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Science and Technology Current Affairs May 2017

Space Current Affairs

SpaceX Launched First Recycled Rocket

  • SpaceX has launched its first recycled rocket, the biggest leap yet in its bid to drive down costs and speed-up flights on March 31, 2017.
  • SpaceX refurbished and tested the 15-foot booster, still sporting its nine original engines. It aimed for another vertical landing at sea once it was finished boosting the satellite for the SES company of Luxembourg.
  • The booster’s main section then separated from the rest of the rocket and flew itself back to a landing pad in the Atlantic, where it successfully touched down for its second at-sea return.

NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson broke Sunita Williams’ Spacewalking Record

  • American astronaut Peggy Whitson made history on April 1, 2017 when she floated outside the International Space Station (ISS) breaking the record for the most spacewalks by a woman.
  • The goal of the spacewalk is to continue upgrading the International Space Station for the arrival of commercial spaceships in the years to come.’She made her eighth fcareer spacewalk, surpassing the record of seven previously held by American Sunita Williams.

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Earth-like Planetary Waves Discovered on Sun

  • Large scale planetary waves that meander through the atmosphere high above Earth’s surface have been found to also exist on the Sun on March 30, 2017.
  • Just as the large-scale waves that form on Earth, known as Rossby waves, influence local weather patterns, the waves discovered on the Sun may be intimately tied to solar activity, including the formation of sunspots, active regions, and the eruption of solar flares.
  • The waves form in rotating fluids—in the atmosphere and in the oceans. Since, the Sun Is also rotating, and because it is made largely of plasma that acts, in some ways, like a vast magnetised ocean, the existence of Rossby-like waves should not come as a surprise.

ISRO Joined 36th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica

  • This year, in the 36th Indian scientific expedition, four teams from ISRO (one from Space Applications Centre (SAC) Ahmedabad with two members, one from National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) Hyderabad with four researchers, one from Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) Dehradun with one scientist and one from Space Physics Laboratory (SPL) VSSC Thiruvananthapuram with three members) participated on March 28, 2017.
  • The National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Ministry of Earth Sciences, government of India, organises the Indian Scientific Mission to Antarctica every year.
  • The main objective of this expedition is to install stakes on ice for Differentia] Global Positioning System (DGPS) measurements around Bharati and Maitri to validate glacier surface velocity derived from satellite data to estimate thickness of snow over land and sea ice using Ground Penetrating Radars (GPRs) and also to verify conditions of snow over sea and land ice.

NASA Spotted ‘Lost* Chandrayaan-1 Orbiting the Moon

  • India’s first lunar probe (Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft) which was considered lost, is still orbiting the Moon, NASA’s scientists have found by using a new ground-based radar technique on March 9, 2017.
  • Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) lost communication with Chandrayaan-1 on August 29, 2009, almost a year after it was launched on October 22, 2008.
  • Radar echoes bounced back from lunar orbit were received by the 100 m Gr Rsen Bank Telescope in West Virginia.
  • Finding a derelict spacecraft at lunar distance that has not been tracked for years is tricky because the Moon is riddled with mascons (regions with higher-than-average gravitational pull) that can dramatically affect a spacecraft’s orbit over time, and even cause it to have crashed into the Moon.

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Mansi Agarwal
Mansi Agarwal

Hey, I am Mansi Agarwal - owner of this site. I am basically from Lucknow. I did B.Tech and now working as a full time blogger. Blogging is my passion and my permanent job also. If you have any suggestion for the improvement of this site then feel free to tell me. You can connect with me on FB and Twitter for more updates.

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