60 Days Plan: UPSC IAS Prelims 2019 – Science & Technology and Current Affairs (Day 5)

The Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security – Regolith Explorer spacecraft will travel to a near-Earth asteroid, called Bennu (formerly 1999 RQ36), and bring at least a 2.1-ounce sample back to Earth for study. The mission will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began, as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth.

For your Information:

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering and safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta is the mission’s principal investigator at the University of Arizona. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver is building the spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages New Frontiers for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

NOTE: This is not the first asteroid sampling mission. It was done in 2010 by Japan space agency JAXA.

Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS)

HysIS, the primary satellite of PSLV-C43 mission, weighing about 380 kg, is an earth observation satellite configured around ISRO’s Mini Satellite-2 (IMS-2) bus. The primary goal of HysIS is to study the earth’s surface in the visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

For your Information:

The co-passengers of HysIS include 1 micro and 29 nano satellites from eight different countries including one each from Australia, Canada, Columbia, Finland, Malaysia, Netherlands, Spain and 23 from US.

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope was an observatory in space dedicated to finding planets outside our solar system with a particular focus on finding planets that might resemble Earth. During its over nine years life, Kepler had observed 530,506 stars and detected 2,662 planets.

It used transit photometry detection method for searching for exoplanet, which looked for periodic, repetitive dips in visible light of stars caused by planets passing or transiting in front in front of its host star.

Gaganyaan Mission

Gaganyaan (“Orbital Vehicle”) is an Indian crewed orbital spacecraft intended to be the basis of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme. The spacecraft is being designed to carry three people, and a planned upgraded version will be equipped with rendezvous and docking capability. In its maiden crewed mission, Indian Space Research Organisation’s largely autonomous 3.7-tonne capsule will orbit the Earth at 400 km (250 mi) altitude for up to seven days with a three-person crew on board. The crewed vehicle is planned to be launched on ISRO’s GSLV Mk III in December 2021.

Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will put into orbit on Sunday two foreign satellites – NovaSAR and S1-4 – together weighing 889 kg.

The two satellites belong to Surrey Satellite Technologies Ltd (SSTL), UK, under commercial arrangement with Antrix Corp Ltd – the commercial arm of ISRO.

The two earth observation satellites have been launched into a 583 km Sun Synchronous Orbit. NovaSAR is a S-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite intended for forest mapping, land use and ice cover monitoring, flood and disaster monitoring. S1-4 is a high resolution Optical Earth Observation Satellite, used for surveying resources, environment monitoring, urban management and for disaster monitoring.

A space elevator is a proposed type of planet-to-space transportation system. The main component would be a cable (also called a tether) anchored to the surface and extending into space. The design would permit vehicles to travel along the cable from a planetary surface, such as the Earth’s, directly into space or orbit, without the use of large rockets. An Earth-based space elevator would consist of a cable with one end attached to the surface near the equator and the other end in space beyond geostationary orbit (35,786 km altitude). The competing forces of gravity, which is stronger at the lower end, and the outward/upward centrifugal force, which is stronger at the upper end, would result in the cable being held up, under tension, and stationary over a single position on Earth. With the tether deployed, climbers could repeatedly climb the tether to space by mechanical means, releasing their cargo to orbit. Climbers could also descend the tether to return cargo to the surface from orbit.

In News:

Japanese researchers from Shizuoka University will conduct world’s first experiment to test small prototype of space elevator in space by using two mini satellites. The test equipment will be launched by Japan’s space agency on board of H-2B rocket from southern island of Tanegashima.

Gaofen 11

Gaofen-11, a sub-meter resolution optical satellite, will become part of the China High-resolution Earth Observation System (CHEOS), initiated in 2010 to provide all-weather, all-day coverage by 2020 with optical and synthetic aperture radar satellites, and could also include airborne and near-space systems such as stratospheric balloons.

Gaofen-11 was developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), a spacecraft and satellite maker under CASC, but few details on its capabilities have been released.

Chinese state media report that the Gaofen-11 satellite will be used for land surveys, urban planning, road network design, agriculture, and disaster relief, while its data will also be used for the country’s Belt and Road international trade and infrastructure initiative.

The satellite is the sixth in the Gaofen series launched this year, following a triplet of Gaofen-1 satellites, and the larger Gaofen-5 and -6, all placed in Sun-synchronous orbits. The series, which means “high resolution” in Chinese, also includes one geosynchronous satellite, Gaofen-4, launched in 2015. Gaofen-7 could also be launched to SSO before the end of the year.

The Gaofen-11 launch was the 63rd launch worldwide in 2018

Vikas Engine

The Vikas (a portmanteau from initials of VIKram Ambalal Sarabhai ) is a family of liquid fuelled rocket engines conceptualized and designed by the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre in the 1970s.The design was based on the licensed version of the Viking engine with the chemical pressurisation system. The early production Vikas engines used some imported French components which were later replaced by domestically produced equivalents. It is used in the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) series of expendable launch vehicles for space launch use.

The recently tested high thrust version of Vikas engine will improve payload capability of PSLV, GSLV and GSLV Mk-III launch vehicles.

RemoveDEBRIS

RemoveDEBRIS is a satellite research project intending to demonstrate various space debris removal technologies. The satellite’s platform was manufactured by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) and is a variant of the SSTL X50 series. Partners on the project include Airbus, ArianeGroup, Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology, Inria, Innovative Solutions In Space, Surrey Space Centre, and Stellenbosch University.

Rather than engaging in active debris removal (ADR) of real space debris, the RemoveDEBRIS mission plan is to test the efficacy of several ADR technologies on mock targets in low Earth orbit. In order to complete its planned experiments the platform is equipped with a net, a harpoon, a laser ranging instrument, a dragsail, and two CubeSats (miniature research satellites).

The experiments are as follows:

• Net experiment – One of the CubeSats, called DebrisSat 1, will deploy a balloon meant to simulate a piece of space debris. From a short distance away, the RemoveDEBRIS satellite will attempt to capture the debris in a net and then manoeuvre this package to fall into Earth’s atmosphere and burn up.
• Vision-based navigation – The other CubeSat, called DebrisSat 2, will be released and the RemoveDEBRIS satellite will undergo a series of manoeuvres in order to obtain data and images using both lidar and optical cameras.
• Harpoon and deployable target – A harpoon connected by a tether will be fired at a plate attached to an arm extending from the RemoveDEBRIS platform itself.
• Dragsail – After the conclusion of the other experiments the satellite will deploy a large sail, which will act in a similar fashion to an air brake. The dragsail will bring RemoveDEBRIS from the relatively low orbital altitude of the space station into the planet’s atmosphere to safely disintegrate.

The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission is a robotic lander designed to study the deep interior of the planet Mars.

InSight’s objectives are to place a seismometer, called SEIS, on the surface of Mars to measure seismic activity and provide accurate 3D models of the planet’s interior; and measure internal heat flow using a heat probe called HP3 to study Mars’ early geological evolution. This could bring a new understanding of how the Solar System’s terrestrial planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars – and Earth’s Moon form and evolve.

Chandrayaan 2

Chandrayaan-2, India’s second mission to the Moon is a totally indigenous mission comprising of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover. After reaching the 100 km lunar orbit, the Lander housing the Rover will separate from the Orbiter. After a controlled descent, the Lander will soft land on the lunar surface at a specified site and deploy a Rover. If successful, this will be ISRO’s first rover mission to any celestial body.

The mission will carry a six-wheeled Rover which will move around the landing site in semi-autonomous mode as decided by the ground commands. The instruments on the rover will observe the lunar surface and send back data, which will be useful for analysis of the lunar soil.

The Chandrayaan-2 weighing around 3290 kg and would orbit around the moon and perform the objectives of remote sensing the moon. The payloads will collect scientific information on lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, lunar exosphere and signatures of hydroxyl and water-ice. If successful, Chandrayaan-2 will be the second mission to land a rover near the lunar south pole.

GSLV-F10/Chandrayaan-2 Mission is planned during early 2019.

Point Nemo is officially known as “the oceanic pole of inaccessibility,” or, more simply put, the point in the ocean that is farthest away from land.

The area is also known as a “spacecraft cemetery” because hundreds of decommissioned satellites, space stations, and other spacecraft have been deposited there upon re-entering the atmosphere to lessen the risk of hitting inhabited locations or maritime traffic. Point Nemo is relatively lifeless; its location within the South Pacific Gyre blocks nutrients from reaching the area, and being so far from land it gets little nutrient run-off from coastal waters.

In News: Recently, Tiangong 1 – Chinese observatory was sank here after it ran its course.

A Lagrange point is a location in space where the combined gravitational forces of two large bodies, such as Earth and the sun or Earth and the moon, equal the centrifugal force felt by a much smaller third body. The interaction of the forces creates a point of equilibrium where a spacecraft may be “parked” to make observations.

There are five Lagrange points around major bodies such as a planet or a star. Three of them lie along the line connecting the two large bodies.

• In the Earth-sun system, for example, the first point, L1, lies between Earth and the sun at about 1 million miles from Earth. L1 gets an uninterrupted view of the sun, and is currently occupied by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and the Deep Space Climate Observatory.

• L2 also lies a million miles from Earth, but in the opposite direction of the sun. At this point, with the Earth, moon and sun behind it, a spacecraft can get a clear view of deep space.
• The third Lagrange point, L3, lies behind the sun, opposite Earth’s orbit.

L1, L2 and L3 are all unstable points with precarious equilibrium. If a spacecraft at L3 drifted toward or away from Earth, it would fall irreversibly toward the sun or Earth.

Points L4 and L5, however, are stable. Because of the stability of these points, dust and asteroids tend to accumulate in these regions. Asteroids that surround the L4 and L5 points are called Trojans in honor of the asteroids Agamemnon, Achilles and Hector (all characters in the story of the siege of Troy) that are between Jupiter and the Sun.

Stratolaunch Systems Corporation is an American space transportation venture developing a new air launch to orbit system.

The project is a mobile launch system with three primary components; a carrier aircraft being built by Scaled Composites (called the Stratolaunch), a multi-stage payload “launch vehicle” which would be launched at high altitude into space from under the carrier aircraft, plus a mating and integration system by Dynetics.

Stratolaunch’s carrier aircraft would have a wingspan of 117 m (385 ft) or about 6.1 m (20 ft) wider than the length of an Apollo-era Saturn V and about half as long as the Hindenburg class airships. This would make it the largest airplane, by wingspan, ever to fly. It will weigh in at over 540,000 kg (1,200,000 lb) including the fully fueled launch vehicle and will require a runway at least 3,700 m (12,000 ft) long. It can carry over 230,000 kg (500,000 lb) of payload.

On January 9, 2019, the Stratolaunch carrier aircraft completed a 110 knot (219 km/h) taxi test, and released an accompanying photo of the nose landing gear lifted off the ground during the test.

NASA successfully tested a supersonic parachute designed to land the agency’s next rover on Mars. The suborbital launch was designed to mimic conditions that the parachute might experience during a Mars landing, then allow engineers to study the parachute and data collected during the flight to make sure the system will function as expected.

Launch was part of NASA’s Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiment (ASPIRE). The program is building parachutes that can cling to the Red Planet’s tenuous atmosphere well enough to buffer robotic landings — in particular that of NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, which is scheduled to launch that year.

Scientists at NASA have named a new organism discovered by them after the much-loved Indian scientist and former President, APJ Abdul Kalam.

Till date, the new organism, a bacteria, has been found only on the International Space Station (ISS) and has not been found on earth.

Researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the foremost lab of NASA for work on inter-planetary travel, discovered the new bacteria on the filters of the International Space Station (ISS) and named it Solibacillus kalamii to honour the late president, who was a renowned aerospace scientist.

GUSTO

The Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory (GUSTO) mission will fly an Ultralong-Duration Balloon (ULDB) carrying a telescope with carbon, oxygen and nitrogen emission line detectors.

GUSTO will provide the first complete study of all phases of the stellar life cycle, from the formation of molecular clouds, through star birth and evolution, to the formation of gas clouds and the re-initiation of the cycle. The observatory will help researchers map out parts of the Milky Way galaxy and a nearby galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Dark Energy

In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is an unknown form of energy which is hypothesized to permeate all of space, tending to accelerate the expansion of the universe. Dark energy is the most accepted hypothesis to explain the observations since the 1990s indicating that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate.

Sprites, the world’s smallest fully functional space probes, built on a single circuit board achieving low Earth orbit. The 3.5cm X 3.5cm chips weigh a mere 4g and contain solar panels, computers, sensors, and radios magnetometer (to orient to Earth’s magnetic field) and gyroscope (to move and stabilize the craft). Marking the next step ofrevolution in spacecraft miniaturisation, it was developed by the Breakthrough Starshot project.

The six prototypes of Sprites were launched in June 2017 as part of the Breakthrough Starshot project designed to test technologies that would eventually be used in interstellar missions. They were launched by ISRO by PSLV – C38.

Hypersonic Wind tunnels

A hypersonic wind tunnel is designed to generate a hypersonic flow field in the working section, thus simulating the typical flow features of this flow regime – including compression shocks and pronounced boundary layer effects, entropy layer and viscous interaction zones and most importantly high total temperatures of the flow. The speed of these tunnels vary from Mach 5 to 15. The power requirement of a wind tunnel increases with the cross section, the flow density and is directly proportional to the third power of the test velocity. Hence installation of a continuous, closed circuit wind tunnel remains a costly affair.

Indigenously developed hypersonic wind tunnel and shock tunnel, the third largest in terms of size and simulation capability in the world, were commissioned at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC).

These wind tunnels will be used to study the effects of air flowing past a solid object and in ISRO’s case, space vehicles. These new facilities will help aerodynamic characterisation of advanced space transportation systems in a hypersonic environment.

Cities Investment To Innovate, Integrate and Sustain (CITIIS) Challenge

When Smart Cities Mission was launched on 25 June 2015 a competitive, challenge process was used to select the 100 Smart Cities. Now, the Challenge process is being applied to project implementation, in line with the NITI Aayog guideline where under the Indo-French partnership program, at least 15 projects would be selected through an All-India Challenge. The projects would be in four sectors- Sustainable Mobility, Public Open Spaces, Urban governance & ICT and Social and Organizational Innovation in low-income settlements. The duration of the program will be three years (FY2018-19 to FY2020- 21).

A Loan of EUR 100 million would be extended by AFD to selected CITIIS projects in the form of grant. The repayment of the principle and interest would be equally shared by the Central Government and State Government on 50:50 basis. Each awarded CITIIS project will benefit from a grant ranging from INR 20 Cr. to INR 80 Cr (max project outlay: 160 crore). The CITIIS grant is expected to cover from minimum 50% up to 80% of the project cost subject to a maximum of INR 80 Cr. and additional funding amounting to least 20% to be secured by the awarded cities through its own resources.

In addition, EUR 6 million would be given as grant to be shared between the SPVs of the Smart Cities, State Governments and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for capacity building activities. The National institute of Urban Affairs would conduct the Challenge process for selection of projects under the Indo-French partnership.

The financial support and foreign technical assistance will help Smart Cities to access World Class expertise for selected innovative projects. It also intends to improve peer learning activities & cooperation within the smart cities and enhance the knowledge both at the State and National Level.

Recently signed Inter Creditor Agreements (ICA) between public sector, private sector and foreign banks is to push for the speedy resolution of non-performing loans on their balance sheets. It is part of the “Sashakt” plan approved by the government to address the problem of resolving bad loans. This was suggested by Sunil Mehta committee.

Inter Creditor Agreement is signed to ensure swift resolution of non-performing assets. There are around 22 public sector banks (including India Post Payments Bank), 19 private lenders and 32 foreign banks signed the inter-creditor agreement (ICA) to fast track the resolution of stressed assets.

Source: https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/24-lenders-sign-an-inter-creditor-agreement-for-faster-npa-resolutions-118072400071_1.html

The Sustainable India Finance Facility (SIFF) is an innovative partnership between UN Environment, World Agroforestry Centre and BNP Paribas which aims to ‘leverage private finance for public good’ in India. SIFF brings together governments, the private sector, academia and communities to scale up sustainable investment in natural resource management, renewable energy production, and rural livelihoods.

He was an Indian theologian, philosopher, and one of the most important exponents of the Sri Vaishnavism tradition within Hinduism. His philosophical foundations for devotionalism were influential to the Bhakti movement.

Ramanuja’s guru was Yādava Prakāśa, a scholar who was a part of the more ancient Advaita Vedānta monastic tradition. Sri Vaishnava tradition holds that Ramanuja disagreed with his guru and the non-dualistic Advaita Vedānta, and instead followed in the footsteps of Indian Alvārs tradition, the scholars Nāthamuni and Yamunāchārya. Ramanuja is famous as the chief proponent of Vishishtadvaita subschool of Vedānta, and his disciples were likely authors of texts such as the Shatyayaniya Upanishad. Ramanuja himself wrote influential texts, such as bhāsya on the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita, all in Sanskrit.

His Vishishtadvaita (qualified monism) philosophy has competed with the Dvaita (theistic dualism) philosophy of Madhvāchārya, and Advaita (monism) philosophy of Ādi Shankara, together the three most influential Vedantic philosophies of the 2nd millennium. Ramanuja presented the epistemic and soteriological importance of bhakti, or the devotion to a personal God (Vishnu in Ramanuja’s case) as a means to spiritual liberation. His theories assert that there exists a plurality and distinction between Ātman (soul) and Brahman (metaphysical, ultimate reality), while he also affirmed that there is unity of all souls and that the individual soul has the potential to realize identity with the Brahman.

cVIGIL provide time stamped evidentiary proof of model code of conduct / Expenditure Violation, having live photo/video with auto location data. This unique combination of timestamping, live photo with auto location can be fairly relied upon by election machinery to navigate to the right spot and take prompt action. The GIS-based dashboard provides strong decision tool to drop and dispose of frivolous and unrelated cases even before they are acted upon, thereby reducing the workload of election machinery on ghost complaints.

Presently there is a lack of fast information channel to transmit and track complaints on MCC violations. Delay in reporting of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) violations has often resulted in the culprits escaping detection from the flying squads of election commission entrusted to ensure enforcement of Model Code of Conduct. Further, lack of any documented, untampered, evidence in the form of pictures or videos was a major hurdle in establishing the veracity of a complaint ex-post facto. The Commission’s experience has also shown a significant percentage of reporting was false or inaccurate, which led to wastage of precious time of Field Units.

The new cVIGIL app launched by Election Commission of India is expected to fill in all these gaps and create a fast-track complaint reception and redressal system. ‘cVIGIL’ stands for Vigilant Citizen and emphasizes the proactive and responsible role citizens can play in the conduct of free and fair elections.

Source:

• https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/anti-conversion-law-must-stay-tribal-groups/article24301138.ece

• https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/states/story/20180716-the-question-of-religious-faith-1277828-2018-07-08

The Reserve Bank of India gives temporary loan facilities to the centre and state governments as a banker to government.  This temporary loan facility is called Ways and Means Advances (WMA).

‘WMA’ are temporary advances given by the RBI to government to tide over any mismatch in receipts and payments.

It is for both central and state governments.

Source:  https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/rbi-raises-centres-wma-advances-to-rs-70000-crore-for-july-september-quarter/1237646/

Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa- In July 2018, PM, Shri Narendra Modi visited these countries.

You can see the map and find out that DRC has an opening on the Western Side.

Source: https://mea.gov.in/outoging-visit-detail.htm?30152/Prime+Ministers+address+at+Parliament+of+Uganda+during+his+State+Visit+to+Uganda

Better Life Farming, a long-term partnership of Bayer, IFC (International Finance Corporation), Netafim and Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, aims at enabling smallholders to unlock their farming potential.

Together with many local partners they assist smallholder farmers to grow their farms into commercially viable and sustainable farming businesses.

This will encourage financial security, increase know-how and create a meaningful impact in their lives.

Source: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/a-new-alliance-to-help-chilli-tomato-farmers-to-get-better-returns/article24502398.ece

It was held in Johannesburg, South Africa. Also, called as Johannesburg Declaration.

Source:  http://www.pib.nic.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1540410