Master10
Current Affairs Module

Science, Space & Emerging Technology

Scientific research and technological innovation are rapidly transforming space exploration, computing architecture, defense systems, and clean energy. In India, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) made history with the soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 near the lunar South Pole and the successful launch of Aditya-L1 to study solar dynamics from the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point. Concurrently, national missions like the National Quantum Mission and the IndiaAI Mission are advancing supercomputing and semiconductor manufacturing capabilities. Evaluating space trajectories, cryogenic propulsion, quantum algorithms, and biotechnology breakthroughs clarifies modern technological progress.

Key Concepts & Examination Highlights

  • ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 successfully touched down on the Moon's South Pole region on August 23, 2023, making India the first nation to land in that region; the landing site was named 'Shiv Shakti Point'.
  • Aditya-L1 was launched on September 2, 2023, aboard PSLV-C57 and successfully inserted into a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L1 in January 2024.
  • The Union Cabinet approved the National Quantum Mission in April 2023 with a budget of ₹6,003 crore to develop 50-1000 physical qubit quantum computers over eight years.
  • AIRAWAT, installed at C-DAC Pune, was ranked among the top 100 fastest supercomputers in the world, bolstering India's National Supercomputing Mission.
  • The landing date of Chandrayaan-3 on 23 August was officially designated by the Government of India as 'National Space Day'.
  • ISRO successfully launched XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite) aboard PSLV-C58 on 1 January 2024, making India the second nation after the US to deploy a dedicated polarimetry space observatory.
  • The Union Cabinet approved the IndiaAI Mission in March 2024 with an outlay of ₹10,372 crore to establish a computing infrastructure of over 10,000 GPUs for AI innovation.
  • ISRO carried out the push-and-pull demonstration of the reusable launch vehicle Pushpak during the RLV-LEX-02 and RLV-LEX-03 landing trials in Chitradurga, Karnataka.
  • India designated the crash site of Chandrayaan-2's Vikram lander on the Moon as 'Tiranga Point' and the impact point of Chandrayaan-1 as 'Jawahar Point'.
  • The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO), the world's largest radio telescope project, received formal approval from India with a financial outlay of ₹1,250 crore.
  • Param Rudra supercomputers were developed indigenously under the National Supercomputing Mission and deployed across premier research institutes in Pune, Delhi, and Kolkata.
  • The Union Cabinet approved the Chandrayaan-4 lunar sample return mission in September 2024 with a budget outlay of ₹2,104 crore to land on the Moon and return samples to Earth.
  • The Union Cabinet approved the Venus Orbiter Mission (VOM), named Shukrayaan, in September 2024 with an outlay of ₹1,236 crore to study Venus's atmosphere and surface.
  • The Gaganyaan programme received cabinet approval for expansion, including the development of the first module of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS-1) targeted for launch by 2028.
  • The Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV), designated 'Surya', was approved by the Cabinet in September 2024 with a maximum payload capability of up to 30 tonnes to Low Earth Orbit.
  • Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Prathap, and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla were revealed as the four astronaut-designates for the Gaganyaan mission.
  • Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla was selected as the prime astronaut for the joint ISRO-NASA Axiom-4 (Ax-4) commercial mission to the International Space Station.
  • ISRO successfully launched the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV-D3) in August 2024 from Sriharikota, placing the EOS-08 Earth Observation Satellite into a 475-km circular orbit and completing SSLV development.
  • NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) confirmed the discovery of JADES-GS-z14-0, the most distant known galaxy observed at a redshift of z=14.32z = 14.32, seen just 290 million years after the Big Bang.
  • The world's first whole-eye and partial face transplant was performed by a surgical team at NYU Langone Health in New York.
  • The European Space Agency (ESA) successfully launched the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) in April 2023 to explore Jupiter's ocean-bearing moons Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
  • NASA's Europa Clipper mission was launched in October 2024 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket to investigate the habitability of Jupiter's moon Europa.
  • DeepMind's AlphaFold3 was introduced in May 2024, capable of predicting the joint 3D structures of proteins, DNA, RNA, ligands, and chemical modifications with atomic precision.
  • India became a full member of the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) after the Union Cabinet ratified the international treaty and approved the national participation budget.
  • The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in India (LIGO-India) project in Hingoli, Maharashtra, received final financial sanction of ₹2,600 crore from the Union Cabinet.
  • ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 successfully performed a soft landing near the south pole of the Moon on August 23, 2023, making India the fourth country to soft-land on the Moon and the first to land near the lunar south pole.
  • The landing site of Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander was officially named 'Shiv Shakti Point', while the Chandrayaan-2 crash site was named 'Tiranga Point'.
  • The Pragyan rover deployed from Chandrayaan-3 confirmed the presence of sulfur (S) on the lunar south pole surface using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).
  • ISRO launched Aditya-L1, India's first dedicated space-based solar observatory, aboard PSLV-C57 on September 2, 2023, successfully placing it into a halo orbit around Lagrange Point 1 (L1) on January 6, 2024.
  • Aditya-L1 carries seven scientific payloads, including the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) and Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT), to observe the solar corona, photosphere, and chromosphere.
  • ISRO successfully launched the X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) aboard PSLV-C58 on January 1, 2024, making India the second nation after the US to deploy a dedicated polarimetry space observatory.
  • ISRO launched INSAT-3DS, a third-generation dedicated meteorological and climate satellite, aboard GSLV-F14 on February 17, 2024, from Sriharikota.
  • ISRO conducted the successful Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1) in October 2023, demonstrating the in-flight Crew Escape System (CES) for the Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme.
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the names of the four Indian Air Force astronaut-designates for the Gaganyaan mission in February 2024: Prashanth Nair, Ajit Krishnan, Angad Pratap, and Shubhanshu Shukla.
  • Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla was selected for the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) commercial mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in collaboration with NASA and ISRO.
  • NASA and ISRO completed the integration of the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite, the world's most sophisticated dual-frequency (L-band and S-band) Earth observation radar satellite.
  • The Indian Semiconductor Mission (ISM) saw major manufacturing milestones with the foundation stones laid in March 2024 for three commercial semiconductor fabrication and packaging units in Dholera and Sanand (Gujarat) and Morigaon (Assam).
  • Tata Electronics partnered with Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) to construct India's first commercial semiconductor fab in Dholera, Gujarat.
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated three indigenously developed 'Param Rudra' supercomputers to the nation in September 2024, deployed under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) in Pune, Delhi, and Kolkata.
  • India developed 'AIRAWAT', an AI supercomputer installed at C-DAC Pune, which was ranked 75th in the prestigious global TOP500 supercomputing list at ISC 2023.
  • The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) set up the Bharat 6G Alliance in July 2023 to spearhead research, intellectual property development, and standards for next-generation 6G telecommunication technologies.
  • India became a signatory to the NASA-led Artemis Accords on June 21, 2023, committing to peaceful, sustainable, and transparent civil space exploration and lunar cooperation.
  • The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) convention was ratified by India in 2024, confirming India's full participation in building the world's largest radio telescope in Australia and South Africa.
  • The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO-India) project received Union Cabinet approval in April 2023 for construction in Hingoli district, Maharashtra.
  • Agni-5, India's intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology, was successfully flight-tested under 'Mission Divyastra' in March 2024.
  • The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Navy successfully flight-tested the indigenous naval anti-ship missile and Long-Range Glide Bomb (LRGB) Gaurav.
  • The Agnikul Cosmos sub-orbital test vehicle 'Agnibaan SOrTeD' (Sub-Orbital Technology Demonstrator) completed a successful maiden launch in May 2024, powered by the world's first single-piece 3D-printed semi-cryogenic rocket engine.
  • Skyroot Aerospace launched India's first privately developed rocket, 'Vikram-S', under Mission Prarambh from ISRO's Sriharikota launchpad in November 2022.
  • The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) approved 'NexCAR19' in October 2023, India's first indigenously developed CAR-T cell therapy for treating relapsed leukemia and lymphoma, developed by IIT Bombay and ImmunoACT.
  • The Ministry of Earth Sciences launched the 'Samudrayaan' mission under the Deep Ocean Mission, developing the indigenous human submersible 'MATSYA 6000' to explore depths of 6,000 meters in the Indian Ocean.
Curriculum & Reference Sources: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Department of Science and Technology (DST), and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

Sample Solved Questions & Concept Explanations

8 Verified Concept Questions
Q1.EASY

In which year did India's Chandrayaan-3 mission achieve a soft landing of the Vikram Lander on the lunar south pole?

Q2.EASY

What is the name of India's indigenous solar observatory mission successfully placed into orbit at the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point in January 2024?

Q3.MEDIUM

What is India's first dedicated polarimetry space mission, launched on 1 January 2024 by PSLV-C58 to study cosmic X-ray sources?

Q4.MEDIUM

What is the name of the high-speed autonomous deep-sea submersible under development in India's Deep Ocean Mission capable of carrying 3 humans to a depth of 6,000 meters?

Q5.HARD

The landmark 'Artificial Intelligence Act' (EU AI Act) adopted by the European Parliament in March 2024 imposes systemic transparency requirements on 'General Purpose AI' (GPAI) models exceeding what computational training threshold?

Q6.HARD

The 'Square Kilometre Array Observatory' (SKAO), the world's largest radio telescope with thousands of antennas across Australia and South Africa, ratified India's full membership in 2024 through which nodal agency?

Q7.EASY

What is the name of the humanoid female robot developed by ISRO to fly aboard uncrewed Gaganyaan test missions ahead of human spaceflight?

Q8.EASY

Which private space company founded by Elon Musk achieved orbital spaceflight of its mega-rocket Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown?