Category Technology

Why is Bennu being studied?

Over 200 million miles away from Earth, a spacecraft called OSIRIS REX studying the asteroid Bennu reached out its robotic arm to carry out a touch and go (TAG) manoeuvre at the site called Nightingale” to collect a sample from the asteroids surface on October 20. The one foot-wide sampling head made contact with Bennu’s surface for approximately 6 seconds, after which the spacecraft performed a back away bum. The sample will be returned to Earth in 2023.

What’s OSIRIS-REX mission all about?

NASA launched the sample-return mission OSIRIS REX (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification Security. Regolith Explorer) to the near Earth asteroid Bennu (officially 101955 Bennu) in 2016, OSIRIS-REX reached the proximity of Bennu in December 2018. It spent the next several months collecting and sending back data and images to help the NASA team on Earth learn more about the asteroid’s composition. In August 2019, NASA selected four candidate sample sites, namely Nightingale, Kingfisher, Osprey, and Sandpiper. In December 2019, Nightingale was confirmed to be the spot to carry out the mission’s primary goal of collecting sample from the asteroid’s surface.

What are the other objectives of the mission?

1) Mapping the asteroid

2) Documenting the sample site

 3) Measuring the orbit deviation caused by non-gravitational forces and

4) Comparing observations at the asteroid to ground-based observations.

What do we know about Bennu?

  • Bennu is a near-Earth asteroid, discovered in 1999.
  • It is as tall as the Empire State Building and located at a distance of about 200 million miles away from Earth.
  • It is a potentially hazardous object. It has one in 2,700 chances of impacting Earth between 2175 and 2199.
  • It is named after Bennu, an ancient Egyptian mythological bird,
  • Bennu is a “rubble pile” asteroid, which is a grouping of rocks held together by gravity.
  • Bennu completes an orbit around the Sun every 436.604 days and comes very dose to Earth every six years.
  • Bennu contains carbonaceous material which hints at the presence of water sometime in its mysterious past.
  • With the help of OSIRIS-REX, it was found that Bennu was ejecting material from its surface. Some of which fell back down, and some of which seemed to enter stable orbit.

How can the sample from Bennu help us understand the solar system better?

Scientists chose Bennu as the target of the OSIRIS REX mission because of its composition size, and proximity to Earth.

  • Bennu is classified as a B-tube asteroid which means it contains a lot of carbon and minerals. Bennu is a primitive asteroid that has not significantly changed since formation. Scientists have calculated that it might have formed in the first 10 million years of our solar system’s history over 4.5 billion years ago. Because of this, scientists hope to find organic molecules on Bennu like those that may have led to the origin of life on Earth
  • By studying Bennu, we can get a clearer picture about the formation of solar system.
  • Knowledge of Bennu’s physical properties will be critical for developing an asteroid impact avoidance mission in the future.

What next?

When going to press, NASA had not confirmed whether the arm had successfully collected sample from the surface following the touchdown. The goal was to collect at least 60 grams of sample from the surface.

If it has collected the spacecraft will prepare for its departure from Bennu in March 2021 – this is the next time Bennu will be properly aligned with Earth for the most fuel efficient return flight.

If it had failed to collect enough sample at Nightingale, then two more sampling attempts will be made. The next attempt will take place at the backup site called Osprey, which is another relatively boulder-free area inside a crater near Bennu’s equator, on Jan. 12. 2021. Whatever the case may be, the sample will be returned to Earth in 2023,

What are the other asteroid sample return missions?

OSIRIS-REX is the first asteroid sample return mission for NASA. But Japan has launched two such missions. It launched Hayabusa probe in 2003 to collect material from an asteroid called Itokawa. Things didn’t go entirely as planned, but Hayabusa did succeed in getting some tiny Itokawa grains to Earth in 2010

In December 2014, Japan launched Hayabusa 2, which collected sample in February 2019 and is scheduled to retum to Earth in December 2020.

 

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Indian Air Force DRDO Netra AWACS Planes To Look Deep Into Pakistan And China

Netra is an Airbome Early Waming and Control (AEWC) aircraft fitted with indigenously developed electronics and hardware. It is useful for surveillance, tracking, identification and classification of airbome and sea surface targets. It is also useful in detecting incoming ballistic missile threats. It played a key role during the Balakot airstrike, carried out by the IAF in February 2019. It provided surveillance and radar coverage to the five Mirage jets that bombed terror launch pads in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It was designed and developed by scientists of the DRDO, with assistance from the Bengaluru based Centre for Airborne Systems.

China is equipped with better capabilities. As TOI reported earlier, China has over 20 AWACS, including the new KJ-500 ones that can track over 60 aircraft at ranges up to 470km, while Pakistan, on the other hand has four Swedish Saab-2000 AeW&C aircraft and four Chinese-origin ZDK-03 (KJ-200) AWACS.

Keeping this in mind, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), in March 2016 cleared building of two Awacs, which will involve mounting indigenous 360-degree coverage AESA (active electronically scanned array) radars on Airbus A-330 wide-body jets.

 

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Which country has ASAT missile?

India launched its first anti-satellite weapon (ASAT), as part of its Indian Ballistic Missile Defence Programme, in 2019. The interceptor successfully shot down an out-of service Indian satellite in a low Earth orbit. The test dubbed Mission Shakti, was a joint programme of the DRDO and the Indian Space Research Organisation. With the successful completion of the test, India became only the fourth country after the U.S., Russia and China to have this space weapon technology. Anti-satellite weapons, called ASAT systems, are capable of attacking enemy satellites in space by jamming communications or destroying them. ASAT missiles also act as a space deterrent in dissuading rivals from targeting the country’s satellite network. Satellites are important for a country’s infrastructure as a large number of crucial applications such as navigation and communication networks, banking, stock markets and weather forecasting, are now satellite-based. Destroying satellites could cripple these services. An ASAT system can even target a ground station and stop transmission of information from the satellite attached to it. The system can also direct a manoeuvrable satellite to smash into another satellite!

India has a long standing and rapidly growing space programme. It has expanded rapidly in the last five years. The Mangalyaan Mission to Mars was successfully launched. Thereafter, the government sanctioned the Gaganyaan Mission which will take Indians to outer space.

India has also undertaken 102 spacecraft missions consisting of communication satellites, earth observation satellites, experimental satellites, navigation satellites, apart from satellites meant for scientific research and exploration, academic studies and other small satellites. India’s space programme is a critical backbone of India’s security, economic and social infrastructure.

The test was done to verify that India has the capability to safeguard our space assets.

 

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What is Astra Missile?

Astra is a Beyond Visual Range (BVR) class of Air-to-Air Missile (AAM) system designed to be mounted on fighter jets. With a 15-kg high-explosive pre-fragmented warhead, Astra has a range of over 70 km and can fly towards its target at a speed of over 5,555 km/hr. It has an all weather day-and-night capability. The missile is being developed in multiple variants to meet specific requirements.

The missile has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), along with almost 50 other public and private organisations, which were involved in multiple variants to meet specific requirements.

For the IAF trials, the Astra Mk-I Weapon system integrated with SU-30 Mk-I aircraft was carried out by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

 

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India’s indigenously designed Arjun Mk-1A clears trials, ready to go into production

Arjun Mk-1A dubbed Hunter Killer, is an all-weather 68-tonne battle tank featuring a 120mm main gun. An improved version of the indigenously developed Arjun main battle tank (MBT). Arjun Mk-1A has successfully completed necessary trials. The Mk 1-A sports a sophisticated gunners main sight integrated with automatic target tracking. This would enable the tank crew to track moving targets automatically. The gun is controlled by a computerised fire control system, giving the tank higher kill capability.

The battle tank will have a crew of four — commander, gunner, loader and driver. Keeping them out of harm’s way is paramount. For this, Arjun Mk-1A comes with a slew of new features.

Balamurugan said Track Width Mine Plough (TWMP) is a significant addition which provides capability for the battle tank to cross minefields with ease as the plough mounted to the front of the vehicle creates a mine-free path by ploughing through mines and throwing them to the sides of the tank.

Another key feature added is a Containerised Ammunition Bin with Individual Shutter (CABIS) that gives crew enhanced protection from inadvertent burning of ammunition stored in the ready round bin.

The hot gases generated due to ammunition burning is vented out by blow-off panels from the roof of the turret, thus saving the crew.

 

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India successfully tests Rudram-1: First indigenous anti-radiation missile

The New Generation Anti Radiation Missile (NGRAM), also called RudraM-1, was test-fired from a Su-30 MKI fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force earlier this month. With a speed of Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound). The missile is capable of bringing down a wide range of enemy radar systems, communication networks and air defence systems within a range of up to 250 km. The missile has been designed to be launched from various fighter aircraft Currently in the inventory of the IAF. It is also equipped with state of the art radiation tracking and guidance system.

Conducting yet another test of a indigenously developed weapons system, the Defence Research and Development Organisation on Friday conducted a successful test of the New Generation Anti Radiation Missile (NGRAM) also called the Rudram-1 at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Balasore.

The missile has been designed to be launched from various fighter aircraft currently in the inventory of the Indian Air Force. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted, “The New Generation Anti-Radiation Missile (Rudram-1) which is India’s first indigenous anti-radiation missile developed by DRDO for Indian Air Force was tested successfully today at ITR, Balasore. Congratulations to DRDO & other stakeholders for this remarkable achievement.”

DRDO scientists said that the missile has been designed to further enhance the Suppression of Enemy Air Defence (SEAD) capability of the IAF. Anti Radiation Missiles are primarily designed to track and neutralise the radar and communication assets of the adversary. Officials said that the development of the anti radiation missiles of this type was started by the DRDO around eight years ago and has been a collaborative effort of various DRDO facilities in India.

 

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