“Within the next six months, we need to bring out a workable research document for marketing space solar power to space-faring nations,” Kalam said Friday at the 32nd International Space Development Conference (ISDC) in his acceptance speech on receiving the Wernher Von Braun Memorial Award in San Diego, USA.

The event was organised by National Space Society, the US. A copy of his speech was mailed to IANS here by Kalam’s advisor.

Speaking on the topic ‘Space Solar Power: Key to Livable Planet Earth’, Kalam listed five action points for the major space-faring nations in the world.

As a first step towards harnessing space solar power, Kalam said a World Space Knowledge Platform with virtual laboratory for space industrialisaton should be created by the US and India with other space faring-nations.

Kalam said the partners for the space virtual laboratory should be identified. The number of partners should be a minimum of 10 nations with clearly defined missions to draw up a detailed feasibility report on the international space solar power mission.

According to him, in three years the virtual laboratory should come out with a solution to transmit space solar power to its terrestrial earth stations.

He said the challenge was marketing space solar power to G8 or G20 nations.

The new capabilities, and a production system for building touch-sensitivity into different robots, will improve the way robots work in unconstrained settings, as well as their ability to communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans, reports Science Daily.

The European Union-funded project ‘Skin-based technologies and capabilities for safe, autonomous and interactive robots’ (ROBOSKIN) developed new sensor technologies and management systems which give robots an artificial sense of touch, until now an elusive quality in robotics.

The artificial skin is modelled largely on real skin, which has a tiny network of nerves that sense or feel changes like hot/cold or rough/smooth.

The electronic sensors collect this so-called ‘tactile data’ and process it using application software which has been front-loaded to include some basic robot behaviours which can be added to over time.

“We opted for programming through demonstration and robot-assisted play so the robots learn as they go along by feeling, doing and interacting,” said project coordinator Professor Giorgio Cannata of Genoa University, Italy.

“We had to generate a degree of awareness in the robots to help them react to tactile events and physical contact with the outside world,” he adds.

The Indian companies in the top 100 emerging markets list bring combined revenue of $797 million. India ranks fifth among the emerging markets based on revenues, according to the PwC Global 100 Software Leaders report, a revenue-based study on the world’s top 100 software vendors.

The recent report also contains indices of the top 100 software vendors in North America, Europe Middle East and Africa, and the emerging markets.

“The Indian IT industry has been primarily identified with software services and this focus has relegated the software products segment to the background. However, off late, we are seeing a change in the fortunes of this segment due to significant growth.

“Emerging technologies such as social media, mobility, analytics and cloud (SMAC) are driving the growth in this segment and helping it move to the next level,” said Sanjay Dhawan, leader, technology, PwC India.

A number of software product firms have grown over the last decade from a little over 100 in the year 2000 to nearly 2,400 in 2013. According to the industry body NASSCOM, the revenue from the software product segment currently stands at $2.2 billion and is expected to reach $10 billion by 2020.

Corporation president Vitaly Lopota said that after 2014, Energia will be able to make five or more launches a year.

Next year’s launches will be the first since one of Sea Launch’s Zenit vehicles carrying an Intelsat-27 telecom satellite crashed shortly after lift-off Feb 1 this year.

Russian officials blamed the incident on Ukrainian-made components and insisted no defects were found in Russian equipment.

Lopota confirmed that the failure was due to a defect in a hydraulic oil pump.

Sea Launch was formed in 1995 as a consortium of four companies from Norway, Russia, Ukraine and the US, managed by US aerospace giant Boeing.

The project aimed to use a floating launch site to place rockets on the equator – the best possible location for launch – which gives the rocket additional speed on lift-off thanks to centripetal force caused by Earth’s rotation.

Sea Launch resumed operations in 2011 after a 30-month hiatus that saw passage through US Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a change in ownership from Boeing to Russia’s Energia, and a move of the company headquarters from California to Switzerland.

Energia now holds a 95 percent stake in Sea Launch.

Of the 34 previous Sea Launch rocket launches since 1999, three have failed, with a fourth placing its payload into an incorrect but recoverable orbit.

The first failure occurred March 12, 2000, when a software error resulted in premature cut-off of the second stage, leaving its ICO F-1 satellite unable to reach orbit.

On June 29, 2004, during the launch of an Apstar 5 satellite, the upper stage shut down 54 seconds early due to a wiring fault, leaving the satellite in a lower than planned orbit.

A Zenit-3SL exploded on the launch pad Jan 30, 2007, after an engine failure caused by debris in the turbo pump. The payload on that flight was an NSS-8 communications satellite for SES New Skies.

The most recent failure was that of the Zenit-3SL Feb 1.

“This was a mistake. Our employee put a tick in the wrong place,” said Vladimir Pikov, spokesman for Russia’s telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor.

“We will remove VKontakte from the registry and it should be accessible for everyone.”

Some 40 million people every day use VKontakte, often referred to as “Russia’s Facebook”.

A law creating a register of blacklisted websites containing what the authorities deem “harmful content” was approved by the Russian parliament in July 2012.

Under the law, the authorities can block access to sites containing child pornography, drug-related material, extremism and details about how to commit suicide. No court order is needed to block access.

Other sites containing offensive material can be shut down by a court order.

Rights groups condemned the registry, which has been up and running since November, as an attempt to crack down on internet freedom.

Roskomnadzor has in the past temporarily blocked access to Google and YouTube due to “technical errors”.

The study by Bigelow Aerospace, commissioned by NASA, shows “a lot of excitement and interest from various companies” for such ventures, Daily Mail quoted Robert Bigelow, founder and president of the Las Vegas-based firm, as saying.

The projects range from pharmaceutical research aboard Earth-orbiting habitats, to missions to the Moon’s surface, he said Thursday, citing a draft of the report due to be released in a few weeks.

NASA intends to follow the International Space Station programme with astronaut visits to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars about a decade later.

The Refractive Lenticule Extraction (ReLEx) method, which was launched in the national capital Friday by Centre for Sight, is an advanced version of Lasik techniques for complete with a flapless and 100 percent bladeless technique of vision correction.

“Unlike Lasik, which uses two lasers and vapourises the corneal tissue to correct vision, ReLEx uses only one laser for the entire procedure,” said Mahipal S. Sachdev, chairman and medical director, Centre for Sight.

Instead of vapourising the unwanted tissue, the new generation laser used in ReLEx simply cuts out a lens-shaped piece of corneal tissue to correct the myopia. The tissue is extracted through a keyhole incision. This means more accurate vision correction and less discomfort during and after surgery.

“There are several additional benefits due to the small incision that ReLEx offers. Since there is no flap, flap displacements and flap complications cannot occur. The small incision heals relatively quickly, leading to less patient discomfort after the procedure,” said Ritika Sachdev, additional director, medical services, Centre for Sight.

The services that were launched are eKYC (eKnow Your Customer) service, authentication service using Iris, and authentication service using one time pin (OTP).

“This is a transformational initiative and I am sure the Aam Aadmi will start reaping the benefits of the Aadhaar project in the near future,” Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, who was present on the occasion, said.

The eKYC and other authentication services will help residents avail benefits of Aadhaar-linked services and give both public and private entities an economical, secure and flexible mode of verifying user identity.

Aadhaar iris authentication is a process wherein Aadhaar number, along with the resident’s Iris Image is submitted to UIDAI’s Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) for verification. The service can be availed of by all those who have an Aadhaar number including the old, blind and those who may have undergone cataract surgery.

The OTP service enables Aadhaar-based authentication of all residents who registered a mobile telephone at the time of enrolment or subsequent updation.

The authority also announced that around 300 permanent enrolment centres, called Aadhar Kendras, would be established. There is also a plan to increase the number of Aadhaar Kendras to 1,000 by September 2013.

These centres will enable enrolment of residents who have missed out during the camps organised by registrars, UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani said.

If the ITC had found that Microsoft infringed, it could have barred the Xbox from being imported into the United States.

The fight over the Xbox is related to a larger smartphone patent war between Apple, Microsoft and the mobile phone makers who use Google’s Android software, including Motorola Mobility.

Motorola Mobility originally accused Microsoft of infringing upon five patents when it filed its complaint in 2010. Four were dropped in ensuing months, leaving just one – a patent which allows devices to communicate wirelessly over short distances.

“This is a win for Xbox customers and confirms our view that Google had no grounds to block our products,” David Howard, a Microsoft deputy general counsel, said in a statement.

Motorola was “disappointed with this decision” and is evaluating its options, a company spokesman said in a statement.

Technology companies have spent billions of dollars to buy patent portfolios, and still more money litigating patent cases around the world.

The Xbox case has seen many twists and turns since it was filed in late 2010.

In April 2012, ITC Judge David Shaw said in a preliminary decision that Microsoft infringed four patents and did not infringe on a fifth. But instead of deciding the case, as is usual, in June 2012, the trade panel sent the case back to the judge for reconsideration.

In January, following an antitrust settlement with federal regulators, Google asked a trade panel to drop two patents from the complaint because they were essential to a standard. These types of patents ensure interoperability and get special treatment.

Google had promised the Federal Trade Commission that it would no longer request sales bans based on the infringement of standard essential patents.

By that time, just one patent remained. In March, an ITC judge said that Microsoft did not infringe that technology and recommended that the case be terminated. The full ITC followed that recommendation on Thursday.

The case is at the International Trade Commission, No. 337-752.

“At the momment our interest is mainly from the science (of the region). But later, we could explore business prospects too,” Shailesh Nayak, secretary in the Ministry of Earth Sciences, told IANS.

“The science of the region is important as whatever happens in the Arctic climate effects the Indian subcontinent, especially the Indian monsoon which is most critical for us as it has a significant impact on our economy,” he said.

By studying the Arctic climate, India hopes to understand the impact of melting of ice on overall weather and monsoon conditions in the coming years.

India also has a research station in the Arctic, Himadri. Operated by the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, it was set up in 2008.

India and China were accorded observer status May 15. The eight Arctic Council members are the US, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden.

Besides scientific interests, India also has business interests related to mineral resources, fisheries and shorter sea routes in the planet’s far north, Nayak said.

“Once the Arctic is free from ice, fisheries will naturally emerge as a major resource. We will have other things like it could open up for shipping. So we also need to understand how situation would change from ice to ocean and its impact,” he said.

Nayak, who is a scientist, feels that any business activity that India wants to do in the future in the region will need the support of science.

“Like if we want a ship route we also need to know how the ocean currents are going at the bottom, how waves are going to behave, what is going to be the sea surface temperature. So, scientific support is needed automatically to do any business in the area,” Nayak said.

At present, the ministry of earth sciences provides navigation support to ships in the Indian Ocean.

Explaining the benefits of being part of the multi-country council, Nayak said: “This is an issue of understanding science and it is now very difficult for an agency or a single country do everything alone, so we need to work in close collaboration with other countries.”

“This (observer status) allows us to attend council meetings, give our views and know what’s happening in the council. We may not have a vote but atleast our views would be heard,” he said.

Membership to the Arctic Council has become increasingly attractive due to the fast-melting Arctic ice, which has opened up the region’s waterways to commercial shipping.

It has also made accessible the region’s abundant quantities of oil, gas and minerals as well as for commercial fishing.

China has been active in the polar region, which according to official estimates holds 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil reserves and 30 percent of undiscovered gas deposits.

(Richa Sharma can be contacted at richa.s@ians.in)

–Indo-Asian New Service

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