Chandrayaan-1 - A new milestone

Ø 31-Oct-2008: A major milestone was reached today when the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) onboard Chandrayaan-1 became operational.

Ø ISRO’s press release specified two photos were beamed to the IDSN. The first imagery taken at 8am IST from a height of 9,000 km shows the northern coast of Australia while the other taken at 12.30 pm IST from a height of 70,000 km shows Australia's southern coast. Maybe a romantic side of me had wistfully expected ISRO mavericks too have designed such that first images were of India :-) Of course it's a relief to reaccept the idea that this is not only about national pride, but also about international collaboration.

Ø PTI news gave the event a bit of national political twist by saying that the Indian PM was shown the first photos :-)

Ø The Hindu and Economic Times also reported this milestone of the Chandrayaan-1.

Resumes from theLadders

I don't say leaders because as yet both the US presidential candidates have tons to do before claiming the title of a leader. However that's beside the point.

In my quest for a job in the USA I have registered at umpteen "career sites", the Ladders being one of them. It hosts only jobs that pay 100K +; hence is an elite membership with the option of paid or free. Of course as a free member there is not much of an edge. When I signed up as a paid member I got a free resume review (which I admit was very helpful, though not productive). I also got an offer for them to redo my resume and also give a cover letter at a discounted rate. When I didn't take it within the offer expiry timeline they also offered to keep it open till I decide later.

However all that never helped me get a job and I am still looking.. but again, that s beside the point. The reason I describe my experience with them is to give some sort of positive background.

Today in their daily newsletter I got this article that talked about how a great resume should look. They have put up resumes for Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama. It is worth a look.


PS: In a separate post they've also mentioned some quick-fix Q&A kind of strategy to prepare your personal brand. Here is a quick look:

Develop Your Brand
Begin to develop your personal brand by probing your stand-out experiences, skills, and talents, with the following statements:

• My background is unique because _____.
• My _____ makes me different from others who do the same job.
• As a [insert career title here], I've developed a reputation for _____.
• At the heart of my experience are these three strengths: _____, _____, ______.
• My former managers/peers would agree that the reason I am so good at what I do is _____.
• I have a natural talent for ______, which makes me better than most at what I do

Chandrayaan-1 - 4th raise

- PTI news reported the 4th orbit raising exercise was conducted per schedule on 29-Oct-2008 at 7:38am.

- The target elevation of 267,000 km was achieved by firing the engines for 3.12 minutes, i.e.192 seconds. The new orbit will need 6 days and 15 minutes to complete one revolution around the Earth. The perigee now is 465 km.

- The next shift is scheduled for 03-Nov when the spacecraft will be inserted into the elliptical lunar orbit at a height of 386,000 km from Earth

Pokeromania .. and 1907

As I was advised, the thumb rule for poker is "hand with least probability of occurring has highest score".
We were watching a game that was laid out as :
- A had a pair of Js
- B had an A and a 10
- Open cards were : ?, K, ?, Q, J
I expcted A to win with 3 Js; but B had the upper hand with a straight.

Then began the discussion with hubby; how come three-of-a-kind is lower than strights. We discussed for a while, but hubby was obviously not too interested (blame it on the heavy lunch!).
So I went back to trusted dependable google and here is what Wikipedia threw up!

1st - Royal Flush ------ 4
2nd - Straight Flush --- 40
3rd - Four of a Kind --- 624
4th - Full House ------- 3744
5th - Flush ------------ 5148
6th - Straights -------- 10240
7th - Three of a Kind -- 54912
8th - wo Pair ---------- 123552
9th - One Pair --------- 1098240

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_poker_hands. It also includes the necessary explanations.

I however found this 1907 NY Times article even more intriguing :-) http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9506E3DE1738E033A25757C2A9659C946697D6CF&oref=slogin

Enjoi!!

Chandrayaan-1 : 3rd raise

Ø Earth Orbit4 - 300 x 387000 km - Lunar Transfer Trajectory - Trans Lunar Injection – 26-Oct-2008

- The 3rd orbit raising happened on 26-Oct-2008. Chandrayaan has now entered deep space and is 164,600-km from earth at its furthest point (apogee). Chandrayaan will now take 73 hours to go around the earth once.

- Sify.com was the first to report the exercise involved firing its 440 Newton liquid engine, lasting 9.5 minutes

- The next orbit raising activity is scheduled for October 29 when Chandrayaan will be raised to a distance of 265,000 km from the earth

Chandrayaan-1 - Tracking the journey

I've been trying to find details of the orbital changes that are expected to occur leading towards the final lunar orbit. However it appears no strict timeline is available. It looks like the changes in
orbits will happen within safe time periods after appropriate preconditions are met. Of course I can be totally wrong and there could be a precise schedule of actions/events.

I did get this brochure on the ISRO website that gives some information of the timeline http://www.isro.org/pslv-c11/brochure/contents.htm. This is another ISRO website that discusses the Chandrayaan http://www.isro.org/Chandrayaan/htmls/home.htm.

Under the section "The Journey" the article speaks about the different orbits and the rough estimate of when the spacecraft will finally be into the steady lunar orbit. The Yaan is expected to pass through 7 orbital speeds before finally settling into the desired Lunar orbit of 100km height from surface of the moon.

Here I am going to attempt to track the stages that will finally make the Yaan go ga-ga 'round the moon :-), starting with *Time-T, the launch on 22-Oct-2008 at 6:22am* local time.**

Ø Earth Orbit1 - 255 x 22860 km - GTO - 22-Oct-2008
- The Yaan attained Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit soon after being launched on 22-Oct-2008. The precise times vary with various news articles giving the timings as 18.2, 18.9 and 19 minutes after lift-off.
- I would like to quote the following from an article on Sify.com dated 23-Oct-2008: “The health of the spacecraft is normal and (it is) doing fine. Spinning in elliptical orbit once in every six hours and 30 minutes, it has completed four orbits and is in the fifth orbit,” the official told IANS.

Ø Earth Orbit2 - 300 x 37000 km - 1st raise - 23-Oct-2008
- As per this Sify.com report the move into Earth orbit2 occurred on 23-Oct-2008 around 0900 hours by firing the satellite's Newton Liquid Engine was fired for about 18 minutes.
- The India Express too reported the 1^st increase in orbital height in this news report. In the new orbit the spacecraft will take about 11 hours to complete one revolution around the earth, as against six and a half hours when it was in the GTO.

Ø Earth Orbit3 - 300 x 73000 km – ETO - 2nd raise – 25-Oct-2008
- The 2^nd orbit-raising maneuver was reported by PTI news on 25-Oct-2008;once aging the 440 Newton Liquid engine was fired at 5:48 am for about 16 minutes.
- The Economic Times also reported the rise. In this orbit Chandrayaan-1 takes about 25 and a half hours to go round the earth once
- Worthwhile to mention this statement by ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair; "So far, Indian-made satellites have reached to a height of only 36,000 km. Today's firing has taken Chandrayaan-1 to something like 75,000 km. That's well beyond what we have reached so far. It was a good event, and done precisely".

Ø Earth Orbit4 - 300 x 387000 km - Lunar Transfer Trajectory - Trans Lunar Injection

Ø Earth Orbit5 - 2000 x 384000 km - Lunar Transfer Trajectory - Mid-Course Correction

Ø Lunar Orbit1 - 500 x 5000 km - Lunar Transfer Trajectory - Lunar Insertion Maneuver

Ø Lunar Orbit2 - 100 x 5000 km - Lunar Capture - Initial Orbit

Ø Lunar Orbit3 - 100 x 100 km - Final Orbit



PS: I also have a consolidated picture @ http://chandan.name/Chandrayaan-1.htm

An article from The Hindu 21-Oct-2008

Finally, 'Kyunkii... comes to an end

New Delhi (IANS): Television serial production company Balaji Telefilms has accused the STAR group of breach of contract after being told to end the long-running serial 'Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi' on the STAR Plus channel.

The company is of the view that the termination is in breach of contractual obligations owed by the STAR Group to the company and is pursuing all legal remedies available to it in relation to the same, Balaji said in a regulatory statement on Monday.

It said that SGL Entertainment Ltd, part of the STAR group that operates the Hindi general entertainment channel STAR Plus, had issued a notice terminating 'Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi' from November 10.

Balaji has been producing the serial since 2000. It has reigned for a long time on the top of television rating lists. Kyunkii...is one of six programmes it produces for the STAR Group. Balaji also has three other programmes running on 9X and Zee TV, while two more will be launched on NDTV Imagine this quarter.