Archives for August 2019

While the saffron party demanded more seats in the 2022 assembly elections, Shiromani Akali Dal wants the two-decade old seat sharing agreement to continue.

CHANDIGARH: All is not well between the alliance partners Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Punjab, as both parties have started aggressive membership drives in the state cutting into each other’s strongholds. 

While the saffron party demanded more seats in the 2022 assembly elections, Shiromani Akali Dal wants the two-decade old seat sharing agreement to continue.  The saffron party, which has reportedly enrolled 5 lakh new members in a month to its existing 23 lakh members, is eyeing for a bigger share of seats for both the assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Punjab. Currently, the BJP can contest on 23 seats in Assembly polls out of a total of 117 seats in the state and three seats in the Lok Sabha out of a total of 13 seats.

Meanwhile, senior alliance partner Shiromani Akali Dal has 55 lakh members and has also started an aggressive enrolment drive by appointing its sitting MLAs and former ministers as special supervisors to monitor the drive. 

The target of the party is to expand its base in urban areas where the saffron party has the base and the assembly segments of the BJP. The saffron party tried to make inroads in the constituencies of the Akali Dal.    

Clashes were witnessed between workers of both parties in Malwa region of the state last month.  Former Minister and SAD spokesman Daljeet Singh Cheema said that one should not disturb the decorum of the alliance and called for maturity so that the understating in both parties is maintained.

He said that the assembly elections are two and half years ahead and thus no statements should be made. Recently, Punjab BJP president Shwait Malik had hinted at the party expecting a bigger share of seats.

Seat-sharing trouble
While the saffron party demanded more seats in the 2022 assembly elections, SAD wants the two-decade old seat sharing agreement to continue. Currently, BJP can contest on 23 seats in assembly polls out of 117 seats and three seats in the Lok Sabha out of a total of 13

Justice N V Ramana told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Chidambaram, that the case will be put before the CJI.

NEW DELHI: A day after Delhi High Court dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of former Union Minister P Chidambaram, he approached the Supreme Court on Wednesday but got no immediate relief and was told that Chief Justice of India will take decision on listing of the case before appropriate bench.

Battery of senior lawyers led by Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid, Vivek Tankha and Ashwani Kumar urged the bench headed by Justice Ramana to hear the case, but the judges said that they can’t pass immediate orders and is sending the file to CJI Ranjan Gogoi for necessary directions in the case.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for CBI opposed Chidambaram’s plea.

Sibal then rushed to CJI’s court but since the constitution bench which was hearing the Ayodhya land dispute was sitting, he chose not to mention the case.

So, it is still not clear whether Chidambaram’s plea challenging the Delhi High Court’s order in the INX media case will be heard by Supreme Court today or not. It is likely that CJI will take a call on the listing of the plea during lunch hours.

In his 67 page petition, Chidambaram questioned the move by CBI of pasting the notice on his house late at night and asking him to join probe at such an odd hour and said, “CBI has just called me once in the investigation of the case and I went and answered all questions and was never called again, so what is the motive of putting up such a notice.”

Chidambaram has maintained he isn’t a flight risk, haven’t been accused of influencing witnesses of tampering with the Evidence.

Delhi High Court while rejecting Chidambaram’s interim bail had said, “Facts prima facie reveal that he is the kingpin, the key conspirator, in the case.”

The court also observed that the magnitude and enormity of material brought forth by investigating agencies clearly does not entitle him any pre-arrest bail.

The court said the economic offence of this magnitude certainly requires treatment with an iron hand and the hands of the investigating agencies cannot be tied up in such a massive economic offence.

Pramesh Jain

Chandrayaan 2 Crossed Major Milestone,Says ISRO Chief As Spacecraft Enters Lunar Orbit ,PM Modi wishes ISRO for Chandrayaan-2’s successful insertion into lunar orbit.
“Congratulations to all the ISRO Scientists for crossing the major milestone for the  Chandrayaan-2’s successful insertion into lunar orbit “.
Muthayya Vanitha –Project Director,Chandrayaan-2.Ritu Karidhal – Mission Director,Chandrayaan-2. Chandrakanta Kumar–Deputy Project Director, Chandrayaan-2.Mylswamy Annadurai –Project Director,Chandrayan-2.

Highlights :
* In a significant milestone for India’s Moon Mission,Chandrayaan-2 successfully entered the lunar orbit after nearly 30 days of journey in space. 
* ISRO in a statement said,Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) maneuver was completed successfully today (August 20, 2019) at 0902 hrs IST as planned,using the onboard propulsion system.The duration of maneuver was 1738 seconds.With this, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully inserted into a Lunar orbit.The orbit achieved is 114 km x 18072 km. 
* The Vikram lander of the Chandrayaan 2 is scheduled to detach from the Orbiter on September 2 and will initiate the touchdown procession on September 7.
* On September 3,a small 3-second manoeuvre will be performed to check whether all systems of the Lander module are working well on not.
* The Vikram lander will perform orbital descent from September 2 to September 7 before entering into the final descent phase.
* During the orbital descent,the Lander will examine and click pictures of the lunar surface to identify a flat and hazard-free landing zone.The polar region of the Moon is populated with craters and any mistake could lead to loss of the lander module.
* On September 7,the Vikram-lander will perform descent towards the Moon’s surface.It will begin at 0140 hours IST and will end at 0155 hours IST with the touchdown of Vikram lande.
* This process is termed as Powered Descent and requires extreme accuracy, skill and precision.
* In the final phase of the lunar landing, the Vikram lander which has a weight of 1471 kg will perform a descent at a touchdown velocity of 2 meters per second. Any minute mistake can lead to the failure of the mission.
* The final soft landing window is expected to be a 15-minute long process.The process will include a series of rough braking and fine braking manoeuvres to safely land the lander and Pragyan rover on the Moon’s surface.
* The braking has to be managed very precisely as any mistake can result is the crash landing of Vikram.During this process, ISRO scientists will have to take care of factors like navigation, guidance, controls, propulsion, sensors among other operational constraints.
* After the landing has been successfully performed,the rover module Pragyan will roll out.The rover is mounted inside the lander.
* The rover will roll out at around 0600 hours IST. It will roll out on the lunar surface after a gap of four hours of a successful landing.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday congratulated ISRO for Chandrayaan-2 successfully entering the lunar orbit, saying it is an important step in the landmark journey to the Moon”.

Congratulations to Team @isro on  #Chandrayaan2 entering the Moon’s orbit. This is an important step in the landmark journey to the Moon.Best wishes for its successful culmination PM Modi tweeted. 
“Our heart was almost stopping”, was how ISRO Chairman Dr.K Sivan described the tense moment when team Chadrayaan-2 attempted to inject the spacecraft into the lunar orbit on Tuesday.

India’s moonshot Chandrayaan 2 has been successfully manoeuvred into lunar orbit today,after nearly 30 days of space travel. This was one of the trickiest operations in the mission.A higher-than-expected approach velocity would have bounced off the spacecraft into deep space,while a slow approach would have led to the moon’s gravity to pull Chandrayaan 2 and crash it on the lunar surface.The approach velocity had to be just right and the altitude over the moon rather precise.Even a small error would have killed the mission.The process of setting down Chandrayaan 2 on the moon is very complex since it blasted off at a velocity of 39,240 kilometres per hour,which is almost 30 times the speed at which sound travels through air.India’s most ambitious space mission to date, Chandrayaan 2 had lifted off from India’s spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on July 22.Congratulations to Team @isro on  #Chandrayaan2 entering the Moon’s orbit. This is an important step in the landmark journey to the Moon.  
Almost a month after its lift-off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft has entered the lunar orbit.The spacecraft will now revolve around the moon and will start the landing of the Vikram lander on the surface on September 7 around 1.40 AM IST. It is expected to take 15 minutes for Vikram to land on the surface of the moon.The spacecraft has been injected into an elliptical orbit which is 114 km away from the moon’s surface at its nearest point and 18,072 Km at its furthest.
Today,the Chandrayaan-2 missioncrossed a major milestone.The lunar orbit insertion manoeuvre carried out at about 9 am,for about 30 minutes,precisely injected Chandrayaan-2 in a pre-defined orbit (around the moon),in a perfect way.All the systems onboard are functioning normally. The spacecraft is in perfect health, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman Dream.K Sivan said.
In the coming days,the spacecraft will attain a near-circular orbit of 100 km around the moon.At this point,the Vikram lander and along with the small Pragyaan rover will separate from the main module and descent towards the moon’s surface. The separation is scheduled for September 4.
Sivan said that since Vikram will land at the South Pole of the moon,Chandrayaan-2 is needed to attain an orbit that has an inclination of 90 degrees with respect to the lunar equator.This is a unique requirement that only Chandryaan-2 has  other countries that have landed (their spacecraft all in the equatorial regions of the moon) did not have this constraint. With today’s manoeuvre,Chandrayaan-2 is now going around the moon in an orbit of 114 km x 18072 km with an inclination of 88 degrees. In due course, this orbit would be brought down to 100km x 100km, and further to 100km x 30km. At that time, the inclination of the orbit would also be 90 degrees,” he said.
In a significant milestone for India’s Moon mission, the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft successfully entered the lunar orbit on Tuesday.
Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) manoeuvre was completed successfully at 0902 hours as planned, using the onboard propulsion system,the Bengaluru headquartered space agency said in a statement.
The duration of the manoeuvre was 1,738 seconds.With this,Chandrayaan-2 was successfully inserted into a Lunar orbit,ISRO said.
Following this,a series of orbit manoeuvres will be performed on Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft to enable it to enter its final orbit passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the Moon’s surface,it said.
Subsequently,the lander will separate from the Orbiter and enter within a 100 km X 30 km orbit around the Moon.
Then, it will perform a series of complex braking manoeuvres to soft-land in the South polar region of the Moon on September seven, ISRO stated.
The health of the spacecraft is continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Bylalu, near Bengaluru.
The next Lunar bound orbit manoeuvre is scheduled on Wednesday between 12.30 PM and 1.30 PM, ISRO said.
Chandrayaan-2,launched on July 22 by GSLV MkIII-M1 vehicle,had entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory on August 14.
According to ISRO,Chandrayaan 2, India’s second lunar expedition – will shed light on a completely unexplored section of the Moon it’s South Polar region.
“This mission will help us gain a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the Moon by conducting detailed topographical studies,comprehensive mineralogical analyses, and a host of other experiments on the lunar surfac the space agency had said.
“Will also explore discoveries made by Chandrayaan 1,such as the presence of water molecules on the Moon and new rock types with the unique chemical composition, it was stated.
The lift-off was successful in its second attempt,a week after it was aborted just under an hour from its launch due to a technical glitch.The mission stands out because of its low cost, with just about Rs.1,000 crore spent a much smaller price tag compared to similar missions by other countries.
“Chandrayaan 2 landing on Moon: Step-by-step guide to ‘terrifying’ process:
AUGUST 21st:
On August 21, Chandrayaan-2 will perform a manoeuvre to lower its orbit around the Moon. Between 12:30 pm and 1:30 pm, the Chandrayaan-2’s onboard propulsion system will be used to descend slightly towards the Moon. Once the manoeuvre is successfully completed, Chandrayaan-2 will be in an elliptical orbit of 121 kms x 4303 kms the probe will be 121 kms away from the Moon at the orbit’s nearest point and 4,303 kms away at its farthest point.
AUGUST 28th:
A week after the first orbit manoeuvre, Chandrayaan-2 will perform another similar manoeuvre. This manoeuvre will be performed between 5:30 am and 6:30 am on August 28 and will place the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit of 178 kms x 1,411 kms around the Moon.
AUGUST 30:
On August 30,Chandrayaan-2 will perform its penultimate orbit manoeuvre around the Moon. This manoeuvre will be performed between 6 pm and 7 pm. Once the August 30 manoeuvre is completed successfully, Chandrayaan-2 will be in an elliptical orbit of 126 kms x 164 kms.
SEPTEMBER 1:
By the night of September 1, Chandrayaan-2 will be closest to the Moon. Between 6 pm and 7 pm, an orbit manoeuvre will bring Chandrayaan-2 into a near-circular orbit around the Moon. At the closest point, Chandrayaan-2 will be 114 kms away from the lunar surface while at the farthest point it will be 128 kms away from the Moon.
SEPTEMBER 2 “
September 2 is the D-Day for the Chandrayaan-2 mission. On this day, the lander Vikram will separate from the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft and get into an orbit of its own around the Moon. The lander Vikram houses the six-wheeled rover Pragyaan that will explore the lunar surface.
SEPTEMBER 3
On September 3, Isro will carry out a three-second manoeuvre to check that the lander Vikram is in good health.
SEPTEMBER 4
A day later, the lander Vikram will perform a manoeuvre to lower its orbit around the Moon. Once successful, the manoeuvre will place the lander in an elliptical orbit of 35 kms x 97 kms around the Moon. Over the next three days, the Isro will keep checking the parameters of the lander to make sure that everything is a-okay.
SEPTEMBER 7
1:40 am: On September 7, at 1:40 am, the “15 minutes of terror” for the Isro scientists back home will begin. The lander Vikram will begin its powered descent on to the surface of the Moon. Vikram will be attempting what no other country has been able to successfully to do — perform a ‘soft landing’ near the south pole of the Moon.
1:55 am: After 15 minutes of a powered descent, Vikram will land on the Moon. Vikram will land near the lunar south pole, 71 degrees to south of equator and 22.8 degrees east.
3:55 am: Around two hours after landing, Vikram’s ramp will open, allowing the six-wheeled rover Pragyaan to come out.
5:05 am: Pragyaan will deploy its solar panels, which will use solar energy to power the many systems on board the rover.
5:10 am: Pragyaan will begin moving around on the lunar surface. Its mission life is for one lunar day, which is equivalent to two weeks on Earth. 
WHAT IS CHANDRAYAAN-2?.
Chandrayaan-2 is India’s second mission to the Moon. It is a follow-up to the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Chandryaan-1 mission, which crash-landed an impactor on the surface of the Moon.
One of the Chandrayaan-2’s primary missions is to further the discovery of water made by Chandryaan-1. Chandrayaan-2 and its rover Pragyaan will perform a series of experiments and tests to ascertain the extent of water presence on the Moon.
While Pragyaan will complete its mission in around 14 Earth days, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter will be in operation for around a year, studying the Moon’s outer atmosphere.
WHAT MAKES CHANDRAYAAN-2 SO SPECIAL?.
With Chandryaan-2, India will become only the fourth country in the world to land a rover on the Moon.Previously, the United States, Russia and China have landed rovers on the Moon.
However, none have done what the Indian Space Research Organisation is attempting to do land near the south pole of the Moon. Israel attempted a ‘soft landing’ near the south pole this year, but the mission failed and the Israeli probe crashed instead.
Chandryaan-2 is also the precursor to the grand Gaganyaan mission, under which Isro will send three Indians to space on an Indian spacecraft. In fact, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-III (GSLV Mk-III) rocket that was used to launch Chandryaan-2 is the same rocket that will be used to launch the Gaganyaan mission.