AstrotalkUK

In 1994, Narayan Nambi an ISRO aerospace engineer was falsely arrested by the Investigation Beuro on charges of espionage. He was accused of passing on confidential launch vehicle flight test data to foreign nationals. In 1996 he was cleared by the Central Investigations Bureau and India's Supreme Court found him not guilty in 1998. In 2019 he was presented with India's third-highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan.

This interview with S Somanath (director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre) and R Umamaheshwaran (Scientific Secretary) was recorded on 24th October 2019 during the International Astronautical Congress in Washington DC. It was not focused on a specific theme but rather an update on all things @ISRO - current and future activities.

This audio recording captures most of the Q&A that took place on Monday 21st October #IAC2019. The audio quality is variable. The agencies represented included #isro #nasa #jaxa #china #Russia

In his 1979 novel, Fountains of Paradise, Arthur C Clarke imagines a cable stretching from the Earth's equator to Geosynchronous orbit. He called it a "space elevator" and imagined it would be constructed from continuous pseudo-one-dimensional diamond crystals. Bangalore based NoPo Technologies is now commercially producing Carbon Nanotubes. Could this material, one day be used to construct Clarke's space elevator?

As in other nations, the private space sector is now emerging in India. One name that pops up when discussing private and commercial space in India is Narayanan Prasad

Episode 87 - Apollo Era recollections of a Brit working in

@NASA

Moon: Art, Science, Culture

The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing was a momentous event and expected to be marked by numerous publications. Most books cover the technologies, events, personal recollections and politics of the first human voyage to another world. One book jointly authored by an art historian and an astronomer has a fresh perspective.

The guests in this episode are the authors of the book Moon: Art, Science, Culture - Dr Alexandra Loske Associate Tutor in Art History, University of Sussex and Dr Robert Massey Deputy Executive Director Royal Astronomical Society.

The book is attracting an interesting eclectic mix of readers with an interest in science and art. Some of the topics we spoke about include

Fritz Lang’s 1929 sci-fi movie (watch full-length movie on Youtube here) Frau im Mond.The book has a chapter about the Nebra Sky Disk and we also discussed the Antikythera Mechanism.One of the earliest books with a picture of the Moon, called The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite  (link offers free download) written in 1874 by James Nasmyth and James Carpenter. Here is an interesting review of it from Dr Stephanie O’Rourke from the University of St Andrews.The Bluedot Festival at Jodrell bank starts on Friday 19th July

Embed video if there is one

Brian Harvey is a Dublin based writer who has authored more than 14 books the space programmes of USSR/Russia, USA, India, Korea Japan and China. He has a deep understanding of the motivations and politics as well as the space technology that has emerged.

GovernEye and is designed to facilitate democratic engagement by allowing voters elected politician and all stakeholders. @GovernEye founder Anant Ahuja talks about how Governeye works and what motivated it.

Why has NASA not been able to launch American astronauts to space on American rockets since 2011? What is the SLS and the Gateway? Will China and US cooperate in space?