Per Ardua Ad Astra

It is amazing to admire how globalisation brings disparate elements from different countries together. Culture might be a better word, but I’m tired of sniping from the sociologists.

This Youtube video is a nice example.

It’s footage of some equipment in the Polish Armed Forces (PAF), made indigenously or by American, German, Israeli and Russian manufacturers (I might have missed more) with a cool French new age band music in the background. And it’s watched here in SG by me. Interesting mix isn’t it?

That aside, an interesting tidbit is that the PAF operates both the PT-91 Twardy (a Russian T-72 derivative) and Leopard 2A4 (which has British Chobham armor) MBTs.

Why that is interesting?

Well, M’sia went and got 48 Twardies and then S’pore bought 96 Leopard 2A4s from a ‘fire-sale’. Look, what coincidence! Exact same models and also, 2×48=96! Since the SAF intends to have 66 L2A4s on active duty and 30 for spares, I won’t be surprised if MAF split its PT-91s in the same proportion.

Here’s another odd thing.

Officially, those Leopard 120mm tanks are supposed to replace a 300-strong fleet of French 75mm AMX-1 tanks. The numbers (and armament) doesn’t match up right? As it turns out, there’s more than meets the eye. There’s a lot of hush-hush (because of OSA) so I won’t say more except that the answer is here. If you searched around a bit, you’ll also be able to find what I think is their internal codename for the tanks to be ‘augmented’. So the SAF learnt sneakiness from their IAF mentors too (but the Internet and Jane’s blew their cover). For now, mystery solved. Time to occupy myself with something else.

P.S.: Maybe it’s just me, but somehow Twardy doesn’t sound tough or resilient to me. Wonder why. Perhaps it’s thanks to English words like tardy and tweedy.

It seems that our government caught the space bug. I’m not saying that bad. But this piece of news is. In Malaysiakini quoting from NST, Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Jamaluddin Jarjis said that the backup astronaut that didn’t go up this time will be in the next 2 years.

This is just plain nuts! Why? Consider this argument voiced in The Star when I was home. “So this alternate guy gets to go up, then what about his alternate?” So on and so forth…

Our minister also says, our next angkasawan will hopefully be “doing a space walk or conducting repairs to the spacecraft”?!?!

Yeah right.

Repairs? Spacewalks? Either way, dream on sir. For a wide host of reasons, an EVA’s out of the question. Same goes for conducting serious repairs. Consider just this. ISS is an international project with NASA, Roskosmos, ESA and JAXA as the main partners (no prizes for guessing who calls the shots). Do you think that they’ll allow a M’sian to help in the construction or repairs? National pride aside, this isn’t a construction project that needs relatively cheap and unskilled labor (no offence intended). Dr. Faiz can train with NASA astronauts, but we’ll have to pay and he’ll have to get out of the way if something goes wrong. If he’s the one who broke it…well…let’s not go there.

Sure, NASA (quite reluctantly) allowed Roskosmos to bring up space tourists (at USD 20 million each) only so that the Russian agency can continue operating in post-Soviet times. That’s because the only other option would be NASA directly footing Roskosmos’s bills. Even if NASA wanted to, a Congressional act bans this, thanks to Iran (if memory serves correctly). Given Russia’s newfound wealth thanks to rising oil prices, the current space tourism programme could be scrapped as funds become available again. It’s not impossible, as space tourism is really an insult to Russian national pride. By scrapping it, then Russia will not have to worry about being held responsible if something breaks with a space tourist on board the ISS and its pride will be restored to its old glory. Then our angkasawan will be stuck on Earth without a ride to hitch for a mission that isn’t much to begin with.

That will be overwhelmingly humiliating to us all.

If anybody wonders why I’m suddenly blogging again, I’m just taking a breather before the storm hits. Next week’s the dates for 2 heavyweight tests and continuation of a crash course in using CFD and CAD components in COMSOL. No, I’m not modelling aircraft or submarines but something drier (an industrial-sized dryer). I’m also looking for a copy of FLUENT and GAMBIT for keepsakes as it’s the CFD package most widely used in industry.

First up, if anybody is still interested in our first space traveller, Expedition 16 is currently docking with the ISS. The photographs of the welcoming abroad ceremony should no doubt be on tomorrow’s papers. Strangely, ST’s coverage seems to be better than The Star’s so far. Bummer. I bet the local Chinese dailies gave this less coverage than Shenzhou 5 as well.

Now, unless you’re on the Moon you would have heard that Al Gore and IPCC are this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winners. IMO, that’s probably the most obvious and best thing the committee could have done to self publicise and making a very strong statement with regards to global warming. Gore and the IPCC topped the betting list just before the Prize was announced, but I didn’t bother because I didn’t think it’s going to happen. So, I was surprised at the subsequent announcement. In hindsight the Chemistry Prize was clue enough. Also, the past 2 consecutive Peace Prizes were awarded jointly to an individual and organisation (2005 to ElBaradei & IAEA, 2006 to Yunus & Grameen Bank). Besides, stopping global warming promotes world peace (based on the Pentagon and CNAC papers). So there goes a chance to capitalise on the time spent in the NUS Nobel Prize Exhibition. D’oh!

In any case, Gore deserves the Peace Prize. Thanks to him, global warming is now an issue that permeates the global community. Not so for the IPCC. Because all nations must agree to the text of the annual reports, warnings have been watered down and estimates revised downwards. The psychological tipping point is reached, but the physical tipping points are already long here. That is not enough. To quote Gore, “Time is running out, and we still haven’t done anything.” Not surprisingly, we hope for more competent leadership.

Obviously, there’s talk of Gore running for 2008. As Draft Gore supporters just got their huge boost, the call for him to rerun will get stronger. If you ask me, my choices are Gore, Clinton and Obama in that order. But as this article serves to remind we are better off if he didn’t (same goes for UN Sec. Gen. I guess, which is quite impractical). IMO, Hillary being President might be the best possible outcome. With Al and Bill, she forms a powerful trinity. With a partnership with Obama, taking 1600 Penn. Ave. will be easy (they just need to put the words Bush and Republican together to win the votes). Hmmm…

As I’m writing this, our very first Malaysian, as part of the International Space Station Expedition 16 would have just completed their first orbit around the Earth.

Disregarding the criticisms that concern how it all came about, I would like to congratulate Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor for becoming one of the envied few that are able to experience the journey of a lifetime.

But still, I would have had a greater sense of joy and pride if he had entered orbit on an indigenous rocket instead of the Russian Soyuz-FG one. Oh well…