AstrotalkUK

Not for profit website/blog on astronomy, space and my writing

Jim Reavis – Cloud Security Alliance

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Jim reavis

A short interview with Jim Revis recorded in London on 24th April during InfoSec 2013. In this interview Jim talks about the evolving definition of of Cloud Computing, the CSA’s Star Registry, CSA’s Cloud Computing Security Knowledge certification and his take on how cloud Computing has been and is evolving.

During the interview, Jim refers to a collaborative program between the CSA and (ISC)2 to create a new  professional certification in Cloud Security. More details here.

For my earlier post on CCSK with a downloadable full text pdf – see here

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Book Review – The Cosmonaut Who Couldn’t Stop Smiling: The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin

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The Cosmonaut who couldn't stop smiling

Title: The Cosmonaut Who Couldn’t Stop Smiling: The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin
Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press (May 15, 2012)
Author: Andrew L. Jenks
Hardback: 315 pages
ISBN: 9780875804477

Disclosure.  I contacted the author in mid 2011 just as I was finishing my book Yuri Gagarin in London and Manchester. We exchanged some chapters prior to publication to learn from each other’s research.

In this compelling book the author untangles the complex and at times conflicting legacy of Gagarin’s epic spaceflight and its socio-political global aftermath. Drawing on his experience as a journalist and a historian of technology the Russian speaking American author, injects fresh life in to a story that started over half a century ago.

As the subtitle “The life and legend of Yuri Gagarin” suggests, the thrust of the book deals with the perceptions of the real man that existed and the myth that was created on his return not only in the Soviet Union but around the world.  Many vivid examples, some published for the first time, illustrate Gagarin’s greatest impact. His single orbit of the Earth served to finally shed  the inferiority complex that had hung over the Soviet Union for decades.

The author illustrates with personal accounts from the time, Gagarin’s commitment to assist members of the working class from which he had emerged whilst also exploiting his celebrity status to access privilege and favours for himself and friends.

One of the many surprises for me was to learn how much a polarising figure Gagarin has become within the Russian community. A figure of disdain in Moscow but continues to attract reverence in the provinces where he lived especially the Saratov region.  Despite gaining access to some archives, many remained inaccessible. The gatekeepers of some archives insisted on preserving the Soviet hero image they helped to create.

Gagarin’s duplicity is examined. His willingness to lie about landing in the spacecraft when he had actually ejected whilst he was still at 7km altitude or claiming that the injury to his forehead was the result of him protecting his daughter rather than jumping from a balcony of a bedroom he had no business being in. The author offers an explanation. The lies of the west were seen as immoral and blatant but those of the east were noble and just.  That smile, according to his wife, was a defense mechanism. With it Gagarin blurred the distinction between truth and a joke.

Gagarin had mastered the complexities of spaceflight but for a twenty seven year old who had never been outside Russia prior to orbiting the Earth a more demanding journey was yet to come. Navigating the global celebrity and politics of the Cold War was an infinitely greater challenge.

This is the most penetrating and insightful study, seven years in the making, of how Gagarin was transformed by his astonishing achievement and how it continues to shape society even today.

Mars Beckons India – Mars mission set for November launch

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Mars Beckons India Book Review

Title: Mars Beckons India. The story of India’s Mission to Mars
Publisher: Vigyan Pasar
Author: Srinivas Laxman
ISBN: 9788174802255
Hardback: 71 pages

Disclosure: The author of this book, Srinivas Laxman reviewed my book “Yuri Gagarin in Manchester and London” on his blog in 2011. 

The dramatic announcement by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in August 2012 to launch a mission to Mars surprised everyone. It went further. In order to catch the next Mars launch window ISRO committed to a launch in November 2013. Miss that and they will have to wait for at least two years for the next one.  This is an extra-ordinarily bold undertaking for a space agency with the experience of only a single mission beyond Earth orbit under its belt.

In this book the author, a Times of India journalist, Srinivas Laxman interviews some of the key ISRO personnel to get mission details first hand. There is not a great deal of detail in the book.  Given the record breaking timescale, just over a year from announcement to launch, much of the detail is work in progress. The subtitle “The story of India’s Mission to Mars” is a little ambitious given that the mission has yet to begin. In the preface the author describes the book as a “public outreach exercise” which is much more appropriate objective. The book is well produced containing a generous number colour images. Some are disappointingly small and not all sit well within the narrative where they appear.

Although far from comprehensive, this is probably the most detailed information source authorised by ISRO in the public domain at the present. It was published early 2013. Mission details are still emerging. The 500kg spacecraft called Mangalyaan in the media but not formally by ISRO nor in this book, was made by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, will be launched aboard a PSLV-XL launcher  (the same one used for the  Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon in 2008) in November 2013. Following six ever increasing elliptical orbits of Earth,  Mangalyaan will leave Earth on 26th November and enter Martian orbit of 500km by 80,000km on 21st  September 2014.

This mission, unlike Chandrayaan-1 does not have an element of international collaboration. All five instruments (Methane Sensor, Thermal Infra-red Imaging Spectrometer, Mars Colour Camera, Lyman Alpha Photometer and the Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser) are of Indian origin.

Also included in the book is some background to Mars missions in the past and an introduction to some of the key ISRO personnel too.  This is an ideal book for anyone new to the subject, especially students who are looking for a primer on the India’s first Mars mission. Currently it is only available in hardback. Particularly for the student community, the publisher should consider releasing an e-book version.

The book, published only in India is available online  from Bookadda  at RS175.

Episode 61: Reg Turnill on Wernher von Braun

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Reg Turnill wit von Braun
Reg Turnill with Wernher von Braun 1977

Like so many in the “space community” I was saddened to hear of the passing of Reg Turnill. He was  the BBC’s aerospace correspondent but is  best known  for covering the American Space program  throughout the 60s and 70s that he documents so well in his book Moonlandings: An eye witness account.

He was the BBC’s representative in Moscow at Gagarin’s post flight press conference and told me in episode 41 of his experience when I went to meet him in January 2011.

Reg captures the ambiguity of the brilliant Wernher von Braun who he got to know so well that he called him a friend and yet believed that he was a war criminal and should have been hanged.

In this 30 minute podcast , the first a six minutes is  telephone conversation recorded on 3rd November 2011 followed by extracts from his talk at the UK Space Conference 5th July 2011 “The von Braun that I knew”. Reg shares three of his audio interviews with von Braun, the audio quality of the 2nd and 3rd is better than the first.

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