Mangalyaan 2 in the making :)

Riding on the recent success of its Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), India plans to revisit the planet in 2018, possibly with a lander and rover to conduct more experiments, a space official said Wednesday.

"We plan to launch a second mission to Mars in 2018, probably with a lander and rover, to conduct more experiments for which we have to develop new technologies," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) satellite centre director S. Shiva Kumar told reporters here.

The state-run space agency successfully inserted its spacecraft (MOM) Sep 24 in the Martian orbit with five scientific instruments to search for life-sustaining elements on the planet over nine months after it was launched Nov 5, 2013 from its spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh and about 90 km northeast of Chennai.

"We will be able to take the Mars-2 mission after launching the second mission to the moon (Chandrayaan-2) in 2016 with our own lander and rover, which will help us develop a separate lander and rover for the red planet," Kumar said, ahead of a three-day 'Engineers Conclave-2014' by the space agency with the Indian National Academy of Engineering here.

As missions to Mars can be launched only at an interval of two years, the space agency is looking for a slot in 2018 and by which it hopes to have a heavy rocket fully operational to carry a lander and rover with scientific experiments as additional payloads.

"We hope to have fully operational heavy rockets over the next two-three years for carrying communication satellites weighting two-three tonnes into the geo-stationary orbits around the earth," Kumar said.

The space agency has developed the geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV-Mark I-III) with indigenous cryogenic engine to launch heavier satellites weighing more than two tonnes and three tonnes into the geo-orbit at 36,000 km above Earth.

"GSLV-Mark I-III will be used for Chandrayaan-2, which will have heavier payload than its predecessor (Chandrayaan-1) and later for Mars-2 mission, as both will have a lander and rover in addition to scientific experiments," he said.

The space agency launched Jan 5 a GSLV rocket with an indigenous cryogenic engine from the spaceport and placed a communication satellite (Gsat-14) in the geo-stationary orbit.

Chandrayaan-1 was launched Oct 22, 2008, using a polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV-C11), a four-stage rocket.

The 475 kg Mars Orbiter was also launched onboard a polar rocket.

The GSLV-Mark III's maiden launch is likely to be in December.

Africa[Zambia] has its first white democratic president[Guy Scott]

An African country has a white democratic president for the first time ever, although he was not directly elected to office.

Guy Scott, who was born in Zambia and whose family is of Scottish descent, has been named the interim leader of Zambia following the death in London of president Michael Sata, aged 77.

Mr Scott, 77, was up until today vice-president of Zambia.

Under Zambian law, presidential elections for a permanent successor for Mr Sata must be held within three months.

Raise in Natural Gas Price to $5.61 per mm Btu

1. Government  approved raising natural gas price to US $5.61 per mmBtu from November 1 but Reliance Industries will continue to get current US $4.2 rate till it makes up for shortfall in output  KG-D6 block.

2. The cabinet modified the Rangarajan formula approved by previous UPA government to bring down the increase in rates from US $8.4 to US $5.61. 

3. Rates will be revised every six months with the next revision being on April 1.

4. For RIL's flagging D1&D3 gas fields in KG-D6 block where output should have been 80 mmscmd but is languishing at less than 8 mmscmd, the Cabinet decided the current rates will continue to apply.

5. Consumers will, however, pay the revised increased price but RIL will get only USD 4.2 with the difference being deposited in an escrow account. RIL will get the higher rates if it is legally able to prove that it did not deliberately cut production and output fall was a result of geological reasons as it claims.

Consequences:1. Higher gas prices would increase the,  a. expense of running power stations and fertilizer plants, b. thus, raising infrastructure and food costs and accelerating the rate of inflation. c. Every dollar increase in gas price will lead to a Rs 1,370 per tonne rise in urea production cost and a 45 paise per unit increase in electricity tariff (for just the 7% of the nation's power generation capacity based on gas).d. there would be a minimum Rs 2.81 per kg increase in CNG price e.  there would be a minimum Rs 1.89 per standard cubic metre hike in piped cooking gas. 

NOTE: 1. The British thermal unit (BTU or Btu) is a traditional unit of energy equal to about 1055 joules. It is the amount of energy needed to cool or heat one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. In science, the joule, the SI unit of energy, has largely replaced the BTU.

2. Escrow Account: A financial instrument held by a third party on behalf of the other two parties in a transaction. The funds are held by the escrow service until it receives the appropriate written or oral instructions or until obligations have been fulfilled. Securities, funds and other assets can be held in escrow.