General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - February 2016

Feb 2016

Jul 06, 2022

India's Supercomputing Capabilities Fall behind its Peers

From having two of the top 100 supercomputers in the world in 2020, the country now has none in that bracket, and only three in the top 500, according to a global ranking service for the fastest supercomputers in the world, called Top 500.
India's first supercomputer, PARAM 8000, was set up in 1990. Param Siddhi, which offers a peak performance of 5.27 PFlops, had the distinction of being ranked as the 63rd fastest supercomputer in the world when it was launched in November 2020, according to the Top 500 global ranking service. It has since slipped to the 111th spot.
Similarly, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology's (IITM) Pratyush supercomputer, which used to be in the top 100, is now ranked 132. Overall, India has three supercomputers in the top 500's overall list. China and the US account for nearly two-thirds of the top 500 supercomputers in the world, with 173 and 128 of the 500 most powerful supercomputers in the world, respectively.

China Targets Venus, Sun, Moon in Next Phase of Space Exploration

After successfully roving on Mars, collecting samples from the Moon and constructing a Space Station, China has its eyes set on deep horizons in space. The Chinese Academy of Science is gearing up to select big-ticket missions to further study the Sun, Moon, Earth and exoplanets.
The New Horizons Program, conceived by China, has selected 13 candidates from a list of proposals submitted under four broad fields of space astronomy and astrophysics, exoplanets, heliophysics and planetary and Earth science.
Among the 13, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) committee is likely to green light at least five missions as part of the third Strategic Priority Program (SPP III) project.
The selection and priority list of these missions is expected to be ready by the end of this year.

Jul 02, 2022

NASA Launches CAPSTONE to Evaluate New Orbit for Artemis Moon Missions

The first leg of NASA's CubeSat mission to the Moon was successfully completed in space. It was built to test a novel lunar orbit.
The spacecraft moved towards a still-developing, lunar space station, named Getaway constructed by NASA alongside its international and commercial partners which in turn supports the astronaut missions and Artemis program of the space administration.
The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE, mission was launched on Rocket Lab's Electron rocket from the Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula of New Zealand.
CAPSTONE is an example of how working with commercial partners is key for NASA's ambitious plans to explore the Moon and beyond.

Jul 01, 2022

ISRO to Launch Rocket PSLV-C53, Carrying Three Singapore Satellites

In its second successful mission within a week, ISRO launched three foreign satellites in precise orbit.
PSLV-C53 is the second dedicated commercial mission of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of ISRO. It had on June 23 launched GSAT-24 in its first "demand-driven" communication satellite mission post space sector reforms, leasing the entire capacity on board to Direct-to-Home (DTH) service provider Tata Play.

Jun 30, 2022

Chinese Spacecraft Acquires Images of Entire Planet of Mars

An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft has acquired imagery data covering all of Mars, including visuals of its South Pole, after circling the planet more than 1,300 times since early 2021.
China's Tianwen-1 successfully reached the Red Planet in February 2021 on the country's inaugural mission there. A robotic rover has since been deployed on the surface as an orbiter surveyed the planet from space.
Among the images taken from space were China's first photographs of the Martian South Pole, where almost all of the planet's water resources are locked.

Jun 28, 2022

Bengaluru's Digantara, Hyderabad Start-up Dhruva Become First to Get IN-SPACe Authorisation

The Indian Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) authorised two Indian private firms, marking the beginning of private space sector launches in the country.
Hyderabad's Dhruva Space Pvt Ltd and Bengaluru's Digantara research & technologies Pvt Ltd were authorised by IN-SPACe to launch their payloads.
Dhruva Space's Dhruva Space Satellite Orbital Deployer – (DSOD 1U), a technology demonstration payload, and Digantara's ROBust Integrating Proton Fluence Meter (ROBI), a Proton dosimeter payload, were authorised, an IN-SPACe statement.
The payloads would fly onboard PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM) of PSLV-C53 scheduled to be launched on June 30.
"The first two launch authorisations issued by IN-SPACe is an important milestone and marks the beginning of private space sector launches in India.

NASA Delays Launch of CAPSTONE Mission to Moon

US space agency NASA delayed the scheduled launch of the CAPSTONE mission to the Moon over systems checks.
The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) is a microwave oven-sized CubeSat weighing just 55 pounds. It will serve as the first spacecraft to test a unique, elliptical lunar orbit.
CAPSTONE will fly in cislunar space - the orbital space near and around the Moon. The mission will demonstrate an innovative spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation solution at the Moon from a near rectilinear halo orbit slated for Artemis' Gateway.
Once released from Rocket Lab's Photon satellite bus, CAPSTONE will use its propulsion system to travel for approximately three months before entering into orbit around the Moon.
After arrival at the Moon, CAPSTONE will begin its 6-month-long primary mission.

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