak Govt., but offers outside support

May 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Lahore, May 3 (ANI): The Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz have decided to remain coalition partners in Punjab, while both have failed to reach a consensus on joining the federal government.

During a meeting between Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Saturday, The PML-N expressed its reluctance to become a coalition partner at the Centre. It, however, reassured the PPP of its ‘unconditional’ support without becoming part of the federal government.

The PML-N said it would continue to struggle for strengthening the democratic system, and both leaders agreed to respect each other’s mandate at the Centre and in Punjab, The News reports.

Earlier, Shahbaz Sharif had invited the PPP to return to the cabinet in the Punjab.

After a meeting of PPP’s senior leaders, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari offered the PML-N to return to the federal government.

However, the PML-N once again stuck to its stance of staying away from ‘power sharing’ at the Centre, and assured the PPP of continuing its unconditional support to the government without becoming its part.

According to the sources, most PPP members opposed the return of the PPP to the Punjab government, unless the PML-N returned at the Centre.

Meanwhile, Gilani and Sharif also discussed the current political situation of the country, including the issue of terrorism and the strategy to combat it.

Gilani assured the PML-N president of convening the APC as per the demand of Nawaz Sharif and taking all the political forces onboard to address the challenges faced by the Federation. (ANI)

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Jaipur on alert following bomb hoax on plane

May 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Jaipur, Apr.29 (ANI): Jaipur Airport was placed on a state of high alert on Wednesday evening after air traffic control was informed of a bomb on board flight number IC-661.

Air traffic control said they had received an anonymous call from Mumbai informing them of the bomb onboard.

The plane had left from Mumbai for Dubai. It landed at Jaipur as soon as the hoax call was made. Passengers were asked to disembark and escorted into the airport lounge and provided with refreshments. They were asked not to panic.

Security personnel were searching the plane, and it is expected to take off for Dubai shortly. (ANI)

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