India’s Maiden Mission to the Moon - A Factfile

India having broken its nuclear shackles, the country is now racing to reach the moon. This will make India the sixth country in the world to attempt a mission to the moon. The country’s maiden spacecraft to the moon, Chandrayaan 1, was accommodated atop our workhorse rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), and the journey began on the morning of October 22 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.

Chandrayaan 1 is a Maruti 800-sized unmanned satellite that will orbit the moon for two years Read on» » » »

NASA mission to map the boundary of solar system

Interstellar Boundary Explorer satellite Image: NASA

NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) to map of the boundary between the solar system and interstellar space will be launched on a Pegasus XL rocket. The two year mission, costing US$165 million, will study the region in space where the solar wind from the sun suddenly slows down as it reaches the thin, cold gas of interstellar space. This region, called the heliospheric boundary of the solar system, helps to deflect most of the potentially life-threatening forms of radiation coming from elsewhere in our galaxy.

IBEX will ride Pegasus to around 200 kilometres from earth, before boosting itself into its final earth orbit 322,000 kilometres away. The probe will capture energetic neutral atoms (ENAs), which are formed when positive ions in the solar wind hit neutral atoms of interstellar material and rip out electrons from them. IBEX-Lo and -Hi detectors will collect data on the ENAs to create a three-dimensional map of the heliosphere. Read on» » » »

Indian aviation sector in trouble; domestic traffic at five-year low

The Indian aviation sector looks set to shrink amid financial turmoil, with the nation’s air carriers in schemes to try and ride out the problems and domestic air traffic at a five year low. Read on» » » »

OpenOffice.org 3.0 released by Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems released version 3.0 of its free and open source (FOSS) office suite Openoffice.org on Monday. It has been reported that the new version comes with a number of performance enhancements and new features. Openoffice.org 3.0 now claims to work out of the box in Mac OS X as a native Aqua application. Read on» » » »

All you wanted to know about meltdown

A doctor friend recently told me something interesting. The doctors’ lounge in the Mumbai hospital where he works has a television that was usually tuned to one of the business news channels during the bull market that took Indian shares to record heights by January 2008.

Cardiologists and urinary tract specialists spent time between operations listening to the latest recommendations from analysts and exchanging stories of profitable trades. That TV is now on mute.

These doctors now scan the tickers that silently flow across the screen, carrying grim news of portfolio losses. They are not alone. Across the country, investor wealth has reduced by Rs 37 trillion because of the sharp fall in share prices from their January peak, despite the splendid recovery on Monday. Read on» » » »

Combat Cancer

Cancer is caused by a group of cells that display uncontrolled growth, destroying adjacent tissue and spreading to other locations via blood. It is a complex disease that involves multiple lifestyle factors.

But the important thing for you to remember is this: Cancer cannot invade a healthy body that’s free of an overload of toxins, whether mental or physical. Read on» » » »

ICICI SMS: Your bank is safe

As a storm of rumours - that the global financial meltdown had caused a liquidity crunch in India’s largest private bank - raged around ICICI Bank, it sent an SMS to depositors on Saturday, assuring them that their money was secure.

“Your deposits with ICICI Bank are safe. Your bank is well capitalised, with good liquidity. Please do not listen to baseless rumours. Happy festive season,” read the message. Read on» » » »

William Stephenson, On Doing More In Life

My name is William Stephenson; I grew up in Manasquan and have spent most of my life in New Jersey. I’d like to speak with you about achieving your best, about making the most of your assets and realizing your biggest dreams. Read on» » » »

Now, transfer up to Rs 5,000 through mobile banking

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued guidelines paving the way for subscribers of mobile-banking services to send and receive up to Rs 5,000 a day through their phones.

The guidelines also allow customers to carry out transactions of up to Rs 10,000 on purchases of goods or services through their mobiles. Read on» » » »

Getting Started with Web Dynpro for ABAP

The purpose of this article is to provide the basic idea and framework on Web Dynpro ABAP developments, for the people who want to excel in this field. This is particularly useful for the people who had working experience in ABAP OOPs and want to learn Web Dynpro ABAP.

This is the first article in this series, where extracting the data form a table has been explained in detail. Read on» » » »