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London 2nd June 2018 – 38th BIS Russian Sino Technical Forum 2018

By Gurbir Dated: May 31, 2018

Anatoly Artsebarsky

Speakers include Cosmonaut Anatoly Artsebarsky and Phil Clark, Andrew Knight, Phil Mills, Galina Nechitailo, David Shayler, Bert Vis, Andrew Thomas, Bert Vis, Brian Harvey, Bart Hendrickx, Sven Grahn.

During the weekend of 2nd and 3rd June 2018 the BIS will be holding its annual Russian/Sino Technical Forum at the Society’s Headquarters in London. This Forum has been running for a glorious 38 years, under the title Soviet/Chinese; last year, we modernised the title to reflect the content more accurately.

For this year’s draft Programme, please click here. We are honoured to have our usual excellent crew of speakers and delighted that cosmonaut Anatoly Artsebarsky is joining us again this year!

The Russian/Sino Technical Forum is one of the most popular and longest running events in the Society’s history and has hosted some star guests over the years. We are proud to say that we have sufficient material for a two-day programme this year and we will continue the tradition of featuring a wide-ranging agenda. Details of the programme are being finalised but will feature presentations, films and debates on the history, current activities and future plans of both the Russian and Chinese space programmes. We encourage members to support the event, visit the heart of the BIS and take the opportunity to meet old friends and establish new contacts.

All speakers and delegates are welcome to join us for an informal dinner on Saturday evening at the Riverside pub, Vauxhall. This dinner will be self-funded so you need only let us know whether you definitely want to join us, so that we can give an accurate head count for the booking. (Please add a comment in the notes field in the shopping basket). It’s possible the pub will want to take pre-orders and we will email you if that turns out to be the case.

To register please click here or call 020 7735 3160.

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Book Review – India’s Rise as a Space Power

By Gurbir Dated: December 24, 2014 Leave a Comment

Title: India’s Rise as a Space PowerIndias Rise as a Space Power
Publisher: Cambridge University Press, India Pvt Ltd
Author: U.R Rao
ISBN-10: 9382993487 ISBN-13: 978-9382993483

In the April of 1971, the USSR approached India and offered to launch an Indian satellite. Vikram Sarabhai asked UR Rao to develop and lead the program. In December 1971 Sarabhai died. Perhaps it was this sacred memory of his mentor, friend and boss that gave Rao the infinite drive to put an Indian built satellite in Earth orbit with remarkable haste.  Where Sarabhai had given India a space program, Rao gave India the confidence to design,  build and operate satellites.  This was the start of Rao’s fascinating career with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)  that culminated in his decade long tenure as ISROs’ chairman starting in 1984. In this book, Rao recalls his personal recollections whilst at the helm when ISRO started to build and launch science, communication and remote sensing satellites, initiate program for the GSLV 3 heavy launch vehicle and established Antrix, ISROs commercial arm.

The main thrust of the book documents Rao’s key contribution, specifically establishing India’s satellites program and developing  the ground based infrastructure to receive, process and disseminate the resulting data.   It also captures the collaborative, competitive and antagonistic environment of the Cold War that prevailed at the time.

The author shares some remarkable insights that given his central role, have an unquestionable authority.  For example, the Soviet Ambassador Pegov in May 1971 asserted that USSR would only launch India’s first satellite if it was heavier than the first satellite launched by the Chinese (p27).  India was not a just a passive receiver of help from the USSR but as professor Kovtunenko acknowledged India was of “immense value” (p47) to the Soviet space program too. The USSR launched the first three satellites (Aryabhata, Bhaskara 1 & 2) and EAS launched the 4th (Ariane Passenger PayLoad Experiment APPLE).  All were launched without charge. Drawing on his personal international contacts he provided the leadership and the inspiration to make it happen.

In chapter eleven Rao describes his own reservations in the value of accepting the Soviet’s offer to launch an Indian Astronaut. Indian Air Force’s Rakesh Sharma returned from his 8 days in space in April 1984 to huge public celebrations. But ISRO was not ready and could not build on that success at the time.

Most of the 21 chapters in the book deal with the potential of space technology to help mitigate poverty and elaborate on how far that potential has been realised.  Chapter 19 deals with one of the most fascinating episodes in ISRO’s history and Rao was at the centre of it at the time.  India had mastered rockets that used solid propellants and liquid propellants.  ISRO then embarked on a  program to acquire cryogenic engine technology (engines that use liquid Oxygen at -182C and Liquid Hydrogen at -253C) the most efficient rocket engines that exist. The very low operating temperature is a tough engineering challenge. This episode illuminates not only the political upheavals of the early 1990s but also the economics of national space programs.  India had negotiated a cryogenic technology transfer deal with the Soviets but soon after the breakup of the USSR, the USA flexing its muscle as the only superpower forced Russia to renege on the deal. Threatened by the commercial impact of India as a rising space power, USA falsely claimed that the Indo-Soviet technology transfer deal violated the Missile Technology Control Regime.

It is traditional for any book review to include aspects that were not up to scratch even if it ticks all the boxes. A key omission was an index. This is true for any non-fiction book but especially one that deals with key events, people and places. Most of the book uses clear articulate text for which no scientific background is required. However there are small section that are a little heavy e.g “12 C-band transponders provided a 10/12 functional redundancy” (p96). Rao after all is an accomplished cosmic ray scientist with a substantial track record in writing scientific papers.

The author uses the word “parallely” frequently throughout the book.  Initially it was a little repetitive but ultimately this one word conveys the central message that satellite development was not taking place in isolation but several elements of a national infrastructure steeped in science and technology were being harnessed simultaneously for a modern India as the 21st century approached.Sarabhai’s original vision was finally being realised.   

In what is one of the shortest chapters (Chapter 8) Rao describes the birth of the ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC).  Today ISAC is  where satellites are designed and built before going to Earth orbit or in to deep space. ISAC is a central component of Rao’s extensive legacy and this book authoritatively captures the details of how it came about. The book has an immense value for future historians. Not all previous ISRO chairmen have documented their experiences as Rao has done here.   It is a valuable source of fascinating information in India’s development, an example that future ISRO chairmen should be encouraged to follow.

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Episode 67: Technik Museum Speyer

By Gurbir Dated: February 3, 2014 Leave a Comment

IMG_3306This episode is a preview of some of the space related exhibits in Europe’s largest aerospace museum – Speyer Technik Museum, in Germany. If you ever go and the following may entice you to do so,  four space exhibits to look out for include the following:

Soyuz TM19 – The landing capsule Soyuz TM-19 was used by the German astronaut Ulf Merbold to return to Earth on 4th November 1994 following his launch in Soyuz TM-20 on 3rd October 1994.

Buran – The Soviet Space shuttle Buran was a the Soviet response to the American Space Shuttle. Two complete working vehicles were made.  The Buran was unmanned and, although reusable, was never actually reused. One made a single flight to space and was later destroyed when the hangar housing it collapsed. The other made 25 test flights also unmanned but only in Earth atmosphere.  Following an unexpected find in the Persian Gulf by German journalists, it was brought to Speyer in 2008.

Bor-5 – To assist the Soviets’ design of the Buran they built and flew BOR-5 – a  1:8 scale model of the Buran. Bor-5  made five unmanned sub-orbital test flights between 1984 and 1988.

Moon rock – One of the largest pieces of Moonrock I have seen on public display. It is from Apollo 15 mission but was unveiled at the Museum in June 2013 by Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan. 

If you do go, it is is a big place – one day is not enough!

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Episode 65: ISRO – The early years

By Gurbir Dated: December 5, 2013 1 Comment

URRoa
Prof. UR Rao

The Indian Space Research Organisation formally came in to being in 1972. By then, India had been developing its space program for almost a decade. The first launch to space from Indian soil was a two stage Nike-Apache rocket supplied by USA with a  sodium  payload from France. The rocket delivered a vertical trail of sodium vapour in space above the twilight sky of the south eastern coast of Kerala on 21st November 1963.

In this episode, professor UR Rao talks about his rich and diverse career. Professor Rao completed his Phd under Dr Vikram Sarabhai, then went on to work for NASA at MIT and in Texas exploring the Solar System with instruments on NASA’s Pioneer and Explorer spacecraft. He returned to India at Sarabhai’s request and after heading up the Physical Research Laboratory, in 1984 became the chairman of the Indian Space Research organisation. He served in that role until 1994.

During his 81 years, he has participated in many significant areas in space and science exploration.  Several key individuals associated with space and science research including CV Raman, Robert Millikan, Ed Stone, Arthur Clark,  James Van Allen , Abdus Salam and Vikram Sarabhai were individual he knew personally and some were colleagues.

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