Information Technology (IT) is changing rapidly. Power grids, traffic control, healthcare, water supplies, food and energy, along with most of the world’s financial transactions, now depend on information technology. Thus, it forms an invisible layer that increasingly touches every aspect of our lives. Some of the companies researching cloud computing are big names in the computer industry. Microsoft, IBM, and Google are investing millions of dollars into research.

Cloud computing is an emerging IT delivery model that can significantly reduce IT costs and complexities while improving workload optimization and service delivery. Cloud computing is massively scalable, provides a superior user experience, and is characterized by new, internet-driven economics.

Cloud computing could change the entire computer industry. The present method of installing a suite of software for each computer can be replaced with having to load only one application. That application would allow workers to log into a Web-based service which hosts all the programs the user would need for his or her job. Remote machines owned by another company would run everything from e-mail to word processing to complex data analysis programs.

birthday of India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Indian tricolor was painted on Moon Impact Probe (MIP), one of the payloads built by India.

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When ISRO on 25 November, 2008 reported that Chandrayaan-l’s temperature had risen above normal to 50°C, Scientists said that it was caused by higher than normal temperatures in lunar orbit. The temperature was brought down by about 10°C by rotating the spacecraft about 20 degrees and by switching off some of the instruments. Subsequently, on May 19, 2009, Chandrayaan-l’s orbit had to be changed to 200km from its previous 100km due to malfunctions.

Finally, when ISRO lost radio contact with Chandrayaan-1 and after failing to establish contact for more than 24 hours, the mission was terminated on August 30, 2009.

Overall, during its ten months of existence, Chandrayaan-1 completed 312 days in orbit and provided large amount of data. When the two years mission abruptly ended, Chandrayaan-1 had completed more than 3400 revolutions around the moon and had dispatched over 70,000 images of the moon’s surface. It is said that Chandrayaan-1 achieved 95 per cent of its objectives.

Though the mission ended abruptly, no scientific data is lost as all the data was downloaded from the spacecraft on a regular basis. After the termination, the reason provided is that a miscalculation of the Moon’s temperature had led to faulty protection. Dr T K Alex, director, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, said, “We assumed that the temperature as 100km above the Moon’s surface would be around 75 degrees Celsius. However, it was more than 75 degrees and problems started to surface.” The average day temperature on the Moon’s surface is 107 degrees Celsius, while the mid night temperature is -153 degree Celsius. Thus heat strokes might have killed Chandrayaan-1.

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In spite of its premature death, Chandrayaan-l’s high-resolutions cameras have sent over 70,000 digital images of the lunar surface including pictures of mountains, craters, and the permanently shadowed area of Moon’s polar region. It may take years to analyse the abundance of data obtained. Some of the experiments which could not be carried out were due to the heating problem on the craft which had begun as early as November 25, 2008, forcing ISRO to deactivate some of the payloads.

In early 2109, the situation improved and Chandrayaan-1 started operating normally. However, this time two star sensors got problem because of high temperature. These sensors were crucial in determining by Luna 3, all in 1959. The first spacecraft to perform a successful lunar soft landing was Luna 9 and the first unmanned vehicle to orbit the Moon was Luna 10, both in 1966. The United States’ Apollo program achieved the first (and only) manned missions to the Moon, culminating in 6 landings between 1969 and 1972. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched its unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, on October 22, 2009.

Chandrayaan-1, India’s maiden moon mission has found water on moon on September 24, 2009, ending a four-decade long predication on whether there is water on moon. Scientists had first claimed that water existed on moon about 40 years ago after they analysed rock sample brought to earth by Apollo astronauts. But they had doubts about the finding because the boxes in which the moon rocks were brought to earth had leaked contaminating the samples with air from atmosphere.

Chandrayaan-1 was carrying five Indian instruments and six from abroad, including M3 and another from NASA, three from the European Space Agency (ESA), and one from Bulgaria. NASA’s instrument Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) aboard Chandrayaan-1 helped to find the existence of water molecules on the lunar surface, a notable finding that could exhilarate space scientist to look for possibility of life in the lunar environment. Confirming the discovery of Chandrayaan-1, NASA thanked ISRO for making the discovery possible.

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M3’s spectrometer from its perch in lunar orbit measured light reflecting off the Moon’s surface at infrared wavelengths, splitting the spectral colours of the lunar surface into small enough bits to reveal a level of detail in surface composition. The M3 science team analysed data from the instrument it found the wavelengths of light being absorbed were consistent with the absorption patterns for water molecules and hydroxyl. The M3 team found water molecules and hydroxyl at diverse areas of the sunlit region of the Moon’s surface, but the water signature appeared stronger at the Moon’s higher latitudes.

Chandrayaan, which means “Moon Craft” in Sanskrit, was launched on October 22, 2008 at 6.22 a.m. 1ST from Satish Dhawan Space Centre using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) which weighed 1304 kg at launch and 590 kg at lunar orbit. It took 21 days to reach final lunar orbit. It was India’s first unmanned mission to moon. Its proposal by ISRO was approved by Government of India in November 2003.

The first Earth picture was taken by Chandrayaan-l’s Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) on October 29, 2008. On November 14, 2008 Indian triacolour was placed on moon’s surface coinciding with the it could expand the market for farmers in developing countries due to the reduction in spoilage.

Most of the current commercial applications of modern biotechnology in agriculture are on reducing the dependence of farmers on fertilizers, pesticides and agrochemicals. Crops have also been genetically engineered to acquire tolerance to broad-spectrum herbicide. The introduction of herbicide-tolerant crops has the potential of reducing the number of herbicide active ingredients used for weed management, reducing the number of herbicide applications made during a season, and increasing yield due to improved weed management and less crop injury.

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Biotechnology is being applied for novel uses other than food. For example, potatoes, tomatoes, rice, tobacco, lettuce, safflowers, and other plants have been genetically engineered to produce insulin and certain vaccines. If future clinical trials prove successful, the advantages of edible vaccines would be enormous, especially for developing countries as the transgenic plants may be grown locally and cheaply.

Such home-grown vaccines would also avoid logistical and economic problems posed by having to transport traditional preparations over long distances. And since they are edible, they will not need syringes, which are not only an additional expense in the traditional vaccine preparations but also a source of infections if contaminated.

Additionally, in an effort to find sustainable ways to clean up contaminated environments, biotechnology is being used to engineer and adapt organisms, especially microorganisms. The elimination of a wide range of pollutants and wastes from the environment is an absolute requirement to promote a sustainable development of our society with low environmental impact. Biological processes play a major role in the removal of contaminants and biotechnology is taking advantage of the astonishing catabolic versatility of microorganisms to degrade or convert such compounds.