Hard Facts 05 2017 (May)

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Raj Malhotra’s IAS Study Group NASA’s Juno probe unveils Earth-sized cyclones on Jupiter Jupiter is a complex, turbulent world, with Earth-sized cyclones at its poles and storm systems that travel deep into the heart of the gas giant, according to the first science results obtained from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Juno was launched in 2011, and entered Jupiter’s orbit on July 4 last year. Findings: The findings from the first data-collection pass, which flew within about 4,200 kilometres of Jupiter’s swirling cloud tops on August 27 last year, appear in the journals Science and Geophysical Research Letters. Among the findings that challenge assumptions are images show both of Jupiter’s poles are covered in Earthsized swirling storms that are densely clustered and rubbing together. Researchers also found that Jupiter’s iconic belts and zones are mysterious, with the belt near the equator penetrating all the way down, while the belts and zones at other latitudes seem to evolve to other structures. The data suggest ammonia clouds over the planet are quite variable and continue to increase up to a few hundred miles or kilometres — as far as the Juno’s instruments can observe. Magnetic field: Prior to the Juno mission, it was known that Jupiter had the most intense magnetic field in the solar system. Measurements of the massive planet’s magnetosphere indicate that Jupiter’s magnetic field is even stronger than models expected, and more irregular in shape. The magnetic field greatly exceeded expectations at 7.766 Gauss, about 10 times stronger than the strongest magnetic field found on Earth. The next flyby is scheduled for July 11, when Juno will fly directly over one of the most iconic features in the entire solar system — Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. ISRO braces for heaviest rocket GSLV Mk-III to launch Indians into space An indigenous rocket as heavy as 200 full-grown Asian elephants could well be the one taking "Indians into space from Indian soil" as the country inches closer to joining the big boy's space club. Standing tall on the rocket port at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh is the country's latest rocket called the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk- III), the heaviest rocket ever made by India that is capable of carrying the heaviest satellites till now. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) enters into a bold new world muscling its way to make its mark in the world's heavy weight multi-billion dollar launch market. It is the maiden experimental launch of GSLV-Mk III earlier named Launch Vehicle Mark-3, but if all goes on well in a decade or after a slew of at least half a dozen successful launches, this rocket could be India's vehicle of choice to launch "Indians into space, from Indian soil using Indian rockets". This heavy lift rocket is capable of placing up to 8 tons in a low Earth orbit, enough to carry India's crew module. ISRO has already prepared plans of hoisting a 2-3 member human crew into space as soon as the government gives it a sanction of about 3-4 billion dollars. If the human venture materialises, India would become only the fourth country after Russia, the US and China to have a human space flight program. In the intense pre-monsoon heat, India's rocket port is buzzing with feverish activity as engineers from the Indian space agency get set to launch an all new indigenously-made rocket. It is the heaviest fullyfunctional rocket to reach the launch pad weighing 640 tons or almost 5 times the weight of a fully loaded Jumbo Jet airplane. The new rocket is capable of carrying satellites of four ton class into the geosynchronous orbit and opens a whole new window through which ISRO can now explore the universe. It is estimated that the new rocket costs a whopping Rs 300 crore but the country would end up saving almost as much when 34 | P a g e # 1 1 1 0 , A d j a c e n t Y M C A , S e c t o r 1 1 - C , C h a n d i g a r h P h : 9 8 1 4 7 - 1 1 6 6 1
Raj Malhotra’s IAS Study Group an Indian launcher is used to place New Delhi's communication satellites. Today India uses the French Ariane-5 rocket launched from Kourou in South America to place its heavy 4 ton class of communication satellites. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) failed on its maiden launch in 1993 and since then it has had 38 consecutively successful launches and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk-1 (GSLV Mk-1) failed in 2001 and since then it has 11 launches with half of them successful. Space fairing is a very risky business and all nations the US, France and Japan and even the new private companies have had failures in recent times like the spectacular Falcon-9 rocket in 2016. India already has two operational rockets — the workhorse PSLV that can hoist satellites of 1.5 tons into space and was the preferred vehicle for India's maiden mission to Moon and Mars. The second — the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark II can hoist 2 ton class of satellites and because of its repeated failures it was dubbed 'the naughty boy of ISRO'. Between them, ISRO has done 50 launches and recently even earned a world record by successfully placing 104 satellites in orbit. The new GSLV-Mk III is an all new vehicle designed and developed in India and in 2014 a sub-orbital successful test of this vehicle was conducted to understand how it performs in the atmosphere. The rocket never went into space but helped test India's future astronaut capsule. It had a dummy cryogenic engine and was a single stage vehicle. Even though the GSLV-Mk III is 43-m-tall, making it the shortest of the three big Indian rockets, it carries a huge punch as it weighs almost 1.5 times heavier than India's next biggest rocket the GSLV Mk-2 and almost twice as heavy as India's PSLV. This monster rocket has an elegant design and is capable of carrying loads equal to the weight of two sports utility vehicles or SUVs into space. The massive first stage along with strap-on boosters weighs 610 tons and comprises multiple engines all firing nearly simultaneously. It is the second stage which is all together a new animal for this mammoth rocket, it is a novel Indian cryogenic engine that weighs about 30 tons. The new cryogenic engine is being tested on a fully functional rocket for the first time and it is the development of this technology that uses liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen as propellant is what took more than 15 years for Indians to master. Zika detected in India: Gujarat Health Minister requests for calm With cases of Zika virus being reported from Ahmedabad, Gujarat government asserted that there was no need to be worried as actions have been taken in accordance to the guidelines of World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Government of India. The ministry clarified that only three Zika cases have been detected in a round of 50, 000 tests, adding that no mosquitoes were detected positive. The state health departments are all following standard protocols on the same. According to the WHO, "One sample from a 64-year-old male presenting with febrile illness of 8 days' duration was found to be positive for Zika virus at BJMC, Ahmedabad. This is the first Zika positive case reported through AFI surveillance at BJMC, Ahmedabad, Gujarat State." Another case was reported by a 34-year-old female, who delivered a clinically well baby, at the BJMC in Ahmedabad on November 9 in 2016 and her sample was referred to the Viral Research & Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL) at the BJMC for dengue testing and thereafter found to be positive for Zika Virus. The sample was re-confirmed as Zika Virus positive by RT-PCR and sequencing at NIV, Pune, as per the reports. The third sample, taken from a 22-year-old pregnant female in her 37th week of pregnancy, has also been tested positive for Zika virus disease. 35 | P a g e # 1 1 1 0 , A d j a c e n t Y M C A , S e c t o r 1 1 - C , C h a n d i g a r h P h : 9 8 1 4 7 - 1 1 6 6 1
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Hard Facts 05 2017 (May)

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