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Today's Headlines - 21 July 2023
Unlock mysteries of the cosmos
GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)

The United States and India have jointly unveiled plans to construct a Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in India, a major scientific alliance aimed at unravelling the mysteries of the universe. The mega astronomy project, projected to cost Rs 2,600 crore, will study gravitational waves, which are often described as changes in the ‘fabric’ of the universe. The new observatory was among the US-India partnership initiatives.

More about the observatory

The LIGO observatory in India will be built in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district, near the city of Aundha.
The government has acquired 174 acres of land to set up the observatory, which is expected to be operational by 2030.
This will be the third LIGO site in the world. The first two are both in the US, one in the state of Washington and the other in Louisiana.
Other similar instruments that detect gravitational waves include KAGRA in Japan and Virgo in Italy, both of which are smaller than LIGO and have 3-km arms.
The LIGO-India project is a joint collaboration between the Government of India’s departments of atomic energy (DAE) and science and technology (DST), the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the United States, and several other national and international research and academic institutions.
In India, the four institutions leading the project include IUCAA, Gandhinagar’s Institute of Plasma Research (IPR), Indore’s Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT), and the Directorate of Construction, Services & Estate Management (DCSEM) under the DAE.
Why are gravitational waves important?

Gravitational waves are invisible ripples in spacetime that travel at the speed of light. They were first detected in September 2015 by both the LIGO observatories in the US. Before that, most inferences about the universe were based on observations of electromagnetic energy.
The study of gravitational waves dates back to 1916, when Albert Einstein proposed their existence in his theory of general relativity.
He suggested that massive objects in the sky, such as black holes or neutron stars, can disrupt space-time due to the emission of waves that would be ejected from the source.
Studying gravitational waves can help uncover the history of the universe and understand many more complex mechanisms.
For example, earlier this year, Indian scientists proposed that gravitational waves emitted from black holes could help determine the rate of expansion of the universe.
They suggested that the multiple gravitational waves released from binary black holes reach Earth at various time stamps, which can be used to calculate the expansion rate of the universe.
How does LIGO work?

LIGO is essentially a massive L-shaped instrument, with each arm being 4 km long. Each arm encases a steel vacuum tube called an interferometer.
Laser pulses are shot through each arm and bounced back off a mirror at each end. A detector monitors the timing and movement of these pulses.
When a gravitational wave passes through the detector, the pulses will not return on time. Scientists can use this and other such signals to study gravitational waves. LIGO is highly sensitive and can detect gravitational waves from distant galaxies, hundreds of millions of light years away.
For instance, the first gravitational wave observed by LIGO in 2015, according to the estimates of scientists, was caused by the collision of two black holes about 1.3 billion years ago.

#upsc #news #mysteries #cosmos #Spacetechnology #Laser #Interferometer #Gravitational #Observatory #LIGO #astronomy #Louisiana #NSF #KAGRA #Japan #IUCAA #IPR #DAE #DST #RRCAT #DCSEM #electromagneticenergy #galaxies

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Today's Headlines - 24 July 2023
India’s first ‘satellite network portal site’
GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)

The Gujarat government through its Department of Science and Technology (DST) signed a memorandum of understanding with OneWeb India Communications Pvt Ltd for setting up a ‘satellite network portal site’ — a first for India — at Mehsana in Gujarat.

What is the Satellite network portal site?

Satellite broadband technology or satellite telephony is not a new concept and with satellite constellations in the low Earth orbit (LEO) gaining traction with StarLink, Kuiper and OneWeb among many others, the world is increasingly moving towards relying on LEO satellite communications.
LEO satellites operate at an altitude of 500 to 1,200 km, making it ripe for high-speed and low latency — a lower time lag between a user seeking data, and the server sending that data, compared to geostationary Earth orbit positioned satellites.
OneWeb has 648 satellites orbiting at 1,000-1,200 km making 13 orbits per day, covering the entire globe.
The satellite network portal (SNP) site will serve as a signal and data downlink and uplink terminal or base station on the ground, an intermediary for data transmission through satellite tracking antenna systems.
OneWeb India Communications plans to invest up to Rs 100 crore in this project, which would, according to the Gujarat government, create 500 direct and indirect jobs, including jobs requiring telecom, electronics and instrumentation engineers.
Apart from civil infrastructure, setting up an SNP like this will also require a slew of regulatory approvals from the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) and spectrum allocation from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
Earlier, HCIPL and OneWeb, in January 2022, announced a strategic six-year Distribution Partner agreement to provide low Earth orbit (LEO) connectivity services across India, to deliver services to enterprises and government with OneWeb capacity, especially in areas outside the reach of fibre connectivity.

#upsc #news #todayheadline #india #satellite #network #portalsite #spacetechnology #gujarat #government #science #DST #oneweb #communications #mehsana #telephony #constellation #LEO #earth #starlink #kuiper #geostationary #SNP #terminal #INSPACE #fibre #connectivity #strategic #telecomregulatory

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Today's Headlines - 18 August 2023
Chandrayaan-3 lander separates from propulsion module
GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)

The Chandrayaan-3 lander, which carries within it the 26kh rover, separated from the propulsion module on 17 August 2023 for its onward journey to the surface of the moon on 23 August 2023. The lander module will descend further down from the current near-circular orbit of 153 x 163 km after a de-boosting manoeuvre.

What is Propulsion module

The propulsion module, meanwhile, will continue orbiting the moon and studying the spectral signatures of Earth using a payload that was tacked on to the mission in addition to the science experiments carried on board its predecessor.
By studying Earth from the moon, the Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) will help scientists understand the markers of life on exoplanets.
Although the planned mission life for the propulsion module – which was added to the mission in place of the orbiter to help carry the lander rover to the moon – was three to six months, it is likely to keep functioning beyond that. Meanwhile, the Propulsion Module continues its journey in the current orbit for months/years.
Since the orbiter of Chandrayaan-2 had functioned normally and the instruments on board carried out all the observations and experiments as intended, there was no need to include an orbiter component to Chandrayaan-3.
More about lander module

However, the lander module still needed to be transported to lunar orbit, and the propulsion module had this limited task to perform.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission has been designed to achieve what Chandrayaan-2 could not – soft landing and roving on the surface of the moon.
After the separation, the instruments on board the lander, including the three scientific payloads, will be activated and tested to check whether everything is functioning normally.
The lander will carry out two orbit-reduction manoeuvres on its own, first getting into the circular 100 x 100 km orbit, and then further closer to the moon in the 100 x 30 km orbit.
This powered descent was described as “fifteen minutes of terror” by the previous Isro chief K Sivan.
Flashback

Chandrayaan-2 had crash-landed just kilometres from its intended landing spot due to flaws in the algorithm of the onboard navigation software.
The software did not provide for an immediate error-correction step when the engines produced a higher-than-intended thrust.
The algorithm was designed to make the corrections after performing a few other urgent tasks. But this allowed the errors to accumulate and become unmanageable.

#upsc #news #headline #chandrayaan #lander #propulsion #module #spacetechnology #moon #journey #signatures #earth #orbit #mission #softlanding #playloads #manoeuvres #terror #crashlanded #kilometres #error #correction #unmanagable

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Today's Headlines - 19 August 2023
JWST discovered Earendel
GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)

Astronomers have embarked on an extraordinary journey, utilizing the powerful gaze of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), to measure the most distant star ever observed - Earendel. This celestial entity came into the scientific spotlight after its discovery by the Hubble Space Telescope in the previous year.

Earendel and history of the universe

The awe-inspiring expansion of the universe since the Big Bang has propelled Earendel's residence to a colossal 28 billion light-years from Earth.
This revelation underscores the dynamic and evolving nature of the cosmos, where space itself unfurls over immense timescales.
Earendel's presence in the distant reaches of the universe was initially pinpointed through the phenomenon of gravitational lensing, a phenomenon where the gravitational pull of a massive foreground object acts like a lens, bending and amplifying the light of a more distant celestial body. This allowed Hubble to identify Earendel's distant glow.
What is Earendel?

Earendel is a distant star that holds the distinction of being the most distant star ever detected.
It was first discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope and has recently been studied further using the James Webb Space Telescope.
Earendel's light has taken approximately 12.9 billion years to reach Earth, meaning that it was shining not long after the universe's creation following the Big Bang.
This star is of significant interest due to its extreme distance and the insights it can provide about the early universe.
JWST's exploration of Earendel

The James Webb Space Telescope, with its unique vantage point and ability to observe in infrared light, built on Hubble's observations.
Employing a similar strategy of gravitational lensing, JWST used the gravitational influence of a cluster named WHL0137-08 to further explore Earendel's mysteries.
The telescope's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) provided captivating insights, revealing Earendel to be a massive B-type star, boasting a temperature more than twice that of our sun and shining with a luminosity a million times greater.
What is JWST?

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a powerful astronomical observatory developed by NASA in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
It is designed to be the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and is set to provide unprecedented views of the universe in infrared light.

#upsc #news #headline #JWST #discovered #earendel #spacetechnology #telescope #hubble #space #telescope #bigbang #universe #colossal #earth #dynamic #cosmos #history #gaze #journey #billion #massive #gravitational #exploration #NIRcam #influence #cluster #temperature #astronomical #canadian #light #sun

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Today's Headlines - 24 August 2023
Vikram lander creates history
GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)

India became the first country to touch down on the lunar South Pole on 23 August 2023 as billions watched from around the globe. The Chandrayaan-3 lander - designed to deploy a smaller, 26-kg lunar rover - landed on the surface of the moon, marking a giant leap in India’s spacefaring journey.The Moon has captivated human curiosity for centuries, and with each new mission.

What is the Moon's geological history and evolution?

The Moon is estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old, roughly the same age as the Earth.
The leading theory about the Moon's formation suggests that a Mars-sized celestial body collided with the young Earth, and the debris from this collision eventually coalesced to form the lunar body.
However, current geological evidence from the Moon suggests that it may be younger by just 60 million years compared to Earth.
How much do things weigh on the Moon?

The Moon's gravitational pull is much weaker than Earth's, approximately one-sixth of Earth's gravity.
As a result, objects on the Moon weigh significantly less than they do on Earth. This is due to the Moon's smaller size and mass.
For example, a person weighing 68 kilograms on the Earth would weigh only over 11 kg on the Moon.
Why do Indian scientists want to land on the Moon's South Pole?

The lunar South Pole has become a focal point for exploration due to its unique features and potential scientific value.
It is believed to host a vast reservoir of water ice in permanently shadowed regions. The presence of water is of immense significance for future space exploration, as it can be converted into resources such as drinking water, oxygen and hydrogen for rocket fuel.
Also, the permanently sunlit area in the region has a temperature of around minus 50 to 10 degrees Celsius, which provides better chemical conditions for the electronics onboard the rover and lander to work properly.
What is in the lunar South Pole?

The terrain and geology at the Moon's South Pole are distinct from other regions. Permanently shadowed craters provide extremely cold conditions that allow water ice to accumulate and persist.
The unique geography of the South Pole also creates regions of perpetual sunlight, which can be harnessed for solar power.
The terrain varies from rugged landscapes to relatively flat plains, offering a diverse range of scientific opportunities.
Why is a region of the lunar South Pole permanently shadowed?

This depends on the Moon's geology. The Moon's axis is only slightly tilted relative to its orbit around the Earth.
This results in certain areas near the poles being in permanent shadow. These shadows create extremely cold environments where temperatures can plummet to very low levels.
These frigid conditions are conducive to preserving water ice for billions of years.

#upsc #news #headline #vikram #lander #history #spacetechnology #southpole #lunarrover #chandrayaan #centuries #moongeological #evolution #earth #collision #gravity #mass #scientists #waterice #hydrogen #chemicalconditions #landscapes #sunlight #environment #shadow #earthgravity

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Today's Headlines - 25 August 2023
Experiments after Chandrayaan-3’s landing
GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)

After rolling down a ramp from the Chandrayaan-3 lander, the six-wheel, 26-kg rover, which is capable of slowly moving up to 500 metres, began its job of lunar exploration. The landing happened at lunar dawn, and the six payloads on board the lander and rover was started collecting data soon after to get as much science as possible in the single lunar day or 14 Earth days for which they will remain operable.

Mission experiments

The lander has four experiments on board.

The Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA) will study the electrons and ions near the surface of the moon and how they change over time.
The Chandra’s Surface Thermo physical Experiment (ChaSTE) will study the thermal properties of the lunar surface near the polar region. Chandrayaan-3 has landed around 70 degree south latitude, the closest that any spacecraft has reached to the lunar South Pole.
The Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) will measure the lunar quakes near the landing site and study the composition of the Moon’s crust and mantle.
The LASER Retroreflector Array (LRA) is a passive experiment sent by NASA that acts as a target for lasers for very accurate measurements for future missions.
There are two scientific experiments on the rover

The LASER Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) will determine the chemical and mineral composition of the lunar surface.
The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) will determine the composition of elements such as magnesium, aluminium, silicon, potassium, calcium, titanium, and iron in the lunar soil and rocks.
Discovery of water

The southern polar region of the Moon is known to have deep craters that remain in permanent darkness, with a high likelihood of having water-ice.
Perhaps the most important discovery made by instruments on board Chandrayaan-1 was the discovery of water and hydroxyl (OH) molecules in the Moon’s thin atmosphere (exosphere) as well as on the lunar surface.
India’s Moon Impact Probe (MIP) — a payload that was deliberately crashed on the lunar surface near the South Pole — helped study the concentration of water and hydroxyl molecules in the lunar atmosphere.
Another payload called mini-SAR helped detect the subsurface deposits of water-ice in the permanently shadowed regions within the craters near the South Pole.
A third payload developed by NASA called Moon Mineralogy Mapper or M3 also helped detect these molecules on the surface of the Moon.
Chandrayaan-2, which was designed to further study the water on the Moon, helped in separately identifying the water and the hydroxyl molecules, and mapping water features across the Moon for the first time.

#upsc #news #headline #experiments #chandrayaan #landing #spacetechnology #exploration #lunardawn #missionexperiments #board #radio #anatomy #hypersensitive #atmosphere #RAMBHA #electrons #ChaSTE #latitude #southpole #ILSA #landingsite #LRA #NASA #LIBS #magnesium #aluminium #silicon #potassium #calcium #titanium #iron #lunarsoil #OH #MIP #miniSAR

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Today's Headlines - 29 August 2023
Crew-7 mission to space station
GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)

Four astronauts from four countries, including the US, Denmark, Japan, and Russia, launched aboard a SpaceX rocket towards the International Space Station (ISS) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This was the first US take-off in which all the astronauts atop the spacecraft belonged to a different country — until now, NASA had always included two or three of its own on its SpaceX flights. The mission has been known as Crew-7.

Why has such a diverse group of astronauts gone to the ISS?

The Crew-7 mission is a result of the ongoing cooperation among different countries in space, especially since the launch of the space station in 1998.
The International Space Station Program involves the US, Russia, Canada, Japan, and the participating countries of the European Space Agency, and is one of the most ambitious international collaborations ever attempted.
The program “brings together international flight crews, multiple launch vehicles, globally distributed launch, operations, training, engineering, and development facilities; communications networks, and the international scientific research community”.
What is the mission?

The Crew-7 is the eighth flight operated by NASA and Elon Musk-owned SpaceX as part of the agency’s commercial crew program, which has been taking astronauts to the ISS since SpaceX’s first crewed mission in 2020.
During their stay at the space station, the Crew-7 astronauts will conduct more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations to prepare for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
The research will include a collection of microbial samples from the exterior of the space station.
The team will also analyse how sleeping in the microgravity environment differs from Earth by examining astronauts’ brain waves while they sleep.
Yet another experiment will look at the formation of biofilms in wastewater on the space station, which could be key to finding better ways to recycle water for drinking and hygiene while in space (Yes, astronauts have long used recycled sweat and urine to drink and shower on the station).

#upsc #headline #crew #mission #spacestation #spacetechnology #astronauts #internationalspacestation #NASA #denmark #japan #russia #takeoff #earth #brain #microgravity #hygiene #recycle #waves #commercialcrew #biofilms #wastewater #moom #mars #microbial #samples #program #station #cooperation #denmark #rocket

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Today's Headlines - 02 September 2023
Chandrayaan-3 confirms Sulphur in lunar surface
GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the Pragyan rover's Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope confirmed the presence of sulphur in the lunar surface near the south pole, through the first-ever in-situ measurements. Pragyan is a lunar rover that forms part of Chandrayaan-3, the lunar mission developed by ISRO.

More about discovery

The Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument onboard Chandrayaan-3 Rover has made the first-ever in-situ measurements on the elemental composition of the lunar surface near the South Pole.
These in-situ measurements confirm the presence of sulphur (S) in the region unambiguously, something that was not feasible by the instruments onboard the orbiters.
LIBS is a scientific technique that analyses the composition of materials by exposing them to intense laser pulses.
A high-energy laser pulse is focused onto the surface of a material, such as a rock or soil. The laser pulse generates extremely hot and localised plasma.
The collected plasma light is spectrally resolved and detected by detectors such as Charge Coupled Devices. Since each element emits a characteristic set of wavelengths of light when it is in a plasma state, the elemental composition of the material is determined.
Chandrayaan-3 successfully executed a soft landing on the moon on 23 August 2023, making India the fourth nation in the world to achieve a successful lunar landing.
India also marked a milestone by becoming the first country to land near the South Pole, an area believed to harbour significant amounts of water ice.
ISRO on 29 August 2023 said preliminary analyses, graphically represented, have unveiled the presence of aluminium (Al), sulphur (S), calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), chromium (Cr), and titanium (Ti) on the lunar surface.
Further measurements have revealed the presence of manganese (Mn), silicon (Si), and oxygen (O). A thorough investigation regarding the presence of hydrogen is underway.
Flashback

The LIBS instrument is developed at the Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS) / ISRO, Bengaluru.
LEOS, situated at Peenya Industrial Estate, Bengaluru, is one of the vital units of ISRO.
It deals with the design, development, and production of attitude sensors for all low Earth orbit (LEO), geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) and interplanetary missions.
It develops and delivers optical systems for remote sensing and meteorological payloads.

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Today's Headlines - 05 September 2023
A sunrace of significant global missions
GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)

In the wake of the Indian Space Research Organisation's successful launch of its inaugural solar mission, Aditya-L1,, let's embark on a journey through key missions from space agencies worldwide, all dedicated to unravelling the enigmatic secrets of the Sun.
A Sunrace
USA
US: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the US space agency, launched the Parker Solar Probe in August 2018. In December 2021, Parker flew through the Sun's upper atmosphere, the corona, and sampled particles and magnetic fields there. This was the first time ever that a spacecraft touched the Sun, according to NASA.
In February 2020, NASA joined hands with the European Space Agency (ESA) and launched The Solar Orbiter to collect data to find out how the Sun created and controlled the constantly changing space environment throughout the solar system.
Other active solar missions by NASA are Advanced Composition Explorer launched in August, 1997; Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory in October, 2006; Solar Dynamics Observatory in February, 2010; and Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph launched in June, 2013.
Also, in December, 1995, NASA, ESA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) jointly launched the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).
Japan
JAXA, Japan's space agency, launched its first solar observation satellite, Hinotori (ASTRO-A), in 1981. The objective was to study solar flares using hard X-rays, according to JAXA. JAXA's other solar exploratory missions are Yohkoh (SOLAR-A) launched in 1991; SOHO (along with NASA and ESA) in 1995; and Transient Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE), along with NASA, in 1998.
In 2006, Hinode (SOLAR-B) was launched, which was the successor to Yohkoh (SOLAR-A), the orbiting solar observatory. Japan launched it in collaboration with the US and the UK. The objective of Hinode, an observatory satellite, is to study the impact of the Sun on the Earth.
Yohkoh's objective was to observe solar flares and the solar corona. It was the first satellite to track almost an entire 11-year solar activity cycle.
Europe
In October, 1990, the ESA launched Ulysses to study the environment of space above and below the poles of the Sun, giving scientists information about the variable effect the Sun has on the space surrounding it. Other than solar missions launched in collaboration with NASA and the JAXA, the ESA launched Proba-2 in October, 2001.
Proba-2 is the second of the Proba series, building on nearly eight years of successful Proba-1 experience, even as Proba-1 was not a solar exploratory mission. On-board Proba-2 were four experiments, two of them were solar observation experiments.
Proba stands for Project for On-Board Autonomy. Upcoming solar missions of the ESA include Proba-3, scheduled for 2024 and Smile, scheduled for 2025.
China
The Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S) was successfully launched by the National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in October, 2022. The ASO-S mission is designed to reveal connections among the solar magnetic field, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
Solar flares and CMEs are eruptive solar phenomena, thought to be driven by changes in the Sun's magnetic field.

#upsc #news #headline #sunrace #significant #global #missions #spacetechnology #indian #space #organisation #AdityaL1 #NASA #Solar #magnetic #fields #spacecraft #firsttime #orbiter #ESA #enviroments #spectrograph #JAXA #SOHO #japan #USA #EUROPE #CHINA #ASO #CMEs #autonomy #mission

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