Iraqi athletes object to Bush campaign ad Blair Refuses to accept US award

Tanmia organises the 1st training in Call Centre operations for National job-seekers

Kuwait Foreign Minister in India to discuss Refugee Issue

Kuwait Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohd Sabah Salam al-Sabah will arrive here tomorrow for a three-day visit. The ongoing hostage crisis besides bilateral ties is likely to figure in talks Al-Sabah will have with External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh. The Kuwaiti Foreign Minister will also call on President A P J Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and meet Commerce Minister Kamal Nath during this stay here. The two sides are expected to sign three agreements, including one on exchange of criminals, apart from discussing ways and means of strengthening bilateral trade and commerce, the sources said.The visiting Kuwaiti leader is also likely to interact with Indian business leaders. Al-Sabah is arriving in India at a time when the Indian government is making efforts to end the month-long hostage crisis in Iraq and secure safe release of its three nationals. The government has left it to Kuwait and Gulf Link (KGL) transport company, employers of the abducted Indians, to negotiate the release of the captives although a senior official of the External Affairs Ministry Talmiz Ahmed was sent to Baghdad to assist in the efforts.

PROPOSALS FOR ALTERNATIVE TOILET SYSTEM IN PASSENGER COACHES INVITED

The Ministry of Railway has invited proposals from interested parties for finding out an alternative system of open toilets in passenger coaches. This is intended to keep the station and track side clean, eliminate corrosion of track, track fittings, bogie and under gear parts of the rolling stock and meet the objective of the Government of India to eliminate open toilets by the year 2011-2013. The proposed environment friendly toilets would overcome the problems faced in the existing conventional open toilet system.The Proposals from the interested parties having experience of supplying environment friendly toilet system to airlines, railways and with experience in toilet engineering, involving estimated costs, design, manufacture, installation, operation and maintenance, are required to be received in the Ministry by 12.00 hours noon on September 10, 2004. The proposals so received will be evaluated for further processing.

CHAND NAGAR’ – AN INDIAN DESIGN FOR MOON

Rajesh C. Bali*

The romantic poets now may have to look for something else to compare their beloveds, and mothers too have to change their lullaby's related to moon as it may soon be invaded by the humankind. This time forever!

This is what US space agency NASA’s plan is. And to make it a reality our own Indian students from Patiala (Punjab) have given a plan to NASA, which has been selected during a world level competition held at Kennedy Space Centre, Florida from July 16 to 19, 2004. The Indian team topped the contest entitled Space Settlement Competition. It was organized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and sponsored by NASA and Boeing. It all started with Mr. Abhishek Aggarwal, a BE, 1st year Electrical & Instrumentation Engineering Department (EIED) student of Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology (TIET), Patiala and the brain behind the whole project. Nurturing his dream since he was a student of 10th Standard shared it with his professor Dr. Maneek Kumar of TIET and both of them as Teacher Advisors went on to participate in the contest with their 11-member team to bring laurels to their country. Dr. Maneek Kumar elaborated that after sending their entries for the competition in March this year, they got a request for submitting their proposal for the settlement. The introduction of the proposal named "Alaskol" Space Settlement Contract read, as "This is a request by the Foundation Society for contractors to propose the design, development, construction and operations planning the first space settlement on Earth’s Moon Luna".

The team assigned Request for Proposal (RFP) with an assumption that they were contractors in the year 2029, applying for a contract to build a settlement on Moon. The team was to complete the details in precisely 43 hours taking into account all the requirements of RFP. The structural design proposed consisted of 7 domes designed to cater to 21000 residents and transients. The span of seven domes would be 3.16 km. Three additional uninhabited domes (one for agriculture and two for industry) were also proposed along with the residential domes. The domes have to be constructed using material available on Moon like regolith, titanium etc. Lunar concrete shall be used for providing the foundations and other components. Lunar glass is provided to protect the exposed parts from the harmful radiations A lunar research lab is also proposed to carry on research on reduced gravity and shall aid in discovery of new applications for widely abundant lunar materials.

The settlement was proposed to be located close to the Equator at Copernicus 10 degree North by 20 degree East. The proposal also takes care of electrical power distribution using solar powered satellites (SPS), surface transportation as well as internal and external communications. Atmosphere, climate and weather conditions as exist on earth are proposed to be simulated using different techniques. The proposal also takes into account the management of waste materials and water. Creating recreational facilities for tourism and business purposes was also proposed.

The proposed settlement would be in the shape of a wheel which in scientific terminology is known as ‘Torus’. " It can be divided into regions which can be plugged in an eventuality of spreading of an epidemic," he added.

The total cost of the project, which is to be completed within a span of 15 years and 43 days from the date of commencement, is whopping 277 billion dollars. It includes 13 billion dollars as the labour cost.

Out of the 33 team entries from world over, 17 team entries were complete and out of them 8 teams including one from India and seven other from America were short listed for this prestigious competition.

The 8 teams were clubbed together to form four groups. The Indian team was clubbed with an Orlando school team. The competition started on the morning of July 17th and lasted till early morning of July 19th. They worked continuously for 43 hours and presented their proposal on 19th morning.

Dr. Maneek disclosed that theirs was the third team from Asia, which went for this competition and qualified for the final round, but first one to win it. Earlier, Teams from Pakistan made it twice to the final round in 1995 and 1997 but did not succeed. The members of the winning team, which was named as Dougeldyne Astrosystems & Flechtel Constructors are mostly in their teens.

However, these budding confident scientists are not going to bask under the glory of victory, which they have earned through their arduous hard work and knowing well that NASA would keep their project for future planning of a space settlement. They will again participate in the competition, to be held next year.

"Structural Design of Project on Moon"