General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - October 2018

Oct 2018

Jan 18, 2020

SpaceX to Practise Emergency Crew Capsule Escape

America aims to take another step towards being able to send its own astronauts into orbit again.
California's SpaceX company will practise what to do in the event that one of its rockets carrying a human crew fails shortly after lift-off.
If the test is completed successfully, it should clear the way for regular astronaut launches later this year.
The US has not launched from its own soil since the retirement of the space shuttles nine years ago.
It has been riding the Russian Soyuz system instead.
The US space agency (Nasa) has contracted both SpaceX and the aerospace giant Boeing to come up with home-grown alternatives.
SpaceX - with its Falcon rocket and Dragon capsule - is now in the final stages of development.
The in-flight abort manoeuvre is really the last major obstacle the firm faces before receiving the full certification it needs to begin operational astronaut taxi services.

Jan 17, 2020

GSAT-30 Communication Satellite Launched Aboard Ariane Rocket

India's high power communication satellite GSAT-30, aimed at providing high-quality television, telecommunications and broadcasting services, was successfully launched onboard Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana.
The 3,357-kg satellite, which was deployed from the lower passenger position of Ariane-5 launch vehicle (VA 251) into to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), is configured on ISRO's enhanced I-3K Bus structure to provide communication services from Geostationary orbit in C and Ku bands.
The satellite derives its heritage from ISRO's earlier INSAT/GSAT satellite series, and is equipped with 12 C and 12 Ku band transponders.
As per ISRO, GSAT-30 is to serve as replacement to the aging INSAT-4A spacecraft services with enhanced coverage, adding the satellite provides Indian mainland and islands coverage in Ku-band and extended coverage in C-band covering Gulf countries, a large number of Asian countries and Australia.
GSAT-30 has a life span of 15 years.

Jan 16, 2020

Fifth Science Film festival kick-starts in Goa

The fifth edition of Science Film Festival of India, SCI-FFI 2020, was kick-started in Goa's capital city Panaji.
The four-day-long festival was inaugurated by Chief Minister, Dr. Paramod Sawant.
The festival that will take place at the Inox Complex and Maquinez Palace in Goa, aims at instilling the knowledge of science among the youth with the help of exhibitions, masterclasses, workshops, and other activities.
Besides, Goa Government and Government of India, the event is being supported by Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute and National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAR).

Jan 15, 2020

GSAT 30 To Be Launched On January 17

GSAT-30: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch 'GSAT-30' from French Guiana on January 17, 2020. The launch of the communication satellite will be ISRO's first satellite launch of the year 2020.
GSAT-30 communication satellite will be launched aboard Ariane 5 launch vehicle (VA 251) from French Guiana at 2:35 am IST on January 17. The satellite with an approximate weight of 3357 kg will have a mission life of more than 15 years.
GSAT 30 will serve as a replacement to INSAT-4A spacecraft services with enhanced coverage. The satellite will be launched along with the European Space Company's telecommunication satellite- Eutelsat Konnect.

Jan 14, 2020

New NASA Discovery Is One Special World

When scientists search for alien planets, they get a special thrill when they find one that seems to reflect our own world back to us.
TOI 700 d is the newest member of that elite club. The planet was discovered courtesy of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, as one of three worlds in a distant solar system. Unlike its neighbors — and the vast majority of planets scientists have identified so far — it seems to be about the same size as Earth and to orbit its star at a distance that would allow water to remain liquid on its surface. The discovery was announced here on Jan. 6 at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
As an Earth-size planet in its star's habitable zone, TOI 700 d is a big deal for scientists.

This Ancient Stardust Is The Oldest Ever To Be Examined In a Lab

Ancient stardust extracted from a meteorite contains specks that are up to about 3 billion years older than the solar system, making them the oldest solids ever dated in a lab.
Unlike most of the other stardust that went into building our solar system, these microscopic grains have remained intact since they were shed by aging stars billions of years ago. The exotic makeup of the silicon carbide grains, from a meteorite that landed in Australia more than 50 years ago, tipped scientists off that the minerals were older than the solar system (SN: 11/22/19).
Measuring levels of neon-21 in dozens of grains revealed how much older. Neon-21 is a form of the chemical element that builds up when silicon carbide is bombarded with high-energy particles called galactic cosmic rays in interstellar space. The higher a grain's neon-21 concentration, the longer it must have drifted in space before being embedded in a hunk of space rock during the solar system's formation 4.6 billion years ago.

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