Sunday, June 13, 2010

AW&ST: India is a Spacefaring Nation

AviationWeek has a nice story on how India is a spacefaring nation. There's a video embedded in the article, and also a 4th page to the article which you can get to by clicking 'next' while on the 3rd page.

Of the interesting information offered, there was a nice tidbit on the upcoming Chandrayaan-2 rover mission:
The 15-kg. (33-lb.), 10-watt, solar-powered rover will include a laser ablation tool for spectral analysis of rocks and soil, and video cameras for navigation.
If true, that's an amazingly clever tool for analysis at a distance. NASA's own upcoming Mars Science Laboratory rover mission will make use of such an instrument, called ChemCam:

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