Deep Ocean Mission - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Deep Ocean Mission.

The Deep Ocean Mission is proposed as multi-ministerial multi-disciplinary programme with emphasis on development of deep sea technology, exploration of deep sea mineral resources and biodiversity, acquisition of a research vessel for exploration, deep sea observations, and capacity building. Ministry of Earth Sciences is the nodal agency for implementing the programme. The major objectives proposed under Deep Ocean Mission are as follows:

i. Development of technologies for deep sea mining, underwater vehicles and underwater robotics;

ii. Development of ocean climate change advisory services;

iii. Technological innovations for exploration and conservation of deepsea biodiversity;

iv. Deep ocean survey and exploration;

v. Proof of concept studies on energy and freshwater from the ocean; and

vi. Establishing advanced marine station for ocean biology

The Deep Ocean Mission is proposed to be a Central Sector Scheme and no separate allocation for States is envisaged. The funds are expected to be allocated based on the above estimates.

It is proposed to collaborate with non-governmental organizations for research collaboration for various components of Deep Ocean Mission.

Under Deep Ocean Mission, it is proposed to develop, test and demonstrate the mining technology for harvesting of polymetallic nodules from the Test Mine Site (TMS) in the allocated area of 75000 sq. km in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB). A manned submersible for 6000 m depth is also proposed to be developed as an ocean exploratory tool. (Source: pib)

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Deep Ocean Mission.

Isro says India's second Mars mission Mangalyaan-2 will be an orbiter mission - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Isro says India's second Mars mission Mangalyaan-2 will be an orbiter mission.

On a day when Nasa's rover Perseverance landed on Mar to look for signs of past life on the Red Planet, chief of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) K Sivan said India would also send a second Mars mission and this mission is likely to be an orbiter.

However it is not yet known when this mission, named Mangalyaan-2, will be ready.

As per a report by news agency PTI, Sivan said Mangalyaan-2 will be undertaken only after the launch of Chandrayaan-3, India's upcoming Moon mission.

In Chandrayaan-3, Isro would be aiming to land a rover on the Lunar surface. This mission has been delayed due to the coronavirus-induced pandemic. It is expected that that the mission will lift off in 2022.

Speaking about the Mar's mission to PTI, Sivan said landing there is "more tough".

After its first Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was successful, Isro called for 'Announcement of Opportunities' on MOM-2.

Sivan said Mangalyaan-1, India's first Mars mission, is "still working good" and sending data.

"It is now planned to have the next orbiter mission around Mars for a future launch opportunity," according to the Announcement of Opportunities.

Sivan said the space agency had asked the scientific community for suggestions on possible experiments and it is in the process of receiving these. "Once we get these suggestions, we will prepare a project report and have discussion in (an expert) committee. Then we will go to Space Commission," Sivan was quoted as saying by PTI.

Speaking about Mangalyaan-2, he said it will only be an orbiter mission.

Mangalyaan-1 was launched in November 2013 and entered the Martian orbit in September 2014.

It was designed to work for six months but now the mission is in its seventh year.

Mangalyaan-1 or Mars Orbiter Mission was India's first Endeavour to successfully reach another planet.

The launch vehicle, spacecraft and ground segment cost Rs 450 crore, one of the cheapest missions to Mars so far.

The Mars orbiter has sent thousands of pictures to talling more than two terabytes. ISRO has other major projects lined up. After the Mars Orbiter Mission's success, it also decided to explore Venus.(Source:defencenews.in)

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Isro says India's second Mars mission Mangalyaan-2 will be an orbiter mission.

Cabinet approves National Technical Textiles Mission - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Cabinet approves National Technical Textiles Mission.

The ₹1,480-crore Mission, to be implemented from 2020-2021 to 2023-2024, aims at positioning India as a global leader in technical textiles

The government on Wednesday approved setting up of a National Technical Textiles Mission with a total outlay of ₹1,480 crore with a view to position the country as a global leader in technical textiles.
The Mission will have a four year implementation period from financial year 2020-21 to 2023-24.
The decision was taken at a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.
“The Mission will aim at average growth rate of 15-20% per annum taking the level of domestic market size to $40-50 billion by the year 2024 through market development, market promotion, international technical collaborations, investment promotions and ‘Make in India’ initiatives,” an official statement said.
It envisages export promotion of technical textiles, enhancing it from the current annual value of approximately ₹14,000 crore to ₹20,000 crore by 2021-22, and ensuring 10% average growth in exports per year up to 2023-24.

An Export Promotion Council for Technical Textiles will be set up for effective coordination and promotion activities in the segment.
Addressing a press conference on Cabinet decisions, Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani said arrangements have been made under the Mission for skill development of 50,000 people in the field of technical textiles.
“We have mandated use of technical textiles in 9 ministries and 92 products and our hope is that with convergence of efforts with the technology group we will see a new future for especially MSME and technologists in the field of technical textiles, thereby making India self sufficient specially in strategic fields like defence and aerospace,” the minister said.
She observed that the target is to nullify the burden of technical textiles segment on India’s trade deficit in the next one year.
The minister informed that she had requested the technology group established in the previous Cabinet meeting to work in tandem with the National Technical Textiles Mission.
She said the industry has on several occasions in the past raised demands for a technical textiles mission.
The Mission will have four components including research, innovation and development with outlay of ₹1,000 crore; promotion and market development; export promotion; education, training and skill development.
Besides, the Mission will promote technical education at higher engineering and technology levels related to technical textiles and its application areas covering engineering, medical, agriculture, aquaculture and dairy segments.
Skill development will be promoted and adequate pool of highly skilled manpower resources will be created for meeting the need of relatively sophisticated technical textiles manufacturing units, the statement said.
Technical textiles are futuristic and niche segment of textiles, which are used for various applications ranging from agriculture, roads, railway tracks, sportswear, health on one end to bullet proof jacket, fire proof jackets, high altitude combat gear and space applications on the other end of spectrum.
In India, the segment is estimated at $16 billion (about ₹1.14 lakh crore) which is approximately 6% of the $250 billion (about ₹17.75 lakh crore) global technical textiles market.
The penetration level of technical textiles is low in India, varying between 5-10% against the level of 30-70% in developed countries.
The Mission will focus on usage of technical textiles in various flagship missions, programmes of the country including strategic sectors.
The use of technical textiles in agriculture, aquaculture, dairy, poultry, JalJivan Mission, Swachch Bharat Mission, Ayushman Bharat will bring an overall improvement in cost economy, water and soil conservation, better agricultural productivity and higher income to farmers per acre of land holding in addition to promotion of manufacturing and exports activities in India, it said.
The research output will be reposited with a ‘Trust’ with the government for easy and assessable proliferation of knowledge gained through research innovation and development activities.
Mission Directorate in the Ministry of Textiles headed by an eminent expert in the related field will be made operational. The Mission Directorate will not have any permanent employment and there will be no creation of building infrastructure for the Mission purpose.
The Mission will move into sunset phase after four years period, the statement added. (Source: The Hindu)


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Cabinet approves National Technical Textiles Mission.

ISRO, DRDO sign MoUs for Gaganyaan mission - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

ISRO, DRDO sign MoUs for Gaganyaan mission.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday inked MoUs with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for development of human-centric systems for the Gaganyaan project, the Defence Ministry said.

Some of the critical technologies to be provided by the DRDO to ISRO include space food, space crew health monitoring and emergency survival kit, radiation measurement and protection, parachutes for the safe recovery of the crew module, the ministry said in a statement.

A delegation of ISRO scientists, led by Director of Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) Dr S Unnikrishnan Nair, signed a set of MoUs with various DRDO labs here to provide technologies for human-centric systems and technologies specific to the Human Space Mission, it said.
The MoUs were signed by directors of the Aerial Delivery Research & Development Establishment (ADRDE), Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL), Defence Bio-Engineering & Electro Medical Laboratory (DEBEL), Defence Laboratory (DL) Jodhpur, Centre for Fire, Explosive & Environment Safety (CFEES), Defence Institute of Physiology & Allied Sciences (DIPAS) and Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Allied Sciences (INMAS) in the presence of DRDO Chairman Dr G Satheesh Reddy and Scientist & Director General (Life Sciences), Dr A K Singh.
Speaking on the occasion, Satheesh Reddy said the technological capabilities existing in DRDO laboratories for defence applications will be customised to meet the requirements of the human space mission of ISRO.
Singh said the DRDO is committed to providing all necessary support to ISRO for the human space flight and customisation of the required technologies has already been initiated to meet the stringent timelines.
ISRO aims to demonstrate human spaceflight capability before the 75th anniversary of India’s independence in 2022.


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ISRO, DRDO sign MoUs for Gaganyaan mission.

Govt launches mission to fight air pollution - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Govt launches mission to fight air pollution.

Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said besides reducing air pollution concentration, pollution monitoring networks will be enhanced and activities will be put in place to improve awareness

The Centre on Thursday stepped up its efforts to combat air pollution by launching a five-year action plan with a tentative target of 20-30% reduction in concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 by 2024, with 2017 as the base year.
The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was launched by Union minister for environment, forests and climate change, Harsh Vardhan with an initial budget of ₹300 crore for the first two years.
“So far we had only been looking at National Capital Region (NCR) to mitigate air pollution, but now we have attempted to reach out to different parts of the country. It is a comprehensive plan that is specific to each city,” said secretary, ministry of environment, C.K. Mishra.
The plan includes 102 non-attainment cities, across 23 states and Union territories, which were identified by Central Pollution Control Board(CPCB) on the basis of their ambient air quality data between 2011 and 2015.
Non-attainment cities are those which have been consistently showing poorer air quality than the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. These include Delhi, Varanasi, Bhopal, Kolkata, Noida, Muzaffarpur, and Mumbai.
As part of the programme, the Centre also plans to scale up the air quality monitoring network across India. At least 4,000 monitors are needed across the country, instead of the existing 101 real-time air quality (AQ) monitors, according to an analysis.
The government also proposes to conduct studies across 102 non-attainment cities to ascertain pollution sources and extent of their contribution.
The apex committee in the ministry will periodically review the progress of these components on the basis of appropriate indicators, which will be evolved. However, it is not binding on the state governments as it is not a legal document, Mishra said.
“It is a scheme that we are implementing for the ministries to take mitigation measures. Each city will develop its own action plan for implementation based on sources of pollution. As far as activities related to the Air Act and Water Act are concerned, the CPCB already has provisions and teams to monitor action,” he said.
The plan proposes a three-tier system, including real-time physical data collection, data archiving, and an action trigger system in all 102 cities, besides extensive plantation plans, research on clean-technologies, landscaping of major arterial roads, and stringent industrial standards.
It also proposes state-level plans of e-mobility in the two-wheeler sector, rapid augmentation of charging infrastructure, stringent implementation of BS-VI norms, boosting public transportation system, and adoption of third-party audits for polluting industries.
The government’s zeal to combat air pollution seems to have reduced compared to its earlier stand of reducing pollution levels by 50% in the next five years, said Sunil Dahiya, clean air campaigner, Greenpeace India. “Also, it was important that the document was made legally binding. Millions of lives are at risk because of this crisis. We hope the government shows enough seriousness to fight the public health crisis,” he said. (Source:Livemint)


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Govt launches mission to fight air pollution.

India's first Manned Space Mission to send 3 persons - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

India's first Manned Space Mission to send 3 persons.

India's first manned space flight - Gaganyaan - is expected to send three persons into the space for seven days and the spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km.

Giving details of the programme at a press conference in New Delhi, Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space, Jitendra Singh said GSLV Mk III, the three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle, will be used to launch Gaganyaan as it has the necessary payload capability.
He said two unmanned Gaganyaan missions will be undertaken prior to sending humans.
"The total programme is expected to be completed before 2022 with the first unmanned flight within 30 months. The mission will aim to send a three-person crew to space for a period of seven days. The spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km. The programme is expected to cost less than Rs 10,000 crore," Singh said.
The Gaganyaan mission was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day address. He had said that by 2022 or even before that, some of the young boys and girls will unfurl the Tricolour in space.
Sing said the complex programme will truly be a national endeavour with the participation of ISRO, academia, industry as well as other government and private agencies as stake holders.
"The mission will make India the fourth nation in the world to launch a Human Spaceflight Mission," Singh said.
To accelerate the programme, ISRO may consider seeking collaborations with space agencies from friendly countries and advanced space programmes, he said.(Source:defensenews.in)


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India's first Manned Space Mission to send 3 persons.

Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog & MyGov launches “Innovate India Platform” - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog & MyGov launches “Innovate India Platform” .

Shri. R Ramanan, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission and Shri.Arvind Gupta CEO, MyGov today launched the “#InnovateIndia Platform”, a collaboration between the Atal Innovation Mission and MyGov, a citizen centric platform of the Government of India. The #InnovateIndia portal will serve as the common point for all the innovation happening across the nation.

Launching the platform, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission said that the #InnovateIndia MyGov-AIM portal creates the much-needed innovations platform for registering both grassroots and deep-tech innovators at a national level. Those searching for a critical innovation can leverage the portal advantageously for the benefit of the economy as well as national social needs.”
Some of the features of this platform are:
1. The platform is open to all Indian citizens.
2. The users can View, comment, share, and rate the innovations crowd sourced on the InnovateIndia platform.
3. View the leaderboard which is calculated based on the votes on each innovation.
4. Citizens can share their/organizations/someone else’s innovation on the platform by login to the MyGov website.
5. These innovations can also be shared on various social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter.
“India has been a very innovation-orientedsociety, but our challenge has been a structured approach to innovation, capturing them and building an ecosystem to take them global. The current government initiative to capture and support innovation from ground up, is aimed at creating a structured ecosystem to encourage, enhance and develop India’s innovative character”, said Shri Arvind Gupta, CEO MyGov.
With the launch of the platform Indians will be able to upload and rate their/organizations innovation on the platform.


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Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog & MyGov launches “Innovate India Platform”.

ISRO conducts first escape test for India’s manned mision to space - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

ISRO conducts first escape test for India’s manned mision to space.

The crew escape system is an emergency escape measure designed to quickly pull the crew module along with the astronauts to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of a launch abort.

ISRO said the five-hour countdown was smooth. The crew escape system along with the simulated crew module with a mass of 12.6 tonne, lifted off at 7 am at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

In its aim towards a human spaceflight, the Indian space agency ISRO on Thursday carried out the first in a series of tests to qualify a crew escape system. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in a statement said the crew escape system is a critical technology for human spaceflight.
“The crew escape system is an emergency escape measure designed to quickly pull the crew module along with the astronauts to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of a launch abort. The first test (Pad Abort Test) demonstrated the safe recovery of the crew module in case of any exigency at the launch pad,” ISRO said.
According to ISRO, the five-hour countdown was smooth. The crew escape system along with the simulated crew module with a mass of 12.6 tonne, lifted off at 7 am at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
The test was over in 259 seconds, during which the crew escape system along with crew module soared skyward, then arced out over the Bay of Bengal and floated back to earth under its parachutes about 2.9 km from Sriharikota.
The crew module reached an altitude of nearly 2.7 km under the power of its seven specifically designed quick acting solid motors to take away the crew module to a safe distance without exceeding the safe G-levels.
Nearly 300 sensors recorded various mission performance parameters during the test flight. Three recovery boats are being exercised to retrieve the module as part of the recovery protocol. (Source: The Hindustan Times)


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ISRO conducts first escape test for India’s manned mision to space.

NASA sending first-ever mission to study Mars' deep interior - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

NASA sending first-ever mission to study Mars' deep interior.

In a bid to study the deep interior of the Red Planet and find traces of how it was formed, NASA is all set to send a first-ever such mission to Mars.

Scheduled to launch on May 5, NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) -- a stationary lander -- will be dedicated to explore Mars' deep interior.
It also will be the first NASA mission since the Apollo moon landings to place a seismometer, a device that measures quakes, on the soil of another planet, the US space agency said in a statement on Friday.
Bruce Banerdt is the principal investigator for InSight at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
"In some ways, InSight is like a scientific time machine that will bring back information about the earliest stages of Mars' formation 4.5 billion years ago," Banerdt said.
"It will help us learn how rocky bodies form, including Earth, its moon, and even planets in other solar systems," he added.
InSight carries a suite of sensitive instruments to gather data and, unlike a rover mission, these instruments require a stationary lander from which they can carefully be placed on and below the Martian surface.
Looking deep into Mars will let scientists understand how different its crust, mantle and core are from Earth.
Several European partners have contributed instruments and key components to the InSight mission.
France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales led a multinational team that built an ultra-sensitive seismometer for detecting marsquakes.
The German Aerospace Centre (DLR) developed a thermal probe that can bury itself up to 16 feet underground and measure heat flowing from inside the planet.
"InSight is a truly international space mission," said Tom Hoffman, project manager at JPL.
"Our partners have delivered incredibly capable instruments that will make it possible to gather unique science after we land," he added.
InSight currently is at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California undergoing final preparation before launch.
In April, the spacecraft will be mounted to its rocket, connections between them will be checked and the launch team will go through a final training.
"This next month will be exciting," Banerdt said. "We've got some final work to do, but we're almost ready to go to Mars." (Source: The Business Standard)


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NASA sending first-ever mission to study Mars' deep interior.

Chandrayaan-2 mission: Rover to spend 14 days on moon's surface, says Isro chief - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

Chandrayaan-2 mission: Rover to spend 14 days on moon's surface, says Isro chief.

HIGHLIGHTS
• Isro is leaving no stone unturned to make the Chandrayaan-2 (lunar-2) mission a success.
• This time, heavy-payload lifter GSLV Mk II will launch the spacecraft weighing 3,290kg as the module will carry an orbiter, a rover and a lander to the moon.
• Isro chairman said the rover will then send data and images of the lunar surface back to the Earth through the orbiter within 15
Gearing up for its most challenging space mission, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is leaving no stone unturned to make the Chandrayaan-2 (lunar-2) mission a success. Unlike the first lunar mission when a PSLV rocket carried the spacecraft to the moon's orbit, this time heavy-payload lifter GSLV Mk II will launch the spacecraft weighing 3,290kg as the module will carry an orbiter, a rover and a lander to the moon.
Giving exclusive details about the mission, Isro chairman Dr K Sivan told TOI, "Chandraayan-2 is a challenging mission as for the first time we will carry an orbiter, a lander and a rover to the moon. The launch date schedule is sometime in April. Once the GSLV rocket carrying the spacecraft is launched from Sriharikota, the orbiter will reach the moon's orbit in one to two months. (The moon's orbit is 3,82,000km away from the earth's surface)."
Dr Sivan said, "After reaching the moon's orbit, the lander will get detached from the orbiter and do a soft-landing near the south pole of the moon. The 6-wheeled rover fixed within the lander will get detached and move on the lunar surface. The rover has been designed in such a way that it will have power to spend a lunar day or 14 Earth days on the moon's surface and walk up to 150-200 metres. It will do several experiments and on-site chemical analysis of the surface."
The Isro chairman said, "The rover will then send data and images of the lunar surface back to the Earth through the orbiter within 15 minutes.
After spending 14 earth days, the rover will go in a sleep mode. We are hoping the rover will again come alive whenever that part of the moon (where the rover will land) gets sunlight and recharges the rover's solar cells. Besides the rover, the orbiter will also capture images of the moon while orbiting it."
On testing of lunar components, Dr Sivan said, "All three components of the lunar module are almost ready. Currently, their integration is going on. Once the module is ready, it will have to go through rigorous tests." On fixing launch date, he said, "The launch date will depend on various factors like the moon's relative position with respect to the Earth.
Once the GSLV is launched, it will put the spacecraft in the 170 km x 20,000 km elliptical orbit. From the elliptical orbit, the craft will be manoeuvred towards the lunar orbit by firing thrusters. Therefore, we expect it to reach the lunar orbit in two months.” (Source: The Times of India).


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Chandrayaan-2 mission: Rover to spend 14 days on moon's surface, says Isro chief