BPSC (Bihar) Exam  >  BPSC (Bihar) Notes  >  Events in Space Technology January to May 2022

Events in Space Technology January to May 2022 - BPSC (Bihar) PDF Download

Meteorite (ALH) 84001


Why in News
Recently, a new study published in the journal Science, offers an explanation for the existence of organic compounds on the surface of Meteorite called (ALH) 84001.

  • It landed on Earth from Mars in 1984, and can possibly unravel the existence of life on Mars (Red Planet).

Key Points

  • About:
    • Meteorite named Alan Hills (ALH) 84001 was found in December, 1984 in the Far Western Icefield of Allan Hills in Antarctica by a US meteorite hunting expedition. At the time of its discovery it was recognised as the most unusual rock collected.
      • It was described at the time of discovery as, shaped like a rounded brick or a large potato, about 6 inches long by 4 inches by 3 inches, and was partly covered with black glass.
    • In 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover collected the first sample of Martian rock.
    • It can be said with certainty that the meteorite did come from the Red planet because of the presence of traces of certain gases that are just like the Martian atmosphere.
  • Study:
    • The study posits that the organic compounds found in the meteorite were a result of the interactions between water and rocks that occurred on Mars. These interactions were similar to those that happen on Earth.
    • These kinds of non-biological, geological reactions are responsible for a pool of organic carbon compounds from which life could have evolved and presents a basis that must be taken into consideration when searching for evidence of past life on Mars.
    • The search for life on Mars is not just an attempt to answer the question ‘are we alone, but also It relates to early Earth environments and addresses the question of ‘where did we come from.
  • Significance of Studying meteorites:
    • Scientists are interested in studying meteorites as examining them offers clues about the beginning of the solar system and maybe even the Earth.
      • Space agencies have launched specific missions to asteroids to be able to study them.
      • One such example is NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission launched in 2018 with the aim of reaching asteroid Bennu and getting back a sample from the ancient asteroid.

Difference between Meteor, Meteorite and Meteoroid

  • The difference between a meteor, meteorite and meteoroid is nothing but where the object is.
  • Meteoroids are objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids. “Think of them as “space rocks,”.
  • But when meteoroids enter the Earth’s atmosphere they are called meteors.
  • But if a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere and hits the ground, it is called a meteorite.

Dark Matter Shaped Galaxies


Why in News
Recently, scientists investigating how the shape of dark matter affects the motion of stars in the centre of some galaxies (stellar bars) have found that out-of-plane bending can be explained through dark matter halos in barred galaxies.

  • Out of plane bending of the bar in barred galaxies is a rare violent bar thickening mechanism known as buckling.
  • A dark halo is the inferred halo of invisible material (dark matter) that permeates and surrounds individual galaxies, as well as groups and clusters of galaxies.

Note:

  • A barred spiral galaxy is a spiral galaxy with a central bar-shaped structure composed of stars.
  • For example, the Milky Way is a disk galaxy made up of stars moving in circular orbits around the center in a flattened disk, with a dense collection of the stars at the center called the bulge.
    • These bulges can have shapes ranging from nearly spherical to as flat as the galaxy disk. The Milky Way has a flat boxy or peanut-shaped bulge in its center.
    • Such bulges are formed due to thickening of the stellar bars in galaxies.
  • One of the violent thickening mechanisms is buckling, where the bar bends out of the plane of the galaxy disk.
  • Stellar bar: A bar-shaped accumulation of stars in galaxies.

Key Points
About Dark Matter:

  • Dark matter, though never detected, is believed to be present in the entire universe.
  • It is presumed that primordial black holes, those that were formed in the early age of the universe, are a source of dark matter. It was proposed by Professor Stephen Hawking.
  • It is believed that combined with dark energy, it makes up more than 95% of the universe.
  • Its gravitational force prevents stars in our Milky Way from flying apart.
  • However, attempts to detect such dark matter particles using underground experiments, or accelerator experiments including the world's largest accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), have failed so far.

Dark Matter Presence in the Universe:

  • Laws of gravity expect us to see stars closer to the center of galaxies rotating faster than the stars on the edge.
    • However, in most galaxies, the stars closer to the center and the stars at the edge of the galaxies take almost the same time to make one revolution.
  • This implied that something invisible and enveloping the galaxies was giving an extra push to the outer stars, speeding them up.
  • This entity has remained as one of the unresolved puzzles in cosmology since the 1930s. It was named `Dark Matter’.
  • The material is considered to be a ‘matter’ since it has gravitational attraction and it is ‘dark’ because it does not seem to interact with light (or any part of the electromagnetic spectrum).

Dark Matter and Dark Energy:

  • While dark matter attracts and holds galaxies together, dark energy repels and causes the expansion of our universe.
  • Despite both components being invisible, a lot more is known about dark matter, since its existence was suggested as early as the 1920s, while dark energy wasn’t discovered until 1998.

About Dark Energy:

  • The Big Bang occurred nearly 15 billion years ago and expanded.
  • Earlier, astronomers believed that eventually the expansion of the Universe will slow down because of gravity and it will recollapse.
    • However, data from the Hubble Telescope suggested that the Universe's expansion is accelerating.
  • The astronomers theorize that the faster expansion rate is due to a mysterious, dark force or energy that is pulling galaxies apart.
    • The term ‘dark’ is used to denote the unknown.
  • The following diagram reveals changes in the rate of expansion since the universe's birth 15 billion years ago.
    Events in Space Technology January to May 2022 - BPSC (Bihar)

Black Holes

  • It refers to a point in space where the matter is so compressed as to create a gravity field from which even light cannot escape.
  • The concept was theorized by Albert Einstein in 1915 and the term ‘black hole’ was coined in the mid-1960s by American physicist John Archibald Wheeler.
  • Usually, the black holes belong to two categories:
    • One category ranges between a few solar masses and tens of solar masses. These are thought to form when massive stars die.
    • The other category is of supermassive black holes. These range from hundreds of thousands to billions of times that of the sun from the Solar system to which Earth belongs.
  • In April 2019, the scientists at the Event Horizon Telescope Project released the first-ever image of a Black Hole (more precisely, of its shadow).
    • The Event Horizon Telescope is a group of 8 radio telescopes (used to detect radio waves from space) located in different parts of the world.
  • Gravitational waves are created when two black holes orbit each other and merge.
    Events in Space Technology January to May 2022 - BPSC (Bihar)

Chandrayaan 3 Mission


Why in News ?
Recently, the Department of Science has stated that India plans to execute the Chandrayaan-3 mission in August 2022.
What is the Chandrayaan-3 Mission ?

  • The Chandrayaan-3 mission is a follow-up of Chandrayaan-2 of July 2019, which aimed to land a rover on the lunar South Pole.
  • The subsequent failure of the Vikram lander led to the pursuit of another mission to demonstrate the landing capabilities needed for the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission proposed in partnership with Japan for 2024.
  • It will have an orbiter and a landing module. However, this orbiter won’t be loaded with scientific instruments like the Chandrayaan-2.
    • Its job will only be confined to carry the lander to the moon, oversee the landing from its orbit and communicate between the lander and the earth station.”

What was the Chandrayaan-2 Mission ?

  • Chandrayaan-2 consisted of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover, all equipped with scientific instruments to study the moon.
    • The Orbiter would watch the moon from a 100-km orbit, while the Lander and Rover modules were to be separated to make a soft landing on the moon’s surface.
    • ISRO had named the Lander module as Vikram, after Vikram Sarabhai, the pioneer of India’s space programme, and the Rover module as Pragyaan, meaning wisdom.
  • It was sent aboard the country’s most powerful geosynchronous launch vehicle, the GSLV-Mk 3.
  • However, lander Vikram, instead of a controlled landing, ended up crash-landing and prevented rover Pragyaan from successfully travelling on the surface of the moon.

What is GSLV-Mk 3 ?

  • Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-III was developed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is a three-stage vehicle, designed to launch communication satellites into geostationary orbit.
  • It has a mass of 640 tonnes that can accommodate up to 8,000 kg payload to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and 4000 kg payload to GTO (Geo-Synchronous Transfer Orbit).

What are the Different Types of Orbits?
Polar Orbit

  • A polar orbit travels north-south over the poles and takes approximately 90 minutes for a full rotation.
  • These orbits have an inclination near 90 degrees. This allows the satellite to see virtually every part of the Earth as the Earth rotates underneath it.
  • These satellites have many uses such as monitoring crops, global security, measuring ozone concentrations in the stratosphere or measuring temperatures in the atmosphere.
  • Almost all the satellites that are in a polar orbit are at lower altitudes.
  • An orbit is called sun-synchronous when the angle between the line joining the centre of the Earth and the satellite and the Sun is constant throughout the orbit.
  • These orbits are also referred to as “Low Earth Orbit (LEO)” which enables the onboard camera to take images of the earth under the same sun-illumination conditions during each of the repeated visits, thus making the satellite useful for earth resources monitoring.
  • It passes over any given point on Earth’s surface at the same local solar time.\

Geosynchronous Orbit

  • Geosynchronous satellites are launched into orbit in the same direction the Earth is spinning and can have any inclination.
  • When the satellite is in orbit at a specific altitude (approximately 36,000km above the Earth's surface), it will exactly match the rotation of the Earth.
    • While, Geostationary orbits fall in the same category as geosynchronous orbits, but with that one special quality of being parked over the equator.
  • In the case of geostationary satellites, the Earth’s force of gravity is exactly enough to provide acceleration required for circular motion.
  • Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit(GTO): To attain geostationary or geosynchronous earth orbits, a spacecraft is first launched into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.
    • From the GTO the spacecraft uses its engines to shift to geostationary or geosynchronous orbit.

Geomagnetic Storm 


Why in News?
Recently, Elon Musk’s Starlink has lost dozens of satellites that were caught in a geomagnetic storm a day after they were launched.

  • The satellites were designed to burn up on reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, and did not create debris in space.
  • However, the loss of 40 satellites — most of a launch batch — in a single solar event has been described as “unheard of” and “huge”.

What is Starlink?

  • Starlink is a SpaceX project to build a broadband network with a cluster of orbiting spacecraft that could eventually number thousands.
  • The Starlink satellites carry Hall thrusters, which use electricity and krypton gas to generate an impulse, to manoeuvre in orbit, maintain altitude and guide the spacecraft back into the atmosphere at the end of their mission.
  • The Starlink network is one of several ongoing efforts to start beaming data signals from space.

What is a Geomagnetic Storm?

  • Solar Storms occur during the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots (‘dark’ regions on the Sun that are cooler than the surrounding photosphere - the lowest layer of the solar atmosphere), and can last for a few minutes or hours.
  • A geomagnetic storm is a major disturbance of Earth's magnetosphere that occurs when there is a very efficient exchange of energy from the solar wind into the space environment surrounding Earth.
    • The magnetosphere shields our home planet from harmful solar and cosmic particle radiation, as well as erosion of the atmosphere by the solar wind – the constant flow of charged particles streaming off the Sun.
  • These storms result from variations in the solar wind that produce major changes in the currents, plasmas, and fields in Earth’s magnetosphere.
    • The solar wind conditions that are effective for creating geomagnetic storms are sustained (for several to many hours) periods of high-speed solar wind, and most importantly, a southward directed solar wind magnetic field (opposite the direction of Earth’s field) at the dayside of the magnetosphere.
    • This condition is effective for transferring energy from the solar wind into Earth’s magnetosphere.
  • The largest storms that result from these conditions are associated with solar Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) where a billion tons or so of plasma from the sun, with its embedded magnetic field, arrives at Earth.
    • CMEs are large ejections of plasma and magnetic fields that originate from the Sun's corona (outermost layer).

How does it Affect Earth?

  • Can Impact Space Weather:
    • Not all solar flares reach Earth, but solar flares/storms, Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs), high-speed solar winds, and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) that come close can impact space weather in near-Earth space and the upper atmosphere.
  • Can Hit Operations of Space-Dependent Services:
    • Solar storms can hit operations of space-dependent services like Global Positioning Systems (GPS), radio, and satellite communications. Aircraft flights, power grids, and space exploration programmes are vulnerable.
  • Can Potentially Create Disturbances in the Magnetosphere:
    • Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) with ejectiles loaded with matter travelling at millions of miles an hour, can potentially create disturbances in the magnetosphere, the protective shield surrounding the Earth.
    • Astronauts on spacewalks face health risks from possible exposure to solar radiation outside the Earth’s protective atmosphere.

How are Solar Storms Predicted?

  • Solar physicists and other scientists use computer models to predict solar storms and solar activities in general.
    • Current models are capable of predicting a storm’s time of arrival and its speed.
    • But the storm’s structure or orientation still cannot be predicted.
  • Certain orientations of the magnetic field can produce a more intense response from the magnetosphere, and trigger more intense magnetic storms.
    • With the increasing global dependence on satellites for almost every activity, there is a need for better space weather forecasts and more effective ways to protect satellites.

Geospatial Sector


India has a robust ecosystem in geospatial, with the Survey of India (SoI), ISRO, remote sensing application centres (RSAC)s, and the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in particular, and all ministries and departments, in general, using geospatial technology.
However, the lack of awareness within the public and private sector is one of the major roadblocks to harnessing full benefits of the sector.

Geospatial Sector of India

What is Geospatial Technology?

  • Geospatial technologies is a term used to describe the range of modern tools contributing to the geographic mapping and analysis of the Earth and human societies.
    • The term 'geospatial' refers to a collection of technologies that help to collect, analyse, store, manage, distribute, integrate, and present geographic information.
  • Broadly, it consists of the following technologies:
    • Remote Sensing
    • GIS (Geographic Information System)
    • GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System)
    • Survey
    • 3D modelling
  • It enables better measurement, management, and maintenance of assets, monitoring of resources and even providing predictive and prescriptive analysis for forecasting and planned interventions.

What was the Liberalisation of the Geospatial Sector?

  • The Ministry of Science and Technology, in February 2021, released new guidelines for the Geo-Spatial Sector in India, which deregulated the previous protocol and liberalised the sector to a more competitive field.
  • The policy granted open access to the geospatial data and services, including maps, for all Indian entities, with the exception of sensitive defence or security-related data.
  • Indian corporations and innovators are no longer subject to restrictions nor do they require prior approvals before generating or updating digital geospatial data and maps within the territory of India.
  • There is also no requirement for security clearance, licence or any other restrictions.

What is the Significance of Revised Guidelines?

  • The declaration of the guidelines followed by the mention of geospatial in the Union Budget 2022-23 have created the necessary hype about the sector.
  • The growth in the net-worth of the sector has been projected to be about ₹1 lakh-crore by the year 2029 with 13% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR).
    • Consequently, the geospatial sector, which was considered taboo by investors, is seeing new interest.
  • The liberalisation of the guidelines has brought in a response from the private industry which is no more apprehensive and conservative like it was in previous years.

What are the Underlying Challenges?

  • Among the most prominent hurdles is the absence of a sizable geospatial market in India.
    • There is no demand for geospatial services and products on a scale linked to India’s potential and size.
  • This lack of demand is mainly a consequence of the lack of awareness among potential users in government and private sectors.
  • The other hurdle has been the lack of skilled manpower across the entire pyramid.
  • The unavailability of foundation data, especially at high-resolution, is also a constraint.
    • The lack of clarity on data sharing and collaboration prevents co-creation and asset maximisation.
  • Additionally, there are still no ready-to-use solutions especially built to solve the problems of India.
  • Though India has many who are trained in geospatial this is mostly either through a master’s level programme or on-job training.
    • Unlike the West, India lacks a strata of core professionals who understand geospatial end-to-end.

What Can Be The Way Forward?

  • Increasing Awareness: India needs to be aggressive to make a leapfrog; special attention is required as far as the geospatial sector is concerned.
    • First and foremost is the need to publish the entire policy document and make government and private users aware of things.
    • The data available with government departments should be unlocked, and data sharing should be encouraged and facilitated.
    • The Government needs to invest in developing standards and must mandate the adoption of standards.
  • Availability of Data: There is a need to establish a geo-portal to make all public-funded data accessible through data as a service model, with no or nominal charge.
  • Most important is to inculcate the culture of data sharing, collaboration and co-creation.
  • While different types of data will be produced on a project-to-project basis, there is a need to generate foundation data across India.
    • This should include the Indian national digital elevation model (InDEM), data layers for cities, and data of natural resources.
  • Role of Start-Ups: Solution developers and start-ups should be engaged to build solution templates for various business processes across departments.
    • Local technology and solutions should be promoted, and competition should be encouraged for quality output.
  • Localisation of Data: As the new guidelines prevent high-accuracy data being stored in overseas clouds, there is a need to develop a geospatial data cloud locally and facilitate a solution as service.
    • The Environment Ministry can host a complete suite of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications like working plan, wildlife corridor mapping, social forestry, etc.
    • National organisations like SoI and ISRO should be entrusted with the responsibility of regulation and the projects related to the nation’s security and scientific significance.
  • Academic Backing: India should start a bachelor’s programme in geospatial also in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the National Institutes of Technology (NITs). Besides these, there should be a dedicated geospatial university.
    • Such programmes will propel research and development efforts which are crucial for the development of technologies and solutions locally.

Conclusion
The geospatial sector in the country is rightly positioned for investment. However, clarity on the issues discussed and the creation of an enabling ecosystem are essential. By the time India celebrates the 10th anniversary of the liberalisation of this sector, it should have achieved the projected market volume and have Indian entrepreneurs stand out internationally.

Distribution of Argon-40 on Moon


Why in News?
Recently, Chandra's Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 (CHACE-2), a payload onboard Chandrayaan-2, has made the first-of-its-kind discovery on the distribution of one of the noble gases, Argon-40.

  • India launched Chandrayaan-2, its second lunar exploration mission after Chandrayaan-1, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota in July 2019.

What is the Chandrayaan-2 Mission?

  • Chandrayaan-2 is an integrated 3-in-1 spacecraft consisting of an Orbiter of the Moon, Vikram (after Vikram Sarabhai) the lander and Pragyan (wisdom) the rover, all equipped with scientific instruments to study the moon.
  • Failure of Lander: Vikram lander's descent was as planned and normal performance was observed up to an altitude of 2.1 km from Lunar surface in September, 2019.
    • A successful soft-landing would have made India the fourth country after the erstwhile Soviet Union, the United States, and China to do so.
  • Orbiter: It is equipped with different kinds of cameras to create high-resolution three-dimensional maps of the surface.
    • It will study the mineral composition on the moon and the lunar atmosphere, and also to assess the abundance of water.
  • Objective: The mission sequence involves meticulous planning of a series of Earthbound manoeuvres, trans-lunar injections, series of lunar burns, lander separation, lander descent, and touchdown and subsequent rover rolling out of the lander on the Moon surface.

What are the major Findings?

  • The gas found in the lunar exosphere is believed to have escaped from the lunar surface.
  • The CHACE-2 observations reveal that the distribution in Ar-40 has significant spatial heterogeneity.
  • There are localised enhancements (termed as Argon bulge) over several regions including the KREEP [potassium (K), Rare-Earth Elements, and Phosphorus (P)] on South Pole Aitken terrain (impact crater on the far side of the Moon).

What is the Lunar Exosphere?

  • 'Exosphere' is the outermost region of the upper atmosphere of a celestial body where the constituent atoms and molecules rarely collide with each other and can escape into space.
  • Earth's Moon features a surface-boundary-exosphere. For Moon, different constituents in the exosphere are fed from the surface by a variety of processes such as:
    • Thermal Desorption: The exospheric atoms may be lost to space by the thermal escape (also known as the Jean's escape).
    • Photo-Stimulated Desorption: The atoms get ionised by photo-ionisation and charge exchange with the solar wind ions.
    • Solar wind Sputtering: The atoms can be swept away by the convective electric field of the solar wind.
    • Micrometeorite Impact Vaporisation: The impact of micrometeoroid is usually sufficiently energetic to cause vaporisation of the impacting particle as well as produce an impact crater of volume an order of magnitude greater than the impacting particle.
      • A micrometeoroid is orbital debris which is smaller than a grain of sand.
    • Thus, the lunar exosphere exists as a result of a dynamic equilibrium between several source and sink processes.

What is the Significance of the Discovery?

  • Noble gases serve as important tracers to understand the processes of surface-exosphere interaction, and Argon-40 (Ar-40) is such an important tracer atom to study the dynamics of the lunar exospheric species.
  • It will also help decipher radiogenic activities in the first few tens of metres below the lunar surface.
    • Ar-40 originates from the radioactive disintegration of Potassium-40 (K-40) present below the lunar surface.
    • Once formed, it diffuses through the inter-granular space and makes its way up to the lunar exosphere through seepages and faults.
  • The CHACE-2 observations provide the diurnal and spatial variation of Ar-40 covering the equatorial and mid latitude regions of the Moon.
    • The uniqueness of this result from Chandrayaan-2 mission lies in the fact that although Apollo-17(1972) and Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE Mission 2014) have detected the presence of Ar-40 in the lunar exosphere, the measurements were confined to the near-equatorial region of the Moon.
  • The observations of Argon bulge by CHACE-2 are indicative of unknown or additional loss processes.

What are Noble Gases?

  • Noble gases are a group of the seven chemical elements that make up Group 18 (VIIIa) of the periodic table.
  • The elements are helium (He), neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), xenon (Xe), radon (Rn), and oganesson (Og).
  • The noble gases are colourless, odourless, tasteless, nonflammable gases.
    • However, recent studies have shown reactive compounds of xenon, krypton, and radon.
  • The abundances of the noble gases decrease as their atomic numbers increase.
  • Helium is the most plentiful element in the universe after hydrogen.

ExoMars 2022 Mission


Why in News?
The European Space Agency’s ExoMars 2022 mission won’t launch in September, 2022 as planned after the agency suspended all cooperation with Russia’s space program Roscosmos.

  • Earlier, the Russian space agency Roscosmos held that it will not cooperate with Germany on joint experiments in the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS).

What is the ExoMars 2022 Mission?

  • About:
    • It is a two-stage mission:
      • First Part:
        • Its first mission launched atop a Proton-M rocket in 2016 and consisted of the European Trace Gas Orbiter and test lander called Schiaparelli.
        • The orbiter was successful while the test lander failed during its descent to Mars.
      • Second Part:
        • It comprises a rover and surface platform:
        • This second part of the mission was originally planned for July 2020. But it was postponed until this September due to technical issues.
    • ESA and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) were the original ExoMars collaborators, but NASA dropped out in 2012 due to budgeting problems.
    • Russia took NASA’s place in the project in 2013.
  • Objective:
    • The primary aim of the mission is to check if there has ever been life on Mars and also understand the history of water on the planet.
      • The European rover will drill to the sub-surface of Mars to collect samples from about 2 m of depth.
    • The main goal is to land ESA's rover at a site which has high-potential for finding well-preserved organic material, particularly from the history of the planet.

How is the Mission Dependent on Russia?

  • The mission uses a number of Russian-made components — including the rockets.
    • The 2016 launch used a Russian-made Proton-M rocket, the same type planned for the launch in September, 2022.
  • Many components of the mission’s rover are also Russian-made.
    • The components include radioisotope heaters that are used to keep the rover warm at night on the surface of Mars.

What about the Other Mars Missions?

  • NASA’s Perseverance Rover
  • UAE’s Hope Mars Mission (UAE’s first-ever interplanetary mission)
  • India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) or Mangalyaan:
    • It was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh by the Indian Space Research Organisation in November 2013.
    • It was launched on board a PSLV C25 rocket with the aim of studying Martian surface and mineral composition as well as scan its atmosphere for methane (an indicator of life on Mars).
  • Tianwen-1: China's Mars Mission

What do we know about Mars?

  • Size and Distance:
    • It is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System.
    • Mars is about half the size of Earth.
  • Similarity to the Earth (Orbit and Rotation):
    • As Mars orbits the Sun, it completes one rotation every 24.6 hours, which is very similar to one day on Earth (23.9 hours).
    • Mars' axis of rotation is tilted 25 degrees with respect to the plane of its orbit around the Sun. This is similar to Earth, which has an axial tilt of 23.4 degrees.
    • Mars has distinct seasons like Earth, but they last longer than seasons on Earth.
      • Martian days are called sols—short for ‘solar day’.
  • Other Features:
    • The reason Mars looks reddish is due to oxidation or rusting of iron in the rocks, and dust of Mars. Hence it is also called the Red Planet.
    • It has the largest volcano in the solar system i.e. Olympus Mons.
    • It has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos.

Earth Observation Satellite: EOS-02


Why in News?
The Union Minister of Science & Technology said that EOS (Earth Observation Satellite)-02 satellite will be launched in the second quarter of 2022.

  • The launch was delayed due to pandemic and consequent lockdown.
  • Earlier, the Indian Space Research Organisation's earth observation satellite EOS-04 and two small satellites (INSPIREsat-1 and INS-2TD) were successfully placed into the intended orbit by the PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle)-C52 rocket.

What is the EOS-02 Satellite?

  • EOS-02 is Technology demonstration satellite for various new technologies with applications that include agriculture, forestry, geology, hydrology, miniaturised power electronics, reaction wheels etc. and forming the payload for SSLV (Small Satellite Launch Vehicle)-1.
    • SSLV is the smallest vehicle weighing only 110-tonne. It will take only 72 hours to integrate, unlike the 70 days taken now for a launch vehicle.
    • It aims to cater to the market for the launch of small satellites into Earth’s low orbits that has emerged in recent years to cater to the needs of developing countries, universities for small satellites, and private corporations.

What are the Other Satellites in the EOS Series?

  • EOS-01:
    • Earth Observation satellite meant for Agriculture, Forestry & disaster management support
  • EOS-03:
    • First Agile Earth Observation satellite in Geostationary orbit and applications which include near real time imaging, quick monitoring of natural disasters, spectral signatures for agriculture, forestry etc.
  • EOS-04:
    • Radar Imaging satellite meant to provide high quality images under all weather conditions for applications such as Agriculture, Forestry & Plantations, Soil Moisture & Hydrology and Flood Mapping.
  • EOS-05:
    • Earth Observation Satellite in the Geostationary Orbit.
  • EOS-06:
    • Earth Observation satellite meant for applications, which include ocean related services and advisories towards potential fishing zone forecast , ocean state forecast.

What are Earth Observation Satellites?

  • Earth observation satellites are the satellites equipped with remote sensing technology. Earth observation is the gathering of information about Earth's physical, chemical and biological systems.
  • Many earth observation satellites have been employed on sun-synchronous orbit.
  • Other earth observation satellites launched by ISRO include RESOURCESAT- 2, 2A, CARTOSAT-1, 2, 2A, 2B, RISAT-1 and 2, OCEANSAT-2, Megha-Tropiques, SARAL and SCATSAT-1, INSAT-3DR, 3D, etc.

GSLV F-10


Why in News?
In 2021, a high-level panel was established to examine the failed Geosynchronous Satellite GSLV-F10/Earth Observation Satellites (EOS)-03 mission and recommended measures for making the Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) more robust.

  • The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) with improvements added to its CUS is expected to be ready in the second half of this year.

What is a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)?

  • GSLV is a space launch vehicle designed, developed, and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to launch satellites and other space objects into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbits.
    • GSLV has been designed for launching communication satellites.
  • Geosynchronous satellites are launched into orbit in the same direction the Earth is spinning and can have any inclination.
    • The satellites in the geosynchronous orbits appear to remain permanently fixed in the same position in the sky.
  • GSLV has the capability to put a heavier payload in orbit than the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
  • It is a three-stage launcher with strap-on motors.

What is Cryogenic Upper Stage?

  • GSLV follows a solid fuel first stage with another liquid fuel stage coming next. The second stage is followed by a third stage known as CUS.
    • It was the rocket’s crucial third stage, which then failed to ignite and led to the failure of the GSLV-F10.
  • The cryogenic stage is technically a very complex system compared to solid or earth-storable liquid propellant stages due to its use of propellants at extremely low temperatures and the associated thermal and structural problems.

What are Earth Observation Satellites?

  • Earth observation satellites are the satellites equipped with remote sensing technology.
    • Earth observation is the gathering of information about Earth's physical, chemical and biological systems.
  • Many earth observation satellites have been employed on sun-synchronous orbit.
  • Other earth observation satellites launched by ISRO include RESOURCESAT- 2, 2A, CARTOSAT-1, 2, 2A, 2B, RISAT-1 and 2, OCEANSAT-2, Megha-Tropiques, SARAL and SCATSAT-1, INSAT-3DR, 3D, etc.

GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation


Why in News?
Recently, Airports Authority of India (AAI) Successfully conducted a light trial using GAGAN {GPS (Global Positioning System) Aided GEO Augmented Navigation} based LPV (Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance) Approach Procedures.

  • Many airports including the ones under Regional Connectivity Scheme are being surveyed for the development of GAGAN-based LPV Instrument Approach Procedures.
  • This is being done so that suitably equipped aircraft can derive maximum benefit in terms of improved safety during landing, reduction in delays, diversions and cancellations, reduction in fuel consumption, etc.

What is LPV?

  • LPV is a Satellite Based Procedure which has been used by aircraft for landing purposes.
  • LPV approaches make aircraft possible to land at airports not equipped with expensive Instrument Landing Systems, which includes many small regional and local airports.
  • Lowering the decision height up to 250 ft provides a substantial operational benefit in poor weather and low visibility conditions.
  • Thus, any airport which hitherto would require higher visibility minima, will be able to accept aircraft benefiting remote airports which are devoid of precision approach capability equipment.

What is GAGAN?

  • About:
    • It is a Space Based Augmentation System (SBAS) jointly developed by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) and AAI to provide the best possible navigational services over Indian FIR (Flight Information Region) with the capability of expanding to neighboring FIRs.
    • GAGAN is a system of satellites and ground stations that provide GPS signal corrections, giving you better position accuracy.
    • It is the first such system developed for India and neighboring countries in the equatorial region.
    • GAGAN System was certified by DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) in 2015 for Approach with Vertical Guidance (APV 1) and en-route (RNP 0.1) operations.
      • There are only four Space-Based augmentation systems available in the world namely India (GAGAN), US (WAAS) Europe (EGNOS) and Japan (MSAS).
  • Services Offered:
    • Aviation, Forest management, Railways signaling, Scientific Research for Atmospheric Studies, Natural Resource and Land Management, Location based services, Mobile, Tourism.
  • Coverage Area:
    • GAGAN GEO footprint expands from Africa to Australia and GAGAN system has capability to cater 45 reference stations for expansion to neighboring countries.
    • GAGAN provides a civil aeronautical navigation signal consistent with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) as established by the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Panel.

What is a Global Positioning System?

  • GPS is a satellite navigation system, used to determine the ground position of an object. It is a U.S.-owned utility that provides users with Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) services.
  • It is a network 24 satellite which provides service to civilian and military users. The civilian service is freely available to all users on a continuous, worldwide basis. The military service is available to U.S. and allied armed forces as well as approved Government agencies.

Venus Mission 2024

Why in News?
Recently, the new Chairman of Indian Space Rese 

What is Venus?

  • It is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. It is the second planet from the Sun and sixth in the solar system in size and mass.
  • It is the second brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon, probably that is the reason why it was the first planet to have its motions plotted across the sky, as early as the second millennium BC.
  • Unlike the other planets in our solar system, Venus and Uranus spin clockwise on their axis.
  • It is the hottest planet in the solar system because of the high concentration of carbon dioxide which works to produce an intense greenhouse effect.
  • A day on Venus is longer than a year. It takes Venus longer to rotate once on its axis than to complete one orbit of the Sun.
    • That’s 243 Earth days to rotate once - the longest rotation of any planet in the Solar System - and only 224.7 Earth days to complete one orbit of the Sun.
  • Venus has been called Earth’s twin because of the similarities in their masses, sizes, and densities and their similar relative locations in the solar system.
    • No planet approaches closer to Earth than Venus; at its nearest it is the closest large body to Earth other than the Moon.
      • Venus has 90 times the atmospheric pressure of Earth.

Arch Organization (ISRO) has announced that it is expecting to launch the Venus mission by December 2024.

  • The aim of the mission is to study Venus’ atmosphere, which is toxic and corrosive in nature as clouds of sulfuric acid cover the planet.
  • Earlier, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced two new robotic missions (DaVinci Plus and Veritas) to Venus.

What are the Key Objectives of the Mission?

  • Investigation of surface process and shallow subsurface stratigraphy.
    • Until now, no prior observation of the sub-surface of Venus has been done.
    • Stratigraphy is a branch of geology in which rock layers and layering are studied.
  • Study of the structure, composition and dynamics of the atmosphere.
  • Investigation of Solar wind interaction with Venusian ionosphere.

What is the Significance of the Mission?

  • It will help to learn how Earth-like planets evolve and what conditions exist on Earth-sized exoplanets (Planets that orbit a star other than our sun).
  • It will help in modelling Earth’s climate and serves as a cautionary tale on how dramatically a planet’s climate can change.

What are the Challenges for the Mission?

  • Venus offers different challenges compared to Mars, given the thick atmosphere and surface activity, which make it a complex planet.
  • In order to have a deeper understanding, the instruments need to go deep through the atmosphere.
  • One of the instruments the space agency is planning to use on the spacecraft is a high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) that would examine Venus’ surface, despite the clouds around the planet, which lowers visibility.
    • It refers to a technique for producing high-resolution images. Because of the precision, the radar can penetrate clouds and darkness, which means that it can collect data day and night in any weather.
The document Events in Space Technology January to May 2022 - BPSC (Bihar) is a part of BPSC (Bihar) category.
All you need of BPSC (Bihar) at this link: BPSC (Bihar)

FAQs on Events in Space Technology January to May 2022 - BPSC (Bihar)

1. What major space technology events are scheduled to take place between January and May 2022?
Ans. Some major space technology events scheduled between January and May 2022 include the launch of James Webb Space Telescope, SpaceX's Starship orbital test flights, NASA's Artemis I mission, and the launch of the European Space Agency's Euclid mission, among others.
2. When is the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope planned for?
Ans. The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope is currently planned for March 30, 2021. It is one of the most highly anticipated space missions as it is expected to revolutionize our understanding of the universe.
3. What are the objectives of NASA's Artemis I mission?
Ans. The main objective of NASA's Artemis I mission is to test the performance of the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion spacecraft as an integrated system. This mission will pave the way for future crewed missions to the Moon and eventually to Mars.
4. What is the significance of SpaceX's Starship orbital test flights?
Ans. SpaceX's Starship orbital test flights are significant as they mark a major step towards the company's goal of enabling human colonization of Mars. These test flights will help validate the design and capabilities of the Starship spacecraft, which is intended for long-duration space travel.
5. What is the purpose of the European Space Agency's Euclid mission?
Ans. The Euclid mission by the European Space Agency aims to study the dark universe, including dark matter and dark energy. It will map the geometry of the universe on a large scale and investigate the nature of dark matter and dark energy, which are believed to constitute a significant portion of the universe's total mass-energy.
Download as PDF

Top Courses for BPSC (Bihar)

Related Searches

study material

,

shortcuts and tricks

,

Events in Space Technology January to May 2022 - BPSC (Bihar)

,

Free

,

Summary

,

Objective type Questions

,

ppt

,

Extra Questions

,

pdf

,

Exam

,

Important questions

,

Events in Space Technology January to May 2022 - BPSC (Bihar)

,

Previous Year Questions with Solutions

,

practice quizzes

,

video lectures

,

Viva Questions

,

MCQs

,

mock tests for examination

,

Events in Space Technology January to May 2022 - BPSC (Bihar)

,

past year papers

,

Sample Paper

,

Semester Notes

;