. PATH of UPSC: Space Science

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4.INDIA’s Space Missions

In water, the particles are much closer together, and they can quickly transmit vibration energy from one particle to the next. This means that the sound wave travels over 4 times faster than it would in air, but it takes a lot of energy to start the vibration.

Sonar (SOund Navigation And Ranging)

A technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, communicate with or detect objects on or under the surface of the water, such as other vessels.

2 types of technology share the name "sonar" :

passive sonar is essentially listening for the sound made by vessels;
active sonar is emitting pulses of sounds and listening for echoes.

Sonar may be used as a means of acoustic location and of measurement of the echo characteristics of "targets" in the water.
Acoustic location in air was used before the introduction of radar.
Sonar may also be used in air for robot navigation, and SODAR (an upward looking in-air sonar) is used for atmospheric investigations.
The term sonar is also used for the equipment used to generate and receive the sound.
The acoustic frequencies used in sonar systems vary from very low (infrasonic) to extremely high (ultrasonic).
The study of underwater sound is known as underwater acoustics or hydroacoustics.

FSOC technology or Free Space Optical Communications

FSFC is an optical communication technology that uses light to wirelessly transmit data to telecommunication and internet applications. The technology remained outside the commercial applications for long owing to distance, speed, and efficiency related problems. It can be implemented using Infrared Laser light.

How works?

FSOC links use beams of light to deliver high-speed, high-capacity connectivity over long distances, just like fiber optic cable, but without the cable. And because there’s no cable, this means there’s none of the time, cost, and hassle involved in digging trenches or stringing cable along poles.

FSOC boxes can simply be placed kilometres apart on roofs or towers, with the signal beamed directly between the boxes to easily traverse common obstacles like rivers, roads and railways.

In India, the X internet network will use “Free Space Optical Communications, aka FSOC, technology”. Google’s parent company Alphabet aka Google X signed MOU with Andhra Pradesh to setup developmental centre in Visakhapatnam and to create a high speed internet network that doesn’t require special cabling.

This network will power internet in 13 districts through 2 thousand FSOC links. The X centre in Visakhapatnam will be its first development centre outside the US.

Li-Fi is a visible light communications system that is capable of transmitting data at high speeds over the visible light spectrum, ultraviolet and infrared radiation. Li-Fi to offer several advantages like working across higher bandwidth, working in areas susceptible to electromagnetic interference (e.g. aircraft cabins, hospitals) and offering higher transmission speeds.

1st Jan 1752, Onwards as per British parliament Calendar act of 1751 .

ISS International space station:

a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in LOW Earth orbit.
now the largest artificial body in orbit, consists of pressurised modules, external trusses, solar arrays and other components.
It’s components are launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets as well as American Space Shuttles.
serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and other fields.
suited for the testing of spacecraft systems and equipment required for missions to the Moon and Mars.
maintains an orbit with an altitude of between 330 and 435 km by means of reboost manoeuvres using the engines of the Zvezda module or visiting spacecraft. It completes 15.54 orbits per day.

ISS programme is a joint project among five participating space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA.

The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements.
The station is divided into two sections, the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) and the United States Orbital Segment (USOS), which is shared by many nations.
ISS is the ninth space station to be inhabited by crews, following the Soviet and later Russian Salyut, Almaz, and Mir stations as well as Skylab from the US.

ISS - INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

In 1993 the partially built components for a Soviet/Russian space station Mir-2, the proposed American Freedom, and the proposed European Columbus merged into a single multinational programme, mainly due to budget constraints.
The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and other fields. The station is suited for the testing of spacecraft systems and equipment required for missions to the Moon and Mars. The station has been continuously occupied for almost 13 years now.
The ISS programme is a joint project among five participating space agencies – NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, JAXA, ESA, and CSA. The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements.
The station is divided into two sections, the Russian orbital segment (ROS) and the United States orbital segment (USOS), which is shared by many nations. The ISS is maintained at an orbital altitude of between 330 km (205 mi) and 435 km (270 mi). It completes 15.7 orbits per day.
The THERMOSPHERE is home to the International Space Station as it orbits Earth. This is also where you’ll find low Earth orbit satellites.

Ultima Thule :

is a contact binary (not asteroid) because it has two differently-shaped lobes.
It’s about 22 miles long and consists of a large, weirdly flat lobe (Ultima) that are connected to a small, slightly rounder lobe (Thule), at a juncture dubbed the neck.
NASA's New Horizons mission(launched in 2006) team has found evidence for a unique mixture of methanol, water ice, and organic molecules on Ultima Thule’s surface which is the farthest world ever explored by mankind.
New Horizon’s core science mission is to map the surfaces of Pluto and Charon, to study Pluto’s atmosphere and to take temperature readings.

BepiColombo 2018 :

is a joint mission of the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to the planet Mercury.
The mission comprises two satellites launched together : the Mercury Planetary Orbiter and Mio(Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, MMO).
The mission will perform a comprehensive study of Mercury, including characterization of its magnetic field, magnetosphere, and both interior and surface structure.
Launched in Oct 2018 as part of the European Space Agency's Horizon 2000+ programme

Explorer1 was USA's first spacecraft in 1958 while Sputnik1 was USSR's first in world a year back of explorer1.

NASA — Space Prog

15th Jan 2018 The Hindu

NASA telescopes provide 3D journey through Orion Nebula

Scientists, using data from NASA space telescopes, created a 3D fly-through view of Orion Nebula, allowing viewers to peek into the picturesque star-forming region.

DART Mission Double Asteroid Redirection Test

Developed by NASA as first-ever mission that will deflect a near-Earth asteroid, and help test the systems that will allow mankind to protect the planet from potential cosmic body impacts in the future.
designed and would be built and managed by the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
It is the kinetic impactor technique – striking the asteroid to shift its orbit – to defend against a potential future asteroid impact.

The target for DART is an asteroid that will have a distant approach to Earth in October 2022, and then again in 2024. The asteroid is called Didymos – Greek for “twin” - because it is an asteroid binary system that consists of two bodies: Didymos A, about 780 metres in size, and a smaller asteroid orbiting it called Didymos B, about 160 metres in size.

GRACE Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment

was a joint mission of NASA and the German Aerospace Center.
Twin satellites took detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field anomalies from its launch in March 2002 to the end of its science mission in October 2017.
It showed how mass is distributed around the planet and how it varies over time.
Data from the GRACE satellites is an important tool for studying Earth's ocean, geology, and climate.

GRACE-FO or GRACE Follow-On or Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment

is continuing GRACE’s legacy of tracking Earth’s water movement across the planet.
Monitoring changes in ice sheets and glaciers, underground water storage, the amount of water in large lakes and rivers, and changes in sea level provides a unique view of Earth’s climate and has far-reaching benefits for its people.
is a partnership between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).
It will carry on the extremely successful work of its predecessor while testing a new technology designed to dramatically improve the already remarkable precision of its measurement system.

Hammer spacecraft : (Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response)

An 8 tonne spaceship which could deflect a giant space rock, if it happens to hit Earth.
It was devised by top experts including NASA, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) & 2 Energy Department weapons labs.
The spacecraft has two ways of dispatching an asteroid collision threat.

The first involves hitting the asteroid, and then steering it off-course so it doesn’t end up hitting Earth.
The second more dangerous – would see the HAMMER detonating its on-board nuclear warhead to change the asteroid’s course.

NASA’s Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies now lists 73 asteroids which have a one in 1,600 chance of hitting the Earth.

—> Only Saturn is planet whose density is less than that of Water(1 Kg/m3). Hence Only planet of our Solar System is Saturn who can float into Water. Though Saturn and Jupiter both are gaseous planets.

—> Asteroid >> Fragmented into Meteriod (in Space) >>> Meteor (travel in Atmosphere) >>> Meteorite (On Surface)

SOHO and GOLF Project :

A team of researchers have discovered solar seismic waves which revealed that Sun’s core is rotating 4 times faster than its surface. Earlier it was assumed that sun’s core rotate at same speed as the surface. The discovery was made using 16 years of observations from GOLF (Global Oscillations at Low Frequency) instrument on Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, a joint project of ESA and NASA.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is scheduled for launch in 2018 to explore the Sun’s outer atmosphere.

it will travel through the sun’s atmosphere, closer to the surface than any spacecraft before it, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions and ultimately providing humanity with the closest-ever observations of a star.
primary science goals are to trace how energy and heat move through the solar corona and to explore what accelerates the solar wind as well as solar energetic particles.
Flying into the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona, for the first time, Parker Solar Probe will employ a combination of in situ measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and expand our knowledge of the origin and evolution of the solar wind.
Will also make critical contributions to forecast changes in Earth’s space environment that affect life and technology on Earth.
Part of NASA’s Living With a Star (LWS) – emphasises science to understand aspects of Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society.
NASA is inviting people around world to submit their names online to be placed on a microchip aboard its historic solar probe launching this summer.

Parker Solar Probe has 3 detailed science objectives:

Trace the flow of energy that heats and accelerates the solar corona and solar wind.
Determine the structure and dynamics of the plasma and magnetic fields at the sources of the solar wind.
Explore mechanisms that accelerate and transport energetic particles.

ICESCAPE Impacts of Climate on the Eco-Systems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment :

is a multi-year NASA shipborne project to find out the answer of science question that is , “What is the impact of climate change (natural and anthropogenic) on the biogeochemistry and ecology of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas?” (both in arctic ocean above bering strt)
While both of these regions are experiencing significant changes in the ice cover, their biogeochemical response will likely be quite different due to their distinct physical, chemical, and biological differences.
ICESCAPE will pursue the above central science question and associated issues through an interdisciplinary, cross cutting approach integrating field expeditions, modeling, and satellite remote sensing.

Kilopower project of NASA : near-term technology effort to develop preliminary concepts and technologies that could be used for an affordable fission nuclear power system to enable long-duration stays on planetary surfaces. The technology could power habitats and life-support systems, enable astronauts to mine resources, recharge rovers and run processing equipment to transform resources such as ice on the planet into oxygen, water and fuel. It could also potentially augment electrically powered spacecraft propulsion systems on missions to the outer planets.

The Kilopower project is a near-term technology effort to develop preliminary concepts and technologies that could be used for an affordable fission nuclear power system to enable long-duration stays on planetary surfaces.

The principal goal of the project is to sufficiently develop and test nuclear power system technologies by 2018 so fission power can be a viable option for NASA decision makers to consider when making their informed selection of exploration surface systems.

Kilopower tackles a few different problems in spacecraft design: existing nuclear power systems rely on a fuel we’ve essentially run out of, solar power becomes increasingly feeble the further from the sun the spacecraft goes, and more complicated space activities—like those involving humans—would require significantly stronger power supplies than current projects.

Protoplanet : a large body of matter in orbit around the Sun or a Star and thought to be developing into a planet.

Deep Space or Outer space, or just space, is the expanse that exists beyond the Earth and between celestial bodies.

Missions	Objectives
Dawn mission	The space probe launched by NASA in Sep 2007 for studying two of 3 known Protoplanets of the asteroid belt, Vesta and Ceres. It is currently in orbit about its second target, the dwarf planet Ceres.
SOFIA Mission Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy	80/20 joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) to construct and maintain an airborne observatory for observations of celestial Magnetic fields, star-forming regions, comets and Saturn’s giant moon Titan.
Kilopower Project	Creation of small nuclear power sources to fuel further space exploration.
Orion spacecraft	NASA's spacecraft will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space , provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. Hence it is to take astronauts to deep space destinations.

NASA-Funded CHESS Mission Colorado High-resolution Echelle Stellar Spectrograph to study interstellar clouds.

A sounding rocket payload that will fly on a Black Brant IX suborbital sounding rocket early in the morning of June 27, 2017.
CHESS measures light filtering through the interstellar medium to study the atoms and molecules within, which provides crucial information for understanding the lifecycle of stars.
It will measure light filtering through the interstellar medium which provides crucial information for understanding the lifecycle of stars.
CHESS will train its eye at Beta Scorpii — a hot, brightly shining star in the Scorpius constellation well-positioned for the instrument to probe the material between the star and our own solar system.

ROSA Flexible Roll-Out Solar Array is new compact high-power solar array-the Roll Out.

It has made its debut on ISS & could power an advanced solar electric propulsion spacecraft.
Tapping into ROSA technology allows the conversion of sunlight into electrical power.
Hence It has potential to replace solar arrays on future satellites making them more compact and lighter weight.

IXPE Mission or Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer mission

It will be launch as per an agreement signed between NASA with Italian Space Agency.
The mission will provide important clues about the origins of cosmic X-rays, their interactions with matter and gravity as they travel through space.
Slated to launch in 2020, the IXPE mission will help explore some of the most turbulent and extreme environments in our universe.
IXPE will fly 3 telescope systems capable of measuring the polarisation of X- rays emitted by cosmic sources.

NASA launches 2 missions GOLD and ICON to explore nearest space.

GOLD(Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk) & ICON( Ionospheric Connection Explorer) will team up to explore the Ionosphere, a boundary area between Earth and the space where particles have been cooked into a sea of electrically charged electrons and ions by the Sun’s radiation.
The missions’ goals is to measure how upper atmosphere changes in response to hurricanes and geomagnetic storms.
The agency is hoping to find evidences for a theoretical model about El Nino’s repercussions on the ionosphere.
These layers of near-Earth space are increasingly becoming a part of human domain as it is home to radio signals used to guide airplanes, ships and Global Positioning System satellites.
Since some fluctuations can be driven by the constant interactions between the ionosphere and thermosphere, in conjunction with weather emanating from both Earth and space. Disturbances in the ionosphere can interfere with, or even block signals being sent between Earth-based systems and orbital probes, potentially affecting cell-phone communications, and other vital services such as GPS, which is needed to safely navigate airplanes and ships.

GOLD is an imaging spectrograph instrument designed to break light down into its constituent wavelengths and to measure their intensity. Then a wide variety of characteristics, including a target’s composition and temperature can be determined after study. GOLD will be tasked with collecting far ultraviolet light data on Earth’s atmosphere. Hence It focus on a relatively poorly-understood region of the upper atmosphere, where the charged particles of the ionosphere mingle with the diffuse neutral gasses that make up the thermosphere.

SEXTANT Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology: invented by NASA

Autonomous space navigation that could see human-made spacecraft heading into the far reaches of Solar System and even farther – by using pulsars as guide stars.
works like a GPS receiver getting signals from at least 3 GPS satellites, all of which are equipped with atomic clocks. The receiver measures the time delay from each satellite and converts this into spatial coordinates.
It uses X-ray technology to see millisecond pulsars, using them much like a GPS uses satellites.
could be used to calculate the location of planetary satellites far from the range of Earth’s GPS satellites, and assist on human spaceflight missions, such as the space agency’s planned Mars mission.

IMAGE (Imager for Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration) Science Satellite which was launched by NASA as first MIDEX (mid size explorer mission) in 2000 to observe Earth' Magnetosphere and Solar winds. It was unmanned mission.

INSIGHT :

a robotic Mars lander designed to study the interior and subsurface of Mars launched on 5 May 2018 and is expected to land on the surface of Mars (landing site : Elysium Planitia) on 26 November 2018 where it will deploy a seismometer and burrow a heat probe.
It will also perform a radio science experiment to study the internal structure of Mars.
The lander was manufactured by Lockheed Martin Space Systems.
The name is a backronym for INSIGHT Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport.
InSight's objective is to place a stationary lander equipped with a seismometer and heat transfer probe on the surface of Mars to study the planet's early geological evolution.
This could bring new understanding of the Solar System's terrestrial planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars — and the Earth's Moon.
By reusing technology from the Mars Phoenix lander, which successfully landed on Mars in 2008, it is expected that the cost and risk will be reduced.

cube satellite

CubeSat (U-class spacecraft) is a type of miniaturized satellite for space research that is made up of multiples of 10×10×10 cm cubic units.

CubeSats have a mass of no more than 1.33 kilograms per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats are most commonly put in orbit by deployers on ISS or launched as secondary payloads on a launch vehicle. Over 800 CubeSats have been launched.

NAAMES North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study mission

An interdisciplinary investigation resolving key processes controlling marine ecosystems and aerosols that are essential to our understanding of Earth system function and future change.
Funded by NASA Earth Venture Suborbital Program and is the first EV-S mission focused on studying the coupled ocean ecosystem and atmosphere.
The Mission consists of four, combined ship and aircraft field campaigns that are each aligned to a specific event in the annual plankton lifecycle.
It studies the world’s largest plankton bloom of North Atlantic to see how the tiny sea critters influence the climate in every season and how it gives rise to small organic particles that leave the ocean and end up in the atmosphere, ultimately influencing clouds and climate.

SPARCS Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat : NASA-funded space telescope and to be launched in 2021

a small telescope into the Earth’s orbit that will monitor the flares and sunspots of small stars to assess how habitable the environment is for planets orbiting them.

M dwarfs stars are so plentiful, astronomers estimate that our galaxy alone contains roughly 40 billion rocky planets in habitable zones around their stars. This means that most of the habitable-zone planets in our galaxy orbit M dwarfs.

GL-10 ‘Greased Lightning-10’

Electric plane tested by NASA
a battery-powered plane that has 10 engines and can take off like a helicopter and fly efficiently like an aircraft.
That is a concept being developed by NASA researchers called Greased Lightning or GL-10.

Launched on August 10, 1992, TOPEX/Poseidon was a joint satellite mission between NASA, the U.S. space agency; and CNES, the French space agency, to map ocean surface topography.

newly developed instrument Bio Indicator Lidar Instrument : It has been developed for use in space research only by NASA. It uses light waves to detect and analyze the composition of air. It will be going to be used in detecting signatures of life on Mars.

Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway is Nasa’s planned “staging” area intended for studies of the moon and the deep-space environment. Eventually, it will function as a way station for astronauts travelling to and from Mars.
The Gateway would also further Nasa’s goal of another human landing on the moon and will help determine whether water near the surface could be used to manufacture propellant for deep-space missions.
The moon’s gravity could also help a spacecraft reduce the blistering speeds used for six-month voyages back-and-forth to Mars, thus facilitating re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere.
NASA is planning to award its first contract for the lunar “Gateway” program in 2019.

NASA’s 4 Great Observatories program

1. Hubble Space Telescope

built by NASA, with contributions from ESA & launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. (will last until 2030)
is well known as both a vital research tool and a public relations boon for astronomy.
Hubble is the only telescope designed to be serviced in space by astronauts.
Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared spectra.
Hubble's orbit outside the distortion of Earth's atmosphere allows it to take extremely high-resolution images, with substantially lower background light than ground-based telescopes.

2. Compton Gamma Ray Observatory

a space observatory of NASA for detecting photons with energies from 20 keV to 30 GeV, in Earth orbit from 1991 to 2000
was deployed in low earth orbit to avoid Van Allen radiation belt and was heaviest astrophysical payload ever.

3. Chandra X-ray Observatory aka Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF)

launched by NASA in July 1999 and similar to that of ESA's XMM-Newton spacecraft, also launched in 1999.
As an Earth satellite in a 64-hour orbit, and its mission is ongoing as of 2018.
sensitive to X-ray sources 100 times fainter than any previous X-ray telescope, enabled by high angular resolution of its mirrors.
named after Nobel Prize-winning Indian-American astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.

4. Spitzer Space Telescope

an infrared space telescope launched in 2003 and was fourth and final.
It follows a heliocentric instead of geocentric orbit, trailing and drifting away from Earth's orbit.
Spitzer is the only one of Great Observatories not launched by Space Shuttle, as was originally intended.

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study evolution of Universe

An international collaboration of 17 countries including NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA)
To be launched in 2019 as world’s biggest and most powerful telescope and largest space telescope ever built.
Will be able to peer back in time 3.5 billion years, teaching us more than ever before about the start of the universe.
The telescope will be used to look back to the first galaxies born in the early universe more than 13.5 billion years ago, and observe the sources of stars, exoplanets, and even the moons and planets of our solar system.
Previously known as the NGST (Next Generation Space Telescope) is projected to replace Hubble (HST) around 2018.
Its segmented, deployable mirror will be over twice as large, increasing angular resolution noticeably, and sensitivity dramatically.
Unlike Hubble, JWST will observe in the infrared Only, in order to penetrate dust at cosmological distances.
This means it will continue some Spitzer capabilities, while some Hubble capabilities will be lost.
New advances in ground telescopes will take over some visible observations, but fewer in ultraviolet.

James Webb

This space-based observatory is named after James E. Webb (1906- 1992), NASA’s second administrator. Webb is best known for leading Apollo, a series of lunar exploration programs that landed the first humans on the Moon. However, he also initiated a vigorous space science program that was responsible for more than 75 launches during his tenure, including America’s first interplanetary explorers.

Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, formerly GLAST, the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope,

a follow-on to Compton launched on June 11, 2008, as more narrowly defined, and much smaller.

it will carry only one main instrument and a secondary experiment.

The Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), launched in 2002, observes in some Compton and Chandra wavelengths, but is pointed at the Sun at all times. Occasionally it observes high-energy objects which happen to be in the view around the Sun.

Another large, high-energy observatory is INTEGRAL, Europe's international Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, launched in 2002 observes in similar frequencies to Compton. But INTEGRAL uses a fundamentally different telescope technology, coded-aperture masks. Thus, its capabilities are complementary to Compton and GLAST, not a direct replacement.

Constellation-X — A mission concept from 2008 to perform extremely sensitive x-ray observations, beginning around 2016 and is an X-ray space observatory to be operated by NASA after merging the project with ESA & JAXA. This is not a direct replacement for Chandra; Chandra is optimised for high angular resolution. Constellation-X is more of a follow-on to ESA’s XMM-Newton mission, which trades resolution for sensitivity. Constellation-X may be several times to several dozen times more sensitive than Chandra. It will also extend further into the hard x-ray regions, giving it some abilities of Compton.

It has ability to provide enough X-ray collecting area to be able to feed a spectroscope of substantially higher resolution than the previous generation. (NASA’s Chandra , ESA’s XMM Newton, JAXA’s Suzaku with help of NASA)

WFIRST Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope : scheduled to launch in the mid-2020s but Cancelled by USA white house budget.

A NASA observatory designed to settle essential questions in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics.
WFIRST will have two instruments, the Wide Field Instrument, and the Coronagraph Instrument.
will have a field of view that is 100 times greater than the Hubble infrared instrument, capturing more of the sky with less observing time.
will measure light from a billion galaxies over the course of the mission lifetime.
will perform a microlensing survey of the inner Milky Way to find ~2,600 exoplanets.
The Coronagraph Instrument will perform high contrast imaging and spectroscopy of dozens of individual nearby exoplanets.

Cancri, Epsilon, Pigase and Gliese are EXOPLANets.

Kepler (spacecraft) :

a space observatory launched by NASA to discover Earth-size planets orbiting other stars.
It was launched on March 7, 2009 into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit.

TESS Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

an upcoming NASA mission by using launch vehicle Falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX that will look for planets orbiting the brightest stars in Earth’s sky.
will focus on stars that are 30 to 100 times brighter than those Kepler examined.
TESS will orbit Earth every 13.7 days. Its closest point to Earth (67,000 miles or 108,000 kilometers) is about triple the distance of geosynchronous orbit, where most communications satellites operate.

Cassini–Huygens mission

was a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, including its rings and natural satellites.
The Flagship-class robotic spacecraft comprised both NASA's Cassini probe, and ESA's Huygens lander which landed on Saturn's largest moon, Titan.
Cassini was the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter its orbit.
The craft were named after astronomers Giovanni Cassini and Christiaan Huygens.
Launched aboard a Titan IVB/Centaur on October 15, 1997, Cassini was active in space for nearly 20 years, with 13 years spent orbiting Saturn, studying the planet and its system after entering orbit on July 1, 2004.
Its mission ended on September 15, 2017, when Cassini's trajectory took it into Saturn's upper atmosphere and it burned up in order to prevent any risk of contaminating Saturn's moons, which might have offered habitable environments to stowaway terrestrial microbes on the spacecraft.
The mission is widely perceived to have been successful beyond expectation.
Cassini-Huygens has been described by NASA's Planetary Science Division Director as a "mission of firsts" that has revolutionized human understanding of the Saturn system, including its moons and rings, and our understanding of where life might be found in the Solar System.
It returned data to Earth for around 90 minutes, using the orbiter as a relay. This was the first landing ever accomplished in the outer Solar System and the first landing on a moon other than our own.
At the end of its mission, the Cassini spacecraft executed the "Grand Finale" of its mission: a number of risky passes through the gaps between Saturn and Saturn's inner rings.
The purpose of this phase was to maximize Cassini's scientific outcome before the spacecraft was disposed.
The atmospheric entry of Cassini ended the mission, but analyses of the returned data will continue for many years.

Others Space Prog

NEOShield :

Near-Earth object (NEO) is any small solar system body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth.
NEOs include more than fifteen thousand near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and more than one hundred near-Earth comets (NECs).
NEOShield has the primary goal to perform Scientific Research and Technical Development, so as to reduce the risk of a NEO deflection mission from failing.
It focuses on refining Near NEO characterisation. NEOShield-2 will carry out astronomical observations of NEOs, firstly to improve our understanding of their physical properties, concentrating on the smaller sizes of most concern for mitigation purposes, and secondly to identify further objects suitable for missions for physical characterisation and NEO deflection demonstration.

RemoveDebris Mission launched by Surrey space center, UK to clean space junk
‘Mahia Peninsula’ : world’s first ‘private orbital launch site’ is located on this peninsula in New Zealand. It is owned by the Los Angeles-based commercial spaceflight company Rocket Lab. The company recently launched its electron vehicle successfully for the first time.

A highly reflective sphere has been placed in orbit by the America-based start-up Rocket Lab, whose Electron boosters operate from Mahia Peninsula in North Island, New Zealand (this is not the first time an object has been launched purely for its reflective properties). Akin to a giant “disco ball”, the object should be visible to the naked eye as it sweeps across a twilight sky.

The company said its “Humanity Star” was an attempt to create a shared experience for everyone on Planet Earth. “No matter where you are in the world, or what is happening in your life, everyone will be able to see the Humanity Star in the night sky,” said Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck in a statement. “My hope is that all those looking up at it will look past it to the vast expanse of the Universe and think a little differently about their lives, actions and what is important for humanity.”

Kennedy Space Centre – Florida

Europe’s Spaceport – Kourou, French Guiana

Satish Dhawan Space Centre – Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh

Rocket Lab Launch Complex – Mahia Peninsula, NZ

SpaceX Falcon Heavy the most powerful operational rocket in the world launched from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida US toward an orbit near Mars. It is as a potential equipment carrier to deep space destinations.

It sent tesla roadster which survives its five-hour journey through Van Allen Belt – a region of high radiation where it will be pelted with charged particles – it will attempt a final burn toward Mars.

European Southern Observatory :

Created in 1962 as 16-nation intergovernmental research organization (HQ in Germany) for ground-based astronomy.
ESO has provided astronomers with state-of-the-art research facilities and access to the southern sky.
Its observatories are located in northern Chile.
built technologically advanced TELESCOPES :

New Technology Telescope NTT — located in Chile at La Silla Observatory and developed a revolutionary design for optimal image quality by use of active optics.
Very Large Telescope VLT — in Atacama Desert of northern Chile, consists of four individual optical telescopes (namely Antu, Kueyen, Melipal and Yepun based on astronomical objects in Mapuche language), each with a primary mirror that can be used together to achieve very high angular resolution. The telescopes form an array which is complemented by four movable Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) of 1.8 m aperture. It operates at visible and infrared wavelengths. VLT is the most productive ground-based facility for astronomy, with only Hubble Space Telescope. It is used in first direct image of an exoplanet, the tracking of individual stars moving around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, and observations of the afterglow of the furthest known gamma-ray burst.
Extremely Large Telescope ELT — world's largest optical/near-infrared extremely large telescope now under construction located at Atacama , Chile. It have around 256 times the light gathering area of the Hubble Space Telescope and, according to the ELT's specifications, would provide images 16 times sharper than those from Hubble. Its light-gathering power will allow detailed studies of planets around other stars, the first objects in the universe, supermassive black holes, and the nature and distribution of the dark matter and dark energy which dominate the universe.

ESPRESSO

Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet- and Stable Spectroscopic Observations is a high-resolution, fiber-fed and cross-dispersed echelle spectrograph for the visible wavelength range, capable of operating in 1-UT mode (using one of the four telescopes of VLT) and in 4-UT mode (using all four), for the search for rocky extra-solar planets in the habitable zone of their host stars.

Its main feature is the spectroscopic stability and the radial-velocity precision. The requirement is to reach 10 cm/s, but the aimed goal is to obtain a precision level of few cm/s. Installation and commissioning of ESPRESSO at the VLT is foreseen in 2017.

ESPRESSO is designed to exploit the light-gathering power of the individual telescopes. It has the light-collecting power of a 16-meter (52 feet) telescope. Light gathering is important for telescopes because, as they receive more photons of light, fainter objects appear brighter. Bigger telescopes typically see distant objects such as galaxies more easily because they have more light-gathering power.

ESPRESSO has a second major scientific goal besides looking for Earth-like worlds: to seek variability in fundamental physics constants. ESPRESSO will observe faint and faraway quasars to uncover more about basic physics, and the combined light of the four telescopes will greatly benefit it in its observations.

How it operates? Each of the VLT units sends its light to the instrument using mirrors, prisms and lenses. ESPRESSO can use the light from either all four telescopes at once or just one individual telescope. That design is intended to provide more flexibility in observing time.

ALMA ATACAMA LARGE MILLIMETRE ARRAY :

an astronomical interferometer of radio telescopes in Atacama desert of northern Chile
Since a high and dry site is crucial to millimeter and submillimeter wavelength operations
Consist of radio telescopes observing at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths
ALMA is expected to provide insight on star birth during the early universe and detailed imaging of local star and planet formation.
ALMA is an international partnership among Europe, United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Chile.
ALMA began scientific observations in 2011 & has been fully operational since March 2013.[5][6]

Venus satellite

Israel has launched the country’s first environmental research satellite in a joint venture between the Israel Space Agency (ISA) and its French counterpart CNES. The Venus satellite (Vegetation and Environment Monitoring New Micro-Satellite) is an earth-observation micro-satellite. The satellite’s goal is to obtain high-resolution photographs of specific sites to track environmental issues such as desertification, erosion, pollution, natural disasters, and other phenomena linked to climate change. The satellite will be able to take repeated photos of the same spot in the same light conditions (accounting for the position of the sun), allowing for more accurate tracking of changing environmental issues.

4.INDIA’s Space Missions

PSLV vs GSLV

Both PSLV(Polar) and GSLV(Geo-Synchronous) are the satellite-launch vehicles (rockets) developed by ISRO.

PSLV	GSLV
*Used in Remote sensing and Earth Imaging*	*as Communication satellite used in Radio & Telephone signals*
*first launched in 1993*	*first launched in 2001*
*Lower Orbit , Light Weight*	*Higher Orbit , Heavy Weight*
*are set when day time in India*	*at fixed position as with fixed speed to synchronised with Earth speed*
*4 stage engines - 1st & 3rd are Solid fuel , 2nd & 4th are Liquid fuel*	*3 Stage Engines - Solid, Liquid, Cryogenic*
*Chandrayan-1 , MoM , Astrosat*	*GSAT-6A into the orbit to boost communications*
*Payload : 1750 Kg* *Elevation : 700900 Km*	*Payload - 2500 Kg* *Elevation - 36000 Km*

PSLV

PSLV is used for delivering various satellites to Low Earth Orbits & designed mainly to deliver the “earth-observation” or “remote-sensing” satellites with lift-off mass of up to about 1750 Kg to Sun-Synchronous circular polar orbits of 600-900 Km altitude.
The remote sensing satellites orbit the earth from pole-to-pole (at about 98 deg orbital-plane inclination). 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.
Due to their sun-synchronism nature, these orbits are also referred to as “Low Earth Orbit (LEO)” which enables the on-board camera to take images of the earth under the same sun-illumination conditions during each of the repeated visits, the satellite makes over the same area on ground thus making the satellite useful for earth resources monitoring.
Apart from launching the remote sensing satellites to Sun-synchronous polar orbits, the PSLV is also used to launch the satellites of lower lift-off mass of up to about 1400 Kg to the elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
PSLV is a four-staged launch vehicle with first and third stage using solid rocket motors and second and fourth stages using liquid rocket engines.
It also uses strap-on motors to augment the thrust provided by the first stage, and depending on the number of these strap-on boosters, the PSLV is classified into its various versions like core-alone version (PSLV-CA), PSLV-G or PSLV-XL variants.
The PSLV is one of world's most reliable launch vehicles.
It has been in service for over 20 years and has launched various satellites for historic missions like Chandrayaan-1, Mars Orbiter Mission MOM, Space Capsule Recovery Experiment, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) etc.
PSLV remains a favourite among various organisations as a launch service provider and has launched over 40 satellites for 19 countries.
In 2008 It created a record for most number of satellites placed in orbit in one launch by launching 10 satellites into various Low Earth Orbits.

GSLV

GSLV's primary payloads are communication satellites of INSAT class (about 2,500 kg mass) that operate from Geostationary orbits (about 36000 km) and hence are placed in Geosynchronous Transfer Orbits by GSLV.
The GSLV is designed mainly to deliver the communication-satellites to the highly elliptical (typically 250 x 36000 Km) Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
The satellite in GTO is further raised to its final destination, viz., Geo-synchronous Earth orbit (GEO) of about 36000 Km altitude (and zero deg inclination on equatorial plane) by firing its in-built on-board engines.
Due to their geo-synchronous nature, the satellites in these orbits appear to remain permanently fixed in the same position in the sky, as viewed from a particular location on Earth, thus avoiding the need of a tracking ground antenna and hence are useful for the communication applications.
GSLV, in general, is a three-staged vehicle with first stage using solid rocket motor, second stage using Liquid fuel(powered by Vikas Engine) and the third stage, called Cryogenic Upper Stage, using cryogenic engine.
Two versions of the GSLV are being developed by ISRO.

The first version, GSLV Mark-II, has the capability to launch satellites of lift-off mass of up to 2,500 kg to the GTO and satellites of up to 5,000 kg lift-off mass to the LEO.
GSLV Mark-III, the second version, will be capable of placing 4,000 kg class of satellites to the GTO and satellites of up to 8,000 kg lift-off mass to the LEO.

NISAR Update -

A joint collaboration between NASA and ISRO to orbit an advanced synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellite is moving forward toward a 2021 launch date
Launch Location: Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
Launch Vehicle: Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle GSLV Mark II

Antrix Corporation Limited : was incorporated as a private limited company owned by GOI in Sep 1992 as a Marketing arm of ISRO for promotion and commercial exploitation of space products, technical consultancy services and transfer of technologies developed by ISRO. Another major objective is to facilitate development of space related industrial capabilities in India.

ASTROSAT

India’s first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory launched on PSLV-XL in September 2015 , placed at low earth equatorial orbit at altitude of 650 km. ASTROSAT with a lift-off mass of about 1513 kg.
It is one of the major scientific missions of ISRO after the highly acclaimed Chandrayaan-I and Mangalyaan.
The five instruments on board cover the visible (320–530 nm), near UV (180–300 nm), far UV (130–180 nm), soft X-ray (0.3–8 keV and 2–10 keV) and hard X-ray (3–80 keV and 10–150 keV) regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Studies of periodic and non-periodic variability of X-ray sources
It performs multi-wavelength observations covering spectral bands from radio, optical, IR, UV, and X-ray wavelengths.
The mission will train its instruments at active galactic nuclei (such as that of the core of the Milky Way), which are believed to contain super-massive black holes.
Ground Command and Control Center for Astrosat is the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bangalore.
A third 11-meter antenna at Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) became operational in July 2009 to track Astrosat.
ISRO has set up a support cell for AstroSat at IUCAA, Pune in May 2016 to give opportunity to the scientific community in making proposals on processing and usage of AstroSat data. The support cell will provide necessary resource materials, tools, training and help to the guest observers.
While radio, optical, and IR observations would be coordinated through ground-based telescopes, the high energy regions, i.e., UV, X-ray and visible wavelength, would be covered by the dedicated satellite-borne instrumentation of Astrosat.

Before India, NASA, space agencies of EU, Japan and Russia have launched similar facilities into the space.
On 31 May 2017, Astrosat, Chandra and Hubble Space Telescope simultaneously detected a coronal explosion on the nearest planet-hosting star Proxima Centauri

Recently, AstroSat along with other space and earth-based observatories have detected a massive coronal explosion on Proxima Centauri, sun’s closest star neighbour. Coronal explosion is an unusually large release of plasma and magnetic field from solar corona.

Indian astronomers measuring the variations of X-ray polarisation of the Crab Pulsar in the Taurus constellation.This study was a project conducted by scientists from TIFR Mumbai; VSSC Thiruvananthapuram; ISRO centre Bengaluru; IUCAA Pune; and PRL Ahmedabad.

Chandrayaan-2 : planning by ISRO to conduct landing simulation tests for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft at Mahendragiri

India’s 2nd mission to the Moon is a totally indigenous mission comprising of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover.
soft-landing on Moon and moving a rover on its surface.
consists of an orbiter, lander and rover configuration.
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.

GSLV-F10/Chandrayaan-2 Mission is planned during second half of 2018.

———> The air pressure is zero at Moon. If astronauts did not wear these space suits, the counter pressure exerted by the body of the astronauts would make the blood vessels burst. The astronauts would bleed.

42nd flight of the PSLV : ISRO has successfully sent up a rocket carrying India’s 100th satellite along with 30 others.

This was done through what scientists call the “multiple burn technology” under which the rocket’s engine is switched off and then switched on to control its height.

GSAT-9 or the South Asian Satellite, is a geostationary communication satellite launched by ISRO’s GSLV-F09 on May 5, 2017 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. Seven out of eight SAARC countries are a part of the project with Pakistan deciding to opt out.

GSLV Mk III

A 3 stage heavy lift launch vehicle developed by ISRO has 2 solid strap-ons, a core liquid booster and a cryogenic upper stage.
designed to carry 4 ton class of satellites into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) or about 10 tons to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which is about twice the capability of GSLV Mk II.

RLV TD Reusable Launch Vehicle—Technology Demonstration Programme

It is a series of technology demonstration missions that has been conceived by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as a first step towards realising a Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO) re-usable launch vehicle.
A reusable launch vehicle is the unanimous solution to achieve low cost, reliable and on - demand space access.
RLV-TD is a series of technology demonstration missions that have been considered as a first step towards realizing a Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO) fully re-usable vehicle.
A Winged RLV-TD has been configured to act as a flying test bed to evaluate various technologies, namely, hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, powered cruise flight and hypersonic flight using air-breathing propulsion.
These technologies will be developed in phases through a series of experimental flights.
This project has NO connection with the Avatar spaceplane concept by India's DRDO.

Avatar "Aerobic Vehicle for Transatmospheric Hypersonic Aerospace TrAnspoRtation"

It is a concept study for a robotic single-stage reusable spaceplane capable of horizontal takeoff and landing, by India's DRDO.
The mission concept is for low cost military and commercial satellite space launches.
The first scaled down trial took place in 2016 and the first flight of AVATAR is scheduled in 2025.

Ramjet

a form of air-breathing jet engine that uses the vehicle’s forward motion to compress incoming air for combustion without a rotating compressor.
Fuel is injected in the combustion chamber where it mixes with the hot compressed air and ignites.
A ramjet-powered vehicle requires an assisted take-off like a rocket assist to accelerate it to a speed where it begins to produce thrust.
Ramjets work most efficiently at supersonic speeds around Mach 3 (three times the speed of sound) and can operate up to speeds of Mach 6.
Ramjet efficiency starts to drop when the vehicle reaches hypersonic speeds.

Scramjet engine

An improvement over the ramjet engine as it efficiently operates at hypersonic speeds and allows supersonic combustion.
Thus it is known as Supersonic Combustion Ramjet, or Scramjet.

Scramjet engine

ISRO carried out successful testing of scramjet engine from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
A scramjet is a variant of a ramjet air breathing jet engine in which combustion takes place in supersonic airflow.
As in ramjets, a scramjet relies on high vehicle speed to forcefully compress the incoming air before combustion (hence ramjet), but a ramjet decelerates the air to subsonic velocities before combustion, while airflow in a scramjet is supersonic throughout the entire engine. This allows the scramjet to operate efficiently at extremely high speeds.
Advantages

Does not have to carry oxygen
No rotating parts makes it easier to manufacture than a turbojet
Has a higher specific impulse (change in momentum per unit of propellant) than a rocket engine
Higher speed could mean cheaper access to outer space in the future

Spot Picker Robot is a state-of-the-art technology for precise protein spot excision. It is indigenously developed by BARC. It enhancing the data quality and reliability in the field of proteomics.

SANGRAHA EW SYSTEM : An indigenous EW programme for Navy for Development of all five types of electronic warfare (EW) systems.

SAMYUKTA EW SYSTEM : Joint programme of DRDO and Indian Army is software and integration intensive and meant for indigenous development of an integrated EW system.

SUJAV Clusters System : Indian Army has placed order for 7 Sujav clusters consisting of 3 Electronic Support Measure (ESM) and one Electronic Counter Measure (ECM) station. 1 Sujav clusters system is successfully evaluated in North East and Jammu region.

India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) project

a particle physics research project under construction to primarily study atmospheric neutrinos in a 1,300 meters deep cave under Ino Peak near Theni, Tamil Nadu.
It is anticipated to provide a precise measurement of neutrino(charge-less and negligible mass particles) mixing parameters.
The project is a multi-institute collaboration and one of the biggest experimental particle physics projects undertaken in India.
The project has been cleared by MoEF&CC for construction in Bodi West Hills Reserved Forest in Theni district of Tamil Nadu.

When completed, the main magnetised iron calorimeter (ICAL) experiment will include world's largest magnet, four times larger than the 12,500-tonne magnet in the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.

Bodi West Hills is chosen because of availability of Charnockite rocks which is hard in nature and can act well to stop any emissions.
In 1965, India was first country to detect atmospheric Neutrinos during Kolar Gold Field experiment in which TIFR played key role.

Neutrinos are fundamental particles belonging to the Lepton family. They come in 3 flavours, one associated with electrons & the others with their heavier cousins the muon and the Tau.

EIA Environment Impact Assessment :

LIDAR is a remote-sensing technique that uses high-end scanning laser light to sample the surface of the earth.

It is highly accurate scientific surface/topographic data with active sensing system and it uses its own energy source and

NOT reflecting naturally or naturally emitted radiation.

This mode allows direct acquisition of terrain information.

It uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges to the Earth. These light pulses—combined with other data recorded by the airborne system— generate precise, three-dimensional information about the shape of the Earth and its surface characteristics.

This system can be brought to use for engineering designs, conservation planning, floodplain mapping, surface feature extraction (trees, shrubs, roads and buildings) and vegetation mapping (height and density).

Indian archaeologists are planning to use Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology to survey the archaeological evidence, flora and fauna in the ancient Rajgir hills in Bihar. The LIDAR device mounted on drones or on helicopters will be deployed as part of the inter-disciplinary Rajgir Archaeological Survey Project (RASP).

However, it is not photography or a substitute for photography. The technique CANNOT ‘see through’ trees. If sunlight can reach a spot on the ground so can the laser; if sunlight can’t reach the ground due to various vegetation, then neither can the laser. The technology is also being brought into use for organising high-security event in stadiums, campuses and other spaces.

‘miniPCR’ device copies targeted pieces of DNA in a process known as polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This device is used aboard the ISS for NASA’s ‘Genes in Space’ projects. Genes in Space-1 successfully demonstrated the device could be used in microgravity to amplify DNA, a process used to create thousands of copies of specific sections of DNA.

CRISPR/Cas9 system is among the latest tools used to alter the functioning of certain genes , as gene editing technology.

It allows scientists to selectively edit genome parts and replace them with new DNA stretches.

Cas9 is an enzyme that can edit DNA, allowing the alteration of genetic patterns by genome modification.
CRISPR(Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat) is a collection of DNA sequences that direct Cas9 where to cut and paste.
CRISPR-Cas9 technology has the potential to revolutionise the treatment of blood diseases, tumours and other genetic diseases.
Researchers had used a modified version of the CRISPR gene-editing technology to insert a new TB resistance gene into the genome of cell derived from female dairy cows.

If a viral infection threatens a bacterial cell, the CRISPR immune system can thwart the attack by destroying the genome of the invading virus. The genome of the virus includes genetic material that is necessary for the virus to continue replicating. Thus, by destroying the viral genome, the CRISPR immune system protects bacteria from ongoing viral infection.

Genome Manipulation, Editing and Interference can be done by CRISPR, TALENS and RNAi.

Genome Sequencing :

A genome is total DNA in each cell of an organism and contains genetic blue-print which dictates the form and functions of that organism.
GS is the process of determining the complete DNA sequence of an organism’s genome at a single time.
Genome sequencing is figuring out order of DNA nucleotides, or bases, in a genome—the order of ACGT that make up an organism’s DNA
Applications of Genome sequencing

can be used to identify genetic markers for disease resistance and drought tolerance in various crop plants.
Currently available newborn screening (genome) for childhood diseases allows detection of rare disorders that can be prevented or better treated by early detection and intervention.
Naturally if the gene potential can be identified by screening and sequencing, It helps in reducing the time required to develop new varieties of crop plants.
It can be used to decipher the host-pathogen relationships in crops.

DNA sequencing is process of determining the precise order of nucleotides within a DNA molecule. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases—AGTC — in a strand of DNA.

Genome Project – Write (also known as GP-Write)

It includes sub-projects like Human Genome Project-Write (HGP-Write), formally announced on 2 Jun 2016 is an extension of Genome Projects (aimed at reading genomes since 1984), now to include development of technologies for synthesis and testing of many genomes of microbes, plants and animals.
This leverages 2 decades of work on Synthetic Biology and Artificial gene synthesis.
The newly created GP-Write project will be managed by the Center of Excellence for Engineering Biology, a new non-profit organization. The researchers expect that the ability to synthesize large portions of many genomes would result in many scientific and medical advances.
Human Genome Project–write (HGP-write), now underway to synthesise a human genome from scratch. The original HGP was a “read” in that it used chemicals and instruments to decipher the genome for the first time. The new project, its proponents say, is to write or build an artificial human genome with sophisticated bioengineering tools.

HGP Human Genome Project has revealed that there are probably about 20,500 human genes.

The completed human sequence can now identify their locations.

It was suggested that the problems of cancer might be most expeditiously solved if the human genome were completely sequenced.

Some current and potential applications of genome research include molecular medicine, microbial genomics, anthropology, evolution and human migration, DNA forensics, agriculture, livestock breeding and bio-processing among other

Human DNA Profiling Bill 2015 :

RFID Tech Radio-Frequency Identification

uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. The
refers to small electronic devices that consist of a small chip and an antenna.
The RFID device serves the same purpose as a bar code or a magnetic strip on the back of a credit card or ATM card; it provides a unique identifier for that object.
just as a bar code or magnetic strip must be scanned to get the information, the RFID device must be scanned to retrieve the identifying information.
A significant advantage of RFID devices over the others mentioned above is that the RFID device does not need to be positioned precisely relative to the scanner. Store checkout clerks sometimes have difficulty in making sure that a barcode can be read due it not being in line of sight.
RFID devices will work within a few feet (up to 20 feet for high-frequency devices) of the scanner. For example, you could just put all of your groceries or purchases in a bag, and set the bag on the scanner. It would be able to query all of the RFID devices and total your purchase immediately.
RFID technology has been available for more than fifty years. It has only been recently that the ability to manufacture the RFID devices has fallen to the point where they can be used as a "throwaway" inventory or control device.

MIMO Technology :

Multiple-input multiple-output, or MIMO, is a radio communications technology or RF technology that is being used in Wi-Fi, LTE; Long Term Evolution, and many other radio, wireless and RF technologies to provide increased link capacity and spectral efficiency combined with improved link reliability using what were previously seen as interference paths.
It uses a natural radio-wave phenomenon called multipath , With multipath, transmitted information bounces off walls, ceilings, and other objects, reaching the receiving antenna multiple times at different angles and slightly different times. In the past, multipath caused interference and slowed down wireless signals.
With Multipath, MIMO technology uses multiple, smart transmitters and receivers with an added spatial dimension, increasing performance and range.
This Technology will help curb the emittance of radiation harmful to our health and also will allow less radio interference for better communication.

Microfactory is one or a series of small machines and devices that uses patented technology to perform one or more functions in the reforming of waste products into new and usable resources. The e-waste microfactory that reforms discarded computers, mobile phones and printers has a number of small modules for this process and fits into a small site.

E-cigarette aka called vaping aka Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS)

a handheld electronic device (battery-powered vaporizer) that tries to create feeling of tobacco smoking even they contain No tobacco.
Works by heating a liquid to generate an aerosol, commonly called a "vapor".
The liquid in the e-cigarette, called e-liquid, is usually made of nicotine, propylene glycol, glycerine, and flavorings.
Not all e-liquids contain nicotine (Nicotine juice).
The health risks of e-cigarettes are uncertain but they are likely safer than tobacco cigarettes.Their long-term health effects are not known. They can help some smokers quit.

Research has confirmed that e-cigarette vapours contain FREE RADICAL chemicals previously thought only to be found in tobacco cigarettes and air pollutants.
Free radicals are highly reactive agents that can damage DNA or other molecules within cells, resulting in cell death by stealing their electrons through a process called oxidation.
Cigarette smoke contains 1014 free radicals per puff. Though e-cigarette vapour contains far fewer free radicals than cigarette smoke – one percent as much – their presence in e-cigarettes still suggests potential health risks.

The most important oxygen-containing free radicals in many disease states are hydroxyl radical, superoxide anion radical, hydrogen peroxide, oxygen singlet, hypochlorite, nitric oxide.

Free radicals are atoms or groups of atoms with an odd (unpaired) number of electrons and can be formed when oxygen interacts with certain molecules. Once formed these highly reactive radicals can start a chain reaction, like dominoes. Their chief danger comes from the damage they can do when they react with important cellular components such as DNA, or the cell membrane.

Cells may function poorly or die if this occurs. To prevent free radical damage the body has a defence system of antioxidants.

Creation of Free Radicals :

When body is exposed to harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun, X-rays, and gamma rays from radioactive material. They also occur from cigarette smoke, car exhaust and industrial fumes. Ironically enough, breathing in pure oxygen promotes free radicals as well.

hence they are the natural byproducts of metabolism in the body.

Prevention of Free Radicals :

Antioxidants are intimately involved in the prevention of cellular damage -- the common pathway for cancer, aging, and a variety of diseases.
Antioxidants are molecules which can safely interact with free radicals and terminate the chain reaction before vital molecules are damaged. Although there are several enzyme systems within the body that scavenge free radicals, the principle micronutrient (vitamin) antioxidants are vitamin E, beta-carotene, and vitamin C and selenium, a trace metal.

The body cannot manufacture these micronutrients so they must be supplied in the diet.

Vitamin E : d-alpha tocopherol. A fat soluble vitamin present in nuts, seeds, vegetable and fish oils, whole grains (esp. wheat germ), fortified cereals, and apricots. Current recommended daily allowance (RDA) is 15 IU per day for men and 12 IU per day for women.

Vitamin C : Ascorbic acid is a water soluble vitamin present in citrus fruits and juices, green peppers, cabbage, spinach, broccoli, kale, cantaloupe, kiwi, and strawberries. The RDA is 60 mg per day. Intake above 2000 mg may be associated with adverse side effects in some individuals.

Beta-carotene is a precursor to vitamin A (retinol) and is present in liver, egg yolk, milk, butter, spinach, carrots, squash, broccoli, yams, tomato, cantaloupe, peaches, and grains. Because beta-carotene is converted to vitamin A by the body there is no set requirement. Instead the RDA is expressed as retinol equivalents (RE), to clarify the relationship. (NOTE: Vitamin A has no antioxidant properties and can be quite toxic when taken in excess.)

In INDIA , The Health Ministry has constituted three groups to study legal implications and health effects of e-cigarettes.

1st was to study the legal implications of this e-nicotine drug induce system, 2nd was to go into the health effects and the 3rd was to study advocacy. As e-cigarettes contain nicotine and not tobacco, they do not fall within the ambit of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (COTPA), which mandates stringent health warnings on the packaging and advertisements of tobacco products.

Supercomputer :

Pratyush(Supercomputer)

India has unveiled Pratyush(Supercomputer), an array of computers that can deliver a peak power of 6.8 petaflops (FLOPS - Floating points operations per second ).
One petaflop is a million billion floating point operations per second and is a reflection of the computing capacity of a system.
Pratyush HPC - High performing computing ( at IITM Pune ) will improve weather forecasts and extended range forecasts.
It will also predict cyclones and tsunami accurately, with more lead time.
It will also help those dependent on agriculture, hydrology and power sectors. It will serve Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Indian Supercomputer 'PARAM 8000'

named by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing C-DAC was launched on July 1, 1991.
was released in 1991 by C-DAC and was replicated and installed at ICAD Moscow in 1991 under Russian collaboration.

Note : vegetable glycerin (a material used in all types of food and personal care products, like toothpaste)

propylene glycol (a solvent most commonly used in fog machines.)

MIHIR High performance Computer System "Mihir" (Sun) will be used for weather forecast in tsunami, Air quality, climate, oceans etc. hence India ranks 4th in Top 500 HPC facilities in world after Japan, UK, USA.

India Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC)

is established at Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Sciences, (INCOIS – ESSO) Hyderabad, is an autonomous body under Ministry of Earth Sciences.
It comprises a real-time seismic monitoring network of broadband seismic stations , receives data in real time from 350 seismic stations, 50 tsunami buoys and 300 tide gauges established in the Indian as well as the other oceans by other countries and international agencies.

Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO has designated ITEWC as the Tsunami Service Provider (TSP) for ENTIRE Indian Ocean Region. Since 2012, ITEWC is providing tsunami advisories and related services to about 25 countries”.

RIMES Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System :

It is an UN-registered agency that will collaborate with Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) to strengthen its quality, prediction ability and response capacity.
The inter-governmental body registered under UN is owned and managed by 45 collaborating countries in Asia Pacific and Africa Region.
The programme unit of the agency is located in Thailand.
RIMES evolved from the efforts of countries in Africa and Asia, in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, to establish a regional early warning system within a multi-hazard framework for the generation and communication of early warning information, and capacity building for preparedness and response to trans-boundary hazards.
At present, India is chairing RIMES.

Satellites belong to Earth Observation Satellites as per ISRO’s classification :

CARTOSAT
RESOURCESAT
SARAL
RISAT
Megha-Tropiques
OCEANSAT

Cryptography is about constructing and analyzing protocols that prevent third parties or the public from reading private messages.

Various aspects in information security such as data confidentiality, data integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation are central to modern cryptography. Modern cryptography exists at the intersection of the disciplines of mathematics, computer science, and electrical engineering. Applications of cryptography include ATM cards, computer passwords, and electronic commerce.

Blockchain

Blockchain is an online ledger of digitally recorded transactions without the need for a financial intermediary which is encrypted in the form of blocks, each of which is connected by a network of computers. IN WEST BENGAL it uses the blockchain technology to protect its documents from cyber attacks.

By Blockchain technique , the group of users are connected to each other as Peer to Peer connection on distributed ledger. Blockchain technique provides transparency and distribution of data securely.

BlockChain -- Digital and decentralised distributed ledger that records Transaction without need of any third party or Financial Intermediary.

Cryptocurrencies : Bitcoin, ripple, Ethereum and litecoin.

ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) chips are chips designed to carry out specific tasks. In recent times, these chips are increasingly being used for crypto-currency mining. ASIC chips use lesser energy compared to GPUs Graphics Processing Unit.
SETI, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is an exploratory science that seeks evidence of life in the universe by looking for some signature of its technology. The SETI Institute is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to scientific research, education, and public outreach.

Robots which are intended to work with human hand in hand in a shared workspace. the use of robots as a compliment to the human work is primary function of collaborative robot.

Rydberg Polarons :

These atoms are held together by a weak bond and is created at very cold temperatures.
It uses ideas from two different fields: Bose Einstein Condensation and Rydberg atoms

BEC (Bose Einstein Condensate) is a liquid-like state of matter that occurs at very low temperatures. A BEC can be perturbed to create excitations which are akin to ripples on a lake. Here, researchers have used a BEC of strontium atoms.
A ‘Rydberg atom’ is an atom in which an electron has been kicked out to a very large orbit. These have interesting properties and have been studied for a long time.

Laser light on a BEC of strontium atoms excites an electron into a large orbit, forming a Rydberg atom. As the electron moves around many strontium atoms, it generates ripples of the BEC. The Rydberg atom becomes inextricably mixed with these ripples and forms a new super-atom called a ‘Rydberg polaron’

ARCTIC & ANTARCTIC

Black carbon is a bigger cause of the melting of the polar ice cap in the Arctic than carbon dioxide due to its effect on the albedo.

ARCTIC

There are 8 nations which are called Arctic Nations which are scrambling for the resources in this area.
Major players being – Russia, Norway, US, Canada, Sweden and Finland. Except Russia all other nations are part of NATO.
Currently Arctic Council is the grouping that represents the interests of Arctic nations.

MOSAiC Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate

Budget exceeding 60 Million € designed by an international consortium of leading polar research institutions, under the umbrella of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) and the University of Colorado, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES).
The results of MOSAiC will contribute to enhance understanding of the regional and global consequences of Arctic climate change and sea-ice loss and improve weather and climate predictions

ARCTIC vs ANTARCTIC

While Antarctica is protected by the ‘Antarctica Treaty’ framed during the Cold War, there is no such treaty to protect the resources and ecology of Arctic. Arctic is warming twice as fast as rest of globe.
Antarctic is not touched by landmass from anywhere, while Arctic is touched by many
Antarctica is mainly for scientific and other purposes while arctic is coming under commercial exploitation

NATURAL RESOURCES
Oil and Gas Reserves - The US Geological Survey estimates that 13 % of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 % of its untapped natural gas is in the Arctic.

Russia is exploring minerals in Barents and Kara Sea, its 1/3rd resources lie in Arctic circle
US is exploring minerals in Chukchi Sea

RARE EARTHS

Greenland is rich in rare earths – which are used extensively in mobile phones and electronics items manufacturing.

SHIPPING
Shipping lanes could be regularly open across the Arctic by 2030 as rising temperatures continue to melt the sea ice, according to a National Research Council analysis commissioned by the US Navy last year. Opening up of shipping lanes will shorten trade routes for US and other countries.

Antarctic was called as the “Pole of Ignorance” because It was difficult to survey Antarctica with the help of artificial space satellites and Many regions beneath the thick ice cover of Antarctica were unknown to scientists for long. A project PolarGAP, funded by the European Area Company (Esa), collected measurements over an space of Earth that its satellites cannot see, as they often solely fly as much as about 83 levels in latitude.

Major landscapes while traversing to Antarctica.

1. Rockefeller plateau
2. American Highland
3. Prince Charles Mountains

4. Roosevelt Island

Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR)

Established by international convention in 1982 with the objective of conserving Antarctic marine life.
This was in response to increasing commercial interest in Antarctic krill resources, a keystone component of the Antarctic ecosystem and a history of over-exploitation of several other marine resources in the Southern Ocean.

Antarctic krill : The species of krill found in the Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean. It is a small, swimming crustacean that lives in large schools, called swarms.

The Krill makes up an estimated biomass more than that of the global population of humans.

Larsen C Ice Shelf is located on the Antarctic Peninsula (the Antarctic arm which sticks out towards South America.)

DANGER Island in Antarctica :

group of islands lying 24 km east-south-east of Joinville Island near tip of Antarctic Peninsula.
identified as an IBA by BirdLife International because it supports large numbers of Adelie penguins(only residence to Antarctic coast) in at least five distinct colonies.
In March 2018 it was reported that a colony of 1.5 million Adelie penguins had been discovered that penguins in this area, which has remained cold, are thriving whereas on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula where there has been warming their numbers have been declining.

POLAR2018 is a joint event from Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research SCAR and International Arctic Science Committee IASC (a NGO under ICSU).

Mercury : massive stores found in permafrost from Alaska of northern hemisphere and warming climate could release large amounts of this dangerous toxin that may cause neurological effects in humans and animals.

All frozen and unfrozen soil in Northern permafrost are largest reservoir of mercury on planet, storing nearly twice as much mercury as all other soils, the ocean and the atmosphere combined.

Arctic Seed Vault aka Svalbard Global Seed Vault : Dubbed as “Noah’s Ark” of food crops or ‘Doomsday’ or ‘Apocalypse’ Seed Bank

was built by Norwegian government in 2008 to store seed samples of the world’s crops and plants.
Serves as a natural deep freeze, and is meant to protect important genetic material in case of a major man-made or natural disaster.
The loss of crop diversity and the vulnerability of existing seed collections in various seed/gene banks gave birth to the idea in of establishing a back-up seed facility in Svalbard.
Depositors retain ownership rights over the seeds sent to the facility. The boxes with seeds are sealed by the depositors and are not distributed to or given access to by anyone other than the depositors.
Svalbard was chosen as seed bank because of area’s permafrost – a thick layer of soil that stays frozen throughout the year.

India’s seed vault :

At Chang La in Ladakh, Himalayas, at a height of 17,300 feet, there is a storage facility with over 5,000 seed accessions.
Consists of a set of seeds of one species collected from different locations or different populations.
Joint venture of NBPGR National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources ( of ICAR ) & Defence Institute of High Altitude Research DIHAR (of DRDO).
In 2010, It was built as permafrost seed bank is the second largest in the world.

Chang La (elevation 5,360 m or 17,590 ft) is a high mountain pass in Ladakh (Also on the route to Pangong Lake from Leh), claimed to be the second highest motor able road in the world (which is either Marsimik La or Mana Pass)

DRDO established the world's highest terrestrial centre at 17,600 feet above sea level at Chang la near Pengong lake in Ladakh.

Presently, the only other facility in India for long-term storage of seeds is one set up by ICAR New Delhi .

For INDIA

Himadri Station is India's FIRST Arctic research station at Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway. It is India’s only research station.
According to SVALBARD TREATY that India signed with Norway before Independence, It has rights of commercial activities in the Arctic region. It was under this treaty that India established its research station in Norway in 2007.

in Antarctica

The first permanent settlement was built in 1983 and named Dakshin Gangotri. In 1989 it was excavated and is being used again as supply base and transit camp.
Maitri was established a few years later for conducting experiments in geology, geography and medicine. India built a freshwater lake around Maitri known as Lake Priyadarshini.
Bharati was established in 2015. This newest research station for oceanographic research will collect evidence of continental breakup to reveal the 120-million-year-old ancient history of the Indian subcontinent.

National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research in GOA in 1998

an Indian research and development institution, situated in Vasco, Goa. It is an autonomous Institution of the Department of Ocean Development (DOD), Government of India which is responsible for administering the Indian Antarctic Program and maintains the Indian government's Antarctic research station, Maitri. NCAOR was established on 25 May 1998, with Dr. P C Pandey ^[1] as its founding director.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9] NCAOR is known for its participation in global experiments, hosting of international conferences and in the leadership of international committees concerned with Antarctic science. At present, NCAOR is an agency working under Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India since 2006, by the notification of the President of India.

Polar Remotely Operated Vehicle (PROVe) operationalized in North Antarctica

• It is India's first as an indigenously built by National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) Chennai under Union Ministry of Earth Sciences

• It will measure parameters like ocean currents, temperature, dissolved oxygen and salinity in the Antarctic.

• It makes monsoon prediction and reading of pattern easier. It helps in capable of probing the sea bed under normal temperature and exploring up to 200 meters in inhospitable and tough regions. It is successfully deployed in Priyadarshini Lake (Antarctica) by ESSO NIOT.

• The results and outcomes will help researchers in understanding the biological activities taking place inside the sea.

• ESSONIOT is an IndoUS initiative under the Monsoon Mission program of the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences. It will study science behind the monsoonal events of Bay of Bengal using both Indian & US research ships. It will especially help scientist to move away from present Mathematical models for forecasting the Monsoon which many times vary from initial forecasts.

Researches

PHOTOVOLTAIC HIGHWAYS : 1st by France in 2016 and now 2nd in China

constructed using solar panels which have thin sheet of transparent concrete on top of them, protecting the surface.
It has wireless charging systems for electric vehicles.
The photovoltaic panels of the highway are built to transfer energy to electric vehicles passing on top of them.

ALMA -the largest astronomical project in existence - is a single telescope of revolutionary design, composed of 66 high precision antennas located on the Chajnantor plateau, 5000 meters altitude in northern Chile.

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is an international partnership of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan, together with NRC (Canada), NSC and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile.

Global navigational systems in the world:

Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) or NAVIC of India
GPS (Global Positioning System) - USA
Glonass or Global Navigation Sputnik System - Russia
Galileo - European union
Quasi- Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) of Japan
China - BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (it will provide navigation and positioning services to countries along the Belt and Road )

IRNSS satellites : Out of 7 Satellites A, B, F, G are placed in a geosynchronous orbit, which means they seem to be at a fixed location above the Earth and they orbit along with the Earth. The remaining three, C, D, E, are located in geostationary orbit-they seem to be at a fixed location above the Earth along the equator and orbit along with the Earth.

The last IRNSS, 1H, which was launched on August 31, 2017 was unsuccessful as the satellite did not come out of its heat shield.
IRNSSS 1I : was launched in Apr 2018 and replaced IRNSS 1A which was not working due to failure of 3 Rubidium atomic clocks.

Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs

based in New York City, is collaborating with the Canadian government on the high-tech project, slated for Toronto’s industrial waterfront.
“Sensing city” involves integrating a network of digital sensors into the physical infrastructure of the city as it is rebuilt.
This network can generate data that will benefit not only Christchurch, but also have positive influence on the future of cities everywhere.
In the vision of the sensing city, sensors will gather data to monitor everything from noise levels to water use, in real time and at a very granular level.
The resulting data can then be integrated with other key city attributes, like traffic flow, air quality and water pollution. A key success factor is that the data must be accessible – in an “open” data store – where it can be tapped into by city officials and citizens alike.
The plan calls for all vehicles to be autonomous and shared. Robots will roam underground doing menial chores like delivering the mail. Sidewalk Labs says it will open access to the software and systems it’s creating so other companies can build services on top of them, much as people build apps for mobile phones.
Here is a marriage of emerging technology – big data, the Internet of Things, generally affordable sensors and pervasive connectivity – coming together for the greater good.

— CHINA —

Yaogan 30 - remote sensing satellite prog of China
AG 600 — Amphibian aircraft developed by China
Chang’e 4 project by CHINA to launch a lunar probe in 2018 to achieve the world’s first soft landing on the far side(‘South Pole-Aitken Basin’ ) of moon to showcase its ambitious space programme.

DAMPE Dark Matter Particle Explorer —

A Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) satellite which was launched on 17 Dec 2015 on a Long March 2D rocket from Launch Pad 603 at LC-43 complex aka ( South Launch Site, at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, the China's first ever space observatory ).
DAMPE is a space telescope used for detection of high energy gamma rays, electrons and cosmic ray ions, to aid in the search for dark matter. The project is the result of a collaboration among universities in Italy, Switzerland and Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS).
It is nicknamed Wukong after the Monkey King.

a study commissioned by the Government of India concluded thatthe rains had been coloured by airborne spores from a locally prolific terrestrial green alga from the genus Trentepohlia. The exact species was later identified as T. annulata.

E coli in ISS : The International Space Station (ISS) was launched in 1998 at an altitude of 408 km above the Earth, and its residents experience near zero gravity. E coli (killer drug gentamycin) in ISS were more drug-resistant than the controls on earth.

Some points also came out of this study. First, there may be a greater risk of infection in astronauts (or greater doses of the drug), and second, the endogenous microbes that live in the guts of astronauts, helping their metabolic activities, might become less efficient. More experiments are needed to ascertain these possibilities.

in space the viscosity of human blood increases, circulation decreases and the cardiovascular system becomes “lazy”, or slows down a bit. The eyeballs become a bit oblong. Bones become thinner and organs like the liver ‘shift” a bit. All these have been explained as due to the near-absence of gravity.

There are 4 key terms that are emerging in the discourse of nanotechnology:

Nanobacteria: Nanobacteria are nano-sized in that they are from 20—200 nanometres (run) in size and are the smallest known self-replicating bacteria.

Nanoemulsion: Nanoemulsions are a class of extremely small droplets that appear to be transparent or translucent with a bluish colouration. They are usually in the range 50 to 200 nm but much smaller than the range (from 1 to 100 pm) for conventional emulsions.

Nanog: Nanog is a key pluripotency regulator critically important in the process of self-renewal of undifferentiated stem cells. It is encoded by the NANOG gene.

Nanogels: Nanogels are composed of cross-linked three-dimensional polymer chain networks that are formed via covalent linkages or self-assembly processes.

Speed breeding technique to boost wheat production :

New ‘DS Faraday’ wheat variety a high protein, milling wheat with tolerance to pre-harvest sprouting.
could grow six generations of wheat, chickpea and barley plants, and four generations of canola plants in a single year.
By use of LED lights optimise to aid photosynthesis in intensive regimes of up to 22 hours per day.

Supernova : happens where there is a change in the core, or centre, of a star. A supernova burns for only a short period of time, but it can tell scientists a lot about the universe. One kind of supernova has shown scientists that we live in an expanding universe, one that is growing at an ever increasing rate.

PULSARS

Pulsars are highly magnetised, rapidly rotating neutron stars – the result of a massive star’s core collapsing and subsequently exploding. As they spin, they emit electromagnetic radiation.
If an observer is in the right position, they can appear as sweeping beams, like a cosmic lighthouse. They’re also extraordinarily regular – in the case of some millisecond pulsars, which can spin hundreds of times a second, their regularity can rival that of atomic clocks.

BLACK HOLE cannot be seen because of the strong gravity that is pulling all of the light into the black hole's centre. However, scientists can see the effects of its strong gravity on the stars and gases around it. If a star is orbiting a certain point in space, scientists can study the star's motion to find out if it is orbiting a black hole.

Microgravity is the condition in which people or objects appear to be weightless. This occurs when gravitation force around is weak (but not zero) or when objects are in a state of free fall (as in a satellite). For example, astronauts can move equipment weighing hundreds of pounds with their fingertips due to microgravity.

Brown dwarf : astronomical object that is intermediate between a planet and a star.

Unlike stars, brown dwarfs do NOT reach stable luminosities by thermonuclear fusion of normal hydrogen. Brown dwarfs are not actually brown but appear from deep red to magenta depending on their temperature.

Aerogels : scientists have successfully converted paper waste into green cellulose aerogels that are non-toxic, ultra-light, flexible, extremely strong and water repellent.used in a drug delivery system Due to its high surface area and porous structure, drugs can be adsorbed from supercritical CO2.

used as a chemical adsorber for cleaning up spills

National Science Day : celebrated on 28th February every year in order to commemorate the invention of the Raman Effect in India by the Indian physicist, Sir CV Raman on the same day in the year 1928. He was awarded Nobel prize in 1930 for this.

Raman Effect is a change in the wavelength of light that occurs when a light beam is deflected by molecules. When a beam of light traverses a dust-free, transparent sample of a chemical compound, a small fraction of the light emerges in directions other than that of the incident (incoming) beam. Most of this scattered light is of unchanged wavelength. A small part, however, has wavelengths different from that of the incident light; its presence is a result of the Raman effect.

Gyrocompass similar to a gyroscope, is a non-magnetic compass that finds true north by using an (electrically powered) fast-spinning wheel and friction forces in order to exploit the rotation of the Earth. Gyrocompasses are widely used on ships. They have two main advantages over magnetic compasses:

They find the true north, i.e., the direction of Earth's rotational axis, as opposed to magnetic north
Though Gyrocompass are electrically operated yet NOT affected by ferromagnetic metal (including iron, steel, cobalt, nickel, and various alloys) in a ship's hull.

Calcium silicate perovskite : is Earth’s fourth most abundant mineral found within a diamond mined from less than 1 KM beneath Earth’s crust, at South Africa’s famous Cullinan Mine which is source of two of largest diamonds in the British Crown Jewels.

CaSiO3 perovskite in diamond indicates the recycling of oceanic crust into the lower mantle.

Silicate perovskite may form upto 93% of lower mantle and Magnesium iron form is considered to be most abundant mineral in Earth.

Most common mineral BRIDGMANITE, named for high-pressure physicist Percy Bridgman, is a high-density form of magnesium iron silicate and makes up about 38 percent of Earth's volume.

Silver Copper Telluride (AgCuTe)

exhibits poor thermal conductivity in 25-425 degree C range but shows good electrical conductivity. Hence It can be used to extract electricity from waste heat of chemical, thermal, or steel power plants.
The temperature difference on two ends of a rod is essential for the generation of electrical voltage. At the same time, the material exhibits good electrical conductivity like metal.

Carbonaceous chondrites

It is one of two meteorites fell in 2017 in Mukundpura village, Assam.
Carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, unlike other meteorites, contain very primitive traces of carbon called CM group of carbonaceous chondrites And carbon forms the backbone of all life on earth.
The most pristine matter known having chemical compositions matched with the chemistry of Sun more closely than any other class of chondrites.

They are formed in oxygen-rich regions of early solar system so that most of metal is not found in its free form but as silicates, oxides, or sulfides.
Most of them contain water or minerals that have been altered in the presence of water, and some of them contain larger amounts of carbon as well as organic compounds. This is especially true for the carbonaceous chondrites that have been relatively unaltered by heating during their history.

Meteorites mostly originate from asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Carbonaceous meteorite may contain clues to the formation of early life. This is a rare type, since carbonaceous meteorites constitute only 3%-5% of all meteorite falls.

Also, this meteorite could be carrying some of the most pristine primordial matter recovered from space as it is made up of materials which were formed during the early stages of the formation of the solar system. A detailed analysis could provide clues about the origin of life and the formation and evolution of the solar system.

Memristors are considered to be a sub-category of resistive RAM, are one of several storage technologies that have been predicted to replace flash memory. They are important because they are non-volatile, meaning that they retain memory without power and a special type of resistive device that can both perform logic and store data.
It limits or regulates the flow of electrical current in a circuit.

Kuiper Belt :

Beyond the gas giant Neptune lies a region of space filled with icy bodies. Known as Kuiper Belt, this chilly expanse holds trillions of objects, remnants of the early solar system.
Basically It is doughnut-shaped ring of icy objects around the Sun extending just beyond the orbit of Neptune.
Short-period comets (which take less than 200 years to orbit the Sun) originate in the Kuiper Belt.
The first mission to explore the Kuiper Belt is New Horizons Mission. It flew past Pluto in 2015 and is on its way to explore another Kuiper Belt world.

In Jan, ‘Perihelion’ at 14,73,97,237 km from the sun, i.e. it will be at the closest point from the sun.

In July, ‘Aphelion’ at 15,20,95,571 km from the sun, i.e. it will be at the farthest point from the sun.

Super Blue Blood Moon’

A ‘Super Moon’ is simply a moon that is closer to the Earth than normal. As a result, it appears bigger and brighter in the sky.

A ‘Blue Moon’ is also simple and means the second full moon in a calendar month.

A ‘Blood Moon’ happens when sunlight passes through the atmosphere above the Earth, casting a dark colour across the surface of the moon.

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