General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - December 2018

Dec 2018

Jun 13, 2022

Pi Calculated to 100 Trillion Digits by Google Cloud Employee

Tech giant Google's Cloud developer advocate Emma Haruka Iwao beat her own record set three years ago for the number of digits calculated for pi. In 2019, she was able to calculate pi to its 31.4 trillionth digit, and now, using the same Google Cloud y-cruncher programme Iwao was able to find pi to its 100 trillionth digit, which is zero, reports The Verge. After starting the process in October 2021, it took the computers until March 2022 to finish. At 157 days, compared to 121 days spent figuring out a shorter number in 2019, it was going more than twice as fast.
According to Iwao, she was using the same tools and techniques, but the enhanced speed is due to how the parts of Google Cloud have improved since then with 100Gbps networking, balanced Persistent Disks, and other features detailed in this deep dive into the calculations.

PM Opens HQ of IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre) in Ahmedabad

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the headquarters of the Indian National Center for Space Promotion and Authorization (IN-SPACe) in Ahmedabad. The PM was accompanied by Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the event.
The project was approved by the Union Cabinet in June 2020.
IN-SPACe would be the nodal agency, which would allow space activities and non-government private entities to use the Department of Space related facilities. Its aim is to ensure maximum private participation for the space sector.

Jun 12, 2022

NASA to Launch 3 Rockets from Private Australian Space Port

NASA will launch a research rocket from remote northern Australia in the agency's first blast off from a commercial space port outside the United States. Three suborbital sounding rockets will be launched from the Arnhem Space Center on Indigenous-owned land near the mining town of Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory on June 26, July 4 and 12. The launch site was chosen because it is in the Southern Hemisphere and close to the equator.
The 12.2-meter (40-foot), 2,200-kilogram (4,900-pound), Canadian-designed Black Brant IX rockets would focus on the Alpha Centauri A and B star systems. A third mission would study X-rays emanating from the interstellar medium — the clouds of gases and particles in the space between stars.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcomed the first NASA rocket launch in Australia since 1995. The launch site then was a military rocket range near Woomera in South Australia State.

Jun 11, 2022

Cabinet Allows Transfer of 10 In-orbit Communication Satellites from Govt. of India to New Space ...

The Union Cabinet approved the transfer of 10 in-orbit communication satellites from Government of India to M/s. New Space India Limited, NSIL, a wholly owned Public Sector Enterprise of the Centre under the administrative control of the Department of Space. The Cabinet has also approved increasing the authorized share capital of NSIL from one thousand crore rupees to seven thousand 500 crore rupees.
Transfer of these assets to NSIL will further provide the desired financial autonomy to the company to realize capital intensive programmes aor projects and thereby offering huge employment potential and technology spin-off to other sectors of the economy. This approval is expected to trigger domestic economic activity in space sector and increase India's share in the global space market.

Jun 10, 2022

NASA to Study UFOs Despite 'Reputational Risk'

NASA is launching a study of UFOs as part of a new push toward high-risk, high-impact science. The space agency announced that it is setting up an independent team to see how much information is publicly available on the matter and how much more is needed to understand the unexplained sightings. The experts will also consider how best to use all this information in the future. NASA's science mission chief, Thomas Zurbuchen acknowledged the traditional scientific community may see NASA as "kind of selling out" by venturing into the controversial topic, but he strongly disagrees.
NASA considers this a first step in trying to explain mysterious sightings in the sky known as UAPs, or unidentified aerial phenomena. The study will begin this fall and last nine months, costing no more than $100,000. It will be entirely open, with no classified military data used.

Jun 09, 2022

China Releases World's 'most Detailed' Map of Moon

China released a new comprehensive geologic map of the moon, the "most detailed" to date, which is expected to make a vital contribution to scientific research, exploration and landing site selection on the Earth's only natural satellite. Chinese scientists from multiple research institutes and universities have created the high resolution topographic map based on data from China's lunar exploration Chang'e project and other data and research findings from international organisations. The map includes 12,341 impact craters, 81 impact basins, 17 rock types and 14 types of structures, providing abundant information about geology of the moon and its evolution.
The new comprehensive geologic map of the moon is to a scale of 1:2,500,000, the "most detailed to date". Previously, the USGS Astrogeology Science Centre had released a moon map to a scale of 1:5,000,000 in 2020.

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