AstrotalkUK

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

Buzz Aldrin in Yorkshire

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To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11- reposting this 10-minute interview with Buzz Aldrin recorded on 30 April 2008. This was originally posted as episode 12. Some of the topics we spoke about were

  • Only became an astronaut after he failed to acquire a Rhodes scholarship.. twice!
  • Saw the Aurora borealis (Northern lights) from New Jersey
  • Saw more stars from Texas or Hawaii than when is space. The visor protection prevented him from seeing anything in the night sky except the Earth and the Sun from the lunar surface.
  • Dedicated his PhD thesis to the “the crew members of this country’s present and future manned space programs”.
  • Was concerned that his illness from Hepatitis may have impacted his NASA selection.
  • In 2002 he whacked a guy (persistent conspiracy theorists) at the “spur of the moment”.
  • Agrees that the film “In the shadow of the Moon” portrayed an accurate representation of the manned mission to the Moon

Chandrayaan-2 – Back to the Moon

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Pragyan Touchdown. – Scheduled for 01:55 IST on 7 September 2019

[ycd_countdown id=5360]

T+
Successful Launch on 14:43 IST on Monday 22 July 2019

Second Attempt: Monday 22 July 10:13 BST (14:43 IST)
First Attempt: Sunday 14 July – 22:21 BST. ** Launch aborted at T- 56M 24s**

Reason for abort: The third stage of the GSLV Mk3 uses a cryogenic engine where liquid Hydrogen and liquid Oxygen are the propellents. Loading these propellents (first Oxygen and then Hydrogen) is completed just minutes prior to lift off.  A Helium container above the Oxygen tank began to leak at a particular pressure. It was the detection of this leak at T-56 minutes that the mission was aborted. ISRO engineers have confirmed that they can make the fix at the launch pad without the need to return the launch vehicle to the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Reschedule: The new launch date is 22nd July 2019 at 10:13 BST. Chandrayaan-2 was going to take 54 days to get to the Moon, the delayed departure will be compensated for during the Earthbound manoeuvres. It will now take 47 days to get to the Moon. The original landing date of 6th September will not change.

ISRO  Links

Web https://www.isro.gov.in/
Twitter http://www.twitter.com/isro
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw5hEVOTfz_AfzsNFWyNlNg
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/isro
Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/ISRO
NASA Spaceflight Forum https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?board=62.0

Launch Live Stream 

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USpCu-Z1usk
[2] http://cdn.24fd.com/e19/07/isro/15/index.html

If all goes to plan (weather is looking a little dodgy) Chandrayaan-2, India’s second moon mission will lift off from India’s Space Port – Sriharikota at 22:21 BST. This will be India’s second Moon mission since Chandrayaan-1 launched in 2008. 

This mission consists of an orbiter, lander and a rover. It will be launched on a GSLV Mk3, India’s “heavy lift” launcher. To date, the GSLV-Mk3 has had 3 successful flights (one of which was suborbital). Click on any image to open gallery view.

Links

For more pictures and information see the gallery and the brochure. The orbiter has 8 instruments, the lander (called Vikram) has 3 and the rover (called Pragyan) has 3.

OrbiterLanderRover
1 Terrain Mapping Camera: An instrument for Lunar Seismic ActivityAlpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer
2 Chandrayaan 2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer Chandra’s Surface Thermo-physical ExperimentLaser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope
3 Solar X-Ray MonitorLangmuir ProbeLaser Retroreflector Array (LRA) – Passive experiment from NASA
4 Imaging IR Spectrometer
5 Synthetic Aperture Radar L&S Bands
6 Chandra’s Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2
7 Orbiter High-Resolution Camera
8 Dual Frequency Radio Science Experiment

Episode 86 – Moon: Art, Science, Culture

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Moon: Art, Science, Culture
Moon: Art, Science, Culture

The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing was a momentous event and expected to be marked by numerous publications. Most books cover the technologies, events, personal recollections and politics of the first human voyage to another world. One book jointly authored by an art historian and an astronomer has a fresh perspective.

The guests in this episode are the authors of the book Moon: Art, Science, Culture – Dr Alexandra Loske Associate Tutor in Art History, University of Sussex and Dr Robert Massey Deputy Executive Director Royal Astronomical Society.

The book is attracting an interesting eclectic mix of readers with an interest in science and art. Some of the topics we spoke about include

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Episode 76: Space law

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Bayar Goswami

One of the earliest characteristics of human civilisation (large populations living together in organised cities) was the creation of rules or laws that everyone who lived there agreed to abide by.

The 50th anniversary of first humans to visit the Moon is celebrated later this year. In 1968 it was pretty much just two countries and a few space missions per year. Today, over 70 countries have something in the way of a space programme and along with a blossoming private space sector, space is likely to become very busy in the next decade or so. This surge of space activity will determine how the laws in space will apply and begin to set the scene for human civilisation beyond Earth.   On earth, most nations follow international laws most of the time.

International rules for operating in space were defined by the UN in five treaties established between 1967 – 1984.

  • 1967 – The Outer Space Treaty: Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies.
  • 1968 – Rescue Agreement. Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space.
  • 1972 – The Liability agreement. Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects.
  • 1976 – The Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space.
  • 1984 – The Moon Treaty. Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies.

How will these laws fair in space? For example, will all governments

  • “authorise and supervise” their  “non-governmental entities” in space?
  • comply with international liabilities for physical damages caused by their space objects?
  • agree on who can build what and where on the Moon?
  • establish mining and ownership rights to materials on the Moon and other celestial bodies?
  • maintain the principles of human rights in space.

These are some of the questions I discuss with  Bayar Goswami, a Doctoral student at the Institute of Air and Space Law, McGill University (IASL) in Canada. A TedX speaker, Bayar has an interest in space as well as law and I started by asking him what came first.

The distinction between terms, such as signed, ratified and accessioned, is described here. A status of which nations have signed which treaty is maintained by the UN here. A summary of the five treaties is available here.

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