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| SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | Thursday,
August 14, 2003, Chandigarh, India |
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A
rendezvous with Mars Icarus
2: the first winged flight UNDERSTANDING
THE UNIVERSE
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Icarus 2:
the first winged flight
Today technology has advanced by leaps and bounds and has produced all types of gizmos from hot air balloon, gliders, Zaplin to sophisticated aircraft like B2 Stealth Bomber of the US Air Force and Concorde supersonic aircraft of AirFrance and British Aerospace. The desire to fly like a bird in open sky with own wings has not died down and fuelled the 34-year-old Austrian mechanic and professional parachuter Felix Baumgartner to attempt and succeed in becoming first human to fly across English Channel with his very own 5.9 ft (1.8 metres) Carbon fiber wings attached on his back (made of the same special lightweight carbon composite used in Formula — 1 racing cars). During his 35-km glide from England to France Baumgartner attained the speed of 200 kmph during the fall lasting around 10 minutes. He knocked down nearly 15 minutes off the standard Eurostar crossing a day after the train broke the UK rail speed record in a 208 miles per hour (334.7 kmph) test run. At one time he touched the speed of 350 kph in stark contrast to the first person to swim across English Channel Matthew Webb who took nearly 22 hours in 1875 and the first French aviator Louis Bleriot who took 37 minutes 94 years ago in 1909 to fly across it in a heavier than air machine. Felix Baumgartner took 14 minutes for this 34-km trip after being dropped from a plane some 30,000 feet above English port of Dover at 6:09 AM on July 31. He landed at Cap Blanc Nez near Channel Port of Calais at 6:23 AM. He pierced through the atmosphere like a winged bullet at an astonishing speed. For the flight he took oxygen supplies to cope with rarefied air and wore space man-like aerodynamic suit equipped with cameras, monitoring equipment (for being tracked) and a parachute. For precision in bad weather he followed two lead aircraft. He chose the English Channel because it always inspired and motivated people to conquer it and has lot of spirit along with History. Felix Baumgartner’s mission was named Icarus 2 after the Greek mythical figure who came to grief after flying to near the sun, which melted the wax holding together his wings. Felix Baumgartner set world records for the highest and lowest parachute dives in 1999 with daredevil jumps from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and the statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). He is a specialist in stunt jumps and is a extreme sports fanatic. He started parachuting as a teenager and later on graduated to the extreme sport of Base-jumping. A base jumper parachutes from bridges (spans) mountain cliffs, tall buildings and antennae of the buildings. It is said that revolutionary ideas
are not born overnight. Exactly 100 years ago the Americans — Wright
brothers Orville and Wilbur — were trying for the first flight. They
could do so only in 1903 in a rickety airplane and thus creating
aviation history marking the first powered flight in the history of
mankind. Apart from this during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic’s
opening ceremony a man took off and landed in the middle of the main
stadium with the help of two small jet engines fitted in his backpack.
From then 19 years have passed by but we haven’t made much headway
in this direction by meeting the burning desire of the whole humankind
of having its own wings like birds and fly like birds in sky. But this
flight to Felix Banmgartner has enthused the scientists the world over
once again and in near future we may see a person taking off, flying
and manoeuvering in sky exactly like a bird in flight. Thus Icarus 2:
the first winged flight of Felix Baumgartner has marked a new
beginning in the History. |
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UNDERSTANDING THE
UNIVERSE How is our earth hanging in the vastness of space? What keeps it in its place? The earth should not be seen as hanging in a place. It is moving. It is moving but it is subject to the forces of the sun and the other planets. The attraction of the sun is balanced by the centrifugal force of its movement. While the earth is not a prisoner kept in chains, it cannot be playful and run around like a child. Only those forces can slow it down that oppose its motion. These are mild forces of distant planets or the tidal forces of the sun. Without these forces it would go on moving without requiring any propulsion engines. We need to get away from earthly notion that something that is not supported by pillars or chains is hanging and wants to fall down somewhere. There is no down except in the direction of the net force. Also we should remember that once something is moving with respect to someone elsewhere, that someone has no right to claim that it is truly at rest. Motion is relative. Furthermore the laws that apply in any frame of reference are equally valid in another frame moving at uniform motion with respect to the first frame. We know this is valid when we pour tea in a fast moving jet plane - the tea falls into the cup using the same skills we use at home. How do the astronomers and scientists distinguish between different galaxies? Distant galaxies are very far away. In order to see them or detect them we have to use rather large telescopes. A large telescope has a lens that can have a diameter of several meters. Shortest distance at which two objects can be seen separate is called the resolution of the telescope. This resolution depends on the diameter of the lens-larger the diameter smaller is the angular distance at which two stars can be seen as separate. Also a large diameter of the lens allows more light to be gathered. That is how the galaxies are seen. They can be separated from each other and their detailed structures can be studied. We use different types of telescopes in astronomy. They are not only to observe the universe in visible light we are familiar with but also in other "colours" ranging from radio-waves on one side to infrared, visible, ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays and high energy cosmic rays. Each of these measurements gives different information about the character of the astronomical objects. The instruments used behind the telescopes also vary depending on what we want to find out. Much analysis and calculation is also involved. For this we use the science and mathematics we have already learnt and a lot that has to be newly developed. It is found that the universe speaks to us through different windows of radiation. The information obtained from these windows is complimentary. I have mentioned that telescope lenses can have a diameter of several meters. For radio waves one can effectively use diameters that are hundreds of kilometers, by combining several telescopes spread around the world. There are proposals for telescopes on the moon and spread around in earth orbit working in concert. Just to remind ourselves
of the difference between naked eye observation and that through a large
telescope we have to remember that our eyes have a pupil diameter of a
millimeter or two as compared to lens diameters of many meters, and
more, for modern telescopes. The ability of such telescopes to resolve
very close objects is often degraded by density fluctuations in the
atmosphere. That is why the best telescopes or set up at high altitudes
and now out in space. |
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New products & discoveries Layered approach
Wrap an apple in Yasa-sheet and it will stay fresh for weeks. So says Semei Shiratori of Keio University in Yokahama, Japan, who makes this high-tech plastic for preserving fruits and vegetables. To be sure, it’s a humble product. But it may be a harbinger of an enormous new class of materials and products created in a startlingly simple process: Thin liquid layers applied one at a time create solid, multilayered coatings that mix and match a wide variety of technologically valuable properties. As for Yasa-sheet, it’s made of alternating layers of chitosan, which is a major sugar-based ingredient of crab shells, and an enzyme-containing liquid extracted from bamboo. The protective wrapper works, according to Shiratori, by suppressing the food’s emission of ethylene gas—a naturally produced ripening agent that eventually makes fruits and vegetables rot. Hair-raising lotion A Singapore researcher has developed a lotion he claimed will restore at least some of the crowning glory to shiny pates using substances from plants, a newspaper has reported. And Hong Kong-based Lo Hong Ka, a company dealing in bird’s nest products, has bought the rights to sell Lee Chee Wee’s lotion, called Biolyn Hair Serum, for an undisclosed sum, The Straits Times said. It is getting ready for an assault on the regional market by pumping up production to 120,000 bottles by November. — DPA Big galaxy gobbling little one A big galaxy is gobbling a tiny one, just as astronomers have long suspected, and for the first time there is photographic evidence of this kind of galactic cannibalism, snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope. The orbiting telescope captured the
image of the gorging galaxy as part of a much larger picture of a
long-tailed galaxy that has become known as the Tadpole. This photo
was one of the first to be released last year after a new advanced
camera was installed aboard Hubble. — Reuters |
WITH
PROF YASH PAL
Smothered
beneath a translucent shield of dust and smoke, we are fast becoming
oblivious of the beautiful world out there. Indeed, increased
pollution levels have deprived the observational astronomy of its
charm. But good timers are ahead as the earth draws closer to Mars in
the days to come.
All
these meticulous calculations, however, are important mathematical
morsels meant only for the hardcore scientific community. They don't
hold any ramifications for amateur telescopic observations. What is
more important are the factors influencing observing conditions, viz.
prevalent weather conditions and pollution level etc., as Mars is
relatively low on horizon. So, it is important to hunt for a good slot
of space and time and take thrill in watching the rare event.
From
the days of Adam and Eve the birds are the most admired creatures on
the earth because they travel unhindered and unencumbered in the
limitless sky and the man always dreamt of flying like them.
