Science & Technology Mixed Quiz: Set 4

The correct answer is B, PSLV C25. The Mars Orbiter Mission lifted off on 5 November 2013 on this flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. Because the rocket could not throw the spacecraft towards Mars directly, the craft was placed in an elliptical orbit around the Earth and raised in stages by repeated burns of its own engine before departing for Mars, a method that saved a great deal of fuel and cost.

Option A, the GSLV Mark Two, was not used for this mission. Option C, LVM3 M4, is the flight that carried Chandrayaan 3 in 2023. Option D, PSLV C57, carried Aditya L1, the solar observatory, on 2 September 2023, and is placed here because it belongs to the same rocket family. The spacecraft entered Mars orbit on 24 September 2014.

The correct answer is D, 1.6 W/kg. The Specific Absorption Rate measures how much radio energy from a handset the body takes in, in watts per kilogram of tissue. From 1 September 2012 the Department of Telecommunications made 1.6 W/kg, averaged over one gram of human tissue, the limit for every new mobile handset design sold in India. Before that India followed the older figure of 2.0 W/kg averaged over ten grams. The rules also require the SAR value to be printed on the handset and its box, and a buyer can check it by dialling a code given by the maker. India's limit matches the standard used in the United States. Option A is wrong because 1.8 W/kg is not a prescribed limit anywhere. Option B is wrong because 2.1 W/kg is not a SAR standard. Option C is wrong because 2.2 W/kg is only a distractor. Exam tip: India's SAR limit is 1.6 W/kg over 1 gram of tissue, in force from 1 September 2012.

The correct answer is B, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. All Indian orbital launches, including the PSLV, GSLV and LVM3 flights, lift off from Sriharikota on the Andhra Pradesh coast, which has two operational launch pads. The site was renamed after Satish Dhawan, a former chairman of ISRO, and the TV-D1 abort test of 2023 also flew from there.

Option A, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, develops launch vehicles and is not a launch site for orbital missions. Option C, the Space Applications Centre, works on payloads and satellite applications. Option D, the U R Rao Satellite Centre, builds and tests satellites. All three are ISRO centres, so the question rewards knowing which centre does what, and the coastal location of Sriharikota also matters because spent stages fall safely into the sea.

The correct answer is D, Ability. Bias in an artificial intelligence system is traced to three sources, the data it learns from, the algorithm that learns, and the people who build and use it; ability is not one of them, because the skill of a model is a measure of how well it performs, not a place where unfairness enters. Data bias appears when the training set leaves out or under-represents a group, as with a face recognition system trained mostly on one kind of face. Algorithmic bias comes from the choices made in designing a model, such as the features it is allowed to use. Human bias enters through labelling, sampling and the assumptions of the team. Options A, B and C are therefore wrong answers to this question because each one is a genuine source of bias. Exam tip: remember data, algorithm and people as the three sources of AI bias.

The correct answer is D, 1984. Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma flew in April 1984 aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz T-11 as part of a joint programme between the Soviet Union and India, and spent about eight days aboard the Salyut 7 space station. He thus became the first Indian to travel into space. He is remembered for his reply when the Prime Minister asked how India looked from up there, and he was awarded the Ashoka Chakra.

Options A, B and C give 1981, 1982 and 1983, all near years placed there to see whether the date is firmly held. Fix the year by tying it to two other facts of the same decade: India launched its own satellite Aryabhata in 1975 and put Rohini in orbit with an Indian rocket in 1980, and Rakesh Sharma flew four years after that. The second Indian origin astronauts, Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams, flew with the American programme much later.

The correct answer is C, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. The Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme was approved in 1983 and run by the DRDO under Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, which is why he is called the Missile Man of India. The programme built five missiles, easy to remember as P-A-T-N-A: Prithvi, a surface-to-surface missile; Agni, a ballistic missile; Trishul, a short-range surface-to-air missile; Nag, an anti-tank missile; and Akash, a medium-range surface-to-air missile. It was formally closed in 2008 once its main goals were met. Kalam also guided the Pokhran-II tests of 1998 and served as President of India from 2002 to 2007. Option A is wrong because Har Gobind Khorana shared the Nobel Prize in 1968 for work on the genetic code. Option B is wrong because Vikram Sarabhai is called the father of India's space programme. Option D is wrong because Homi J. Bhabha founded India's nuclear programme. Exam tip: Kalam - missiles; Sarabhai - space; Bhabha - atomic energy.

The correct answer is C, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA is the civilian space agency of the United States, established in 1958 after the launch of Sputnik, with its headquarters at Washington DC. It grew out of an older body for aeronautical research, which is why aeronautics appears in the name before space. Its famous programmes include Apollo, which landed humans on the Moon, the Space Shuttle, the Hubble and James Webb telescopes, the Mars rovers and the Artemis programme.

Option A rearranges the words into Agency of Space Administration, which is not the official name. Option B replaces National with Navigational, a word that belongs to satellite navigation rather than to the agency. Option D is the closest trap because it ends with Agency instead of Administration; the last word of the name is Administration, and getting that single word right is what the question tests.

The correct answer is A, PSLV C11. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in its extended configuration carried Chandrayaan 1 on 22 October 2008. The same family of rockets, in the C25 flight, later carried the Mars Orbiter Mission in 2013, which shows how much the Indian space programme achieved with a medium lift vehicle.

Option B, the GSLV Mark Three, carried Chandrayaan 2 in 2019 and is the heavy lift rocket of the Indian programme. Option C, the SLV 3, was India's first satellite launch vehicle, which put Rohini into orbit in 1980 under the project leadership of A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, and it was far too small for a lunar mission. Option D, LVM3 M4, is the flight that carried Chandrayaan 3 in 2023; LVM3 is simply the renamed GSLV Mark Three.

The correct answer is B, 24 September 2014. After a journey of about ten months the spacecraft fired its engine and was captured by the gravity of Mars on that day. With it India became the first country in the world to reach Mars orbit at its very first attempt, the first Asian country to reach the planet, and the Indian Space Research Organisation the fourth space agency to do so.

Option A, 5 November 2013, is the launch date of the same mission, and confusing launch with arrival is the standard mistake here. Option C, 22 July 2019, is the launch date of Chandrayaan 2. Option D, 14 November 2008, is the day the Moon Impact Probe of Chandrayaan 1 struck the lunar surface. Each of the four dates is real, so the question rewards a candidate who has tied every date to its own event.

The correct answer is A, Rakesh Sharma. Rakesh Sharma, then a Squadron Leader in the Indian Air Force, became the first Indian in space on 3 April 1984. He flew on the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz T-11 to the Salyut 7 space station under the Interkosmos programme and spent about eight days in orbit, and he was awarded the Ashoka Chakra.

Option B, Kalpana Chawla, was the first woman of Indian origin in space, but she flew for NASA in 1997, thirteen years later. Option C, Ravish Malhotra, was the backup cosmonaut for the same 1984 mission and trained alongside Rakesh Sharma but did not fly, which makes him the strongest distractor. Option D, Sunita Williams, is an American astronaut of Indian origin who flew long duration missions to the International Space Station. Only Rakesh Sharma flew as an Indian citizen representing India.

The correct answer is B, the first woman of Indian origin to travel into space. Born at Karnal in Haryana, Kalpana Chawla studied aeronautical engineering, moved to the United States and joined NASA, flying first on the shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist. She died along with her six crewmates when Columbia disintegrated during re-entry on 1 February 2003.

Option A is wrong because she never commanded a space station, and no Indian has done so. Option C is wrong because she did not perform a spacewalk; among people of Indian origin, Sunita Williams is known for long spacewalk records. Option D is wrong because the four astronaut-designates announced for Gaganyaan in February 2024 were all Indian Air Force test pilots and Kalpana Chawla died long before the programme was announced.

The correct answer is C, the third stage. The GSLV has three stages: a solid core first stage with four liquid strap-on motors, a liquid second stage using a Vikas engine, and a cryogenic upper stage that burns liquid hydrogen with liquid oxygen. A cryogenic stage is placed on top because its very high efficiency matters most once the vehicle is above the thick air and needs the last, largest gain in speed.

Option A is wrong because a cryogenic engine cannot give the heavy thrust needed at lift-off, which is why solid motors do that work. Option B is the liquid Vikas stage, which uses propellants that are liquids at ordinary temperatures and is therefore not cryogenic. Option D does not exist on this vehicle, as the GSLV has only three stages; a fourth stage belongs to the PSLV, and that fourth stage is liquid, not cryogenic.

The correct answer is B, Gaganyaan. Gaganyaan is the programme under which the Indian Space Research Organisation is preparing to send Indian astronauts into a low orbit around the Earth in a crew module of its own and bring them back safely. The programme includes uncrewed test flights, a crew escape system and a human rated launch vehicle. Its first flight test of the crew escape system, called TV-D1, took place in October 2023.

Option A, Mangalyaan, is the Mars Orbiter Mission, an uncrewed spacecraft that reached Mars orbit in 2014. Option C, Chandrayaan-2, was an uncrewed Moon mission of 2019 with an orbiter, a lander and a rover. Option D, Aditya-L1, is the solar observatory launched in 2023 to a halo orbit around the Lagrange point L1. None of the three carries a crew, so only Gaganyaan can be the human spaceflight programme.

The correct answer is B, a dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory. Astrosat was launched on 28 September 2015 by a PSLV and carries instruments that observe the same cosmic source in the ultraviolet, the visible and the X-ray bands at the same time, which is what multi-wavelength means and what makes the mission unusual among space telescopes of its size.

Option A describes the RISAT series, which images the ground through cloud and at night using radar. Option C describes the IRNSS and NVS satellites of the NavIC constellation. Option D describes EDUSAT of 2004, the first Indian satellite meant only for education and classroom broadcasting. Two other science missions belong in the same list of firsts: Aditya-L1 of 2023, the first solar observatory, and XPoSat of 2024, which studies the polarisation of cosmic X-rays.

The correct answer is B, 1969. ISRO was formed on 15 August 1969, taking over the space work that had been carried on since 1962 by the Indian National Committee for Space Research. Vikram Sarabhai, who guided that committee, is called the father of the Indian space programme, and the organisation now works from Bengaluru under the Department of Space.

Option A, 1962, is the year the earlier committee was set up, so it is the commonest wrong answer. Option C, 1972, is the year the Space Commission and the Department of Space were created, bringing ISRO under the department. Option D, 1975, is the year India's first satellite Aryabhata was launched with Soviet help. Each of the three wrong options is a genuine landmark of the programme placed against the wrong question.

The correct answer is B, John McCarthy. The American computer scientist John McCarthy is called the father of artificial intelligence because he coined the term itself in his proposal for the Dartmouth summer research project of 1956, the meeting at which the field was born. He also created LISP in 1958, the language in which most early artificial intelligence work was written, argued for time sharing on computers, and received the Turing Award in 1971. Option A is wrong because Alan Turing is honoured as the father of computer science and of the Turing test, which asks whether a machine can be told apart from a person in conversation, but he did not name the subject. Option C is wrong because Blaise Pascal built the Pascaline, a mechanical adding machine, in the seventeenth century. Option D is wrong because Dartmouth is the college where the 1956 conference was held, not a person. Exam tip: McCarthy named artificial intelligence in 1956 and wrote LISP.

The correct answer is D, Moon Mineralogy Mapper. That instrument belonged to Chandrayaan 1, the lunar mission of 2008, and it was the one whose data confirmed water molecules on the Moon. It has nothing to do with Mars, and its name alone should give it away in a list of Martian instruments.

Option A, the Mars Colour Camera, was a real payload and sent back the full disc images of the planet that became the best known pictures of the mission. Option B, the Methane Sensor for Mars, looked for methane in the Martian atmosphere, a gas that can point to biological or geological activity. Option C, the Lyman Alpha Photometer, measured hydrogen and deuterium in the upper atmosphere to study how Mars lost its water. The remaining payloads were the Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer and the Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser, making five in all.

The correct answer is A, Bharatiya Antariksh Station. When the government set longer term goals for the space programme in 2023, it named an Indian space station, the Bharatiya Antariksh Station, and an Indian crewed landing on the Moon. Gaganyaan is the first step towards both, because the same technologies of life support, docking, re-entry and recovery are needed.

Option B is wrong because Gaganyaan is the name of the crewed flight programme and its spacecraft, not of a station. Option C is wrong because Aryabhata was India's first satellite, launched in 1975 with Soviet help. Option D is wrong because the name Vikram, after Vikram Sarabhai, was given to the Chandrayaan-3 lander and to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. Attaching each name to the right object is exactly what this kind of question checks.

The correct answer is B, STUDSAT. STUDSAT, short for Student Satellite, was the first pico satellite built in India. A pico satellite is one that weighs under about one kilogram, and STUDSAT weighed less than that. It was built by students of engineering colleges in Bengaluru and Hyderabad and was launched in 2010 by a PSLV flight as an auxiliary payload, carrying a small camera for imaging the Earth.

Option A, INSAT, is not a single satellite but the Indian National Satellite System, a family of heavy communication satellites in geostationary orbit. Option C, GSAT-4, was an experimental communication satellite that was lost when its launch vehicle failed in 2010. Option D, ANUSAT, was built by Anna University and launched in 2009, but it was a micro satellite of about forty kilograms, not a pico satellite, which is exactly the distinction the question is testing.

The correct answer is B, Soviet Union. Sputnik 1 was launched on 4 October 1957 and became the first artificial satellite to circle the earth, sending out a simple radio signal that stations across the world could hear. The launch opened the space age and pushed the United States to create NASA the next year. Sputnik 2, launched a month later, carried the dog Laika, the first animal to orbit the earth.

Option A, the United States, launched its first satellite Explorer 1 in early 1958, a few months later. Option C, the United Kingdom, built early satellites such as Ariel 1 but they were launched by American rockets. Option D, France, became the third country to launch a satellite with its own rocket, in 1965, and later led the European effort. The first place belongs to the Soviet Union.