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GS Paper: GS3-17.Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nano-technology, Bio-technology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights.

  • THAAD defence system

    China has issued a statement reiterating its long-standing objections to the presence of the US THAAD missile defence system in South Korea.

    Try this question from CSP 2018:

    Q. What is “Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)”, sometimes seen in the news?

    (a) An Israeli radar system

    (b) India’s indigenous anti-missile programme

    (c) An American anti-missile system

    (d) A defence collaboration between Japan and South Korea

    What is THAAD?

    • THAAD is an acronym for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, a transportable, ground-based missile defence system.
    • It is coupled with space-based and ground-based surveillance stations, which transfer data about the incoming missile and informs the THAAD interceptor missile of the threat type classification.
    • THAAD is alarmed about incoming missiles by space-based satellites with infrared sensors.
    • This anti-ballistic missile defence system has been designed and manufactured by the US company Lockheed Martin. South Korea is not the only country with the THAAD missile defence system.
    • It has been previously deployed in the UAE, Guam, Israel and Romania.

    The South Korea-China controversy over THAAD

    • In South Korea, the THAAD missile defence system is operated by the US army stationed in the country.
    • The US had previously announced that the deployment of this missile defence system was a countermeasure against potential attacks by North Korea, particularly after the country had engaged in testing ballistic missiles.
    • In 2017, matters escalated in the Korean Peninsula after North Korea test-fired a few missiles in the direction of US bases in Japan.
    • Following this incident, the US amended its plans and moved the systems to its army base in Osan, South Korea while the final deployment site was being prepared.
    • These moves by the US and by extension, South Korea, particularly angered China.

    China’s reservations against THAAD

    • China’s opposition has little to do with the missiles itself and is more about the system’s inbuilt advanced radar systems that could track China’s actions.
    • The controversy also has much to do with the geopolitics and complex conflicts in East Asia, with the US having a presence in the region particularly through its many military bases in Japan and South Korea.
    • According to some observers of East Asia, China believes the US exerts influence over South Korea and Japan and may interfere with Beijing’s long-term military, diplomatic and economic interests in the region.
    • The US and South Korea have consistently maintained that these missiles are only to counter potential threats by North Korea.
    • South Korea also issued a statement saying the number of missiles had not increased but had only been replaced with newer versions.

  • Starman Suits in Demo-2 Mission

    NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 test flight has now been rescheduled for May 31, due to weather conditions. Apart from the test flight itself, what’s getting attention are the spacesuits that the astronauts will wear while travelling in the SpaceX capsule, called Crew Dragon.

    Try this question from CSP 2014:

    Q. Which of the following pair is/are correctly matched?

    Spacecraft Purpose
    1. Cassini-Huygens Orbiting the Venus and transmitting data to the Earth
    2. Messenger Mapping and investigating the Mercury
    3. Voyager 1 and 2 Exploring the outer solar system

    Select the correct answer using the code given below.

    a) 1 only

    b) 2 and 3 only

    c) 1 and 3 only

    d) 1, 2 and 3

    The SpaceX spacesuit

    • The so-called “Starman suits” the astronauts will wear on the Demo-2 mission have been designed by a famous Hollywood costume designer.
    • The SpaceX spacesuits are different from other spacesuits typically worn by astronauts because of their sleek design and are being described as resembling a tuxedo.
    • These spacesuits are meant to be lighter and more flexible, are equipped with touchscreen gloves, have vents that allow astronauts to be cooler while maintaining pressure inside the suit, and have an incorporated helmet and visor.
    • The helmets of these suits are 3D printed with touchscreen-sensitive gloves and the suit is all in one piece, customised for the wearer.

    How are launch-and-entry spacesuits different from EMUs?

    • The SpaceX suits are only meant to be worn inside the space shuttle and are not suitable for carrying out spacewalks.
    • Spacesuits for spacewalks, called Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs), are heavier than launch-entry suits (LES) and are already present aboard the ISS.
    • While inside the spacecraft, the atmosphere can be controlled, to explore and work in space, humans require that they take their environment with them because there are atmospheric pressure and no oxygen to sustain life.
    • Such spacesuits – EMUs — are worn for spacewalks or extravehicular activities (EVA) conducted outside a space shuttle.
    • These provide astronauts with oxygen supply and protect them against extreme temperatures, radiation and space dust.

    Back2Basics

    Demo-2 Mission by SpaceX

  • Species in news: Super mushroom “Cordyceps militaris”

    A university in Assam has developed a fungal powder to help people boost their immunity to disease.

    Try this question from CSP 2019:

    Q.) Recently, there was a growing awareness in our country about the importance of Himalayan nettle (Girardinia diversifolia) because it is found to be a sustainable source of

    (a) anti-malarial drug

    (b) bio-diesel

    (c) pulp for paper industry

    (d) textile fibre

    A similar question related to Cordyceps militaris can be asked. UPSC may ask whether it is a Fungi, Algae, a Moss or a Lichen.

    Cordyceps militaris

    • The powder is from a parasitic but rare “super mushroom” called Cordyceps militaris.
    • The militaris underwent powdering through lyophilisation or freeze-drying at –80°C.
    • The earth has more than 400 species of Cordyceps, a fungus parasitic on insects as well as other fungi.
    • Often referred to as a super mushroom, Cordyceps known for its anti-ageing, anti-viral, energy and immunity-boosting effect.
    • Natural Cordyceps is hard to get and if dried, costs at least ₹8 lakh per kg.

  • What is the FAITH’ Trial?

    With the number of COVID-19 patients rising in India, a pharma company has announced a new randomized study to test the combined efficacy of two antiviral drugs under the ‘FAITH Trials’.

    Misleading names: One may get confused over the names given to these clinical trials. The name ‘FAITH’ and ‘Solidarity’ appear more like a judicial trial or some Human Rights violation related trials. UPSC can knock such areas in prelims.

    FAITH Trials

    • The two drugs: Favipiravir and Umifenovir will be tried as a potential COVID-19 treatment strategy.
    • This new combination clinical trial will be called FAITH – (FA vipiravir plus Um I fenovir (efficacy and safety) Trial in Indian Hospital setting).
    • The two antiviral drugs have different mechanisms of action, and their combination may demonstrate improved treatment efficacy by effectively tackling high viral loads in patients during the early stages of the disease.
    • This trial offers a comprehensive antiviral cover on pre-entry and post-entry life-cycle of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

    Dosages under the trial

    • Patients taking the drug will receive Faviprivir 1800 mg bid and Umifenovir 800 mg bid on Day 1.
    • Thereafter, they will receive Faviprivir 800mg bid and Unifenovir 800mg bid for the remaining course of treatment.
    • Duration of treatment will be 14 days and patients will be discharged after clinical cure and two consecutive negative tests.
    • While one group will be receiving Favipiravir and Umifenovir (with standard supportive care), the other group will receive Favipiravir along with standard supportive care.

    Other trials in news: The Solidarity Trial

    • “Solidarity” is an international initiative for clinical trials launched by the WHO, along with partners, to help find an effective treatment for Covid-19.
    • It was originally supposed to look at four drugs or drug combinations: Remdesivir, HCQ, Ritonavir/Lopinavir and Lopinavir/Ritonavir/Interferon beta 1a.
    • Now with HCQ trial enrolment stalled for at least the next few weeks, the Solidarity trial will proceed with the other three arms.

  • China’s Mars Mission: Tianwen-1

    China’s space program is now slated to achieve a new milestone. In July, the country will launch its first Mars mission, the ‘Tianwen-1’, which is expected to land on the Red Planet’s surface in the first quarter of 2021.

    UPSC may ask an MCQ asking: Which of the following is/are the space missions related to Mars? It may throw up 4-5 options (which we all get confused at after few months) like Cassini , InSight , Messanger, Voyager etc.

    Tianwen-1 Mission

    • The mission is named after the ancient Chinese poem ‘Questions to Heaven’, the Tianwen-1.
    • It is an all-in-one orbiter; lander and rover will search the Martian surface for water, ice, investigate soil characteristics, and study the atmosphere, among completing other objectives.
    • It will carry 13 payloads (seven orbiters and six rovers) that will explore the planet.
    • It will be the first to place ground-penetrating radar on the Martian surface, which will be able to study local geology, as well as rock, ice, and dirt distribution.
    • China’s previous ‘Yinghuo-1’ Mars mission, which had piggybacked on a Russian spacecraft, had failed after it could not leave the Earth’s orbit and disintegrated over the Pacific Ocean in 2012.

    Why all are curious about Mars exploration?

    • After the Moon, the most number of space missions in the Solar System has been to Mars.
    • Despite being starkly different in many ways, the Red Planet has several Earth-like features– such as clouds, polar ice caps, canyons, volcanoes, and seasonal weather patterns.
    • For ages, scientists have wondered whether Mars can support life.
    • In the past few years, Mars missions have been able to discover the possible presence of liquid water on the planet, either in the subsurface today or at some point in its past.
    • This has made space explorers more curious about whether the planet can sustain life.
    • Newer NASA missions have since transitioned from their earlier strategy of “Follow the Water” to “Seek Signs of Life”.

    Back2Basics: Various missions on Mars

    • The USSR in 1971 became the first country to carry out a Mars landing– its ‘Mars 3’ lander being able to transmit data for 20 seconds from the Martian surface before failing.
    • The country made it’s second and Mars landing two years later in 1973.
    • The second country to reach Mars’s surface, the US, holds the record for the most number of Mars landings.
    • Since 1976, it has achieved 8 successful Mars landings, the latest being the ‘InSight’ in 2019 (launched in 2018).
    • India and the European Space Agency have been able to place their spacecraft in Mars’s orbit.
    • India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) or ‘Mangalyaan’ was able to do so in September 2014, almost a year after its launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh.
    • The Chinese mission now is expected to take off around the same time when NASA is launching its own Mars mission– the ambitious ‘Perseverance’ which aims to collect Martian samples and bring them back.

  • What is a Parallel Universe?

    Twitter and other social media platforms are abuzz with the so-called ‘parallel universe’ that NASA has discovered. According to the claims, NASA has detected a parallel universe in Antarctica, where time runs backwards.

     

    ANITA experiment is significant for prelims. It can be asked in prelims in such match the pair questions-

    Q. Consider the following pairs :

    Terms sometimes seen in news                                Context / Topic

    1. Belle 2 experiment –                                        Artificial Intelligence

    2. Blockchain technology –                               Digital Cryptocurrency

    3. CRISPR – Cas9 –                                               Particle Physics

    Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched? (CSP 2018)

    (a) 1 and 3 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 2 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

    What is a Parallel Universe?

    • In quantum mechanics, a parallel universe is theorized as existing alongside our own, although undetectable.
    • The recent reports claiming that there is evidence of a parallel universe appear to be based on ANITA findings that are at least a couple of years old.
    • A science magazine had published a feature, discussing some anomalous results coming from neutrino detection experiments in Antarctica.
    • It discussed a speculative cosmological model that posits there’s an antimatter universe extending backwards from the BigBang.
    • This theorem was also proposed by famous scientist Stephens Hawking.

    What were the anomalous detections in Antarctica?

    The ANITA experiment

    • Four years ago an experiment had spotted a handful of instances of what seemed to be highly energetic neutrinos coming through the Earth.
    • It was named Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment — a high-altitude helium balloon with an array of radio antennas, partially funded by NASA.
    • The telescope could spot these neutrinos coming from the space and hitting the ice sheet in Antarctica.
    • ANITA detected these particles, but instead of coming from the space, the neutrinos were found to be coming from the Earth’s surface without any source.
    • These detections happened in 2016, then again in 2018, but there was no credible explanation.
    • Physicists have been working to figure out if these results can be explained with our current models of physics or have something to do with the experimental set-up itself, or if something like the parallel universe does exist.

    Back2Basics: Neutrinos

    • A neutrino is a subatomic particle very similar to an electron.
    • But it has no electrical charge and a very small mass, which might even be zero.
    • Neutrinos are one of the most abundant particles in the universe.
    • Because they have very little interaction with matter, they are incredibly difficult to detect.

  • [pib] Kangra Tea and its medicinal properties against the coronavirus

    The chemicals in Kangra tea are found to be effective in boosting immunity as they can block coronavirus activity better than anti-HIV drugs.

    It would be no surprise to expect a question based on worldwide tea production:

    Q. Among the following, which one is the largest exporter of rice in the world in the last five years? (CSP 2019)

    (a) China

    (b) India

    (c) Myanmar

    (d) Vietnam

    Kangra Tea

    • Kangra tea is a tea from the Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh, India.
    • Both black tea and green tea have been produced in the Kangra Valley since the mid-19th century.
    • After a feasibility survey in 1848 showed the area of being suitable for tea plantation, a Chinese variety of Camellia sinensis was planted across the region.
    • Kangra tea is known for its unique colour and flavour.
    • The unique characteristics of the tea are attributed to the geographical properties of the region.
    • Kangra tea was given the Geographical Indication status in 2005. Tea was first grown in the Kangra region in the mid-19th century.

    Benefits of Kangra Tea

    • Using computer-based models, the scientists screened 65 bioactive chemicals or polyphenols that could bind to a specific viral protein more efficiently than commercially available anti-HIV drugs approved for treating COVID-19 patients.
    • These chemicals might block the activity of the viral protein that helps the virus to thrive inside human cells.

    Back2Basics: Lopinavir/ Ritonavir

    • Lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r), sold under the brand name Kaletra among others, is a fixed-dose combination medication for the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS.
    • It combines lopinavir with a low dose of ritonavir.
    • It is generally recommended for use with other antiretrovirals.

  • Demo-2 Mission by SpaceX

    NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 test flight will lift off for International Space Station (ISS) becoming the first crewed flight to launch from American soil since the conclusion of the space shuttle era in 2011.

    We can get a match the pair type question in prelims asking various space missions and their purposes. Make note of similar space missions from here.

    Try this:

    Q. Which of the following pair is/are correctly matched? (CSP 2014)

    Spacecraft Purpose
    1. Cassini-Huygens Orbiting the Venus and transmitting data to the Earth
    2. Messenger Mapping and investigating the Mercury
    3. Voyager 1 and 2 Exploring the outer solar system

    Select the correct answer using the code given below.

    a) 1 only

    b) 2 and 3 only

    c) 1 and 3 only

    d) 1, 2 and 3

    Demo-2: What is the mission?

    • The Demo-2 mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program with the aim of developing reliable and cost-effective access to and from the ISS.
    • Essentially, the lift-off is a flight test to certify if SpaceX’s crew transportation system can be used to ferry crew to and from the space station regularly.
    • After its launch, the Crew Dragon will perform a series of phasing manoeuvres to gradually approach and autonomously dock with the ISS.
    • After docking, the two astronauts will go aboard the ISS. They will perform tests of the Crew Dragon and conduct research with Expedition 63, the space station crew currently in residence at ISS.

    About the Commercial Crew Program

    • The main objective of this program is to make access to space easier in terms of its cost, so that cargo and crew can be easily transported to and from the ISS, enabling greater scientific research.
    • Secondly, by encouraging private companies such as Boeing and SpaceX to provide crew transportation NASA wants to focus on building spacecraft and rockets meant for deep space exploration missions.
    • Boeing and SpaceX were selected by NASA in September 2014 to develop transportation systems meant to transfer crew from the US to the ISS.

    Back2Basics: SpaceX

    • Space Exploration Technologies Corp., trading as SpaceX, is a private American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation Services Company headquartered in Hawthorne, California.
    • It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars.
    • SpaceX has developed several launch vehicles and the Dragon spacecraft.

  • What is the ‘Sonic Boom’ that rattled Bengaluru city?

    The ‘loud sound’ heard in Bengaluru a few days back, which puzzled lakhs of city dwellers, was revealed to have emanated from an IAF test flight involving a supersonic profile. The sonic boom was probably heard while the IAF aircraft was decelerating from supersonic to subsonic speed between 36,000 and 40000 feet altitude.

    Note:

    We often get to hear about updates in  India’s missile programme. UPSC may ask a basic physics question asking fundamental differences between various Mach number and its differences.

    What is a ‘sonic boom’?

    • Sound travels in the form of waves which are emitted outwards from its source.
    • In air, the speed of these waves depends on a number of factors, such as the temperature of the air and altitude.
    • When an aircraft travels at supersonic speed – meaning faster than sound (>1225 kmph at sea level) – the field of sound waves moves to the back of the craft.
    • A stationary observer thus hears no sound when a supersonic flight approaches since the sound waves are at the rear of the latter.
    • At such speeds, both newly created as well as old waves, are forced into a region at the aircraft’s rear called a ‘Mach cone’, which extends from the craft and intercepts the Earth in a hyperbola-shaped curve, and leaves a trail called the ‘boom carpet’.
    • The loud sound that is heard on the Earth when this happens is called a ‘sonic boom’ (resembles bomb-blast sound).

    Impacts

    • When such aircraft fly at a low altitude, the sonic boom can become intense enough to cause the glass to crack or cause health hazards.
    • Overland supersonic flights have thus been banned in many countries.

    Supersonic flights

    • In 1947, the American military pilot Chuck Yeager became the first to breach the sound barrier, flying the Bell X-1 aircraft at 1127 kmph.
    • Since then, many supersonic flights have followed, with advanced designs allowing speeds of over Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound.
    • According to the IAF website, India’s fastest jets include the Sukhoi SU-30 MKI (Mach 2.35) and the Mirage-2000 (Mach 2.3).

    Back2Basics: Traverse of sound

    • From a stationary source, such as a television set, sound waves travel outwards in concentric spheres of growing radii.
    • When the source of sound is moving – e.g, a truck– the successive waves in front of the truck get closer together, and the ones behind it spread out.
    • This is also the cause of the Doppler effect– in which bunched waves at the front appear at a higher frequency to a stationary observer, and spread out waves that are behind are observed at a lower frequency.
    • As long as the source of the sound keeps moving slower than the speed of sound itself, this source– say a truck or a plane – remains nested within the sound waves that are travelling in all directions.

    Mach number

    • The ratio of the speed of the aircraft to the speed of sound in the gas determines the magnitude of many of the compressibility effects.
    • Because of the importance of this speed ratio, aerodynamicists have designated it with a special parameter called the Mach number in honour of Ernst Mach, a late 19th-century physicist who studied gas dynamics.
    • Subsonic conditions occur for Mach numbers less than one, M < 1.
    • As the speed of the object approaches the speed of sound, the flight Mach number is nearly equal to one, M = 1, and the flow is said to be transonic.
    • Supersonic conditions occur for Mach numbers greater than one, 1 < M < 3.
    • For speeds greater than five times the speed of sound, M > 5, the flow is said to be hypersonic.
    • The Space Shuttle re-enters the atmosphere at high hypersonic speeds, M ~ 25. Under these conditions, the heated air becomes ionized plasma of gas and the spacecraft must be insulated from the high temperatures.

  • [pib] Certification of ‘Quantum Entanglement’

    Indian scientists have developed a novel protocol to find out whether a pair of electrons are in an entangled state so that they can be safely used as resources for facilitating quantum information processing tasks.

    Trending in news this year is the Quantum Technology, (As it used to be until last year were- the Internet of Things (IoT) CSP 2019, Artificial Intelligence (AI) etc.)

    Must read all this news in a loop:

    National Mission on QC

    Quantum Coin

    Quantum Supremacy

    What is Quantum Entanglement (QE)?

    • QE is the name given to a special connection between pairs or groups of quantum systems, or any objects described by quantum mechanics.
    • It is one of the biggest parts of quantum mechanics that makes it hard to understand in terms of the everyday world.
    • When we look at particles, we usually say that each particle has its own quantum state. Sometimes, two particles can act on one another and become an entangled system.
    • When a pair or group of particles can only be described by the quantum state for the system, and not by individual quantum states, we say the particles are “entangled”.

    Going bit technical here-

    • It is the physical phenomenon that occurs when a pair or group of particles is generated; interact, in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the pair or group cannot be described independently of the state of the others.
    • Entangled states are key resources to facilitate many quantum information processing tasks and quantum cryptographic protocols.

    Why decode the Entanglement?

    • Entanglement is fragile and is easily lost during the transit of photons through the environment.
    • Hence it is extremely important to know whether a pair of photons are entangled, in order to use them as a resource.
    • Verification of entanglement requires the use of measurement devices, but such devices may be hacked or compromised.

    How to secure QE?

    • Device-independent self-testing (DIST) is a method that can be used in order to overcome such a possibility.
    • This method enables the verification of entanglement in an unknown quantum state of two photons without having direct access to the state, or complete trust in the measurement devices.
    • The theory relies on the application of the quantum uncertainty principle while implementing full device independence is a difficult task.

    Back2Basics: Quantum Mechanics

    • Quantum mechanics (QM) is a fundamental theory in physics which describes nature at the smallest scales of energy levels of atoms and subatomic particles.
    • It is the body of scientific laws that describe the wacky behaviour of photons, electrons and the other particles that make up the universe.