Indian Scientist For Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has a new project manager: Phil Varghese, who has managed another veteran NASA Mars mission - the Mars Odyssey orbiter - since 2004. Varghese has worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., since 1989.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been examining Mars with six advanced instruments since 2006. It has returned more data than the total from all other NASA missions that have flown farther than the moon.
Mars Odyssey began orbiting Mars in 2001 and is the longest-active spacecraft studying the Red Planet. Varghese previously managed the Deep Space 1 technology demonstration mission, which flew past asteroid Braille and comet Borrelly using solar-powered ion propulsion.
Varghese, a native of Kerala, India, came to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1971 to study physics, earned his doctorate at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore., and then worked with computer and aerospace companies. He began his work at JPL as an engineer on NASA's Mars Observer Project. He lives in Los Angeles.
JPL's Jim Erickson managed the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project from December 2006 to February 2010, succeeding the project's original manager, Jim Graf. Erickson now manages JPL's Deep Space Network and Mission Service Planning and Management Program. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Manager Dan Johnston served as acting Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project manager for the past four months.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey for NASA.

Indian eye in sky

The spy craft, called the Communication Centric Intelligence Satellite is expected to be launched into orbit in 2014, keeping a close watch on hot spots in the troubled neighborhood. CCI-Sat is part of a high-priority plan to develop electronic warfare systems for India's army, navy and air force, G Boopathy, director of the Defense Electronic Research Laboratory, was quoted telling local media.
The laboratory is developing the $25 million satellite and Boopathy said the project was still in its initial phases of planning. "The focus now, is space; we have to equip ourselves for electronic warfare from space, too," he said. Beyond surveillance, CCI-Sat is capable of picking up images, even conversations, between satellite phones.
The satellite is expected to orbit Earth at an altitude of 300 miles and keep watch on hostile regions in India's region by passing on surveillance data to intelligence command-and-control centers. The Hindu newspaper reported the satellite will be fitted with electronic sensors that are more powerful than the Indian Space Research Organization's remote-sensing satellites.
It said the electronic warfare sensor would be "located on on the mountain range facing Pakistan, China, Nepal and the northeast part of the country, to detect troop or vehicular movement across the borders."
Only a select number of countries, including the United States, France and China, are using such electronic spy satellites. While the payload will be built by India's Defense Electronic Research Laboratory, the satellite's design and development will be made by the country's space research organization. India is poised to put an other two military Cartosat-2B satellites in orbit in the coming months. Both will also be used for military purposes. Last year, India launched its generic RISAT-2 military satellite, which is keeping a high-resolution eye on the country's borders and coastline to watch for terrorist infiltration, Defense News reported.
Meantime, the director of Defense Avionics Research Establishment revealed that new electronic warfare technology has been developed for light aircraft and that the system was set to be tested imminently. Defense scientists told local media that India was focusing research on technologies to intercept and jam satellite phone networks. "That project is going on," an unnamed official was quoted as saying. "Within a year, it will be ready." Among other developments, officials said a "penetration aid," that allows Indian military aircraft to penetrate enemy territory without being identified by surrounding radar.

The Satellite distroyer

Indian defence scientists are readying a weapons system to neutralise enemy satellites operating in low-earth orbit, a top defence scientist said here on Sunday."India is putting together building blocks of technology that could be used to neutralise enemy satellites," Defence Research and Development Organisation Director General V K Saraswat told reporters on the sidelines of the 97th Indian Science Congress.
However, he added that the defence scientists have not planned any tests but have started planning such technology which could be used to leapfrog to build a weapon in case the country needed it .Saraswat, who is also the Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister, said the scientists were planning to build the weapon which would have the capacity to hit and destroy satellites in low-earth orbit and polar orbit.

Usually, satellites in such orbits are used for network centric warfare and neutralising such spacecraft would deny enemy access to its space assets."We are working to ensure space security and protect our satellites .At the same time we are also working on how to deny the enemy access to its space assets," he said. To achieve such capabilities, a kill vehicle needs to be developed and that process is being carried out under the Ballistic Missile Defence programme.
"Basically, these are deterrence technologies and quite certainly many of these technologies will not be used. I hope they are not used," Saraswat said. In January 2007, China had demonstrated its capability to destroy satellites by conducting an anti-satellite test. It had launched a missile that blew to smithereens an ageing weather satellite Fengyun 1C orbiting at a distance of 500 miles away from the earth. Saraswat said the DRDO is building an advanced version of its interceptor missile with a range of 120-140 km. The missile interceptor is expected to be test fired in September.Space security is going to be a major issue in the future and India should not be left behind in this area, the defence scientist said.

India's first commercial solar power plant

India inaugurated Azure Power's 2-megawatt photovoltaic plant in the state of Punjab, the first privately owned, utility-scale power plant on the Asian subcontinent.
Built under a 30-year power purchase agreement with the Punjab State Electricity Board, the plant will help power 4,000 rural homes for 20,000 people.
Farooq Abdullah, minister of new and renewable energy, said the plant showcases India's pledge to generate 20,000 megawatts from solar power by 2022 under the country's national solar mission.
Azure Power is India's first independent power producer in solar energy. It built the plant, situated on 13 acres of farmland in the village of Awan, in a record six months,
Inderpreet Wadhwa founded Azure Power two years ago after a 15-year career in the United States that most recently included software giant Oracle Corp. The 37-year-old native of Amritsar city in Punjab said he wanted to return home and do something for rural areas in India, where millions of people don't have reliable electricity.
Azure Power received initial venture-capital funding from Helion Ventures and Foundation Capital.
Wadhwa encountered a number of bureaucratic hurdles in the project, including obtaining signatures from 152 local officials in Punjab, The Wall Street Journal reports. And he ended up paying more than double the market rate for the land, about $420 per acre a year.
Yet Wadhwa is pressing on. His company has also inked agreements with local Indian governments of Gujarat and Harayana to build facilities that can produce a total of 22 megawatts. It is also coordinating with the state governments of Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Rajasthan for another 30 megawatts.
"My aim is to be a leading solar power generator in India by offering viable and socially responsible alternatives to conventional sources of energy," he told the India Business Standard.
About 8 percent of India's energy comes from renewable sources such as wind and hydropower. Solar power, experts say, has great potential because it can work almost anywhere in India.
But growth in the sector has been hampered somewhat by the high costs of the technology and inability of power companies to obtain sizeable tracts of land for the solar panels.
To encourage more investment in the solar sector, the Indian government is increasing subsidies for solar projects and mandating that state utilities purchase solar power. But some experts say government support won't help as long as solar technology remains expensive.
"To achieve scale, you'll need private participation, and that will only happen if the projects are viable without significant state support," Jai Mavani, head of infrastructure and government consulting at KPMG India, told The Wall Street Journal.