Narayanan Komerath

Narayanan Menon Komerath
Born Thrissur City, Kerala
Nationality United States
Occupation Professor of aerospace engineering
Known for Asteroid belt structures

Narayanan Menon Komerath is an Indian-born professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States. He has written numerous articles and books.[1] He is known for his views on ways to build structures in space from asteroid debris, which could be used for a space-based economy, and for his research into microwave power transmission in space.[2][3]

Komerath continues to take an active interest in Indian affairs. He has defended the US-based India Development and Relief Fund, a charity, from accusations that its funds were being used to foster communal violence in India.[4] He has proposed a break-up of Pakistan to remove its ability to export global terror.[5]

Career

Narayanan Menon Komerath was born in Peringavu, Thrissur, India.[6] He studied at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, obtaining a BTech in Aeronautical Engineering in 1978. He then went to the Georgia Institute of Technology where he obtained a PhD in Aerospace Engineering (Turbulent Combustion) in 1982. Positions since then have included Fellow of the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, Sam Nunn Senior Security Fellow in the School of International Affairs (2004–2006) and Hesburgh Teaching Fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology (2005). From 2008 to 2009 he was Chair of the Aerospace Division of the American Society for Engineering Education.[1] For 2009/2010 he was Secretary/Treasurer of this division.[7] He is Chairman of Scv Inc. in Alpharetta, Georgia, a manufacturer of analytical instruments founded in 1994.[8][9]

Scientific concepts

In May 2003 Popular Mechanics reported that Komerath had found a way to crush the rocks in the asteroid belts using electromagnetic waves and assemble them into radiation shields and structures where humans could live, among other purposes.[10] The idea came to Komerath by analogy with the technique of "acoustic shaping", where sound waves can accurately position small objects such as beads into larger solid objects within a weightless environment. In space, radio waves would take the place of sound waves. Although huge amounts of energy would be needed, solar power could be used and the approach would avoid the requirement to transport material from Earth.[2] Komerath said "You don't go to investors and say 'I want to build a giant spinning cyclinder in space that would house 10,000 people'. You go and say 'I want to build a space-based economy'. It's a business model that will work only if there are a lot of people who will go broke at the same time if it fails".[11]

Since 2006 Komerath has been considering the problem of a global space power grid.[3] Researchers at Georgia Tech working under the direction of Professor Narayanan Komerath are exploring microwave power beaming in space for military and commercial applications. It is thought that frequencies of around 220 GHz can achieve greater effective distances than the lower frequencies commonly used today.[12] As a rational first step to building a space-based grid Komerath proposes a demonstration project to build a space-based power exchange connecting the United States to India.[3]

Political views

Komerath has been actively and publicly interested in events in the Indian subcontinent since May 1999. With the help of the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) he launched the Martyrs for National Integration Fund, which helps the families of people hurt in the war against terrorism.[4] In 2002 leftist activists groups[13] Sabrang Communications and South Asia Citizens Web published The Foreign Exchange of Hate: IDRF and the American Funding of Hindutva, which investigated how funding raised by the IDRF in the USA was being distributed in India.[14] Komerath was one of the authors of a counter-report that denied the implied accusation that tribal activists, who had played a major role in the 2002 Gujarat violence, were linked to US funding sources.[15]

Komerath praised the efforts of grassroots volunteers funded by the IDRF after the December 2004 tsunami. He reported claims that Sri Lankan army personnel had hijacked aid trucks that were trying to assist Tamils. He said US-based Pakistanis were attempting to hinder aid by warning that donations could be misused.[16] Komerath welcomed the July 2005 US–India Civil Nuclear Agreement, but said the refusal of the USA to support India's claim to a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council was a victory for Pakistan and China.[17] In 2008 Komerath published an opinion paper that called for a break-up of Pakistan into five independent states that would be distracted by protecting themselves. They should be destroyed if they veered towards religious fanaticism or terrorism.[5]

Selected bibliography

  • Narayanan Menon Komerath (1983). Measurement of pressure-velocity correlations in turbulent reacting flows. Georgia Institute of Technology. p. 330. 
  • Narayanan Menon Komerath (1986). Implementation and validation of a wake model for vortex-surface interactions in low speed forward flight. School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology. 
  • Narayanan Menon Komerath, S. G. Liou (1991). Definition of the unsteady vortex flow over a wing/body configuration. School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology. 
  • Narayanan Menon Komerath (1992). Quasi-periodicity in vortex flows. School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology. 
  • Narayanan Menon Komerath (1997). Measurement of fountain effect flows using Spatial correlation velosimetry. School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology. p. 126. 
  • Komerath, N.M., Smith, M.J., "Rotorcraft Wake Modeling: Past, Present and Future”. Proceedings of the European Rotorcraft Forum, Hamburg, Germany, September 2009.
  • Komerath, N., “A Campus-Wide Course on Micro Renewable Energy Systems”. Proceedings of the ASEE National Conference, College Park, TX June 2009.
  • Komerath, N., Venkat, V., Fernandez, J., “Near-Millimeter Wave Issues for a Space Power Grid”. Paper 2009-081, Proceedings of the SPESIF Conference, American Physical Society, Huntsville, AL, February 2009.
  • Komerath, N.M., Nally, J., Tang, E.Z., “Policy Model for Space Economy Infrastructure” Acta Astronautica, Vol. 61(2007)11–12, p. 1066–1075
  • Gregory, J., Sullivan J., Wanis, S., Komerath, N., “Pressure-sensitive paint as a distributed optical microphone array,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 119(1), 251–261, 2006

References

  1. 1 2 "Faculty Profile: Narayanan M. Komerath". Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  2. 1 2 Bennett Daviss (11 October 2002). "Radio waves could construct buildings in space". New Scientist. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 Don M. Flournoy (2011). Solar Power Satellites. Springer. ISBN 1-4614-1999-9.
  4. 1 2 Ramesh N. Rao, Narayanan Komerath, Chitra Raman, Beloo Mehra and Sugrutha Ramaswamy. "ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS". A Factual Response to the Hate Attack on the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF). Friends of India and Authors of the Report. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  5. 1 2 Narayanan Komerath (2008). "GIVE PEACE A CHANCE…" (PDF). Security Research Review. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
  6. ↑ K. Santhosh (12 December 2004). "Building structures in space using force fields". The Hindu. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
  7. ↑ "Energy Conservation & Conversion Division Officers 2009–2010". American Society for Engineering Education. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  8. ↑ "Scv Inc". chamberocommercerce. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  9. ↑ "SCV INC". Cortera. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  10. ↑ "Building with Force Fields". Popular Mechanics 180 (5): 20. May 2003. ISSN 0032-4558. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  11. ↑ "Space Researchers". Atlanta Magazine 42 (11): 102. February 2003. ISSN 0004-6701. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  12. ↑ NICHOLAS PICON (3 May 2011). "Effects of Wireless Power Beaming in the Space Industry: Modern Applications and Future Possibilities". The Triple Helix. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  13. ↑ Fundie Alert Rediff – 20 July 2000
  14. ↑ Tow, William T.; Chin, Kin Wah (2009). ASEAN, India, Australia: towards closer engagement in a new Asia. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. p. 289. ISBN 981-230-963-2.
  15. ↑ Cady, Linell Elizabeth; Simon, Sheldon W. (2007). Religion and conflict in South and Southeast Asia: disrupting violence. Taylor & Francis. p. 110. ISBN 0-415-39734-0.
  16. ↑ Narayanan Komerath (17 January 2005). "Of Winners, Wave Rats and Whinos". iVarta. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
  17. ↑ Narayanan Komerath (August 2005). "The Nuclear Truth Triumphs". Bharat Rakshak Security Research Review. Retrieved 23 March 2012.

External links

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