Science & Technology Aug-2023
Adani’s $1.1 bn copper plant to start operating next year: Report
Adani Group’s greenfield copper refinery in Gujarat’s Mundra will become operational next year in March. The $1.1 billion project is expected to produce refined copper to the tune of one million tons per annum in two phases. Adani Enterprises Limited’s subsidiary Kutch Copper Limited is overseeing the project. Copper is known as the “metal of electrification” as deeper electrification requires wires, which are primarily made from copper. Technologies critical to the energy transition like electric vehicles (EVs), charging infrastructure, solar photovoltaics (PV), wind and batteries, all require copper.
Adani Group:
- Founded: 20 July 1988
- Founder: Gautam Adani
- Headquarters: Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
- Chairman: Gautam Adani
Skyroot, ISRO conduct 100-sec test of rocket engine Raman-II
Skyroot Aerospace and ISRO have successfully conducted a second test of the Hyderabad-based space startup’s rocket engine Raman-II. The fully 3D-printed engine “performed satisfactorily during this 100 seconds test. Both the test facilities and instrumentation systems performed normally during the test. The first test was conducted for 10 seconds. That second test was conducted in the Liquid Thruster Test Facility in ISRO Propulsion Complex, and it involved the Raman-II engine. The Raman-II engine was designed by Skyroot Aerospace to generate 1,460 Newton (Vacuum) and 820 Newton (Sea Level) thrust, and it had a nominal chamber pressure of 8.5 bar absolute
Skyroot Aerospace:
Skyroot Aerospace Private Limited is an Indian private aerospace manufacturer and commercial launch service provider. The company was founded by former engineers and scientists from ISRO. It aims to develop and launch its own series of small lift launch vehicles especially crafted for the small satellite market.
- Founded: 12 June 2018
- Founder: Pawan Kumar Chandana, Naga Bharath Daka
- Headquarters: Hyderabad, Telangana, India
- Co-founder, CEO & CTO: Pawan Kumar Chandana
- Capital: Hanoi <president: Võ Văn Thưởng
- Prime Minister: Phạm Minh Chính
- Currency: Vietnamese đồng
India hands over missile corvette INS Kirpan to Vietnam
India has gifted its in-service missile corvette INS Kirpan to Vietnam to robust the strategic partnership between the two nations, especially in the maritime domain. The frontline warship was handed over to Vietnam, during an official visit of Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar. It is for the first time that India gifted a fully operational corvette to any friendly foreign country. INS Kirpan was an indigenously built Khukri-class missile corvette, commissioned in 1991.
Vietnam:
Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurates DGNSS ‘‘SAGAR SAMPARK’
Union Minister of Ports Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurated the indigenous Differential Global Navigation Satellite System (DGNSS) ‘SAGAR SAMPARK’. This ‘Made in India’ system will provide more accurate information to the ships for safe navigation
DGNSS: DGNSS is a terrestrial based enhancement system which corrects the errors and inaccuracies in the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) allowing for more accurate positioning information. The DGNSS service will help mariners in safe navigation and will reduce the risk of collisions, groundings, and accidents in the port and harbour areas.
Latest DGNSS system: The latest DGNSS system is now able to transmit corrections of GPS and GLONASS. The DGNSS significantly improves the accuracy of GPS positioning, reducing errors caused by the atmospheric inferences, satellite clock drift and other factors. This is achieved with the help of modern state of art technology receivers and latest software. The error correction accuracy has been improved from 5 to 10 meters to less than 5 meters for 100 Nautical Miles from Indian coastlines.
Note: GLONASS is a Russian satellite navigation system operating as part of a radionavigation-satellite service. It provides an alternative to Global Positioning System and is the second navigational system in operation with global coverage and of comparable precision.
China launches world’s first methane-fuelled space rocket
The Zhuque-2 carrier rocket, a methane-liquid oxygen rocket by Chinese company LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The rocket successfully delivered a test payload into sunsynchronous orbit (SSO), the first in the world to make such an achievement. Methane-powered engines, with their high performance and low operational costs, are particularly suited for the developing trend of reusable rockets. A methanepowered rocket, also known as Methalox, uses methane as the fuel. This was the second attempt by Beijing-based LandSpace. The first attempt in December failed.
China:
- Capital: Beijing
- President: Xi Jinping
- Currency: Renminbi
- Capital: Beijing
- Currency: Yuan
- President: Xi Jinping
Elon Musk launches AI firm xAI
Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur, launched his long-teased artificial intelligence startup xAI. Musk registered a firm named X. AI Corp, incorporated in Nevada. The startup will be led by Musk, already the CEO of electric car maker Tesla, CEO of rocket launch company SpaceX and owner of Twitter. The firm lists Musk as the sole director and Jared Birchall, the managing director of Musk’s family office, as a secretary. He co-founded OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, in 2015, but stepped down from the company’s board in 2018. The team at xAI includes Igor Babuschkin, a former engineer at Google’s DeepMind; Tony Wu, who worked at Google; Christian Szegedy, who was also a research scientist at Google; and Greg Yang, who was previously at Microsoft.
China releases its first open-source computer operating system OpenKylin
China has released its first homegrown open-source desktop operating system, named OpenKylin, as the country steps up efforts to cut reliance on U. S. technology. Based on the existing open-source Linux operating system, China’s version was built by a community of about 4,000 developers, and is used in its space programme and industries such as finance and energy. China’s massive market for operating systems was worth 15. 5 billion yuan ($2. 1 billion) last year.
China
SpaceX launches European space telescope Euclid to explore ‘dark universe’
SpaceX launched the European Space Agency’s Euclid observatory toward its ultimate destination 1. 5 million km away. Named after the ancient Greek mathematician, Euclid will scour billions of galaxies covering more than one-third of the sky. It will take a month to get there and another two months before it starts its ambitious six-year survey this autumn. Euclid will measure dark energy and dark matter with unprecedented precision. Four metres tall and almost as wide, Euclid sports a 1. 2-metre telescope and two scientific instruments capable of observing the cosmos in both visible light and near-infrared.
DAY-NRLM launches Mobile App to Market products made by SHGs women
Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) launched a mobile App named ‘eSARAS’, which will add to eCommerce initiatives for products made by the SHGs. The eSARAS fulfillment center will be managed by the Foundation for Development of Rural Value Chains (a Not for Profit Company constituted jointly by the Ministry of Rural Development and Tata Trust). eSARAS an e-commerce mobile app will be used as a more effective platform for marketing of the products made by women of self-help groups.
