Musings on the next tech killer app – A combined tablet and ebook reader device
I have followed the news around Amazon’s Kindle with great interest. I think it will be a tech game-changer. It fundamentally tries to address the readability issues associated with the LCD screens in other devices. Though, I haven’t had a chance to use it as yet, I can imagine how the epaper display technology can produce images and text that is very close to printed paper. In my view, this capability alone will lead to a large scale adoption of this device in the coming years.
I also see a huge opportunity in a ‘next gen’ Tablet PC. I haven’t digged deep into reasons why the existing Windows based Tablet PCs haven’t been that successful over the past few decade. Is it the cost? Or usability? Or both?
There is a lot of discussion in the media around Apple launching a new Tablet – I am sure this will be a game changing device, given Apple’s innovation track record. My initial thought when I first read about it was – here’s comes a potential Kindle killer. But then I realized that the Kindle’s display will be a major advantage over the tradional LCD display.
A tablet’s LCD display is critical for many functions (graphics, media, interactive software and tools, etc.), and doubt if there’s a substitute.
My simple thought: Why can’t someone create a smart, usable tablet computer with an epaper display on the back side??
Such a device could provide you with both capabilities in one single device! You can read a book and then if you want to use your tablet, just flip the device around! Isn’t it as simple as adding an epaper like display onto a tablet device??
As a user, I for one would definitely queue up to buy such a device, at a premium!
The Greatest Technological Achievement Of The 20th Century – The Apollo 11 Mission To Moon
The Apollo Program, which reached its zenith with that memorable line from Neil Armstrong, was in my humble view – the greatest technological achievement of the 20th Century. July 20th, 1969 was not only NASA’s finest hour; it was mankind’s finest hour. If technology & technology driven progress are the cornerstones of the past century, no other success represents it better!
Today, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of this historic event. It’s an opportunity to pause and admire. It’s an opportunity to wonder and think back in awe. It’s an opportunity to understand. It’s an opportunity to learn. As a student of science and technology, the Apollo Program fascinates me no end, even today. In this blog, I will make an attempt to recollect the incredible facts and stories about this program. But numbers don’t tell the whole story. The sheer circumstances under which these successes were achieved are mind boggling and simple factoids won’t do justice.
Readers, please note: If you are interested in getting a quick preview of some of these fascinating numbers and factoids, take a look at my post from July 16 (40th anniversary of the launch): 10 Fascinating Factoids About The Apollo Program’s Saturn V Rocket
How it all began
Its one thing to set impossible goals, and its another to actually achieve those…and achieve them, they did… With a year to spare!
It all started with that John F. Kennedy speech to the Congress in the 1961 (And followed by the famous ‘We choose to go the moon…’ speech at Rice University). Or maybe the moon race started a little before that – following the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union. Post World War II, America and Soviet Union entered into a massive space race, armed with some important spoils from Nazi Germany. The German rocket program was quite extensive, and it had successfully built and deployed the V1 and V2 rockets. Much bigger plans were on the anvil, but the course of the war prevented them from being materialized. Apparently, in 1945 the Germans had devised designs for a rocket (specifically, a ballistic missile) that could reach the American shores.
The Russians captured the German rocket base at Peenemünde, but the lead scientist Wernher von Braun escaped and surrendered to the Americans, along with a small team of scientists. USSR used the infrastructure, design prototypes, drawings at Peenemünde to kick start their space program and scored the first win over U.S. with Sputnik.
Coming back to Von Braun, the reason why I am mentioning him here is because he went onto to become the lead for the massive Saturn series rockets program.
But Saturn V and Apollo 11 didn’t happen overnight. There were many other stepping stones, which started with America’s first space launch in 1958 of the satellite Explorer I…., first manned launch in 1961 (John Sheppard was the first to make a sub-orbital flight, and John Glenn (who later on went to become a senator, and also the oldest man to travel in space in the space shuttle in 1998, at the age of 77) did the first full orbit around the earth.…and through a series of Gemini series missions. The Apollo program was conceived back in 1961 towards achieving Kennedy’s goal.
Before we take a look at the Apollo Program, let’s briefly understand the overall components of the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo spacecraft.
Saturn V rocket and the Apollo spacecraft
The Saturn V was a multi-stage (3 stage) rocket with the Apollo Spacecraft payload on the top. Some of the earlier Apollo missions were based on the Saturn 1B rocket, which essentially was a smaller version of the Saturn V. The Saturn V was designed to deliver a the spacecraft payload consisting of: Command Module (Columbia), Service Module and Lunar Module (Eagle) – into the lunar orbit.
The 1st stage stood 138 ft tall and was powered by Kerosene and Liquid Oxygen. The 1st stage reached a height of nearly 45 miles, and achieved a speed of nearly 2 km/sec. The 2nd stage stood 81.7 ft tall and was powered by Liquid Hydrogen and Liquid Oxygen. The 2nd stage reached a height of 110 miles, and achieved a speed of nearly 7 km/sec. The 3rd stage stood 58.7 ft tall and was powered by Liquid Hydrogen and Liquid Oxygen. The 3rd stage got the Apollo Spacecraft into an earth orbit. It was also fired again (to reach 11 km/sec – the escape velocity of earth) to push the Spacecraft out of the earth orbit, into a course towards the moon.
The Command Module, ‘Columbia’ orbited was the ‘mother ship’ of the Apollo Spacecraft. Armstrong and Aldrin transferred over to the Lunar Module ‘Eagle’, while Collins stayed in the lunar orbit. The Service Module was attached to the Command Module and contained support systems and propulsion systems for the return journey to the earth. The Lunar Module, ‘Eagle’ descended towards the moon, with rocket thrusters to slowdown and control the approach.
From the tragedy of Apollo 1 to great success of Apollo 10
The Apollo Program started with a disaster. Apollo 1 capsule caught fire during a test on the launch pad and the three astronauts burned to death. Amongst them was Edward White, the first American to do a Space-Walk. This was the first loss of life suffered by the American Space Program, and was a huge blow. It resulted in a lot of rethinking and introspection by NASA.
There were some major revisions in the plan, and the program went on. The earlier Apollo missions completed a series of tests of the different components and the sub-systems. These included the earlier generation Saturn 1 and Saturn 1B rockets, the Saturn V rocket, the Command Module, the Service Module and the Lunar Module (NOTE – I will not go into details of the complete design…readers who are interested can…). The initial series of launches (Apollo 2 – Apollo 6) were unmanned missions.
Apollo 7 lifted off on Oct 11, 1967 and was a confidence building mission. The 3 man crew went into a low earth orbit and tested various systems of the lunar and the command modules. Testing of the maneuverability of the Lunar Module in the weightlessness of space was very important.
Apollo 8 was the first flight to head to the vicinity of the moon. It was also the first manned flight of the awe-inspiring Saturn V rocket. The crew of Apollo 8 included command module pilot Jim Lowell, who was later the commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13. Apollo 8 provided the first views of the other side of the moon.
Apollo 9 carried out first lunar orbit and manned testing of the lunar module Apollo 10 carried out the lunar module descent to within 50,000 feet from the surface of the moon. The stage was now set for Apollo 11.
Apollo 11 – ‘The Eagle Has Landed’
Apollo 11 blasted off in space on July 16, 1969. After 4 days, on July 20, 1969, the Lunar Module started its descent onto the surface of the moon.
‘Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle Has Landed’. Land successfully, it did! But it was over 4 km off-course. It was running low on fuel and had only 30 sec of spare fuel left to land.
It took the Armstrong and Aldrin a few hours to check and secure all the systems, until Armstrong could set foot on the moon.
The Apollo 11 astronauts setup various instruments and the American flag on the moon. Various lunar rock samples were collected. Future Apollo missions also carried a motorized rover that could take the astronauts over a longer distance to explore the moon surface.
During liftoff, the landing stage of the Eagle (with its empty fuel tank) was left on the moon, to save weight. The ascent engine powered Eagle back into the lunar orbit and docked it back again with the command module. Armstrong and Aldrin got back into the Command Module, and then jettisoned the lunar module. The Command-Service Module (CSM) then fired its return engine to set them back on a trajectory towards earth.
On July 24th, the Command Module Capsule splashed down in the Pacific mission to mark the completion of this most historic mission.
Why was it such a great achievement?
As I write this, I look at the progress that has happened in the space program since the last Apollo nearly 40 years ago. Just this past week, NASA was struggling to launch the Space Shuttle in midst of some weather problems. Agreed that there were major budget cuts in the American Space Program post Apollo, but still the achievements of the past 4 decades leave a lot to desire, in comparison to the Gold Standards set in the 1960s. Note – I am not taking anything away from the 100 + Space Shuttle missions and International Space Station.
Can you imagine running the entire Apollo 11 flight computer on something less powerful than your cell phone’s chip? Well, ran they did! Today, the gadgets all around us are equipped with microprocessors – from a music system, to a washing machine. From a camera, to a car. But remember, Intel’s first microprocessor, the 4 bit 4004 didn’t make its debut until 1971! So just think of this – such a complex space mission was executed with electronic components that was less powerful than your microwave oven!
Think of the gargantuan Saturn V rocket that moved from concept to design to manufacture to successful prototyping and execution, in under a decade! The first American and Soviet rockets that went into space in the late 1950s were tiny (barely 50 ft, with a capacity to put a 50 kg satellite in earth orbit) and extremely unsophisticated compared to the Saturn V (standing 363 ft tall, could put payloads in excess of 100 Tons in earth orbit) that first flew in 1968.
Rockets Comparison – From V2 to Saturn V
Realize that a rocket is a very a complex system and contains hundreds of sub-systems and millions of parts. There’s propulsion, guidance, communication, telemetry, navigation – just to name a few major ones. And there are backups…backups for almost every system. And backups for backups!
Let’s take a few examples. Telemetry deals with streaming hundreds of data parameters from the spacecraft back to Mission Control in Houston, 200,000 miles away. This data had to be interpreted, analyzed (through a combination of automated and manual processes) and acted on, around the clock.
Propulsion system of the rocket engines provides the necessary thrust. The Saturn V’s 1st stage had 5 F1 Engines generating the kind of power, most probably not generated in any machine since then! I will not bore you with many numbers, but here’s a simple comparison. The main engines of Saturn V generated enough power, equivalent to about 150 Giga Watts. That is about the entire installed electric power generation capacity of India! Or about 2.5 times the power generated in Texas, USA. Or about 80 times the power generated by one of the largest hydro-electric plants in North America – The Hoover Dam. Just the fuel pumps of these engines consumed power equivalent to that needed by the City of Pune!
To get a sense of the complexity of internals of the command module and the lunar modules, I would just recommend watching that Hollywood classic – Apollo 13 (Which incidentally happens to be my most favorite movie). A typical automobile has a few thousand parts. The Apollo command, service and lunar modules had over a million.
Navigation and Guidance are extremely challenging tasks for any space mission. Extremely small errors can take the rocket on a wrong trajectory which could mean completely missing the target (The Moon) or come crashing down and burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere on the return.
I will go back to the Apollo 13 mission for a minute. Sometimes failures highlight the successes of a project more than anything else. Imagine doing near real-time analysis, diagnosis, generating remote workarounds and implementing repair 200,000 miles in space! But the Apollo Program was designed to handle these scenarios. Coming back to Apollo 13, one NASA personnel put it quite nicely – ‘It (Apollo 13) was NASA’s most successful failure!’
And I haven’t discussed the manufacturing and assembly challenges at all. Building a 3000 Ton machine is no easy job. Building one that will fly at speeds of 2 km/sec is another. Note – the final stage of Saturn V, which powered the Apollo Spacecraft towards the moon, did eventually approach the earth escape velocity of 11 km /sec.
Massive fuel tanks had to be designed that could withstand extreme pressures and temperatures, and fabricated in pieces and then assembled. Just to highlight one example here, consider the scale of the fuel consumption of the Saturn V main engines. To generate the kind of power mentioned earlier, you need lot of fuel! The first stage of Saturn V consumed Kerosene (as the propellant) and Liquid Oxygen. It gobbled up around 15 Tons of Kerosene / sec! Just think of the complex high-power pumps and piping needed to feed this kind of fuel into the engines, to generate that massive power!
The Lunar Module was the most complex of the machines and was assembled in a special plant. Specialized Heat Shields that can withstand temperatures over 3000 F on reentry had to be tested and built.
Lastly, I would like to highlight the program management aspects of this effort. We routinely see major engineering projects dragging for years. Here was a project of this startling magnitude, moving from conception to execution stage in less than 10 years!
There were so many historic firsts in this project…in the areas of size, scale, complexity and ingenuity. But ultimately these facts don’t tell the whole story. I guess the ultimate greatness of Apollo 11 was how it captivated an entire generation!
Interesting Links & Resources
2. Footage of launch of Apollo 11 with a highspeed camera
3. Footage of launch at normal speed
References
1. The official NASA website: www.nasa.gov
2. Wikipedia Pages for Apollo Program, Apollo 11, Saturn V Rocket
3. HBO Documentary ‘From Earth To The Moon’, presented by Tom Hanks. (IMDB Link)
4. Ron Howard’s ‘Apollo 13’ (IMDB Link)
5. Johnson Space Center, Houston – Space Center Houston
6. Marshall Space Flight Center – Alabama
7. Kennedy Space Center – Florida
10 Fascinating Factoids About The Apollo Program’s Saturn V Rocket
The massive Saturn V lifts off from Cape Caneveral
1. The Saturn V remains the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever brought to operational status from a height, weight and payload standpoint. (In the 1980s, the Soviets designed and developed a rocket that was slightly more powerful, but it was never fully operationalized)
2. The Saturn V rocket stood 363 ft (over 35 stories tall) 33 ft in diameter, and weighed around 3,000 Tons.
The height was about 2 times that of the space shuttle.
3. The power generated by the 5 F1 engines of its first stage was in excess of 150 GW (1 GW = 1,000 MW). That’s roughly equivalent to the entire installed power generation capacity in India! Or nearly 2.5 times of the power generation capacity in Texas.
4. The fuel consumption of the first stage was a staggering 15 Tons / sec of Kerosene. The fuel pumps that fed the engines alone consumed 100s of MW of power, enough to light an entire city.
5. The total lift capacity for putting a payload in a ‘low earth orbit’ (LEO) was about 120 Tons. And the capacity for putting a payload in a lunar orbit was around 47 Tons. For comparison imagine putting an entire fully loaded Boeing 757 into a low earth orbit, or a Boeing 737 into a lunar orbit!
6. The thrust generated by each of the first stage’s F1 engine was around 7.6 Million lb ft. Again compare that with a supersonic fighter jet, F16: 23,000 lb ft and an engine of the Boeing 747: 60,000 lb ft.
7. The noise levels and vibrations/shockwaves generated during lift-off (or ‘blast-off’ as it is often and more appropriately referred to…) were so high that spectators were kept at least 3 miles away.
8. The 1st stage of the Saturn V rocket consumed kerosene and liquid oxygen. The 2nd and 3rd stages consumed liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Unlike the space shuttle, or any of the rockets in the Indian Space Program, there were no solid fuel boosters. A majority of the 3000 tons liftoff weight of the Saturn V comprised of the propellant and liquid oxygen.
9. The 1st stage could power the rocket to a height of around 42 miles and speeds of around 2.5km/sec. The 2nd stage took it to over 100 miles in height and achieved near orbital velocity. The 3rd stage was used in 2 steps: first to insert the Apollo spacecraft into an earth orbit. And then it was fired again to get it to the ‘escape velocity’ of around 11.2 km/sec, and onwards towards the moon.
10. The costing of the Saturn V program is also quite staggering. It was one of the biggest chunks of the overall Apollo Program. Across the 1960s and early 1970s, the Saturn V program cost around US $ 6.5 B – this figure adjusted for today’s prices comes at around US $ 35- 40 B !
Sources of information
Note – I am recounting the high level factoids from memory – based on readings, and visits to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. I have also referenced the NASA website (which has a treasure trove of information) and Wikipedia (which presents information from the NASA websites, in a more organized fashion) for the specific details.
Sunil Gavaskar, The Original ‘Little Master’ At 60 Not Out – Some Unforgettable Memories
Before Tendulkar, there was Gavaskar. I profess to be a big admirer of the duo. I think it’s unfair to compare the two – I believe that it is not a good idea to compare sporting geniuses across generations. Gavaskar belonged to the era where TV and massmedia were just starting to get hold. An era where Test Cricket dominated and where One-Day-International Cricket was still a relatively new phenomenon.
Probably never in India’s history has one cricketer meant so much to his generation…Yes, not even Sachin Tendulkar. Tendulkar had many other great players around him – Kapil Dev in his early years, Dravid, Ganguly as his contemporaries; and then Dhoni, Yuvraj at present.
Gavaskar was the ‘Original Little Master’. This week, he celebrates ‘60 Not Out’ in his personal innings. This blog post is an attempt at recounting my ten important memories from his illustrious career. I must admit that there are many more; and this blog simply attempts to capture the ones that came to my mind before any others. I am sure readers will have their own lists. I would be interested in hearing about those.
Sunil Gavaskar played through the era that saw India win its first series in West Indies, in England and the World Cup. He was a witness and the key contributor to the evolution of Indian cricket to its present day world class sporting phenomenon.
I still vividly remember how everyone listened to the radio commentary patiently while eagerly waiting for Gavaskar to score yet another century. How if he got out early, many people used to lose interest in that Test Match. In so many numerous occasions, he single-handedly carried the Indian Cricket on his shoulders.
Here are my great memories of Gavaskar’s career – including some off-the-field ones.
1. 221 at Oval in 1979
Quite possibly one of the best test innings I have followed live. How he got India so close to an improbable and impossible win!
In those days, live TV coverage of Tests in England was not available…so radio was the only source for following the match.
That evening we were driving from Pune to Nashik. We had a reliable ‘Murphy’ Transistor Radio with us in the car and we followed the match pretty much ball-by-ball from from early afternoon through midnight.
Many years later, I actually got to watch the highlights of that match. It was an amazing innings. Imagine set to chase 438 in a little over a day’s play. And thanks to good contributions by Chetan Chouhan and Dilip Vengsarkar, India needed just 110 runs from the 20 mandatory overs with 8 or 9 wickets in hand! What followed was a sad collapse…and India ended up short by 9 runs. 429/8! I still remember that score very well. In fact towards the end it got so bad that we were in danger of actually losing the match.
Even today, I think if…only if had Kapil Dev not played that rash stroke towards the end, India might well have won…and won with a few overs to spare!
2. 97 against Pak at Bangalore in 1987
I think this was Gavaskar’s last Test Innings. And what a valiant single-handed fight he led on a crumbling Bangalore pitch as wickets tumbled all around him!
3. Century at Nagpur against New Zealand in the 1987 Reliance World Cup
It was almost like Gavaskar had decided to retire in style! How can one explain that this was the same batsman who made that infamous 36 N.O. in the 1979 World Cup in 60 Overs, chasing England’s score of 334!
There were glimpses of Tendulkar’s batting audacity in that innings. Gavaskar, who had firmly been indoctrinated in the ‘Test Cricket School of Thought’ for majority of his career, suddenly started lofting the ball. And the results were terrific. Even the swash buckling Srikanth was in awe! He eventually raced onto a century in just over 80 balls. Poor New Zealand that had earlier been demolished by Chetan Sharma’s hat-trick, were literally taken to the cleaners.
4. Century Number 29
How can any cricket lover from the 1980s forget Number 29! And Gavaskar equaled Bradman’s record in style. India was coming into the 2nd Delhi Test after an embarrassing defeat at Kanpur. Malcolm Marshall had literally destroyed Indian batting, scuttling them for 99 runs in the first innings of that Test.
Later on he discussed in an interview how he deployed the Hook Shot after many years. This shot that got him so many runs in that epic first series against WI in 1971, seemed to have been dormant for a while. He said, he had decided before hand that if the West Indian pace attack pitched short, he was going to hook. And this led to one of his fastest test centuries!
Still remember watching that innings on a grainy Black & White TV. Gavaskar also admitted later that he was in trance after reaching that coveted milestone, and it was no surprise that a fairly ordinary ball from Larry Gomes got him clean bowled.
5. Walkout at Melbourne during the 1981 Test.
This was probably one of the most ‘infamous’ moments of Gavaskar’s career. Professional sport is not for the faint-hearted. A combination of sledging by Dennis Lillie and the Aussies, and some bad umpiring decisions had really gotten to his head. Later on, he admitted that it was a mistake to ‘walk out’ of a Test Match.
6. That consummate businessman
Gavaskar was a cricketing genius on and off the field. Like Bradman, he too has had a very successful personal career, post retirement.
He was India’s first sportsman to make ‘big bucks’, marketing his personal ‘brand’. From the early Thumbs Up and Palmolive commercials to the present day endorsements, he has set the benchmark for many who followed in his footsteps. Remember those ‘Happy Days Are Hear Again’ Thumbs Up commercials of the early 1980s, starring Gavaskar, Sandeep Patil and Ravi Shastri? Or that 1970s Palmolive shaving cream ad with those special effects graphics – Gavaskar hitting that terrific square drive?
He also timed his retirements perfectly. Remember that totally unexpected announcement at the top – after winning the Benson & Hedges 1985 World Cup cricket in Australia – when he announced his intentions of stepping down as captain. And his final retirement in 1987, post the Reliance World Cup.
Unfortunately, as I discussed earlier in this blog post, his last innings of 97 couldn’t see India through. Also when it comes to ODIs, while his first (and only) Century against New Zealand in his penultimate match was great, he failed in his last match – the semi-final against England at his home ground Wankhede Stadium Mumbai.
7. Gavaskar – The Author
Along with his cricket, I have always admired Gavaskar as a writer as well. His first book – Sunny Days hit the stands in 1976 and was a huge success. I personally read it for the first time in 1979 (The Marathi translation by B.G. Pandit) and then an year later – the original English version.
Even today, Sunny Days remains one of my most favorite books. Not only did he discuss cricket at great length, but his description of the off-field life of cricketers was even more interesting! And his writing style was very engrossing.
He followed this book up with ‘Idols’, ‘Runs & Ruins’ and others. I have read each of his books quite a few times.
Today, he is an excellent columnist and TV commentator. I am still hoping that someday he publishes an overall autobiography – some kind of a combination of his earlier books.
8. That Stance
Different people will list different strokes as their favorites. For me, it started with his stance. I have yet to come across any other batsman with such an elegant, simple and relaxed batting stance. I think that stance alone was an inspiration to an entire generation of cricketers, Tendulkar included.
9. That straight drive
Gavaskar had many great strokes in his armory. But I liked his straight drive the most. Perfect balance and swing of the bat…the head position, the balance. Guess many cricket coaches even today would start with that video!
10. Gavaskar – the TV Producer & Anchor: ‘Sunil Gavaskar Presents’
Gavaskar was the first person to bring international cricket into the living rooms of millions of cricket crazy Indian fans in the mid-80s. Sunil Gavaskar Presents was a great TV show. In those days, we didn’t get many live international matches telecast in India. This show was the first opportunity to see some of the great games and players of world cricket. Still remember those great matches – the Melbourne test in the 1977 to commemorate 100 years of Eng-Aus cricket; India’s great win in England in the 1971 series, those 6 sixers from Gary Sobers, that amazing West Indian bowling prowess, Denis Lillie and Thompson bowling in tandem, those great innings of Vivian Richards, the list goes on and on and on!
As I mentioned earlier, these 10 memories came to mind this week. I will leave the readers with one more…probably one that many readers might be unaware of! Gavaskar – The Film Star J . He did a small role in a Marathi Film ‘Savli Premachi’ in the mid-70s. Remember watching that film on Mumbai Doordarshan a few years later…guess what?! He was pretty good at that as well!
To conclude, here’s a typical Gavaskar classic:
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