A US ally used $3.4 million Patriot missile to shoot down a $200 drone

Drones have become more and more irksome these days. They intrude someone's privacy more frequently causing difficulties. But this incident reported by a U.S. general is really odd and amusing to hear. General David Perkins in a military symposium said to the audience that one of the U.S. allies had used an MIM-104 Patriot missile costing $3.4 million to destroy a quadcopter drone estimated to cost about $200. Watch this video below for his statement. (Around 14:55 in the video)

An MIM-104 Patriot missile is a surface-to-air missile (SAM) developed by the USA in the early 80s. It is used by several countries throughout the world like Germany, Isreal, Japan, South Korea, Spain, etc. It is indeed a really tremendous overkill to be used as a weapon to take down a quadcopter drone that you find at Amazon or Walmart.

The problem here that you clearly can see is the difference in cost between the hostile target and the instrument that was used to defend against it. It is immensely on the wrong side here. But you have to do when it is the safety of civilians in the line. These days, even consumer drones like the one mentioned can be armed with explosives. Or it may be just a test launch of the missile to demonstrate its accuracy. However, we do not know which ally of the US it was but it happened and it is not the first time for something like this to happen.

Read More

Indian volcano in Barren Island active again

Image: India.com

The India's only volcano which was dormant until the 1990s is said to be active again. It was seen erupting and spewing lava and gases by the scientists from Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and National Institute of Oceanography (NIO).

The Barren Island, in the eastern coasts of the Andaman Islands, is the place where the volcano named the Barren Island volcano is located. It is said to be the only volcano of South Asia. Last known eruption of the volcano was in 2005. Indian scientists from between January 23 and 25 observed the volcano from a distance to see lava and smoke coming out of the volcano's mouth for 5-10 minutes. The NIO and CSIR scientists also collected samples from the Andaman basin to check its composition, although they didn't land on the volcano. "We are checking the composition of the lava and powdering the black sand to figure out the components," Abhay Mudholkar of NIO. They are hoping to find the reason why the volcano is getting active again after a decade.

Read More

Scientists closer to understanding the Sun's birth

A research team have investigated the solar system's prehistoric phase to understand more and better about the events that led to the birth of the Sun. Its the team of Dr. Maria Lugaro and Professor Alexander Heger from the Monash University, Melbourne. They used radioactivity to date the latest time when heavy elements like silver, gold, platinum, lead and rare-earth elements were added to the overall solar system matter. These elements are said to be first produced by some of first-born stars according to some theories.

"We can now tell with confidence the final one per cent of gold, silver and platinum, were added to the solar system matter roughly 100 million years before the birth of the Sun," Lugaro said. "Using heavy radioactive nuclei found in meteorites to time these final additions, we have got a clearer understanding of the prehistory of the solar system,".

This suggests that some time after these heavy elements were added to the solar system, it went to an "incubation period", during which Sun and other stars were born. Clouds of dusts, gases and radiations, portions of star nurseries, all collapse under the impact of gravitational forces to form young stars.

"We now know this incubation period could not have lasted more than 30 million years. This offers us the chance to determine the lifespan of the nursery where the sun was born, how massive it was and how many stars were born there together," Lugaro said. The study was published in the journal Science.

Read More

India's MOM orbiter nearing Mars with only 14% of space to go!

The Mars Orbiter Mission, India's first orbiter to the red planet Mars is nearing its destination with only 14% of journey to complete. At this stage, it is ready for a procedure to insert Mars Orbiter Mission's antenna into Mars orbit, what they call "Mars Orbit Insertion".

ISRO on their Facebook page said that they recently completed the characterization of Medium Gain Antenna of MOM which will be used for all communication between the orbiter and Earth during the Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI). And they said that it has only 14% of journey in the heliocentric arc towards the Mars.

The scientist crew of the mission said that they will not perform the Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM) for MOM last week, as they said that it is already on the track. This means, they've made only 3 out of 4 TCMs. However the orbiter is estimated to reach the Mars in about 47 days from now.

MOM is the country's first mission to Mars or a planet of the Solar System, moreover it is a very budget-friendly project under Rs 450 crore (around 83 million USD). Previously the country had made a similar mission to Moon (Chandrayaan I) and they're planning on several others like one to the Sun.


Also Read: India's ISRO plans a mini Hubble Telescope for space

Read More

ATMs soon to defend themselves from robbers

ATMs (Automated Teller Machines) are soon to be armed with a mechanism that sprays hot foam of chemicals in the face of the attacker or robber who is trying to open it  unauthorizedly.

Researchers of ETH University at Zurich are currently working on this and they've developed a film that will react when it is damaged. Two films with different chemicals are placed on top of each other and when they are damaged or subjected to an impact, the layers between them gets destroyed and the chemicals mixes. This triggers a reaction that produces oxygen, heat and water  vapor  foam with high temperatures reaching 80 degrees.

Wendelin Jan Stark, a professor at ETH's department of chemistry and applied biosciences said that this is less expensive and can be applied to all ATMs. He said that this mechanism spray the robbers and existing banknotes, so that it will make the cash useless even after it if robbed and it can even be traced.

This new tech is very useful as the number of ATM attacks are increasing quite fast these years. This is not only suitable for ATMs but also for things like cash transportation vehicles and all.

Read More

India's ISRO plans a mini Hubble Telescope for space

It seems like India's Indian Space Research Organisation is joining the club of top space exploring countries such as the US, China and few European countries. These years, the ISRO is planning and launching many projects like this for the space exploration and all. They've launched a Mars exploring orbiter named MOM (locally Mangalyaan) and are planning for an indigenous space capsule to carry man to space.

Now they are making another interesting one. They said that they are developing a mini version of the big Hubble Space Telescope of NASA/ESA. They also said that it will be called 'Astrosat'.

"Astrosat is nearly getting ready and it would be unique with three aspects — UV rays, visible and X rays. Even Hubble does not have this aspect. Though Hubble is big, Astrosat will be a small one." - Kiran Kumar, Director of Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad

From this, we get that they are saying that this is something unique and/but smaller than Hubble. The optics of Astrosat will be just 300mm in diameter while the Hubble has a gigantic 2.4m diameter one. ISRO chairman said that this satellite will be launched sometime next year. They are also working on a satellite to study the Sun named 'Aditya' whose mission would be announced in three to four years from now.

Read More

NASA found waves of liquid on the surface of the Saturn's moon, Titan

There's been a long hunt of searching water on other planets other than Earth and this is a good sign for the ones who were looking for that. NASA had found some waves of liquid over the surface of Titan, Saturn's moon.

Few years ago, a NASA spacecraft had spotted liquid sea on the Titan's surface and the scientists were excited. But it was not for long. It was later found to be dense methane and not water. The scientists continued working and observed the moon, dropping a bombshell. They've claimed to have found ripples of liquid waves on the surface of Titan which is a very good thing for the scientists.

“Titan may be beginning to stir. Oceanography is no longer just an Earth science. Don’t make your surfing plane reservation for Titan just yet.” - Ralph Lorenz, Astro-physicist  said

This indicates that the scientists are on further studies of the planets and moons for the search of water or anything. And recently two photographs of the moon's surface has been examined and found to be glass-like. They've also identified small waves on the surface that are 2cm high.

Read More

Australian scientists to dash space debris with lasers!

We all know about the debris on the space. Its known to be in very huge amount and it is a threat to the satellites and other space vehicles out there. For this, some Australian scientists are planning to eliminate them with lasers. This sounds like something from a sci-fi movie. But this is actually what they are working on.

This project is likely to be working in the next ten years according to Matthew Colless,  Director of the Australian National University's Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

“It’s important that it’s possible on that scale because there’s so much space junk up there” and  “We’re perhaps only a couple of decades away from a catastrophic cascade of collisions that takes out all the satellites in low orbit.” 

-  Matthew Colless

Australia currently has a contract with NASA to track the space junk and to map them. The scientists believe that there are more than 300,000 debris pieces in space moving around the Earth's lower orbits at insane speeds.

The concept and aim of this project is to give the lasers lot of powers to illuminate them and zap the pieces of debris so they burn up and fall through the upper atmosphere. Colless also said that there is no risk of missing or hitting a good satellite with this laser as they target the junks precisely".

Read More

Space will soon have 'Gas stations'

(Illustration)

Some researchers of the MIT have proposed ideas of placing fuel depots on space. They are to be stationed at 'Lagrange', regions in space between moon, sun and the Earth. Any object at this point remains stable in the place as it maintains a gravitational equilibrium.

So if this happens, then the future space missions will have benefits on their sides. Like they could carry less fuel from Earth and get to space, dock at the depot and after picking up extra fuel, reach the destination say, the moon. The MIT engineers say that this kind of orbiting way stations could reduce fuel amount that a spacecraft carries from Earth, enabling it to carry heavier payloads and all.

In last few decades, scientists have proposed many designs like building fuel stations on the moon and sending tankers to refill depots. But those ideas needed tons of dollars to be spent with long-term commitment. This idea by the MIT team  does not require such commitments. They have two designs with them.

"Whatever rockets you use, you'd like to take full advantage of your lifting capacity," says Jeffrey Hoffman, a professor of the practice in MIT's department of aeronautics and astronautics.

Read More