General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - October 2018

Oct 2018

Feb 09, 2022

ISRO Discards Communication Satellite INSAT-4B in Space

Amid the growing concern over junk in outer space, the Indian Space & Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully disposed of one of its satellites after it completed its operational life in orbit. The INSAT-4B underwent Post Mission Disposal (PMD) at the end of its service.
INSAT-4B is the 21st Indian Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite to undergo post-mission disposal, the required propellant for such re-orbiting was included in the initial fuel budget as a part of standard practice followed in ISRO's GEO mission planning.
INSAT-4B was launched in March 2007 for DTH and other communication services.

Lockheed Martin Wins NASA Contract to Bring Mars Samples Back to Earth

Lockheed Martin's space division won a NASA contract to build the rocket that will return the first Mars rock samples to Earth in the 2030s.
The small, lightweight rocket will be the first to take off from another planet, bringing back rock, sediment and atmospheric samples from the surface of the Red Planet.
NASA's Perseverance Rover has been collecting samples from various Martian areas since landing on Earth's neighbor a year ago.
The goal of the mission is to find traces of ancient life on the Red Planet. But these samples will have to be analyzed in laboratories back on Earth, capable of more sophisticated tests than anything that can be done on Mars.

Feb 08, 2022

NASA will Retire International Space Station in 2031

According to NASA, the International Space Station will continue its operation until 2031 and then crash into an uninhabited area in the Pacific Ocean known as Point Nemo. It will be replaced with three free-flying space stations to continue the work after ISS's retirement. NASA also selected Houston-based Axiom Space to provide the ISS's first commercial module.
The International Space Station was the brainchild of former US President Ronald Reagan, who in 1984 proposed building a permanently inhabited spacecraft in cooperation with a few other countries. In 1998, the first piece of the space station, a control module, was launched into space onboard a Russian rocket. About two weeks later, a crew onboard the US' Endeavour space shuttle attached the control module with another part, the Unity node.

Unnikrishnan Nair Becomes Chief of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre

Distinguished scientist and launch vehicle specialist Dr. S Unnikrishnan Nair took charge as the director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC).
VSSC is a key space research centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and specialises in rocket and space vehicles for satellite programs.
Nair, who started his career in VSSC Trivandrum in 1985, has made significant contributions in launch vehicle mechanisms, acoustic protection systems and payload fairing areas during his tenure.
Nair has BTech in Mechanical Engineering from Kerala University, ME in Aerospace engineering from IISc, Bengaluru and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from IIT(M), Chennai.
In January 2019, Nair took over as the first director of Human Space Flight Centre, Bengaluru, which is spearheading the Gaganyaan programme. He will continue to hold this position along with his new role at the VSSC.

Rogue Black Hole Spotted on its Own for the First Time

Astronomers may have for the first time detected and measured the mass of an isolated stellar-mass black hole, a new study finds.
Previous research suggested that when giant stars more than 20 times the mass reach the end of their lives, they usually die in catastrophic explosions known as supernovas, and their dense cores are expected to collapse to become black holes.

Feb 07, 2022

Google Launches New Chromebook Devices for Teachers, Students

Tech giant Google introduced a new line-up of secure and sustainable Chromebook devices, along with updated programmes, resources and Chrome OS advances, built entirely for education.
The company said that Chromebooks play an important role in the classroom, helping 50 million students and teachers learn and collaborate from wherever they are.
On our new Chromebook discovery page, you can easily search for device capabilities like graphic design and lesson planning. You can also find which Chromebooks have features like LTE connectivity, improved video conferencing and camera-based document scanning.

Feb 06, 2022

India Leads in Digital Skills Readiness with 72% Actively Learning New Skills

As per a new report, India leads on digital skills readiness to acquire the key digital skills needed by business today and over the next five year index among 19 countries.
Among 19 countries, India has the Index's highest digital readiness score at 63 out of 100 (average global readiness score was 33 out of 100).
In India, 72 per cent of respondents say they are very actively learning digital skills now to prepare themselves for the future of work, according to the index prepared by leading software company Salesforce.
The Index is based on a survey of over 23,500 workers in 19 countries, with an average global readiness score of 33 out of 100.

Feb 05, 2022

NROL-87 Mission

NROL-87 was launched by SpaceX. Under the mission, the company launched a spy satellite for the US military. The satellite was carried by Falcon rocket. This is the second of the three planned launches under the mission. Much information of the NRO fleet is never leaked out. This is because these satellites are used for military purposes.
It is the first NRO mission that involved rocket landing. Rocket landing is also called vertical landing. It was launched from the Vandenberg Space Force base located in California. The NROL-87 is a US reconnaissance satellite. The Falcon rocket delivered the satellite at 512.7 km orbit. It was placed in a Sun Synchronous Orbit. It is also called helio synchronous orbit. It is a polar orbit. Here the satellite passes through the given point at the same local mean solar time.

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