What is it with rocket launches? why do they always give me goose pimples??
Well the most obvious answer is because I have always been fascinated by space and rockets (Now you will ask well, who isn't??). Space, Universe, Gravity etc has always been my favourite physics concepts since childhood. Can't remember when, but I think I was fascinated by space travel sometime in Class IV or so watching the launch of some INSAT satellite on DD 1. I was one of those crazy guys to faithfully watch Captain Vyom series on DD as well (the Indianized version of Star-trek). God knows how many times have I hunted for used up Diwali Rockets and tried to resend them up by using un-used gun powder from bijli bombs :-))
The not so common answer is that, I fell in love and continue to love a book called The Rocket Boys / October Sky by Homer Hickam Jr long back. In fact the very word Zincoshine (which happens to be the name of this blog of mine) is flicked from the novel, which was the fuel that Homer Hickam and his fellow Rocket boys used to achieve maximum altitude with their rockets. Not long after I came across Carl Sagan and his book "The Contact", all of these furthered my interest in space exploration. Infact at one point of time, I was even gullible/foolish enough to think that I had it in me to be an Aeronautical Engineer. But this blog isn't another rant of my remarkable failures, or a book review of *not so widely known book*, or my fascinations of space exploration.
This blog is about ISRO and its grand achievement today. ISRO you've made us all proud. You've managed something which is not fathomable to an average Indian living in Chennai, your budget of Mangalyaan (59million USD) makes it approximately Rs 15/KM for space travel (Much cheaper than Call-taxi rates in Chennai!!).
Jokes apart, Mangalyaan launch has really given us Indians some hope in these dark times, and I bet it will bring a billion smiles next year, when the satellite enters Mars orbit (We surely will have an early Diwali)!!
For now please enjoy this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DcSDOkDvyQ&feature=share&t=32m7s
Well the most obvious answer is because I have always been fascinated by space and rockets (Now you will ask well, who isn't??). Space, Universe, Gravity etc has always been my favourite physics concepts since childhood. Can't remember when, but I think I was fascinated by space travel sometime in Class IV or so watching the launch of some INSAT satellite on DD 1. I was one of those crazy guys to faithfully watch Captain Vyom series on DD as well (the Indianized version of Star-trek). God knows how many times have I hunted for used up Diwali Rockets and tried to resend them up by using un-used gun powder from bijli bombs :-))
The not so common answer is that, I fell in love and continue to love a book called The Rocket Boys / October Sky by Homer Hickam Jr long back. In fact the very word Zincoshine (which happens to be the name of this blog of mine) is flicked from the novel, which was the fuel that Homer Hickam and his fellow Rocket boys used to achieve maximum altitude with their rockets. Not long after I came across Carl Sagan and his book "The Contact", all of these furthered my interest in space exploration. Infact at one point of time, I was even gullible/foolish enough to think that I had it in me to be an Aeronautical Engineer. But this blog isn't another rant of my remarkable failures, or a book review of *not so widely known book*, or my fascinations of space exploration.
This blog is about ISRO and its grand achievement today. ISRO you've made us all proud. You've managed something which is not fathomable to an average Indian living in Chennai, your budget of Mangalyaan (59million USD) makes it approximately Rs 15/KM for space travel (Much cheaper than Call-taxi rates in Chennai!!).
Jokes apart, Mangalyaan launch has really given us Indians some hope in these dark times, and I bet it will bring a billion smiles next year, when the satellite enters Mars orbit (We surely will have an early Diwali)!!
For now please enjoy this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DcSDOkDvyQ&feature=share&t=32m7s
