HYSI Camera

The acronym for HYSI is Hyper-Spectral Imager. The HYSI camera is used in Chandrayaan-1 Probe. The main objective of the Chandrayaan-1 HYSI is to conduct mineralogical mapping of the lunar surface. The data collected from this instrument is used for our Indian researchers to conduct test and it also used to improve the available information on mineral composition on Moon.

The HYSI has capability of mapping the lunar surface in 64 colors. The wedge filter in the HYSI camera is used to split the light into 64 colors. The spectral bands is mapped by using an Active Pixel Sensor (APS) with built in digitizer. To reduce the weight and to get compactness of the system the wedge filter is used in HYSI camera.

The HYSI is able to capture the color images which is used to detect the difference between the minerals found on the moon surface. Its payload mass is upto 4kg and its size is 275 mm x 255 mm x 205 mm.

Difference between HYSI and M3:

ISRO’s HYSI Space Applications Centre (SAC) and NASA's Moon Mineral Mapper(M3) both are used to investigate the mineralogical composition in Moon surface.

But NASA's M3 can analyze the wavelength in the range of 0.4-0.3 microns while ISRO's HYSI can analyze upto 0.43 microns to 0.96 microns. It can analyze the wave lengths from visible to near infrared spectrum.

Kluge Prize Winner 2008

On December 3,2008 the U.S. Library of Congress
announced Romila Thapar and Peter Robert Lamont Brown as
the winner of Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in
the study of Humanity. The two historian will receive
half of the $1 million prize.

On 10th December 2008,Mr. James H.Billington,the Librarian of Congress will award the Kluge prize for the winner.

Dr.Romila Thapar was born in 1931 in India. she
was emeritus History professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru
University in New Delhi. she published more than 15 Books among that "A History of India" and "Early India" were breakthrough works.

Mr.Peter Brown was born in 1935 in
Ireland. Currently he is working as a History professor
in Princeton's University. In 2001 he was awarded
Distinguished Achievement Award for scholars in the
humanities."Augustine of Hippo","The World of Late
Antiquity","The Body and Society" are some of the famous
book of Brown.

About Kluge Prize:

The Kluge Prize recipient may be any nationality
and their works may be in any language.

The main criteria for Kluge Prize is the
lifetime achievement in the study of Humanity. It also
focus on various disciplines not included in Nobel Prize
such as History, Philosophy, politics, Anthropology,
sociology, Religion, criticism in the arts and
Humanities and Linguistics.

Past Kluge Prize winners:

1.Leszek Kolakowski in 2003.
2.Paul Ricoeur and Jaroslav Pelikan in 2004.
3.John Hope Franklin and Yu Ying-shih in 2006.

Veteran tracked lost tool bag

The tool bag lost by space walkers is tracked by
satellite observers and by veteran observer. In Canada,a
veteran satellite observer,Kevin Fetter from Brockville
has spotted and filmed the tool bag using his backyard
observatory. Already last tool bag information is
published in this blog. just click lost in space. Fetter published
the video on you tube. In an email interview, Fetter said his find
had little to do with luck and he had planned to capture the tool
bag on video as it was "something new in orbit".

Fetter used a $900 Celestron Nexstar 102 SLT
telescope fitted with a high-resolution camera, which
was in turn connected via a networking cable to his
computer.

NASA said it was the largest item lost in
space. It weight is around 30 pounds (14 kg) and the cost
of the tool bag is about $US100,000.

why cost of the tool bag is $US100,000?

NASA spoke person Mike Curie said these
equipments are not available in local hardware
store. They are specialized hardware and able to work
properly in vacuum and withstand temperature varies from
+200 degrees F (93 C) and -200 degrees F (-128 C).The
lost bag contained two grease guns, a scraper tool, a
large trash bag and a small debris bag.

Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist for orbital
debris at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
said,"We currently predict that the errant tool bag will
fall back to Earth in June of next year and he expects
the entire tool bag will burn up."