Science & Technology Mixed Quiz: Set 6

The correct answer is C, 2014. The Mars Orbiter Mission was launched on 5 November 2013 by a PSLV and reached the orbit of Mars on 24 September 2014. With that, India became the first country in the world to reach Mars at its first attempt, and the Indian Space Research Organisation became the fourth agency to reach the planet after those of the Soviet Union, the United States and Europe. The mission carried five instruments, among them a methane sensor and a colour camera, and it was built at a remarkably low cost.

Option A, 2008, is the year of Chandrayaan-1, the first Indian Moon mission. Option B, 2013, is the launch year of the Mars mission itself, not the year it arrived, and that gap of about ten months is what the question is testing. Option D, 2019, is the year of Chandrayaan-2. Separating the launch year from the arrival year is the habit to build here.

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, Japan. JAXA stands for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, formed in 2003 by merging three earlier Japanese space bodies, with its headquarters at Tokyo. It is known for the Hayabusa missions, which brought back samples from asteroids, for the Kibo laboratory module on the International Space Station and for the H series of launch vehicles.

Option A, South Korea, has its own body called KARI, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. Option C, China, works through the China National Space Administration, founded in 1993 and based at Beijing, which runs the Chang'e lunar missions and the Tiangong station. Option D, Israel, has the Israel Space Agency. Matching the short name to the country is exactly what such questions test, so learn ISRO, NASA, ESA, JAXA, CNSA and KARI together.

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 C, Shaurya. Shaurya is the land based version of the submarine launched K-15 Sagarika, and it is stored and fired from a sealed canister, which lets it be moved by road and launched at short notice. It leaves the canister by a gas charge, then its own motor takes over, and it re-enters at hypersonic speed, which is what the question means by hypersonic tactical missile.

Option A, Astra, is a beyond visual range air-to-air missile fired from a fighter aircraft, not a surface to surface weapon. Option B, Akash, is a medium range surface to air missile of the IGMDP that works with the Rajendra radar and is meant to shoot down aircraft. Option D, Trishul, was the short range surface to air missile of the same programme, built for ships and forward positions. Only Shaurya is fired from the surface at a surface target.

The correct answer is C, Pinaka. Pinaka is the multi-barrel rocket launcher built for the Indian Army by DRDO's Armament Research and Development Establishment, Pune, and named after the bow of Lord Shiva. One launcher fires twelve rockets in about forty-four seconds, so a battery can saturate a large patch of ground in a single salvo. The first version reaches about forty kilometres and later versions go considerably further. Pinaka was used in the Kargil conflict of 1999 and is now exported as well. Option A is wrong because Dhanush is a naval, ship-launched version of the Prithvi ballistic missile, and the name is also used for a towed artillery gun. Option B is wrong because Trishul was a short-range surface-to-air missile of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme. Option D is wrong because Prithvi is a surface-to-surface ballistic missile, a guided weapon rather than a rocket system. Exam tip: the IGMDP gave Prithvi, Agni, Trishul, Akash and Nag; Pinaka is a rocket launcher outside that list.

The correct answer is B, 1983. The Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, usually written IGMDP, was approved in 1983 and placed under the Defence Research and Development Organisation, with A. P. J. Abdul Kalam as its head. Its aim was to build five missiles together rather than one after another, and the programme was formally declared complete in 2008.

Option A, 1974, is the year of Pokhran-I, the peaceful nuclear explosion codenamed Smiling Buddha, which candidates often bring here. Option C, 1991, is remembered for economic liberalisation, not for missiles. Option D, 1998, is the year of Pokhran-II, the series of nuclear tests at Pokhran under Operation Shakti, and it is the commonest wrong choice because the same period saw Agni tests. Only 1983 belongs to the IGMDP.

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 C, August 2021. The Prime Minister announced the National Hydrogen Mission in his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort on 15 August 2021, with the aim of making India a hub for producing and exporting green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is made by splitting water through electrolysis using electricity from solar, wind or other renewable sources, so it releases no carbon dioxide, unlike the grey hydrogen made from natural gas. The Union Cabinet later approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission in January 2023 with an outlay of Rs 19,744 crore. Option A is wrong because May 2021 saw no such announcement. Option B is wrong because November 2021 is when the Prime Minister gave the Panchamrit climate pledges at the Glasgow COP26 summit. Option D is wrong because January 2021 belongs to the vaccination drive against Covid-19, not to hydrogen. Exam tip: announced 15 August 2021; the mission was approved by the Cabinet in January 2023.

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, Aryabhata. Aryabhata was the first satellite built by India and it was launched on 19 April 1975 from a Soviet launch site, since India had no launch vehicle of its own at the time. It was named after the ancient Indian astronomer and mathematician, and it carried experiments in X-ray astronomy, solar physics and the study of the ionosphere. It marks the beginning of the Indian satellite programme.

Option A, Bhaskara, was an experimental earth observation satellite launched later, in 1979. Option C, Rohini, refers to the series of which RS-1 became the first satellite placed in orbit by an Indian launch vehicle, the SLV-3, on 18 July 1980. Option D, APPLE, was the Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment of 1981, the first Indian experimental communication satellite in geostationary orbit. Keep the order Aryabhata, Bhaskara, Rohini, APPLE in mind.

The correct answer is B, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. It is India's only orbital launch site, on the east coast, so vehicles can fly out eastwards over the Bay of Bengal and take the free gain from the earth's rotation while the spent stages fall harmlessly into the sea. It was earlier called the SHAR Centre and was renamed after Satish Dhawan.

Option A, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, designs and develops launch vehicles but does not launch them, and the nearby Thumba station is used only for small sounding rockets. Option C, the U R Rao Satellite Centre, builds and tests satellites. Option D, the Space Applications Centre, develops the payloads and instruments the satellites carry and works on applications of the data. Learn the four centres as a set of jobs: rocket, launch, satellite, payload.

The correct answer is C, China. The Chinese mission Chang'e 4 landed on the far side of the Moon in January 2019, the first spacecraft ever to do so, and released the rover Yutu-2. A landing there is difficult because the far side never faces the earth, so a separate relay satellite was placed in position to carry signals. China later brought lunar samples back to the earth with Chang'e 5.

Option A, the United States, landed the Apollo crews on the near side. Option B, Russia, as the Soviet Union, made the first soft landing of any kind with Luna 9 in 1966, again on the near side. Option D, India, landed near the south pole with Chandrayaan-3 in 2023, which is a different achievement and the most likely confusion in this question. The far side belongs to China.

The correct answer is B, the first Lagrange point, L1, of the sun and earth system, about 1.5 million kilometres from the earth towards the sun. A Lagrange point is a place where the gravitational pulls of the two bodies and the orbital motion balance, so a spacecraft can stay there with very little fuel, and from L1 the sun can be watched continuously without eclipse or occultation. Aditya-L1 was launched on 2 September 2023 by a PSLV.

Option A, L2, lies on the far side of the earth from the sun and is used by telescopes that look away from the sun. Option C is wrong because the spacecraft orbits a point in the sun-earth system, not the sun itself. Option D would put it in earth orbit, where the earth would block the view for part of every day, which is precisely what the mission had to avoid. Remember the pair: L1 for solar watching, 1.5 million km.

The correct answer is C, A P J Abdul Kalam. The Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme was approved in 1983 and Kalam, then at the Defence Research and Development Laboratory, was made its head. Five missiles of different classes were taken up together so that common technologies such as propulsion, guidance and materials could be shared, and the success of the programme earned him the title Missile Man of India. He later became President of India and had received the Bharat Ratna in 1997.

Option A, Homi Jehangir Bhabha, was the father of the Indian atomic energy programme and died in 1966. Option B, Vikram Sarabhai, founded the Indian space programme and died in 1971. Option D, Satish Dhawan, headed ISRO after Sarabhai and the launch centre at Sriharikota is named after him. All three belong to the atomic or space story, not to the missile programme.

The correct answer is B, GSLV Mark Three. Chandrayaan 2 lifted off on 22 July 2019 on the heaviest Indian rocket then flying, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark Three, which has since been renamed LVM3. The extra lifting power was needed because the mission carried three craft together: an orbiter, the lander Vikram and the rover Pragyan.

Option A, PSLV C25, carried the Mars Orbiter Mission in 2013. Option C, the ASLV, was the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle of the nineteen eighties, a small experimental rocket long retired. Option D, PSLV C11, carried Chandrayaan 1 in 2008. The pattern worth remembering is that the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle carried the first Moon mission and the Mars mission, while the heavy rocket carried the two later Moon missions with landers.

The correct answer is C, BrahMos. The five missiles of the IGMDP were Prithvi, Agni, Trishul, Akash and Nag. BrahMos came later and from a different route altogether, as a joint venture between India and Russia, and it is a supersonic cruise missile, while the IGMDP produced ballistic and guided missiles of Indian design.

Option A, Trishul, was the short-range surface-to-air missile of the programme, and the project was later closed. Option B, Nag, is the third generation fire and forget anti-tank guided missile of the programme, carried on the NAMICA vehicle. Option D, Akash, is the medium-range surface-to-air missile with a ramjet engine that is now in service with the Army and the Air Force. All three belong to the original five, so BrahMos is the odd one out.

The correct answer is B, Voyager 1. Launched by NASA in 1977, Voyager 1 flew past Jupiter and Saturn, then continued outward and has since crossed into interstellar space, making it the farthest human-made object from the earth. It carries a golden record with sounds and images of our planet, and it took the picture of the earth known as the pale blue dot.

Option A, Pioneer 10, was an earlier probe to Jupiter and was once the most distant object but has been overtaken and no longer sends signals. Option C, New Horizons, flew past Pluto in 2015 and is far away but much closer than the Voyagers. Option D, Cassini, studied Saturn and its moons and was deliberately sent into the planet at the end of its mission in 2017. Voyager 2, the twin, is the only spacecraft to have visited all four giant planets.

The correct answer is A, Nag. Nag is a third generation anti-tank guided missile of the fire and forget kind, which means that once the seeker has locked on to the target the operator need not keep guiding it, and the crew can move away at once. It is carried on a tracked launcher called NAMICA, and the helicopter launched version is named HELINA.

Option B, Trishul, was the short range surface to air missile of the same programme, meant to defend ships and forward posts against low flying aircraft. Option C, Prithvi, is a short range surface to surface missile, with the first version for the Army and the second for the Air Force. Option D, Akash, is the medium range surface to air missile that works with the Rajendra phased array radar. Only Nag is built to kill armour.

The correct answer is A, Brahmaputra and Moskva. BrahMos is built by a joint venture of India and Russia, and its name joins the Brahmaputra of India with the Moskva of Russia to mark the partnership. It is a supersonic cruise missile that flies at close to three times the speed of sound and can be launched from land, from ships, from submarines and from aircraft, the air-launched version being carried by the Su-30MKI.

Option B names the Volga, which is Russia's longest river but not the one in the missile's name. Option C replaces the Brahmaputra with the Beas, one of the five rivers of Punjab. Option D names the Danube, which flows through central and eastern Europe and has no connection with the project. The pairing to remember is Brahmaputra with Moskva.