[MISSION 2022] INSIGHTS CURRENT AFFAIRS ( 21 January 2022 ) REVISION THROUGH MCQS

Ans: (c)

Explanation: About the Vikas engine:

• S1: It is a family of liquid fuelled rocket engines.
• S2: Vikas engine is used to power the second stage of PSLV, boosters and second stage of GSLV Mark I and II and also the core stage of GSLV Mark III. The propellant loading for Vikas engine in PSLV, GSLV Mark I and II is 40 tons, while in GSLV Mark III is 55 tons.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2022/01/21/isro-test-fires-high-thrust-vikas-engine/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• GSLV MkIII, chosen to launch Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft, is a three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle developed by ISRO. The vehicle has two solid strap-ons, a core liquid booster and a cryogenic upper stage.
• GSLV Mk III is designed to carry 4 ton class of satellites into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO)or about 10 tons to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which is about twice the capability of the GSLV Mk II.
• Missions like Gaganyaan and Chandrayaan-3 will be launched on GSLV Mk-III.
• GSLV Mk-III too uses an indigenously-developed cryogenic engine in the upper stage, but, unlike the one in Mk-II, this is not a reverse-engineered Russian engine. Instead, the cryogenic engine used in GSLV Mk-III, called CE20, has been the result of over three decades of research and development, starting from scratch, and uses a different process to burn fuel. It is closer to the designs used in the Arianne rockets that were used by ISRO earlier to send its heavier satellites into space.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2022/01/21/isro-test-fires-high-thrust-vikas-engine/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• India’s Anti-Satellite (ASAT) missile
• Mission Shakti is a joint programme of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
• As part of the mission, an anti-satellite (A-SAT) weapon was launched and targeted an Indian satellite which had been decommissioned.
• The target of the test was a satellite present in a low Earth orbit.
• The test sparked concerns regarding the creation of space debris.
• ASAT missile can be air, sea or land-based
• Significance:
• India is only the 4th country to acquire such a specialised and modern capability, and Entire effort is indigenous. Till now, only the US, Russia and China had the capability to hit a live target inspace.
• India’s successful demonstration of the ASAT capability is said to signify its ability to intercept an intercontinental ballistic missile.
• What is space debris?
• Space junk is an ever-growing problem with more than 7,500 tonnes of redundant hardware now thought to be circling the Earth. Ranging from old rocket bodies and defunct spacecraft through to screws and even flecks of paint – this material poses a collision hazard to operational missions.
• The rising population of space debris increases the potential danger to all space vehicles, but especially to the International Space Station (ISS), space shuttles, satellites and other spacecraft.
• Technologies that can tackle the problem in future are:
  • Nasa’s Space Debris Sensor orbits the Earth on the International Space Station.The sensor was attached to the outside of the space station’s European Columbus module in December 2017. It will detect millimetre- sized pieces of debris for at least two years, providing information on whatever hits it such as size, density, velocity, and orbit and will determine whether the impacting object is from space or a man-made piece of space debris.
  • REMOVE debris,satellite contain two cubesats that will release simulated space debris so that it can then demonstrate several ways of retrieving them.
  • Deorbit mission:Deorbit is a planned European Space Agency active space debris removal mission developed as a part of their Clean Space initiative.
  • Other technologies include moving objects with a powerful laser beam. It is important to start doing that soon, current scientific estimates predict that without active debris removal, certain orbits will become unusable over the coming decades.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2022/01/21/space-debris-3/

Ans: (a)

Explanation:

• Artemis– Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of Moon’s Interaction with the Sun.
• It is NASA’s next mission to the Moon.
• Objective: To measure what happens when the Sun’s radiation hits our rocky moon, where there is no magnetic field to protect it.
• Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the Moon in Greek mythology.
• Mission details:
  • NASA’s powerful new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), will send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft nearly a quarter million miles from Earth to lunar orbit.
  • Astronauts will dock Orion at the Gateway and transfer to a human landing system for expeditions to the surface of the Moon.
  • They will return to the orbital outpost to board Orion again before returning safely to Earth.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2022/01/21/artemis-program-3/

Ans: (b)

Explanation: About IREDA:

• Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA)is a Mini Ratna (Category – I) Government of India Enterprise under the administrative control of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).
• IREDA is a Public Limited Government Company established as a Non-Banking Financial Institution in 1987engaged in promoting, developing and extending financial assistance for setting up projects relating to new and renewable sources of energy and energy efficiency/conservation with the motto: “ENERGY FOR EVER”.

Refer: facts for prelims: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2022/01/21/mission-2022-insights-daily-current-affairs-pib-summary-21-january-2022/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• The Geological Survey of India (GSI), founded in 1851, is a Government of India Ministry of Mines organisation,one of the oldest of such organisations in the world and the second oldest survey in India after Survey of India (founded in 1767), for conducting geological surveys and studies of India, and also as the prime provider of basic earth science information to government, industry and general public, as well as the official participant in steel, coal, metals, cement, power industries and international geoscientific forums.
• The principal function of GSI relate to creation and updation of national geoscientific data and mineral resource assessment, air-borne and marine surveys and conducting multifarious geo-technical, geo-environmental and natural hazards studies, glaciology, seismotectonics, etc. and to nurture studies on fundamental research

Refer: https://www.gsi.gov.in/webcenter/portal/OCBIS

Ans: (c)

Explanation:

• BLACK CARBON
  • Black carbon (BC) is a solid particle or aerosol, (though not a gas) contributes to warming of the atmosphere. Black carbon, commonly known as soot, is a form of particulate air pollutant, produced from incomplete combustion. It consists of pure carbon in several linked forms.
• Source
  • biomass burning, cooking with solid fuels, and diesel exhaust,etc.
• What does BC do?
  • Black carbon warms the Earth by absorbing heat in the atmosphere and by reducing albedo, (the ability to reflect sunlight) when deposited on snow and ice.
  • BC is the strongest absorber of sunlight and heats the air directly. In addition, it darkens snow packs and glaciers through deposition and leads to melting of ice and snow.
  • Regionally, BC disrupts cloudiness and monsoon rainfall and accelerates melting of mountain glaciers such as the Hindu Kush-Himalayan glaciers.
• Life time
  • Black carbon stays in the atmosphere for only several days to weeks.
  • Thus the effects of BC on the atmospheric warming and glacier retreat disappear within months of reducing emissions.

Refer: https://www.ccacoalition.org/en/slcps/black-carbon

Ans: (c)

Explanation: Key Biodiversity Areas

• Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) is an umbrella term commonly used to include areas that contribute to the global persistence of biodiversity, including vital habitat for threatened plant and animal species in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. Globally KBAs are designated based on 11 criteria defined under five broad categories of threatened biodiversity; geographically restricted biodiversity; ecological integrity; biological processes; and, irreplaceability.
• The criteria for designating a site as KBA have been described in the document “The Global Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas (2016)” by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). IUCN identifies 531 KBA sites in India but these have no legal basis

Refer: https://www.keybiodiversityareas.org/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• Superconductivity is a phenomenon in which the resistance of the material to the electric current flow is zero.
• Because of zero resistance, superconducting materials can save huge amounts of energy, and be used to make highly efficient electrical appliances.
• Superconductivity is largely possible at low temperature. Metallic superconductors usually have transition temperatures (temperatures below which they are superconductive) below 30 K (−243.2 °C) and must be cooled using liquid helium in order to achieve superconductivity.

Refer: https://www.britannica.com/science/superconductivity

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

Refer: https://vikaspedia.in/energy/environment/biodiversity-1/fauna-of-india/elephant-reserves-in-india