Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

• A-SAT is essentially a missile that can destroy or jam an enemy country's satellite in space.It can also be used to access critical information about troop movements or incoming missiles.

Types

1. Kinetic A-SATs, like ballistic missiles, physically strike an object in order to destroy it.
2. Non-Kinetic A-SATsuse non-physical means to disable or destroy space objects, which include frequency jamming, blinding lasers or cyber-attacks.

• USA first tested the ASAT technology in 1958 which was followed by USSR in 1964.China joined the club in 2007.India is now the 4^th country to acquire such a specialised and modern capability.
• On March 27, 2019 India conducted Mission Shakti, an anti-satellite missile test, from the Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam Island launch complex.This was a technological mission carried out by DRDO. The satellite used in the mission was one of India’s existing satellites operating in lower orbit.
• India used Kinetic Kill, a space technology in which India has developed capability.
• The range of an ASAT is limited and depends on where it is launched from. Satellites above the range of 20,000 kilometres are out of range. The US and Russia have the capabilities of launching an ASAT from the ship, land and space, while India, presently, has used a land installation.

Explanation :

• India’s telecommunication satellite GSAT-30 was successfully launched into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) on 17^th January, 2020 from Kourou launch base, French Guiana by Ariane-5 VA-251.
• GSAT-30 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.
• Weighing 3357 kg, GSAT-30 is to serve as replacement to INSAT-4A spacecraft services with enhanced coverage.
• 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.
• India's high power communication satellite GSAT-30 is aimed at providing high-quality television, telecommunications and broadcasting services.
• In-orbit operational life of GSAT-30 is more than 15 years.

Explanation :

• On 24^th Sptember, 2019, the Mangalyaan mission, which was initially meant to last six months, completed five years of orbiting Mars
• Mangalyaan is India's first endeavour to cross the Earth's orbit successfully.
• It was launched on board of PSLV C25 rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on November 5, 2013 with aim of studying Martian surface and mineral composition as well as scans its atmosphere for methane.
• It had entered Mar’s orbit on September 24, 2014, in its first attempt.
• It made India the first Asian nation and the fourth space agency in the world to reach Mars, after Roscosmos (Russia), NASA (USA) and the European Space Agency.

Explanation :

• The Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA) project seeks to explore the defence mechanism through deflection. It is an ambitious double-spacecraft mission to deflect an asteroid in space.
• AIDA is a joint collaboration between European Space Agency (ESA), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Observatoire de la Côte d´Azur (OCA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA), and the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
• The purpose of this two-spacecraft system is to deflect the orbit of one of the bodies that make up the binary asteroid Didymos, which orbits between Earth and Mars. While one spacecraft will collide with a binary Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA), the other will observe the impact and survey the crash site in order to gather as much data as possible about this method of asteroid defense.

Source: Civil Services Chronicle Online