ISRO identifies site for Chandrayaan-4 lander
Bengaluru (PTI): The Chandrayaan-4 Mission is at least two years away, but the ISRO has identified a location in the South Polar region of Moon to land its lander.
The union government has approved the Chandrayaan-4 mission, designed as a lunar sample-return mission and it will be India’s most complex lunar endeavour yet.
"We are targeting 2028 for Chandrayaan-4," ISRO chairman V Narayanan had earlier said.
According to ISRO officials, they had zeroed in on four sites of the Mons Mouton (MM) and found one of them suitable for landing on the lunar surface.
Mons Mouton is a region on the Moon.
Officials said they had identified locations -- MM-1, MM-3, MM-4 and MM-5. Of them, MM-4 was chosen for the landing.
"The four sites in Mons Mouton area were fully characterised with respect to terrain characteristics using high resolution Orbiter High Resolution Camera (OHRC) multi view image datasets," they said.
It was found that one kilometre by one kilometre area around MM-4 contains "the less hazard percentage, mean slope of 5 degrees, mean height of 5334 metres and most number of hazard free grids of size 24 metres into 24 metres. Hence, MM-4 could be considered as the potential site of Chandrayaan-4 mission," officials said.
Chandrayaan-4 consists of a propulsion module (PM), a Descender module (DM), an Ascender Module (AM), a Transfer module (TM) and a Re-entry Module (RM).
The DM and AM combined stack will soft land on moon surface at the designated site.
The main soft landing will be done by an appropriate stack (AM+DM) descent trajectory with navigation, guidance and control system while the safe landing can be ensured by a proper selection of the landing site that meets all the constraints of the Lander.
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Siddaramaiah seeks Centre's urgent intervention over commercial LPG cylinder shortage
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday sought the Centre's urgent intervention to ensure supply of adequate commercial LPG cyclinders to hotels and restaurants in Bengaluru.
He said hotels, restaurants and catering establishments in the city would be forced to suspend operations if supplies are not restored, affecting a large number of students and working professionals who depend on them for regular meals.
In his letter to Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, he also requested him to issue appropriate directions to the oil marketing companies to address the current supply constraints that would help ease the situation.
Referring to the March 9 order issued by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas prioritising LPG supply for domestic consumers, Siddaramaiah said while the intention behind the order to ensure uninterrupted LPG supply to households across the country is well understood and appreciated, its implementation appears to have led to an unintended shortage of commercial LPG in Bengaluru.
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He cited that several hotels and restaurant associations in the city have reported that they are unable to procure commercial LPG cylinders, and many establishments are expressing concern that they may have to temporarily shut operations if supplies are not restored soon.
Bengaluru has a large ecosystem of small restaurants, mess facilities, and catering units that serve lakhs of people every day.
According to him, as per the discussions held with the oil marketing companies, the state's commercial LPG demand has traditionally been supported by supplies from the three OMCs-IOCL (around 500-550 MT per day), HPCL (around 300 MT per day) and BPCL (around 230 MT per day) and the sudden disruption of this supply is now severely affecting hotels, catering establishments and other commercial users in Bengaluru.
Any disruption to their functioning will have a direct impact on daily life in the city, he said.
"This issue also affects a large number of students and working professionals who live away from their homes and depend on hotels and mess facilities for regular meals. In addition, Choultries (wedding halls), hostels, and event venues that rely on commercial LPG for food preparation are also facing uncertainty, particularly with scheduled social and community events," the chief minister said in the letter.
Given the scale of dependence on commercial LPG in a metropolitan city like Bengaluru, Siddaramaiah sought the union minister's intervention to ensure that adequate commercial LPG supply is made available to hotels, restaurants, choultries, community halls and any other pure commercial establishments.
"Appropriate directions to the oil marketing companies to address the current supply constraints would help ease the situation. A timely resolution will help ensure that businesses continue to operate smoothly while also avoiding inconvenience to thousands of people who rely on these services on a daily basis," he added.
