Astronomy online Archives

Quick Update

Its been a while since I posted episode 72. Now that the book The Indian Space Programme has been published, I am resuming the podcasting. You can see some Amazon Reviews and if you have one, add your own too. More about that book on this short BBC radio interview here.

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If you want you can subscribe to my monthly newsletter. The previous newsletter (March 2018) available here. April’s newsletter coming out tomorrow!

Scheduled episodes currently looks like this

Episode 73. Dr. Rajan Bedi – Using Commercial Of the Shelf (COTs) Components to build spacecraft (1st May 2018)
Episode 74. Dr Brian Weeden – Space Debris and Sustainable use of Space (18th May 2018)
Episode 75. Dr Quan-Zhi Ye. China – Back to the Moon with Chang’e 4 (1 June 2018)

Book Launch – Manchester 18:30 Friday 16 March 2018

By Gurbir

During the short presentation including pictures that did not make it into the book, the author will outline the book contents, his motivations for writing the book, the research conducted and take questions.

Free to all but need to book online here. Includes drinks (wine and soft drinks) and snacks and no need to buy a book!

Title: Book Launch – The Indian Space Programme
Date: Friday 16th March 2018
Time: 18:30 – 20:00
Venue: International Society, William Kay House, 327 Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PG. Map
Cost: Free, includes soft drinks, wine and snacks. Book purchase is not necessary.

Schedule
18:30 – Open for guest – drinks and nibbles
19:00 – 19:30 – Presentation by the author
19:30 – More drinks (inc. wine) and nibbles and book signing
20:00 – End

Fifty years in the making, India’s Space Programme is fulfilling the vision of its founders and delivering services from space that touch the lives of 1.3 billion people every day. In addition to operating a collection of satellites for weather, Earth observation, navigation and communication, today India has a spacecraft orbiting Mars and a space telescope in Earth orbit.

Security hole on – MacOS High Sierra. Login as Root – No password needed!

By Gurbir

Sounds unbelievable but it is true. Use the username “root” and hit enter in the password field (i.e. no password) and you have full local admin access! So until it is fixed you physical security will be critical. Maybe a good idea not to travel with the mac. The Apple ecosystem is supposed to be one of the most secure but.. Even Android would (probably) not be that relaxed.

I upgraded to MacOS High Sierra at the weekend and tried out the “bug” today. It has been reported widely. Not only does it work on the System Preferences panel.

But it works from the login page. Select “Other User”, type in Root as the username, hit enter in the password field (may need to do this a few times) and .. you are in!

The Indian Space Programme (the book) – price discount and reviews

By Gurbir

Price discounts until the end of November. Ebook £9.99. Book reviews of the The Indian Space Programme.

“A true scholarly, and authoritative history. A landmark book.” Dr Allan Chapman, Wadham College University of Oxford.

“Singh has done a masterful job of pulling together unique material and photos for a popular reader.” Leonard David.

“This is a monumental book on the Indian space program, arguably the least covered major space program in the world. In over 600 pages, the author describes the organization and history of India’s launcher and satellite programs. My conclusion was that if something is not covered in this book, it wasn’t worth covering. Kudos to Mr. Singh for researching and writing such a complete overview. If you have any questions on India’s space efforts, the answer will surely be here.” Bert Vis

“Excellent book giving each and every single detail, not only about India’s Space Programme, but also historical aspects of Europe, USA and Russian” Dr Rajinder Singh, University of Oldenburg, Germany.

Available now