India's Own Space Station...Really!!!

India's own Space Station is on it's way. Yes, after launching more than 100 satellites in one go and creating a world record of launching such numbers of satellites in one launch, this question that - Can India build it's own space station station? - was popping up in almost everyone's mind. 

While attending the foundation day ceremony of Raja Ramanna Center for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) ISRO's chairman AS Kiran Kumar said India has the capability to develop space station, but it needed a long term approach and ambitious planning.

International Space Station (ISS)

"We have all the capabilities to set up a space station. The day the country takes the decision, we will 'okay' the project. Just draw a policy and provide us necessary funds and time," Mr Kumar said. And for the ambitious planning, "We still talk about what would be the immediate benefits of a manned space mission. That is why the country hasn't made up its mind about when to invest in a space station," he said. A long-term thinking was needed for setting up a space station, he said, adding "the sooner the better".

So, all the Indian readers just wait for few more years and ISRO will give you a humongous opportunity to be proud of your country.

Picture of the Day

Four Quasar Images Surround a Galaxy Lens

About The Picture :-  An odd thing about the group of lights near the center is that four of them are the same distant quasar. This is because the foreground galaxy -- in the center of the quasar images and the featured image -- is acting like a choppy gravitational lens. A perhaps even odder thing is that by watching these background quasars flicker, you can estimate the expansion rate of the universe. That is because the flicker timing increases as the expansion rate increases. But to some astronomers, the oddest thing of all is that these multiply imaged quasars indicate a universe that is expanding a bit faster than has been estimated by different methods that apply to the early universe. And that is because ... well, no one is sure why. Reasons might include an unexpected distribution of dark matter, some unexpected effect of gravity, or something completely different. Perhaps future observations and analyses of this and similarly lensed quasar images will remove these oddities.

Read At OV...