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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - March 2018

Mar 2018

Mar 14, 2021

ISRO's NISAR to be First Satellite to Enable Earth Observation in 2 Frequencies

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sent its s-band synthetic aperture radar to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for integration with their l-band radar last week. Coupled together, the Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) will become the first satellite to enable earth observation in two frequencies.
After integration, the payload will be sent back to India for launch from the country's only spaceport at Sriharikota sometime in April or May next year.
According to NASA, the satellite will provide an "unprecedented view of the Earth" at less than one centimetre across.

Mar 13, 2021

ISRO and JAXA Decide to Monitor Air Quality

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have decided to join hands to take up activities on rice crop area and air quality monitoring using satellite data.
A bilateral meeting between ISRO and JAXA was held on virtual mode. Dr. K. Sivan, Chairman, ISRO/ Secretary, Department of Space and Dr. Hiroshi Yamakawa, President, JAXA led their respective delegations.
Apart from reviewing on-going cooperation in earth observation, lunar cooperation and satellite navigation, both sides have agreed to explore opportunities for cooperation in space situational awareness and professional exchange programme.
Both agencies signed an implementing arrangement for collaborative activities on rice crop area and air quality monitoring using satellite data.

Mar 12, 2021

Turkey's Salda Laked Called Mars on Earth

The scientists are looking for the signs of ancient life on the Red Planet with the help of data gathered by the NASA's rover Perseverance which is exploring the surface of Mars. Scientists find that the data collected on the mission is much closer to home at the Salda Lake located in southwest Turkey.
The American space agency, NASA, stated that the minerals and rock deposits at Salda Lake are the nearest match on earth with the deposits on the Jezero Crater where the spacecraft landed. The Jezero Crater is believed to be once flooded with water. The Information which was gathered from Lake Salda would help the scientists to search for the fossilised traces of microbial life which is preserved in the sediment which were deposited around the delta and the long-vanished lake. Scientists are of the view that, these sediments around the lake were eroded from large mounds which are formed with the help of microbes and are called as microbialites.
Salda Lake is a mid-size crater lake which is located in southwestern Turkey. It lies within the boundaries of Yeşilova district in Burdur Province. The lake is located at the distance of about fifty kilometres in the west from Burdur. The lake is included in Turkish Lakes Region which is extended across the inner western to southern Anatolia. It has the area of 4,370 hectares and a depth of 196 metres.

India's Largest Floating Solar Power Plant to be Commissioned by NTPC

According to NTPC southern region executive director CV Anand, India's largest floating solar power plant of 100 MW capacity, belonging to the National Thermal Power Corporation, is expected to be commissioned at Ramagundam in May this year.
The floating solar photo-voltaic project would be spread over 450 acres on the water surface of Sri Ram Sagar Project reservoir. This will be the largest floating solar plant in the country in a single location as of now. The total cost of the project would be Rs. 423 crore, including GST.
The NTPC southern region has taken setting up of solar power plants of the total capacity of 450 MW. Of this, 217 MW plants would be floating on water bodies. Apart from the 100 MW plant at Ramagundam, the corporation is setting up 92 MW floating unit at Kayamkulam gas plant in Kerala and a 25 MW unit at Simhadri power plant in Visakhapatnam.

Mar 11, 2021

Scientist Indentify Exotic Crystals of 'Ice 19'

Scientists have identified the 19th form of water ice. The exotic, four-sided crystals of this rare ice variety, now dubbed ice XIX, form at ultra-low temperatures and ultra-high pressures.
It only exists in laboratory experiments, but researchers say it reveals more about other forms of ice, which can be found deep in the Earth's mantle and on very cold planets and moons.
"To name a new ice form, one needs to elucidate exactly what the crystal structure is," said lead researcher Thomas Loerting, a professor of physical chemistry at the University of Innsbruck in Austria.
That means figuring out the simplest repeating structure of the crystal, where all the atoms are located within that structure, and what the symmetry of the crystal structure is, Loerting said.

Mar 10, 2021

ISRO Develops Radar for Joint Earth Observation Satellite Mission with NASA

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has completed the development of a radar for the joint earth observation satellite mission with the US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). ISRO has developed a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), capable of producing extremely high-resolution images for the mission.
Nasa-ISRO SAR (NISAR) is a joint collaboration for a dual-frequency L and S-band SAR for earth observation. NISAR will be the first satellite mission to use two different radar frequencies (L-band and S-band) to measure changes in our planet's surface less than a centimeter across.
NASA is providing the mission's L-band SAR, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder and payload data subsystem.
ISRO is providing the spacecraft bus, the S-band radar, the launch vehicle and associated launch services for the mission, whose goal is to make global measurements of the causes and consequences of land surface changes using advanced radar imaging.
NASA and ISRO had signed a partnership on September 30, 2014, to collaborate on and launch NISAR which is targeted to launch in early 2022 from Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh.

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