Write short notes on the following (100 Words)

1. Japanese microsatellite, Rising-2 (reference)
2. ALPHA experiment at CERN (Reference)
3. Brazuca and the Magnus Effect (Reference-1, Reference-2)
4. Illustris

• Rising-2 is a 50-kg class microsatellite for Earth and planetary observations built by students of Tohoku University and Hokkaido University. Rising-2 has a High Precision Telescope with 400 spectral bands and Bolometer Array infrared camera. These advanced sensors are the world's first use in space.

• ALPHA is an international collaboration based at CERN, and whose aim is stable trapping of antihydrogen atoms, the antimatter counterpart of the simplest atom, hydrogen. By precise comparisons of hydrogen and antihydrogen, the experiment hopes to study fundamental symmetries between matter and antimatter.

• The Illustris project is a large cosmological simulation of galaxy formation, which was completed in late 2013, using a state of the art numerical code and a comprehensive physical model. It can recreate 13 billion years of cosmic evolution with unprecedented resolution. It will help to understand better the nature of universe, galaxy formation, dark matter and dark energy.

3) Write short notes on 1) Telomers 2) Blue Brain Project 3) Designer Babies 4) Outer space treaty

TELOMERES
A telomere is a region of repetitive DNA at the end of a chromosome, which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration. Telomeres protect a cell's chromosomes from fusing with each other or rearranging—abnormalities which can lead to cancer—and so cells are normally destroyed when their telomeres are consumed. Most cancers are the result of "immortal" cells which have ways of evading this programmed destruction.

BLUE BRAIN PROJECT

The Blue Brain Project is an attempt to create a synthetic brain by reverse-engineering the mammalian brain down to the molecular level. The aim of the project is to study the brain’s architectural and functional principles. Reconstructing the brain piece by piece and building a virtual brain with the helpof  a supercomputer are some of the goals of the Blue Brain Project. The virtual brain will be an exceptional tool giving neuroscientists a new understanding of the brain and a better understanding of neurological diseases.

As a first step, the project succeeded in simulating a rat cortical column. Aims currently pursued by the project are:

1. Construction of a simulation on the molecular level, which will allow study of the effects of gene expression;
2. Simplification of the already completed column simulation to allow for parallel simulation of large numbers of connected columns, with the ultimate goal of simulating a whole neocortex

DESIGNER BABIES

Designer babies refers to the use of genetic engineering to select desired qualities of a child. This can be done by modifying the genes of human gametes, zygotes or embryos. Parents can choose to screen embryos for sex or diseases, known as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. This can have potential benefits in eliminating genetic diseases in the embryo leading to a healthy life for the child-to-be. However, the idea of designer babies raises a lot of ethical questions. It could help parents choose the traits that they want in their children, in future. This includes the sex of the child, which could add to the persistent sexual discrimination continuing in most societies in the world. With parents choosing their children’s traits, they would have even higher expectations from the children leading to added pressure on them. This might have major negative impacts.

OUTER SPACE TREATY

The Outer Space Treaty, also known as the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, is a treaty that forms the basis of international space law. The Outer Space Treaty represents the basic legal framework of international space law. Among its principles, it bars states party to the treaty from placing nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body. It exclusively limits the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes and expressly prohibits their use for testing weapons of any kind, conducting military maneuvers, or establishing military bases, installations, and fortifications. However, the Treaty does not prohibit the placement of conventional weapons in orbit. The treaty also states that the exploration of outer space shall be done to benefit all countries and shall be free for exploration and use by all the States. The treaty explicitly forbids any government from claiming a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet, claiming that they are the common heritage of mankind.The State that launches a space object retains jurisdiction and control over that object. The State is also liable for damages caused by their space object.

What are the potential significance of GSLV and GSLV Mark III over PSLV?

The PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) are two rocket launch systems developed by the Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO, to launch satellites into orbit. The main reason behind the advent of the GSLV is the capability to lift greater loads into space. While the PSLV can only lift slightly over a ton of payload to GTO (Geostationary Transfer Orbit), the GSLV is capable of lifting more than double that with a rated capacity of 2 to 2.5 tons. One of the main reasons why the GSLV has such an increased load is its utilization of a cryogenic rocket engine for its last stage.

The PSLV has 4 stages that alternate between solid and liquid fuels while the GSLV has three stages with the only the first stage having solid fuel. Apart from lifting much heavier spacecraft than the PSLV, GSLV will have indigenously built cryogenic engine. It will prove India's capability to build highend technology like this one. India will be able to launch more satellites in single go. This potential can be exploited for commercial flights. Moreover, for future mission like MOM, ISRO needs GSLV to launch bigger and more advance spacecrafts. For this purpose, GSLV will certainly be more significant than PSLV.

“Space Debris can make future missions impossible”. Comment on the statement explaining the phenomenon of ‘Kessler Syndrome’.

Space debris or space junk/waste is the collection of unwanted and defunct parts of the old satellite, rockets etc. They orbit around the earth with very high velocity (thousands of miles per hour]. Hence, even if they are as small as 1 cm in size, their impact on other valuable objects orbiting earth is huge. They can collide and damage them. They pose even a greater threat to space crews. 

The amount of space debris present in the lower earth orbit  (LEO) has already exceeded the critical point. They are damaging the other critical objects like satellite, since their orbits are generally overlapping in nature. The amount of debris is so high that the chances of collision are very high. These collisions are further increasing the debris. Hence, the probability of collision keeps on increasing with more debris. This scenario is referred to as KESSELER SYNDROME. Increasing amount of space junk will make space inaccessible for future generation, even if all the space launches are cancelled, the space debris will continue to grow because of collisions between the existing debris. Apart from orbit correction, there are no effective ways of protecting spacecraft from debris flying at nearly 8 km/s. The problem is the most serious in geostationary orbits used by communications and weather satellites because junk could stay there for millions of years. Geostationary orbit, which is a limited resource, may be lost in the next 20 years because of man made pollution.

To tackle the problem , the Hunter killer probe is being designed by European Space Agency to destroy all the defunct satellites. The e.Deorbit probe would deploy a Roman gladiator-style array of nets and harpoons to first trap rogue satellites and then drag them downwards until they burn up in the atmosphere. Removing between five and 10 large satellites from space each year would be enough to stop the debris cloud growing.

Write short note on Google Street View.

It is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth software that provides panoramic views from positions along many streets in the world. It was launched in 2007 in the US, and has since expanded many cities worldwide. Its technology and capturing equipment includes, 

1. Cameras: Photographs are recorded by in-house developed camera systems with Active pixel sensors and electronic rolling shutter.
2. Positioning: Recorded photographs are accurately positioned via a GPS and other data sensor systems.
3. Vehicles: Data recording equipment is usually mounted on the roof of a car. 

A tricycle/trekker is developed to record pedestrian routes. Trolleys have been used to shoot the insides of museums, and very narrow roads are photographed with backpack-mounted cameras, and canals are photographed from boats. Google street viewer has documented many UNESCO world heritage sites allowing viewers from anywhere in the world to wander around these famous sites. Taj Mahal, Rani ki Vav are some of the Indian sites in the Google Street viewer. Latest Documentation of navigable images of the ancient monument pyramids of Giza is the first in Egypt and this would entice tourists back to see the real thing, after years of unrest in the region which scared the foreign tourists.