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India successfully launches GSAT-12

India on Friday successfully launched its latest communication satellite GSAT-12 onboard a powerful variant of homegrown Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C17, from the spaceport in Sriharikota.

In a textbook launch, Indian Space Research Organisation’s workhorse PSLV lifted off from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here at 4.48 pm at the end of the 53-hour countdown and placed the 1,410 kg GSAT-12 into orbit about 20 minutes later.

“I am extremely happy to state that the PSVL-C17 GSAT12 mission is successful. The launch vehicle injected the satellite very precisely into the intended orbit,” a beaming ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan announced.

On its 18th successful mission in a row, the PSLV zoomed into cloudy skies as scientists broke into cheers at the mission control centre here, 90 km from Chennai.

GSAT-12 was injected into an elliptical Transfer Orbit of 284 km perigee (closest point to Earth) and 21,000 km apogee (farthest point to Earth).

Subsequently, the onboard Liquid Apogee Motor would be used to place the satellite in a circular orbit.

GSAT-12, aimed at augmenting the capacity in the INSAT system for various communication services like tele-education, tele-medicine and Village Resource Centres, would be co-located with INSAT-2E and INSAT-4A satellites.

This was the second time in its 19 flights that the PSLV has been used for launching a communication satellite after Kalpana-1 in 2002.

ISRO used the most powerful XL configuration with six extended solid strap-on motors carrying 12 tonnes of solid propellant as against nine tonnes for the standard PSLV for Friday’s flight. A similar configuration was used for launching India’s maiden Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission in 2008.

ISRO chose its reliable launch vehicle PSLV in the face of failures of two previous GSLV flights in April and December 2010 that dealt a blow to the missions to place GSAT-5 and GSAT-5P into orbit causing transponder shortage.

Launch of GSAT-12, equipped with 12 Extended C-band transponders, is expected to partly meet the country’s growing demand for transponders in a short turnaround time.

The satellite, with a mission life of about eight years, and the PSLV together cost about Rs 200 crore.

Mr. Radhakrishnan said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has extended his warm congratulations to the ISRO team on the successful launch of GSAT-12.

He said in the coming months ISRO would undertake a series of PSLV missions for launching several satellites.

According to him, the GSAT-12 would cater to tele-medicine and tele-education services and ‘more importantly’ provide support for disaster management.

The ISRO chief also said the space agency had an agenda for a reliable GSLV cryogenic stage (indigenous) “which will happen in a year.

“The ISRO team will pursue this with grit and determination.”

India’s ambitious home grown cryogenic stage programme has met with failures of two GSLV rockets -- in April and December 2010.

Lauding the efforts of ISRO team, Union Minister of State in PMO V Narayanasamy said this launch would help the country in meeting requirement for more transponders.

ISRO officials said the GSAT-12 and all parameters were 'healthy’.

 

Courtesy: TheHindu

Google new UI

Starting from 1997, you might noticing that google has updated its products a lot. Still google is working to improve its features and its functionalities. Now google brings us its  new and improved Google experience and still working in it. We will still experience its makeover a lot. Here are some of its latest update UI:

 

Google’s home page in 1997.

 

Latest UI 2011 – June 28.

 

Search Result (LoggedIN with google account).

 

 

 

 

Thanks & Regards,

Jayaprakash.Kandasamy

 

Gmail Motion Beta

A new way to communicate

The mouse and keyboard were invented before the Internet even existed. Since then, countless technological advancements have allowed for much more efficient human computer interaction. Why then do we continue to use outdated technology? Introducing Gmail Motion -- now you can control Gmail with your body.

How it works

Gmail Motion uses your computer's built-in webcam and Google's patented spatial tracking technology to detect your movements and translate them into meaningful characters and commands. Movements are designed to be simple and intuitive for people of all skill levels.

Motion Guide

Familiarize yourself with some of the basic functionality of Gmail Motion using this printable guide of sample gestures. With it, you'll be able to start writing and responding to emails – with your body – in no time.

Safety precautions

Using Gmail Motion is not only safe but also healthy and fun. As with any physical activity, certain precautions are recommended. First, make sure to clear the area around you. Second, try to take short breaks every 30-40 minutes, just as you would if you were typing. And finally, take time to stretch after each session to give the muscles you'll be using some relief.

Top Ten Nuclear Nations' Quake Hazard

1. United States: Coastal Concern

 

 

Annual U.S. nuclear generation: 798.7 billion kwh (kilowatt-hours)

Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi crisis has raised questions around the world on the earthquake hazard in countries that rely heavily on nuclear power. As it turns out, the seismic threat varies widely in the top ten countries generating electricity by fission.

Although the United States has not built a new nuclear power station since the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, it is far and away the world’s largest nuclear power producer. Its 104 reactors produce more electricity than all the nuclear plants in the next two nations—France and Japan—combined. But because U.S. electricity use is so prodigious, all those nuclear plants provide only 20 percent of the total.

2. France: Heavy Reliance on Nuclear

 

 

Annual French nuclear generation: 389.3 billion kwh

The wind turbine above the cooling towers at France’s Cruas nuclear plant in the Rhône River valley near Montélimar is only one of the structures that makes the site unique. The power plant, built in the early 1980s, is one of only two nuclear power plants in the world built with “seismic base isolation,” flexible devices at the base that absorb vibration. Each reactor sits on more than 1,800 neoprene pads, each several inches thick. (The other such plant is near Cape Town, South Africa.)

Even though the total amount of energy France generates from atomic stations is less than half the amount generated in the United States, no other country relies as heavily on nuclear power. More than 80 percent of France’s electricity comes from 58 reactors in 19 power plants.

3. Japan: From Hazard to Crisis

Japan's annual nuclear generation: 265.8 billion kwh

Although it is now scene of one of the world's worst nuclear crises, the Fukushima Daiichi plant, seen here in October 2008, once was part of a fleet that exemplified the promise of fission for an energy-hungry nation.

Despite its experience as the only country to endure a wartime nuclear attack, Japan two decades later turned to the so-called “peaceful atom” to help power its economic growth. With little in the way of domestic fossil fuel sources, and forced to import virtually all of its oil, coal, and natural gas, the island nation came to view nuclear power was a way to produce large amounts of electricity domestically. And since its first commercial nuclear power plant began operation in 1966, Japan has built up a program of 54 reactors, including the largest one in the world: Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in the Niigata prefecture on the west coast.

Nuclear energy has been providing one-third of Japan's power, and before the Fukushima accident, the nation had plans to expand that share to 40 percent by 2017 and to 50 percent by 2030.

 

 

4. Russia: Aspirations for Nuclear

 

 

Russia's annual nuclear generation: 154.9 billion kwh

Cucumber plants thrive in a greenhouse in Siberia, thanks to the heat output of Russia's most remote nuclear power plant, Bilibino, located about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of the Arctic Circle in Chukotskiy autonomous region.

Russia has had aims to expand its nuclear power for reasons quite opposite that of Japan. The sprawling nation has huge fossil resources, including the largest proven natural gas reserves in the world, but Moscow would like to increase its exports of those. Shifting more Russians to nuclear power and away from natural gas, which is heavily subsidized by the state, would allow Russia to generate more revenue by selling the gas abroad.

So Russia, which now derives 16 percent of its electricity from 32 nuclear reactors at 10 locations, has plans to expand that share to 25 percent by 2030. Except for Bilibino's four small reactors in the far east, all of Russia's nuclear power plants are west of the Ural Mountains. They are closer, in other words, to Russia's population center, which also happens to be an area of low earthquake hazard.

 

5. South Korea: Fast-Building Latecomer

 

Annual Nuclear Generation: 140.4 billion kwh

A worker measures the radioactivity of drums containing waste at Yonggwang nuclear power site south of Seoul, one of Korea's young fleet of nuclear generating stations.

South Korea was a relative latecomer to nuclear power—starting up its program only one year before the Three Mile Island accident. But since its first plant was completed in 1978, it has built 21 reactors at four power stations that provide more than one-third of the nation's electricity. Twelve more reactors are planned by 2022. One of the world's fastest-growing developed countries, Korea's goal is to generate half its power from nuclear energy.

 

6. Germany: A Controversial 'Bridge'

 

Unterweser nuclear power facility, near Kleinensiel (map) which opened in 1978, is one of seven older plants that the German government ordered closed for at least three months for safety checks in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi crisis.

(Related blog: "Eyeing Japan, Countries Reassess Nuclear Plans")

Although Germany's 17 nuclear power plants provide about a quarter of the nation's energy supply, their future has long been clouded with controversy.

7. Canada: Nuclear Pioneer in the North

Canada's annual nuclear generation: 85.9 billion kwh

The huge turbine hall in the Bruce Power LP station on Lake Huron in Tiverton conveys the size of Canada's commitment to the atom; the facility boasts the largest output of any nuclear plant in North America.

Canada began its nuclear program as early as 1944 and built its first experimental  reactor in 1947. Overall, the nation derives about 15 percent of its electricity from 18 commercial reactors. But dependence on nuclear is far greater in Canada's most populous province. Ontario, home to the capital of Ottawa, has 16 of the existing reactors (including Bruce Power), and derives 53 percent of its electricity from nuclear power. The other two nuclear units are also in the east, in Quebec and New Brunswick.

8. Ukraine: Legacy of Disaster

 

Ukraine's annual nuclear generation: 78.8 billion kwh

The past and future of nuclear power can be seen together in Ukraine. AtKhmelnitsky Nuclear Power Plant, two units are operating and two more are slated to be built by Russia's atomic energy company, Rosatom.

But Ukraine will always be known for its first power plant, begun in 1970 and commissioned in 1977, at Chernobyl, site of the worst nuclear accident in history. The 1986 reactor explosion killed some 30 people, caused a fire to burn for 10 days and left tens of thousands of square miles contaminated.

9. China:Ambitious Nuclear Plans

 

Annual nuclear generation: 66.6 billion kwh

This 180-ton rotor, shown here last year just after fabrication at a steam turbine plant in China's Sichuan province, soon was spinning inside China's first 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant. Unit 3 at the Ling'ao nuclear plant on the Dapeng peninsula in Guangdong, which opened last July, is still the largest reactor in China but it won't be alone for long. More than 27 new nuclear plants are now under construction in China, most of them this size or larger.

China already has 13 operating nuclear power plants, but together they provide only one percent of electricity to the world's most populous nation, which remains heavily dependent on coal. The Chinese government was aiming to increase nuclear's share in power generation sharply. Many of the planned plants are being built in the nation's rapidly developing eastern coastal areas, which have limited access to other power sources. Four of those planned reactors would be the first in the world with so-called Generation III-plus technology, with “passive safety” systems designed to continue cooling operation for 72 hours in the case of a power outage.

 

10. United Kingdom: A Nuclear Legacy

 

 

The United Kingdom's annual nuclear generation: 65.7 billion kwh

The Heysham nuclear power station on Morecambe Bay in northwestern England, with four reactors that opened in the 1980s, is one of eight locationsthe British government has identified as potential sites for new nuclear developments.

United Kingdom currently derives about 18 percent of its electricity from 19 nuclear power reactors in nine locations. The nation built so many nuclear stations in the 1950s and 1960s that it actually has more shut-down reactors—26—than operational ones. The United Kingdom has the only units still operating in the world that are considered early, Generation I design.

In 2008, the government announced its support for additional nuclear stations to meet projected energy needs, with plans to promote construction by 2025.

 

New Ruby-Eyed Pit Viper Discovered

 

 

Seen coiled around a branch in an undated picture, a new species of snake called the ruby-eyed green pit viper (Cryptelytrops rubeus) has been discovered in Southeast Asia, according to a recent study. The snake lives in forests near Ho Chi Minh City and across the low hills of southern Vietnam and easternCambodia's Langbian Plateau.

Scientists collected green pit vipers from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia between 1999 and 2003 and examined them in the lab, using physical characteristics and genetics to identify new species.

"We know this species from only a few specimens, and very few people in the world have seen this snake," said study co-author Anita Malhotra, a molecular ecologist at Bangor University in the U.K. "We know very little about what it does, to be honest."

Malhotra and colleagues also discovered a very similar species with striking yellow eyes (not pictured) dubbed the Cardamom Mountains green pit viper (Cryptelytrops cardamomensis), which inhabits southeastern Thailand and southwestern Cambodia. Both new species were described in the January 23 issue of the journal Zootaxa.

 

What'z New Today - Google's Think Quarterly

 

On Thursday, the tech giant Google launched Think Quarterly, a publication aimed at advertisers and partners in the U.K. For the first issue, Google has chosen a theme near and dear to its heart: data.

“At Google, we often think that speed is the forgotten 'killer application' – the ingredient that can differentiate winners from the rest,” said Matt Brittin, managing director of Think Quarterly. “We know that the faster we deliver results, the more useful people find our service.

“But in a world of accelerating change, we all need time to reflect. Think Quarterly is a breathing space in a busy world. It's a place to take time out and consider what's happening and why it matters,” Brittin added.

The 68-page book leaps right into the impact data are having on business today, and it's an absolute visual stunner. Designed by the creative group The Church of London, the book reads like an insider guide with a euro spin.

According to Mashable, Google has snagged up some decisive talent for the project, with The Guardian's Simon Rogers and WE magazine's Ulrike Reinhard jumping aboard.

Although it's an interesting step for Google, it is not necessarily made with a U.S. audience in mind. Interviews with Vodaphone U.K. CEO Guy Laurence and data expert Hans Rosling might just turn off the most casual of readers from the U.S. Other articles feature talks with Google chief economist Hal Varian and Google director of research Tony Fagan.

But ease of reading is not what Google is aiming for with Think Quarterly.

This is a wonky magazine shooting for the wonkiest of readers.

The first issue is dedicated to answering the question, "Amongst a morass of information, how can you find the magic metrics that will help transform your business?"

The book, as the company calls it, will not be sold for profit.

In a statement Google said, "Like most companies we regularly communicate with our business customers via email newsletters, updates on our official blogs, and printed materials. This short book about data was sent to 1,500 of our UK partners and advertisers."

The next edition set to launch in May, with new issues for advertisers and partners coming out every few months.