Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'NASA and ISRO are doing an excellent job' that was published in Newsband

NASA and ISRO are doing an excellent job

Scientists have discovered two new exoplanets, Kepler-90i and Kepler-80g. This announcement was made by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the U.S.

Christopher Shallue, a software engineer at Google, and Andrew Vanderburg, of the University of Texas, Austin, have discovered it using a deep learning neural network — an artificial intelligence tool that mimics the workings of a human brain. This is not also the first time that automation has been used in identifying exoplanets. The Robotvetter program was the first attempt at automating.

In the recent past we have seen exciting discovery of planetary system using modern science and technology. Such scientific topics keep the mundane politics away at least for some time. Human progress depends on scientific thinking.

NASA also unveiled stunning ‘farewell image’ of Saturn. After more than 13 years at Saturn, and with its fate sealed, NASA's Cassini spacecraft bid farewell to the Saturnian system. NASA has released a stunning view of the Saturn and its splendid rings and moons, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. Cassini’s scientific bounty has been truly spectacular - a vast array of new results leading to new insights and surprises.

Farewell to Saturn’ will forevermore serve as a reminder of the dramatic conclusion to that wondrous time humankind spent in intimate study of our Sun’s most iconic planetary system.  The mission made numerous dramatic discoveries. Bit what these missions are adding to welfare of mankind? Still we are not able to solve the problems of our own planet.

Hope NASA will share such beautiful Images to the other Nations. It will be a delight to watch to those who are interested in Astronomy.  

While NASA is performing one great feat after another, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is not sitting quiet. ISRO is preparing to hand over the entire gamut of launch vehicle manufacture to domestic industry by 2020. By 2020, we hope to have the first completely industry-built PSLV,

Ultimately, we hope to see industry make the transition from vendors supplying parts, to partners providing integrated systems. ISRO already has a partnership with private industry to produce satellites.  ISRO had a partnership with about 500 domestic industries for the supply of various components and devices. About 80% of the cost of launch vehicles and 40% of satellites are handled by these industries.

There is the need for industry to reduce the manufacturing and material cost without compromising on quality to bring down the launch cost. ISRO had tightened tolerance to error following the failure of the PSLV- C39 mission. Reusable launch vehicles promise to bring down launch cost but pose a problem for industry due to lower demand. The solution is to create a market for more missions.