1. Air India Flies Over the North Pole.
Air India became the first Indian carrier to fly over the North Pole. New Delhi - San Francisco
flight AI-173 took off at 0400 hrs yesterday, with about 243 passengers on board, overflew
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and crossed the North Pole by 1227 hrs to cross over
to the other side of the planet earth. The following points are discernible:
(a) Had Pakistan shut down its airspace, the polar route would have been taken after the
aircraft flew over the Strait of Hormuz.
(b) This would be the last days of Air India as the national carrier before it goes through the
disinvestment process.
(c) According to the pilot, after crossing Russia there was no air traffic for 9 hours. There was
an endless expanse of snow and ice.
(d) As the aircraft crossed over the North Pole and went over to the other side, the navigation
display swung 180 degrees to go from north to point south.
(e) The Delhi - San Francisco flight is the only flight in the world to have three routing options:-
(i) over the Atlantic.
(ii) over the Pacific or
(iii) over the north pole.
(f) The flying time through the polar route was 14 hrs 59 mts while if it had been over either the
Atlantic or the Pacific, it would have taken 16 hrs 40 mts.
(g) The New Delhi - San Francisco flight was launched in Dec '15.
2. Plumbing the Ocean Depths for Minerals.
India will test deep-sea mining machine at 6,000 mts by year end. Polymetallic nodules are a
source of metals such as Nickel, Cobalt, Copper, Manganese and Iron.
(a) How will it be done?
* Survey identifies areas where polymetallic nodules are present.
* Ship carrying Integrated Mining System(IMS) will be anchored at site.
* Soil tester will be sent down to evaluate seabed soil properties for load bearing and
shear strength.
* A 12-ton crawler will be sent to the seabed.
* Cameras on crawler send images to the ship.
* Pump sucks the nodule, transfers it to a crusher in the crawler.
* Crushed nodules pumped to ship through a buffer.
* Minerals segregated in ship and transported to land.
* India to explore polymetallic nodules in the central Indian Ocean basin for 15 years.
* Estimated polymetallic nodule resource potential is 300 million tons containing
- 4.7 million tons of Nickel.
- 4.29 million tons of Copper.
- 0.55 million tons of Cobalt and
- 92.5 million tons of Manganese.
(b) Mining equipment tested at 500 mts depth so far.
(c) First stage will be conducted by end '19 with crawler for locomotion trials and pumping
system at 6,000 mts depth.
(d) Prototype will be ready in '22 and go through final tests.
Deep Ocean Mission to help leverage the Blue Economy, the sustainable use of ocean resources
for economic growth.
Tailpiece.
The OEM reps had, finally, fetched up by late afternoon. The washing machine needs to have its electronic board changed and it will happen by next Wednesday. The geyser(The green LED was dangling within) and the ceiling fan's capacitor was connected up wrongly. I have renewed my opinion about the professional acumen of Babeesh after today's inputs!
Air India became the first Indian carrier to fly over the North Pole. New Delhi - San Francisco
flight AI-173 took off at 0400 hrs yesterday, with about 243 passengers on board, overflew
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and crossed the North Pole by 1227 hrs to cross over
to the other side of the planet earth. The following points are discernible:
(a) Had Pakistan shut down its airspace, the polar route would have been taken after the
aircraft flew over the Strait of Hormuz.
(b) This would be the last days of Air India as the national carrier before it goes through the
disinvestment process.
(c) According to the pilot, after crossing Russia there was no air traffic for 9 hours. There was
an endless expanse of snow and ice.
(d) As the aircraft crossed over the North Pole and went over to the other side, the navigation
display swung 180 degrees to go from north to point south.
(e) The Delhi - San Francisco flight is the only flight in the world to have three routing options:-
(i) over the Atlantic.
(ii) over the Pacific or
(iii) over the north pole.
(f) The flying time through the polar route was 14 hrs 59 mts while if it had been over either the
Atlantic or the Pacific, it would have taken 16 hrs 40 mts.
(g) The New Delhi - San Francisco flight was launched in Dec '15.
2. Plumbing the Ocean Depths for Minerals.
India will test deep-sea mining machine at 6,000 mts by year end. Polymetallic nodules are a
source of metals such as Nickel, Cobalt, Copper, Manganese and Iron.
(a) How will it be done?
* Survey identifies areas where polymetallic nodules are present.
* Ship carrying Integrated Mining System(IMS) will be anchored at site.
* Soil tester will be sent down to evaluate seabed soil properties for load bearing and
shear strength.
* A 12-ton crawler will be sent to the seabed.
* Cameras on crawler send images to the ship.
* Pump sucks the nodule, transfers it to a crusher in the crawler.
* Crushed nodules pumped to ship through a buffer.
* Minerals segregated in ship and transported to land.
* India to explore polymetallic nodules in the central Indian Ocean basin for 15 years.
* Estimated polymetallic nodule resource potential is 300 million tons containing
- 4.7 million tons of Nickel.
- 4.29 million tons of Copper.
- 0.55 million tons of Cobalt and
- 92.5 million tons of Manganese.
(b) Mining equipment tested at 500 mts depth so far.
(c) First stage will be conducted by end '19 with crawler for locomotion trials and pumping
system at 6,000 mts depth.
(d) Prototype will be ready in '22 and go through final tests.
Deep Ocean Mission to help leverage the Blue Economy, the sustainable use of ocean resources
for economic growth.
Tailpiece.
The OEM reps had, finally, fetched up by late afternoon. The washing machine needs to have its electronic board changed and it will happen by next Wednesday. The geyser(The green LED was dangling within) and the ceiling fan's capacitor was connected up wrongly. I have renewed my opinion about the professional acumen of Babeesh after today's inputs!
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