43-43-43-43 or 99-99-99-99 These are few of the numbers which immediately comes to the mind in India, when a person in a metro, thinks of hiring a “Prepaid Taxi”. Prepaid taxi services are gradually creeping in the metro systems of India. But for them to remain in competition and to grab attention of the common man through their transparent methods they have to retort to various strategies.

To satify the customers in terms of adopting the shortest route, avoid traffic cogestion areas, be transparent and on top of it be profitable are some of the challenges that these taxis systems need to follow everyday. This is where geospatial technologies comes handy. Global positioning device account for the transparency whereas digital maps enable the services networks to concentrate and plan their fleet in a manner which would enable them to target the right areas.

In India, the state governments are trying to implement the GPS systems in most of its autos (the taxis), so that automated generated bills would be generated, and the consumers don't get cheated by the enormous amounts that the taxi drivers charge.

With the growing traffic on the Indian roads, it becomes a daunting task for a taxi driver to retain the commutor's trust of whether he opted the best possible route to the destination.

Therefore for private taxi operators, it is a must that they adopt geospatial technologies to attract the customers and find solution to routing complexities and at the same time remain profitable.

The second of NASA's two Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft has successfully completed its planned main engine burn and is now in lunar orbit. Working together, GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B will study the moon as never before. The twin GRAIL spacecraft will vastly expand our knowledge of our moon and the evolution of our own planet.

The two spacecraft will transmit radio signals precisely defining the distance between them. As they fly over areas of greater and lesser gravity caused by visible features such as mountains and craters, and masses hidden beneath the lunar surface, the distance between the two spacecraft will change slightly.

Using a precision formation-flying technique, the scientists will translate this information into a high-resolution map of the moon's gravitational field. The data will allow scientists to understand what goes on below the lunar surface and would help them to make a DEM for lunar surface.

Courtesy: NASA, JPL, MIT