General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - August 2015

Aug 2015

Feb 21, 2020

India's First Solar Mission Aditya-L1

Apart from planning first manned space mission to be sent in 2022 and the relaunch of the Chandrayaan next year, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is also aiming to send the country's first solar mission by early 2021. Named Aditya-L1, the 400-kg satellite launch will be one of the most ambitious space missions undertaken by the space agency so far. The mission will involve observing the sun from close quarters and obtaining information about its magnetic field and atmosphere.
What makes solar missions tricky is the humongous distance between the Earth and the sun, which stands at 149 million kilometres. On the other hand, the distance between the Earth and the moon is only 3.84 lakh kilometres. Ultra-hot radiations and temperatures that increase exponentially as the satellite moves towards the sun, makes it impossible to be in the close vicinity of the sun.
The closest any space mission has been to the sun is NASA's Parker Solar Probe mission which hovered at a distance of 18.6 million kilometres from the sun.
The second closest was a mission sent by erstwhile West Germany in collaboration with NASA at a distance of 43 million kilometres from the sun.
In Aditya-L1's case, ultra-heat radiations and distance are not expected to cause much of a headache as the satellite will only explore the L1 region between the sun and the Earth which is only 1.5 million kilometres away from the earth.

Feb 15, 2020

Tech Startup Tekion Launches Cloud-based Automotive Dealer Management

Former Tesla CIO Jay Vijayan's technology start-up Tekion launched a flagship product called Automotive Retail Cloud, a cloud-native retail platform with all functionalities of a Dealer Management System.
The product connects key stakeholders of the industry enabling maximum level of operational efficiencies, collaboration, and personalised retail experiences.
Tekion, which has around 300 employees globally is backed by VCs such as Index Ventures, Storm Ventures, and AME Cloud Ventures. Global automotive brands such as General Motors, BMW iVentures, Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Alliance Ventures, and Exor have also invested in this startup.

Feb 14, 2020

Saltwater May Form on Mars Annually: Study

According to a study, salt water may form on the surface of Mars for a few days annually. Researchers at the Planetary Science Institute in the US noted that liquid water is difficult to come by on the Red Planet, because ice rapidly dissipates into the atmosphere long before it reaches its melting point. This is because the atmospheric pressure on Mars lies near the triple point pressure of water molecules (H2O), the minimum pressure necessary for liquid water to exist.

Feb 12, 2020

Europe's Mars Rover Heads for Fit Checks

Europe's Mars rover, "Rosalind Franklin", is on the move again.
The robot has just completed environmental testing at the Airbus factory in Toulouse, France, and is now going east to another aerospace facility run by Thales Alenia Space.
It's on the French Riviera, in Cannes, that the vehicle will join the hardware that will carry it to the Red Planet and put it safely on the surface.
Once this integration is complete, the rover can then go for launch.
Rosalind Franklin is due to leave Earth in July or August this year on a Proton rocket, arriving at Mars in March 2021.
The six-wheeled robot is equipped with scientific instruments designed to look for signs of life.
The project is a joint venture of the European Space Agency (Esa) and its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos.

Feb 11, 2020

NASA, ESA set to send Solar Orbiter probe to map Sun's poles

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are gearing up to send a new probe toward the Sun to take a unique look at its blazing poles, an unprecedented view expected to help researchers grasp how the star's vast bubble of energy affects Earth and humans in space.
The Solar Orbiter is due launch to space atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida on February 9 at 11:03 p.m. ET (0403 GMT February 10), deploying an array of solar panels and antennas before setting off on its 10-year voyage to the Sun.
Using the gravitational influence from Earth and Venus to whip itself as close as 26 million miles from the Sun or 95% of the distance between the star and Earth the probe will map the star's poles, which could allow scientists for the first time to observe the concentrated source of solar wind that permeates our solar system.

Iran Space Program Fails to Launch Satellite Into Orbit

An Iranian rocket failed to put a satellite into orbit on Sunday, state television reported, the latest setback for a program the U.S. claims helps Tehran advance its ballistic missile program.
The launch happened at 7:15 p.m. local time at Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Iran's Semnan province, some 230 kilometers (145 miles) southeast of Iran's capital, Tehran. A Simorgh, or "Phoenix," rocket couldn't put the Zafar 1 communications satellite into orbit, however, due to a low speed, Iranian state TV reported.

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