Syllabus- Space program in India and its applications with special reference to industrial, agricultural and other rural development activities, INSAT, IRS systems, EDUSAT and Chandrayaan-1 and future programme.
Number of questions- Mains: 02, Prelims – 10
Mains Questions of the day-
1.Why ISRO’s GAGAN satellite navigation programme is a landmark in Indian aviation?
Introduction:
Write briefly about GAGAN Satellite navigation
Body:
Mention the reasons why GAGAN satellite navigation programme is a landmark in Indian Aviation sector.
Conclusion:
GAGAN will provide global recognisation to India’s capabilities and also improve the operational efficiency in aviation sector and it has many more applications in other sectors as well.
With ISRO’s GAGAN (GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation), India has become the first country in the Asia-Pacific to successfully develop such a system for aviation use.
GAGAN and its work:
- GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) is a step by the Indian Government towards Satellite-based Navigation Services in India.
- It is a system to improve the accuracy of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver by providing reference signals.
- GAGAN is a system of satellites and ground stations that provide GPS signal corrections, giving you better position accuracy.
- It is the first such system developed for India and neighboring countries in the equatorial region.
- GAGAN works by augmenting and relaying data from GPS satellites with the help of two augmentation satellites and 15 earth-based reference stations.
- The system utilises the satellite-based wide area augmentation system (SBAS) technology.
- The Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have collaborated to develop the GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) as a regional Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS).
- The GAGAN’s goal is to provide a navigation system to assist aircraft in accurate landing over the Indian airspace and in the adjoining area and applicable to safety-to-life civil operations.
- GAGAN is inter-operable with other international SBAS systems.
- GAGAN is the first Satellite-Based Augmentation System in the world which has been certified for approach with vertical guidance operating in the equatorial ionospheric region.
- GAGAN covers the area from Africa to Australia and has expansion capability for seamless navigation services across the region.
- GAGAN provides accuracy, availability, and integrity essential for each phase of flight, enroute the approach for airports within the GAGAN service volume.
- This makes airline operations more efficient and effective, increase air safety, and fuel efficiency.
- GAGAN is designed to provide accuracy and integrity necessary to enable reliance on GPS for all phases of flight from enroute through approach, for all qualified airports within the covered Zone.
- It will also provide increased accuracy in position reporting of aircraft, allowing for more uniform and high-quality air traffic management
- It will enable aircraft to land even at smaller and regional airport not equipped with expensive ground based landing systems.
- Further, with vertical guidance at runways, a significant cost will be saved due to withdrawal of ground aids and reduced workload of airline crew and traffic controllers.
- One essential component of the GAGAN project is the study of the ionospheric behaviour over the Indian region.
- GAGAN ionospheric algorithm was developed by ISRO. This makes India the third country in the world which has such precision approach capabilities. Other than GAGAN, there are only three space based augmentation systems in the world:
- US(WASS)
- Europe(EGNOS) and
- Japan(MSAS)
- Though primarily meant for aviation, GAGAN will provide benefits to many other user segments such as intelligent, transportation, maritime, highways, railways, surveying, geodesy, security agencies, telecom industry, personal users of position location application etc.
Significance of GAGAN
- Smaller airports will benefit: Once fully rolled out, it will make several smaller airports such as those in the North-East capable of having compliant aircraft land in low-visibility scenarios.
- Handle the Poor weather and low visibility conditions: This new technology provides a substantial operational benefit in poor weather and low visibility conditions.
- Increase the more Operational Safety: Aircraft can derive maximum benefit in terms of improved safety during landing, reduction in fuel consumption, reduction in delays, diversions and cancellations etc.
- Tool to alert before natural disaster: AAI in coordination with Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) has implemented GAGAN Message Service (GMS) through which alert messages to fishermen, farmers, and disaster affected people will be sent on the occurrence of natural disasters, calamities, such as flood, earthquake etc.
- Non-aviation field: The additional capabilities of GAGAN are also being explored to utilise it in
non-aviation fields such as:
- Ship navigation e.g. fishermen
- Safeguard women & Children in distress
- Railway Anti-collision, unmanned level crossings
- Farmers
- Power grids and Banks
- River flow e.g. Brahmaputra can be tracked and alert people against flood
- Digital India, Smart cities & AMRUT
An IndiGo plane flew while landing at Rajsthan’s airport, was the first time a landing was affected using an indigenously developed Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) that provides three-dimensional navigation guidance to aircraft. The successful trial of IndiGo plane puts India in a niche global league
2.How ISRO intends to revolutionise India’s healthcare?
Introduction:
Write briefly about India’s health sector
Body:
Mention the potential applications of ISRO programs in India’s health sector
Conclusion:
India’s space programme has potential to significantly improve health care through tele-medicine and gene therapy which will go a long way in providing affordable treatment to large section of people.
Content:
- India’s space programme has potential to significantly improve health care.
- The satellite technology can be used extensively to enhance the health care sector in a big way.
- The human space flight program has led to several applications of space technology in the health care sector such as artificial heart, kidney dialysis, invisible braces, sun glasses as well as other bio-medical instruments.
- The tele-medicine could be a potential tool for improving the health care facilities across the country, it will cut the cost of medical treatment and at the same time ensure quality services, particularly to people in rural areas.
- ISRO has provided connectivity to rural hospitals with the super specialty hospitals in the country.
- The use of various satellite-related innovations in health sector, space imaging techniques can be helpful for early detection of cancer, cardiovascular disease and heart surgery.
- Monitoring of astronaut’s heart in space can be of great help to similar needs on the ground.
- ISRO’s programs will provide the quality, affordable health care to all sections of our society by cutting down the cost of technology, available to poor people.
- Some futuristic developments involving the ‘bio-capsules’ to reduce the effect of high radiation levels, treating diabetes and brain cancer as well as their use in gene therapy.
- India’s Space Programme is unique for its orientation to socio-economic objectives which is useful for many developing countries.
- QUEST (Quality Upgradation Enabled through Space Technology) of ISRO will help 11 hospitals across the country in improving their safety, quality, and reliability.
- With the Health-QUEST, ISRO will show healthcare professionals on how the space agency handles the interaction of man, machine, and environment in its potential human spaceflight programs.
- The technology involved in ISRO’s Health-QUEST is a kind of spin-off of space programs technology.
- It has helped develop cost-effective artificial limbs, left ventricular assist, artificial jaws, and ventilators, among other things.
- Both manned and unmanned spaceflights of ISRO undergo extreme temperature changes.
- Another application of spin-off of ISRO technology in the health sector which has proved in defence as well such as flame proof coatings of equipment, search and rescue beacons, and aerogel thermal wear for soldiers for sustaining extreme temperatures.
- It had started developing the QUEST program at the request and interest of healthcare professionals in the country who were interested in learning how the space agency handles safety, quality, and reliability for the interaction of man, machine, and environment in its potential human spaceflight programs.
- ISRO’s technology spin-off in handling the interaction of its man, machine, and surrounding environmental conditions has the potential to be useful for the healthcare sector of India. With inputs from ISRO, it has already helped in developing cheaper artificial limbs, left ventricular assist, artificial jaws, and ventilators, among other things.
Prelims questions of the day:
1. Which of the following statements is correct with reference to Medium Earth Orbit?
- After Low Earth Orbit it has highest number of satellites
- It requires few numbers of satellites for whole coverage of earth
- It required relatively long time to deploy a full constellation of Satellites
- It is at an altitude above 12000 km above the Earth’s surface
Answer: C
Explanation:
- MEO satellite can be positioned somewhere between LEO and GEO, at an altitude of around 5000-12000 km above the Earth’s surface with inclination towards equator plane
- So far, there have not been many satellites in this orbit.
Disadvantages of MEO:
- It requires large number of satellites for whole coverage.
- Required relatively long time to deploy a full constellation.
2. Which of the following statements about Sun synchronous orbit is/are correct?
- Generally, Sun synchronous orbits are high orbits
- Satellites in this orbit trails the Earth shadow
- Aditya-L1 mission satellite is placed in sun synchronous orbit
- The sun never appears on it
Answer: B
Explanation:
- Generally, sun-synchronous orbits are medium or low orbit.
- This orbit also called as ‘dawn-to-dusk orbit’ because satellite trails the Earth’s shadow.
- The shadow is cast on the opposite side rather than on the side where the Sun shines.
- Since the satellite never moves in this shadow, the sun appears to shine always on it.
- Aditya-L1 mission is placed in Halo orbit not in sun synchronous orbit.
3. Which of the following statements about Unnati Programme by ISRO is correct?
- It is a capacity building Programme on nano-satellite development.
- To perform more research on earth and other planets
- To provide technical and financial support to Space technology startups
- To improve lander spacecraft technology for detailed probe on other planets.
Answer: A
Explanation:
- National space agency, the Indian space research Organisation (ISRO) has launched Unnati (Unispace Nano-satellite Assembly and training by ISRO) programme at the U R Rao Satellite Centre, Benguluru.
- Unnati is a capacity building programme on nano-satellite development.
4.Which of the following statement is correct regarding Chandrayaan-II mission?
- It consisted of Pragyan lander developed in Russia
- It consisted of lunar rover named Vikram.
- It aims to explore the moon’s South Polar Region
- The mission focused on the studying variations in its composition and tracing the Mars origin and evolution
Answer: C
Explanation:
- Chandrayaan 2 Mission was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space on July 22, 2019 by GSLV Mk-III.
- The Chandrayaan-2 mission consisted of three main modules
- lunar orbiter
- Vikram lander (named after Vikram Sarabhai, the late father of India’s space
- Program).
- lunar rover named Pragyan
All of the above parts were developed in India.
- The mission targeted the “South Polar region” of the Moon which was completely unexplored
- The mission focused on the extensive mapping of the lunar surface for studying variations in its composition and tracing the Moon’s origin and evolution.
- Chandrayaan 2 was considered as a challenging mission as the South Polar Region of the Moon was totally unexplored by any space agency before.
5. With reference to James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) which of the following statements is correct?
- JWST is a joint venture between the US (NASA) and European space agency (ESA).
- It has an overarching goal to see the light emitted by the Universe’s very first stars.
- It will orbit earth at low earth orbit
- It is an Ultraviolet Telescope
Answer: B
Explanation:
- The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a joint venture between the US (Nasa), European (ESA) and Canadian space agencies (CSA).
- The James Webb Space Telescope will find the first galaxies that formed in the early universe and peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems.
Goals:
- To search for the first galaxies that formed after the Big Bang.
- To determine how galaxies evolved from their earlier formation until now.
- To observe the formation of stars from the first stages to the formation of planetary systems.
- The James Webb Space Telescope will not be in orbit around the Earth, like the Hubble Space Telescope it will actually orbit the Sun, 1.5 million km away from the Earth at what is called the second Lagrange point or L2.
- JWST is a powerful Infrared Telescope.
6. Which of the following statements is correct about Hayabusa mission?
- It is an asteroid sample return mission
- It is space to visit Saturn and enter into its orbit
- It is a robotic spacecraft that orbited the planet mercury
- It is a lunar exploration program
Answer: A
Explanation:
Hayabusa was a robotic spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis.
7. Which of the following statements about New Space India Limited council (NSIL) is/are correct?
- Wholly owned Government of India Company
- Under the administrative control of Department of Science and Technology
- It was created to Commercially Exploit the products and services emanating from Indian Space Programme
- Marketing of spin-off technologies and products/services, both in India and abroad
Answer: B
Explanation:
- New Space India Limited (NSIL) is a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) of Government of India and commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
- It was established on 6 March 2019 under the administrative control of Department of Space (DoS) and the Company Act 2013.
- The main objective of NSIL is to scale up industry participation in Indian space programmes.
NSIL was setup with the following objectives:
- Transfer of Small Satellite technology to industry: NSIL will obtain license from
- DoS/ISRO and sub-license the same to industry Manufacture of Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) in collaboration with private sector
- Production of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) through Indian industry
- Production and marketing of Space based products and services, including launch and
- application
- Transfer of technology developed by ISRO Centres and constituent units of DoS
- Marketing of spin-off technologies and products/services, both in India and abroad
8. Which of the following is/are the potential reasons, why satellites and missiles are launched from east coast near equator?
- As they will get an initial boost equal to the velocity of Earth surface.
- In case of failure of the launch, the satellite does not fall on built-up hinterland.
- satellites launched in south ward or north ward direction cannot take advantage of the Earth’s rotation
- All the above
Answer: D
Explanation:
- The surface velocity of rotation varies from point to point on the Earth. It is about 1600 km per hour or about 460 meters in a second near the equator.
- The velocity gradually reduces as we move to the poles and it is practically zero there.
- A satellite launched from the sites near the equator towards the east direction will get an initial boost equal to the velocity of Earth surface.
- The initial boost helps in cutting down the cost of rockets used to launch the satellites.
- satellites which are placed in polar orbits moving across the equator in north south direction and used mainly for mapping or sometimes for spying.
- Such satellites are generally launched in south ward or north ward direction and therefore cannot take advantage of the Earth’s rotation.
- Another characteristic of launching satellites is that the launching stations are generally located near eastern coast line so that, just in case of failure of the launch, the satellite does not fall on built-up hinterland.
9. Which among the following statements about Inert Gases is incorrect?
- They do not react chemically to any great extant
- They can be identified by smell
- Argon and Helium are Inert gases
- Helium hydride and argonium are the two noble gas molecules have found in space
Answer: B
Explanation:
- An inert gas is a gas that does not form chemical reactions with other chemical
substances and therefore does not form chemical compounds.
- Traditionally, the term has been used to describe the seven elements in group 18 of
the periodic table: Helium (He), Neon (Ne), Argon (Ar), Krypton (Kr), Xenon (Xe),
Radon (Rn), Oganesson (Og).
- Physiologically inert gases (those that have no toxic effect, but merely dilute oxygen) are generally free of odour and taste.
- Helium hydride and argonium are the two noble gas molecules astronomers have found in space
10. Which among the following are air breathing engines?
- Ramjet
- Turbojet
- Pulsejet
- All the above
Answer: D
Explanation:
- Air-breathing engines use oxygen from the atmosphere in the combustion of fuel.
- They include the turbojet, turboprop, ramjet, and pulse-jet. The term jet is generally used only in reference to air-breathing engines.