India To Send Two Astronauts Into Space In 2016

In the state of Bangalore in India, an Indian Space Official stated that in the year 2016, it is hoped that two Indian astronauts will be able to go on a manned mission in space. The ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) is sending these two astronauts for a week in the Earth's lower orbit. The state department and several other officials are estimating this project to be a heavy cost. When they started preparing the pre-project status, they found that the infrastructure and equipment facilities required would be some 124 billion rupees. This money is the equivalent of 2.76 billion american dollars. The commission in charge had already approved this project last February. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the deputy chairman, said funds would be collected when needed in the future sections of the project. In advance, the government has already collected near 95 crore rupees, equivalent to 10 million dollars. This was done in the past two years in anticipation of starting this project and saving money. For the two astronauts that will be on this trip, a training facility is being built near the city of Chennai (80 km far) to be approximate. The training facility also hopes to have new technologies on board the spacecraft such as an entrance into the crew capsule and escape chute. The chairman of the organization has also written a book on this called: "Moon Mission: Exploring the Moon with Chandrayaan-1". To make this whole project more reassuring and safe, the ISRO has already tested a very miniscule version of it in 2007 and had brought the spacecraft back to Earth safely 12 days later.

I feel this is a very good chance for India to actually showcase itself in the potential it has in technology like the rest of the world. The cost the ISRO is putting into this is a bit too much but it could be worth the effort because the outcome of the project is a great learning experience for future reference to the country and obviously new data will be collected. This data is very useful as we need to know more and more about space nowadays. The rumor of the coming end in 2012 according to the Mayan calendar has made some scientists panic and they are feverishly trying to find new planets and other available resources to live with and on. Again basically the aerospace industry is also a recognition granting industry that can create new international relations based on its success in that country. I also think the smaller scale project version was a good idea because it is just double checking if the project is realistic and if it can be achieved.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-to-send-two-astronauts-into-space-in-2016/articleshow/5505513.cms

Global Warming: "Cooling" Forests Can Heat Too

The simple formula we've learned about forests helping the environment by eliminating greenhouse gases isn't the entire case. There's a bit more complication. The problem lies unfortunately in the fact that a specific type of forest, pine forests, capture heat and absorb it. This heat is enough to be the anti-equivalent of the world's efforts in lowering carbon dioxide emission levels. The Weizmann Institute has been researching these effects for the past 10 years in the almost barren forest of Yatir at the edge of the Negev Desert in Israel. This is part of a world-wide operation known as FLUXNET. The group is very happy about the fact that these trees are excellent "carbon sinks" meaning that they retain good amounts of CO2 as well. During experimentation it was found that they are not exactly well at reflecting sunlight that they do not need back into space. This just causes the general region to heat up. Scientists are now thinking about taking this case of these two retaining capabilities opposing each other's benefits into consideration for the future.

I strongly believe that there is a great potential to take over these forests heating issues by simply implementing more agriculture and fertilization in the arid area. For example, for say the edges of the deserts can be eliminated by simply growing plants. Of course however the plants must be suited to the climate. So cactus's, brittle bushes, the small Joshua trees, anything that can oppose the effects of the pine tree forests. This can maintain temperatures and flourish the plant life in that area. At the same time the pine tree forests will continue retaining carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. I personally think this is a great combination.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100121141112.htm