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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - August 2015

Aug 2015

Oct 13, 2019

UK's First Lunar Rover To Be Spider-Like Bot

The UK's first-ever moon mission will launch into space in 2021 in a step to explore the secrets of the lunar surface. The tiny spider-like robot will be the world's smallest robotic moon rover which will walk across the moon to capture photographs and collect data.
The robot was developed by London based start-up Spacebit. The robot forms a part of a collaborative mission with US company Astrobotic. If the mission is successful, the UK will become the fourth country to put a rover on the moon after Russia, the US and China.
A recent attempt by a private Israeli company ended in disaster when the lander crashed on the surface. The Spacebit founder Pavlo Tanasyuk said that their goal is to reach there and explore what is available there.

Hazzaa AlMansoori Prepares For His Return To Earth

Hazzaa AlMansoori will arrive back on Earth at 3pm (UAE time) on 17 October, 2019, bringing an end to his historic eight-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
Returning with Russian commander Alexey Ovchinin and American astronaut Nick Hague, their Soyuz MS-12 descent module is expected to land south east of the remote town of Zhezqazghan, in Kazakhstan, roughly 700-km away from where Hazzaa took off from in Baikonur.

Oct 12, 2019

Scientists Reconstruct Faces Of Indus Valley People

A multi-disciplinary team of 15 scientists and academics from six different institutes of South Korea, UK and India have generated an accurate facial representation of the Indus Valley Civilisation people.
They reconstructed the faces of 2 of the 37 individuals who were found buried at the 4,500-year-old Rakhigarhi cemetery.
The scientists applied the craniofacial reconstruction (CFR) technique using computed tomography (CT) data of 2 of the Rakhigarhi skulls and recreated their faces.
The CFR technology generated faces of the two Rakhigarhi skulls, therefore, is a major breakthrough.
The 3-D video representation of the faces of the two individuals appeared to have Caucasian features with hawk-shaped and Roman noses.

NASA Launches Satellite To Explore Where Air Meets Space

NASA launched a satellite to explore the mysterious, dynamic region where air meets space.
The satellite — called ICON, short for Ionospheric Connection Explorer — rocketed into orbit following a two-year delay. It was dropped from a plane flying over the Atlantic off the Florida coast.
Five seconds after the satellite's release, the attached Pegasus rocket ignited, sending Icon on its way.
The ionosphere is the charged part of the upper atmosphere extending several hundred miles (kilometers) up. It's in constant flux as space weather bombards it from above and Earth weather from below, sometimes disrupting radio communications.
The refrigerator-size ICON satellite will study the airglow formed from gases in the ionosphere and also measure the charged environment right around the spacecraft which is at a level of 580 kilometers above the Earth's surface.

Scientists Undertake Largest DNA Barcoding Of Spiders In India

Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) have managed to barcode at least 100 species of spiders based on their DNA, in the largest exercise of its kind in the country.
The study includes species such as the spitting spiders (Scytodes thoracica), spiders with 'natural' mirrors in their abdomen (Thwaitesia sp) and those that steal others' food (Argyrodes flavescens) – a phenomenon which scientists term as kleptoparasitism. Then there are species which are found only in India.
This is the largest attempt on DNA barcoding of spiders from India. At least 101 species, with at least five endemic species, have been DNA barcoded. Work on DNA barcoding of at least 100 other Indian spiders is in progress.
The findings of the ongoing exercise have been published in Nature Publishing Group (NPG) journal, Scientific Reports – one of the leading multidisciplinary science journals in the world – in its October 1, 2019 issue.

Oct 11, 2019

First Spacecraft that can Service Satellites to Extend their Life Launched

Up until now, commercial satellites have essentially been disposable. Even the massive, multi-ton ones that can have service lives spanning a decade or more eventually just become so much space trash once they're out of fuel, or they experience some kind of terminal mechanical failure.
A new spacecraft built by Northrop Grumman and launched aboard a Russian Soyuz (via Space.com) could change all that.
The MEV-1, as it's known, is a satellite service spacecraft, which has the specific mission of meeting up with Intelsat 901 in orbit and lending it use of its orientation thrusters to put it back into an ideal target orbit — thus extending the useful life of the 18-year-old satellite by as many as five years.
Once it has succeeded in putting Intelsat 901 back on track, it's very possible the MEV-1 could do the same thing for yet another orbital satellite running low on its own propellant supply.

Oct 10, 2019

IT Ministry partners Google on 'Build for Digital India'

Tech giant Google signed a statement of intent with the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) for rolling out 'Build for Digital India' programme.
The programme will offer a platform to engineering students to develop market-ready, technology-based solutions that address key social problems.

GEMINI System To Aid Fishermen

To avoid communication blackouts that led to 20 fishermen going missing in the aftermath of Cyclone Okchi in 2017, a slew of government departments, research agencies and private companies have developed GEMINI, a portable receiver linked to ISRO-satellites, that is "fail-proof" and warn fishermen of danger.
The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), a Hyderabad institute collaborated with Accord, a private company, to develop a box-shaped receiver that has an antenna and in-built battery that can last three to four days, according to a brochure describing the device.
GEMINI works on GAGAN, developed by ISRO and the Airports Authority of India and is an India-made global positioning system and relies on the positioning system by ISRO's GSAT satellites.

IIT Madras Students Develop An 'Eye In The Sky' For Disaster

Indian Institute of Technology-Madras students have developed an 'Eye in the Sky - Disaster Management and Humanitarian Aid Services'.
A team from Centre For Innovation (CFI), IIT Madras, is building drones enabled with Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision to develop an end-to-end solution to identify accurate and critical information on people trapped in disaster-hit areas and communicate them to relief task force.
The 'Eye in the Sky' Team won the finals of Indian Innovation Growth Programme (IIGP 2.0) University Challenge held at IIT- Bombay.
They were among 'Top 18 Innovative Startups' from all over the nation and will receive ₹10 lakh-worth equity-less funding.
The team has also received 'Microsoft AI For Earth' Grant given to only 390 projects globally.

Russian Telescope Aboard ISS Captures Short Flashes In Earth's Atmosphere

An ultra-violet telescope created by Russia with international participation to study short flashes in Earth's atmosphere has begun its work on the International Space Station (ISS).
It has already collected its first data. The telescope was delivered to the International Space Station aboard the unmanned Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft back in August, 2019.

Oct 09, 2019

Rwanda Launches 'First Made-In-Africa' Smartphones

Rwanda has opened Africa's first smartphone manufacturing plant in the capital, Kigali, in an event attended by President Paul Kagame.
Manufactured by technology company Mara Group - the Mara X and Mara Z smartphones - will use Google's Android operating system and cost 175,750 Rwandan francs ($190; £155) and 120,250 Rwandan francs ($130;£106) respectively.

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