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India's Mars triumph signals a rising space power
"There is nothing symbolic about this," says Sundaram Ramakrishnan of theIndian Space Research Organisation. The country's success in putting its Mars Orbiter Mission(MOM) into orbit around the Red Planet was about testing technology and the skills needed to manage a complex mission, he says.
ISRO scientists passed that test with flying colours during the early hours of 24 September. When word came in that the craft had executed its burn for precisely 1388.67 seconds and slowed to enter orbit, staff were ecstatic.
"There was euphoria among people, hugging each other, shaking hands, and jumping," Anil Bhardwaj, director of the space physics laboratory at ISRO'sVikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, toldNew Scientist. "I can't tell you in words the way we were feeling."
Beyond the celebrations, and the celebratory headlines – "The first Asian country to reach Mars", "India's Mars mission cost less than the making of the movie Gravity" – is a space programme that is quietly gaining in confidence and competence to tackle lunar and interplanetary missions.
Making of a Mars shot
Getting to Mars on the first try was no mean feat, showing that ISRO is able to tackle a range of highly technical challenges in a coordinated way. These included modelling the precise trajectory to Mars, designing an intelligent craft that deals with problems autonomously when too far from Earth for real-time control, and building engines robust enough to function flawlessly after a year in the cold of space. "It definitely gives us confidence to plan such complex missions," says Ramakrishnan.
And Mars was achieved at a low cost too: $74 million, indeed less than what it took to film Gravity , by some $26 million. Bhardwaj credits tight cost-control, founded on ISRO's ability to do everything in-house – including building rockets, satellites, propulsion systems and sensors. ISRO does sub-contract some manufacturing to industry, but manages the entire process itself. This, says Bhardwaj, also helps the organisation keep to tight deadlines: from conception to rendezvous with the Mars, the mission took three years.
More in the pipeline
With one triumph under its belt, ISRO is not resting on its laurels. Having put the Chandrayaan-1 probe in orbit around the moon in 2008, the agency has India's next lunar mission in the works, this time involving an orbiter, lander and rover. "This is another new technology that we'll need for landing on any planetary surface," says Bhardwaj.
The rocket for this second moon mission will be the heavy-lift Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV). It successfully flew earlier this year with a cryogenic engine that uses liquid oxygen and hydrogen for fuel – a vital technology for large payload missions – designed and built in India.
Another key mission in the pipeline is Aditya-1 (Aditya being the Hindu sun god). It will attempt to study the sun from Lagrangian point L1, which lies between Earth and the sun, about four times as far away as the moon.
In the meantime, ISRO is also building its own GPS system. It has already launched two satellites, with a third awaiting launch. The next generation of weather, remote sensing and communication satellites are also on the agenda.
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26276-indias-mars-triumph-signals-a-rising-space-power.html#.VCkWh_l_th8
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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