Your name plate on the moon, for a price

A Bengaluru start-up says donors to its moon lander project will be immortalised.

Indians are being offered the opportunity to leave their name on the moon, for a price. Space start-up TeamIndus will get the names of public ‘donors’ micro-engraved on a small-sized aluminium object, which will be placed on the lunar surface when its lander descends on the moon. The bill: ₹500 per name.

The mission, planned for December 28 this year on the PSLV rocket, will travel the 3.84 lakh kilometres from earth to make a soft landing on the moon on January 26, 2018. Its robotic rover will send back photos and videos. The name plaque plan is part of a crowd-funding effort, says Sheelika Ravishankar, Jedi Master - Marketing and Outreach, of the Bengaluru-based start-up.

The lunarcraft will land in a large dusty plain on the sun-lit lunar belly, the Mare Imbrium (Latin for Sea of Showers.) “In the future, when people start travelling to the moon, who knows, they may find this box and spot the names of their ancestors,” Ms. Ravishankar told The Hindu. Some 10,000 people have sent in their names.

Future mooncombers may find other artefacts too: U.S., Soviet, European and Japanese spacecraft debris; rovers that died, such as the latest, China’s Chang’e-3. In 1971, astronauts of Apollo-15 left an unauthorised statuette of the ‘fallen astronaut’. Apollo-14’s moonwalker Alan Shepard teed off a few golf balls.

Bigg Boss 10: 9 Revelations made by evicted contestant Mona Lisa about the contestants

Just one week before the Bigg Boss 10 grand finale, ‘Bhojpuri star’ Monalisa bid adieu to the house this week. Monalisa entered the house with an optimistic attitude and a mindset to play a fair game. Being one of the most sensitive and vulnerable contestants, Mona would easily break into tears in stressful situations. So much so, that her tearworks became the highlight of the season. In an exclusive interview with the Timesofindia, Mona talks about her friendship with Manu and feels it was not a bad thing if she was compared with Sunny Leone.

Leander Paes-Martina Hingis ease into Australian Open mixed doubles quarters

Leander Paes-Martina Hingis ease into Australian Open mixed doubles quarters
MELBOURNE: Leander Paes and Martina Hingis sailed into the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles event at the Australian Open with straight sets win over Matt Reid and Casey Dellacqua here on Monday.

The Indo-Swiss pair took just 54 minutes to get the better of Reid and Dellacqua 6-2, 6-3 in the second round encounter.

It was total domination from Paes and Hingis as they took control of the match from the onset and didn't give their Australian rivals any opportunity to forge a comeback.

The Indo-Swiss pair broke Dellacqua in the fourth game to gain an early lead.

Leading 5-2, Paes and Hingis broke Dellacqua again to pocket the first set with a near-flawless show in 24 minutes.

Paes and Hingis' domination could be gauged from the fact that they committed just one unforced error in the first set as against seven by their opponents.

While Hingis controlled the baseline, Paes was near perfect at the net, converting almost every time he approached the net.

The second set was no different as Paes and Hingis secured a break in the eighth game to go 5-3 up and then held their serve to seal the set and the match.

Paes and Hingis will now face the winner of another second round match between Samantha Stosur/Samuel Groth and Darija Jurak/Jean-Julien Rojer, in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Watch Video: Car catches fire on Delhi-Gurgaon expressway

Car catches fire on Delhi-Gurgaon expressway

Cashless Transactions In Assam Hamlet For Over Five Centuries

Cashless transactions may be the latest buzzword in the country's economic arena, but in a small hamlet about 32 km from Guwahati, members of Assam's Tiwa tribe meet every year to carry out an unique trade fair where the dealings are totally cashless.

The system of barter trade has been kept alive for more than five centuries by the Tiwas, a tribe of Central Assam and neighbouring Meghalaya, who hold the three-day annual fair in the third week of January in Assam's Morigaon district.

Popularly known as the 'Junbeel' Mela, meaning moon (Jun) and wetland (beel), as the fair is held beside a large natural water body shaped like a crescent moon. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who attended the just concluded fair, said people have a lot to learn from these practices of the Tiwas which exemplify the cashless tenets of the modern day society.

He also announced that a permanent plot of land for the fair would be allotted so that the historic event can continue to thrive in the future and tourism receives a boost to benefit the local people.

"On the occasion of the mela, a big market is held here where these tribes exchange their products in barter system which is perhaps the only such instance in the country," secretary of Junbeel Mela Development Samiti, Jur Sing Bordoloi said.

A few days before the fair, members of Tiwa, Karbi, Khasi and Jaintia tribes come down from the neighbouring hills with various products.

The products usually traded during the fair include ginger, bamboo shoots, turmeric, pumpkin, medicinal herbs, dried fish and 'pithas' (rice cakes).

The fair is declared open by the ceremonial 'Tiwa' king Deep Sing Deoraja, (also called Gova Raja as the ancient kingdom of the Tiwas was known as Gova) who along with his 'courtiers' participates in a community feast and then collect a customary tax from his subjects.

Bordoloi pointed out that the significant part of the fair was its theme of harmony and brotherhood among various tribes and communities and they also perform their traditional dance and music to celebrate it.

As per tradition, community fishing is held on the second day of the fair and people from all walks of life participate in it with great enthusiasm.

"I have been coming here and taking part in the barter trade since my childhood. This is a very old custom of ours and is the most important event of the mela though we also enjoy the fishing, singing and dancing," said 60-year-old Raja Bordoloi, who emptied his stock of dried fish in exchange for ginger and medicinal herbs.

The fair, which has been dated to 15th century by historians, begins with an 'Agni Puja' (an obeisance to the fire god) for the well-being of humanity.

The erstwhile Congress government in the state, in its bid to promote this unique fair, had announced an 'Annual Royal Allowance' for the 19 customary kings from different communities under the Gova kingdom, which include parts of three districts of Assam -- Morigaon, Nagaon and Kamrup.

"The step taken by the Assam government is indeed welcome and we had been demanding it for long as the economic conditions of all these customary kings is going down. We also urge the government for more assistance to hold the traditional fair which is unique in today's world," Deoraja said.

Sonowal handed out cheques of royal subsistence grant to Gova King Deep Sing Deoraja and other 17 ceremonial kings of Tiwa Kingdom and announced that the payment of these grants would be regularised from now onwards.   

Tamil Nadu Police begin removing pro-Jallikattu protesters forcefully

Tamil Nadu Police begin removing pro-Jallikattu protesters forcefully from Chennai's Marina Beach #MakkalMovement

How ISRO plans to launch 103 satellites on a single rocket

The mission will break Russia’s record of sending 37 satellites at one go

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will set a record when it launches 103 satellites in one go on a single rocket in the first week of February.

Explaining how all the satellites will be placed in orbit, Dr. K. Sivan, Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, said: “The satellites will be separated from the launch vehicle in different directions. The separation angle and time of separation will be such that one satellite will not collide with another.”

The satellite separated from the launch vehicle will have a relative velocity of one metre per second. So after 1,000 seconds the distance between a satellite and the rocket will be 1,000 metres. “The satellite that gets launched first will move at a relatively faster velocity than the next satellite that is launched. Due to different relative velocities, the distance between the satellites will increases continuously but the orbit will be the same,” he said.

“When the vehicle reaches the orbital condition, we will wait for the disturbances to die down before the preparation for separation begins,” Dr. Sivan explained. At an orbital altitude of around 500 km, it would take the vehicle 90 minutes to complete one orbit. “So we have sufficient time to launch all the 103 satellites,” he added.

Even one degree difference in separation angle combined with relative velocity will ensure that no two satellites would collide. “The satellites will be injected into orbit at different locations at different angles, at different times and different orientations,” Dr. Sivan said.

In June last year, ISRO launched 20 satellites in one go. It took about 26 minutes to launch all the 20 satellites. In 2008, ISRO launched 10 satellites in a single mission. The highest number of satellites launched in a single mission so far has been 37 by Russia in 2014; NASA launched 29 satellites in one go in 2013.

ISRO’s workhorse PSLV (C37) with 103 satellites will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. With the exception of three satellites from India, the rest are from other countries.