Indonesian teen survives after 48 days adrift in sea
Jakarta: An Indonesian teenager survived 48 days adrift at sea in a floating fish trap before he was rescued by a cargo vessel and taken to Japan, officials said on Monday.
A diplomat from the Indonesian consulate in Osaka confirmed to Efe news that Aldi Novel Adilang, 19, was in good health and reunited with his family in his hometown, Wori, in North Sulawesi province.
Aldi was employed to light up a wooden floating fish trap – so as to attract the fish – around 125 km from the North Sulawesi coast.
Once a week, someone would come with provisions for him and take away the collected fish.
However, on July 14 the rope holding the structure in place broke off and strong winds pushed it towards the north.
The structure lacked an engine and went adrift, but Aldi had a solar-powered radio, through which he tried to contact at least 10 boats that passed nearby.
Finally, the vessel MV Arpeggio, bearing a Panamanian flag, caught his radio signal and rescued him on August 31 in the waters of Guam.
The cargo ship took him to Japan and Aldi returned to Indonesia on September 8. (IANS)
NASA’s Mars probe beams back selfie to mark four years in orbit
Washington: NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft has beamed back a selfie to mark its four years orbiting Mars and studying the upper atmosphere of the red planet.
The image was obtained with the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) instrument that normally looks at ultraviolet emissions from the Martian upper atmosphere. The instrument is mounted on a platform at the end of a 1.2-metre boom — its own ‘selfie stick’ — and by rotating around the boom can look back at the spacecraft. The selfie was made from 21 different images, obtained with the IUVS in different orientations, that have been stitched together, NASA said in a statement. “The spacecraft and instruments continue to operate as planned, and we’re looking forward to further exploration of the Martian upper atmosphere and its influence on climate,” said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from the University of Colorado, Boulder in the US.
The MAVEN mission was launched on November 18, 2013, and went into orbit around Mars on September 21, 2014. (PTI)