Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Pentagon

     On Tuesday night I was surfing some of the space channels. While I was looking at the website of the Ahmedabad-based Space Application Centre what did I see? 

     Any guess?  A powerful image neither of any Indian city nor a monument nor a river, but of what perhaps is the most heavily guarded military headquarters in the world--the Pentagon--located in Washington. This  super shot of the American military establishment was taken not by any of the American satellites, but by India's own Cartosat-2B satellite which was launched by the four-stage highly-proven Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle on July 12,2010.

     Ninety six hours later on July 16,2010, when the US was observing the 41st anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, the first manned landing on the moon, Cartosat-2B zoomed over Pentagon, at an altitude of 637 kms in the polar sun synchronous orbit and clicked a beautiful image of the five-sided hexagonal shaped building. The features are so sharp that one can notice various aspects of the top secret set up. The image is sharp and clear because the satellite has a resolution which is better than one metre.

     Cartosat-2B had a lift off mass of 694 kgs and has a five year life span.

     Are there any security issues involved in clicking an image of a sensitive establishment and also placing it in public domain? ``Absolutely not,'' says an Isro official requesting anonymity, while adding that if a country had a remote sensing capability ``you can take any pictures.''. His view was reiterated by director of sac, R.R.Navalgund, who said that `` there were no security issues involved in taking the picture of Pentagon. Outside India there are no security involved,'' he said.

     Incidentally post 9/11 whose ninth anniversary falls on Thursday, the security of Pentagon was stepped up heavily since it was one of the establishments which was targetted by the terrorists. Indian space officials said that the US cannot take any objections to Indian satellites taking pictures of sensitive American establishments because US spy satellites are known to have clicked images of sensitive Indian units Let them know for a change that ``India too is watching,'' an official said in a light hearted manner.

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     Another interesting development. According to the just-released International Year of Astronomy 2009 report the highest participation figures came from India where over 700 million people were reported as being reached by IYA 2009 events. ``This was mainly due to Indian astronomers showcasing their work at the Republic Day parade in New Delhi,'' it said. So, it is the R-day parade after all it which has triggered an interest in astronomy among the Indian youth! Strange logic!

     The report says that with 30,000 people watching in person the parade, and an estimated 700 million watching television, ``this was by far the biggest single event in the IYA 2009 programme,'' it said. One wonders what would have happened to the IYA astronomy events in India, if there had been no R-day parade at all!

      North Korea was one the most active countries in IYA 2009 with more than 500 activities reaching some 11 million people. In the UK, the organisers used a budget of more than one million euros to reach over one million people: 300,000 at local star parties, 300,000 at the IYA 2009 planetarium show and the 400,000 people who attended the global exhibition project--``From Earth To The Universe.''

      Reports from the IYA 2009 network show that atleast 815 million people worldwide were reached by IYA 2009 activities. It says: ``We have to go back more than 40 years to the Apollo moon programme, to find another science event that has engaged the public as much as the International Year of Astronomy 2009. At the peak in 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped on the moon, it reached an audience of more than a billion. Forty years later, IYA 2009, has brought space back to a mass audience once again,'' the report adds.

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