Technology for Reusable Launch Vehicles
Tags: GS Paper – 3, Space Technology Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology
In News
- Recently, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and its partners demonstrated a precise landing experiment for a Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) at Chitradurga, Karnataka’s Aeronautical Test Range (ATR).
- The RLV-TD was dropped from 4.5 km altitude by an Indian Air Forces (IAF) Chinook helicopter, and ISRO executed the RLV-TD landing experiment as planned.
What is ISRO’s RLV Project?
- About:
- According to ISRO, the Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstration (RLV-TD) series of experiments are part of efforts to “develop essential technologies for a fully reusable launch vehicle to enable low-cost access to space.”
- This vehicle will eventually be enlarged to become the first stage of India’s reusable two-stage orbital (TSTO) launch vehicle.
- Features and Application:
- The RLV-TD appears to be an aircraft. It has a fuselage, a nose cap, two delta wings, and two vertical tails.
- The RLV-TD will be used to develop hypersonic flight (HEX), autonomous landing (LEX), return flight experiment (REX), powered cruise flight, and Scramjet Propulsion Experiment technologies (SPEX).
Significance:
- A reusable launch vehicle is a low-cost, reliable, and on-demand mode of accessing space. o The high cost of space exploration is a major deterrent to space exploration.
- By using RLVs, the cost of a launch can be reduced by nearly 80 percent.
Other Previous Experiment:
- ISRO had previously demonstrated the re-entry of its winged vehicle RLV-TD in May 2016 during the HEX mission.
- In HEX, the vehicle touched down on a fictitious runway above the Bay of Bengal. A precise landing on a runway was not a requirement of the HEX mission.
- The LEX mission successfully completed the final approach phase, which coincided with the re-entry return flight path exhibiting an autonomous, high-speed (350 km/h) landing.
Other Agencies Using RLV or Partial RLV:
- Reusable space vehicles have been in existence for a long time with NASA space shuttles carrying out dozens of human space flight missions.
- Since 2017, SpaceX has demonstrated partially reusable launch systems using the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
- SpaceX is also developing Starship, a fully reusable launch vehicle system.
Conclusion
The RLV-TD programme’s successful landing experiment represents a significant milestone in India’s space technology development. The RLV-TD is an essential step towards achieving low-cost access to space, and its successful implementation will benefit India’s future space programme.
Environment & Biodiversity
Tags: GS Paper – 3, Conservation Man-animal conflicts
For Prelims: Human-Animal Conflicts, International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations Development Programme.
For mains: Issues of Human-Wildlife Conflict and Solutions.
In News
- Recently, in Oxford, United Kingdom, the International Conference on Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence was held, bringing together hundreds of activists from 70 countries to discuss solutions to Human-Wildlife Conflicts.
- The Conference was jointly organised by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and a number of other organisations.
What does the Conference Aim at Achieving?
- Facilitate dialogue and peer-to-peer learning across sectors and actors on the subject in order to foster partnerships and collaboration among individuals and institutions working on human-wildlife conflict.
- Produce an interdisciplinary and shared understanding of the most recent insights, technologies, methods, ideas, and data from the field of human-wildlife conflict, coexistence, and interactions.
- Incorporate human-wildlife conflict as one of the top global priorities in biodiversity conservation and the Sustainable Development Goals for the next decade, catalysing opportunities for collaboration on national, regional, or international policies and initiatives.
- Identify and develop a collective strategy for addressing knowledge and implementation gaps in order to reduce and manage human-wildlife conflict effectively.
What is the Need for this Conference?
- Conflicts between humans and wildlife are a major obstacle to species conservation, as they make coexistence with nature difficult and impede biodiversity protection.
- According to the United Nations Environment Programme, more than 75% of the world’s wild cat species are killed due to armed conflict (UNEP).
- It will provide a forum for experts from the fields of “ecology, animal behaviour, psychology, law, conflict analysis, mediation, peacebuilding, international development, economics, anthropology, and others, to understand human-wildlife conflict from a variety of perspectives, learn from one another, and forge new partnerships.
- Target 4 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which was adopted at the UN Biodiversity Conference in December 2022, prescribes the effective management of human-wildlife interactions.
What is Human-Animal Conflict?
About:
- Human-animal conflict refers to instances in which human activities, such as agriculture, infrastructure development, or resource extraction, clash with wild animals, resulting in negative outcomes for both humans and animals.
- Implications:
- Economic Losses: Human-animal conflicts can result in substantial economic losses for humans, particularly farmers and livestock herders. Wild animals can cause economic hardship by destroying crops, damaging infrastructure, and killing livestock.
- Threats to Human Safety: In areas where humans and wildlife coexist, wild animals can pose a threat to human safety. Large predator attacks, such as those by lions, tigers, and bears, can cause serious injury or death.
- Ecological Damage: Human-animal conflict can cause ecological harm. When humans kill predators, for instance, it can lead to an increase in prey populations, which can cause ecological imbalances.
- Conservation Difficulties Human-animal conflict can also pose a difficulty for conservation efforts, as it can result in negative perceptions of wildlife and make it difficult to implement conservation measures.
- Psychological Effects Human-animal conflict can also have psychological effects on individuals, particularly those who have been attacked or whose property has been damaged. It can result in anxiety, fear, and trauma.
Government Measures:
- The Wildlife Protection Act of 1972: This act provides the legal framework for activities such as the prohibition of hunting, the protection and management of wildlife habitats, and the establishment of protected areas, among others.
- The Biological Diversity Act of 2002: India is a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity of the United Nations. The provisions of the Biological Diversity Act are in addition to and do not supersede those of any other forest or wildlife-related statute.
- National Wildlife Action Plan (2002-2016): This plan focuses on strengthening and expanding the protected area network, conserving Endangered wildlife and their habitats, regulating the trade in wildlife products, and conducting research, education, and training.
- Project Tiger: Launched in 1973, Project Tiger is a Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) Centrally Sponsored Scheme. It offers tigers refuge in the nation’s national parks.
- Project Elephant is a federally funded initiative that was launched in February 1992 to protect elephants, their habitats, and corridors.
Technology for Reusable Launch Vehicles
Tags: GS Paper – 3, Space Technology Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology
In News
- Recently, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and its partners demonstrated a precise landing experiment for a Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) at Chitradurga, Karnataka’s Aeronautical Test Range (ATR).
- The RLV-TD was dropped from 4.5 km altitude by an Indian Air Forces (IAF) Chinook helicopter, and ISRO executed the RLV-TD landing experiment as planned.
What is ISRO’s RLV Project?
About:
- According to ISRO, the Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstration (RLV-TD) series of experiments are part of efforts to “develop essential technologies for a fully reusable launch vehicle to enable low-cost access to space.”
- This vehicle will eventually be enlarged to become the first stage of India’s reusable two-stage orbital (TSTO) launch vehicle.
Features and Application:
- The RLV-TD appears to be an aircraft. It has a fuselage, a nose cap, two delta wings, and two vertical tails.
- The RLV-TD will be used to develop hypersonic flight (HEX), autonomous landing (LEX), return flight experiment (REX), powered cruise flight, and Scramjet Propulsion Experiment technologies (SPEX).
Significance:
- A reusable launch vehicle is a low-cost, reliable, and on-demand mode of accessing space. o The high cost of space exploration is a major deterrent to space exploration.
- By using RLVs, the cost of a launch can be reduced by nearly 80 percent.
Other Previous Experiment:
- ISRO had previously demonstrated the re-entry of its winged vehicle RLV-TD in May 2016 during the HEX mission.
- In HEX, the vehicle touched down on a fictitious runway above the Bay of Bengal. A precise landing on a runway was not a requirement of the HEX mission.
- The LEX mission successfully completed the final approach phase, which coincided with the re-entry return flight path exhibiting an autonomous, high-speed (350 km/h) landing.
Other Agencies Using RLV or Partial RLV:
- Reusable spacecraft have existed for a considerable amount of time, with NASA space shuttles completing dozens of human spaceflight missions.
- Since 2017, SpaceX has demonstrated partially reusable launch systems using the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
- SpaceX is also developing Starship, a fully reusable launch vehicle system.
Conclusion
The successful landing experiment of the RLV-TD programme marks a significant milestone in India’s space technology development. The RLV-TD is an important step towards achieving low-cost access to space, and its successful implementation will benefit India’s space program in the future.
UPSC Civil Services Examination, Previous Year Question (PYQ)
Discovering New Species of Butterflies in Kerala
Tags: GS Paper – 3
In News
Recently, a subspecies of butterfly (Caltoris bromus sadasiva) from Kerala’s Akkulam and Vembanad lakes was discovered.
What are the Key Points Related to the Discovery?
- About: It belongs to the Lepidoptera family of skipper butterflies (moths and butterflies).
- This is the first subspecies of Bromus swift (Caltoris bromus) butterfly to be documented in the Western Ghats and Peninsular India.
- Number of Butterfly Species: The discovery of Caltoris bromus sadasiva brings the total number of butterfly species in the Western Ghats to 336, and the number of skipper butterfly species to 83; the last skipper butterfly was discovered nearly 75 years ago.
- Over 15 species of the Indo-Australian genus Caltoris are dispersed throughout south-east Asia. One of them, Caltoris bromus, has two additional subspecies: Caltoris bromus bromus and Caltoris bromus yanuca.
What are the Key Facts about Vembanad Lakes?
- This lake is the longest in India and the largest in Kerala.
- Vembanad Lake is also known as Vembanad Kayal, Vembanad Kol, Punnamada Lake (in Kuttanad) and Kochi Lake (in Kochi).
- The lake is fed by the Meenachil, Achankovil, Pampa, and Manimala rivers.
- A narrow barrier island separates it from the Arabian Sea, and it is a popular Kerala backwater stretch.
- In 2002, it was added to the Ramsar Convention’s list of internationally significant wetland areas.
- It is the second-largest Ramsar site in India, after West Bengal’s Sundarbans.
Sea Level Rise Causes Salt Marshes to Degrade
Tags: GS Paper – 1 Conservation
In News
- Researchers from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) have been monitoring the vegetative cover of the Great Sippewissett Marsh in Falmouth, Massachusetts, for the past 50 years in order to examine the effects of increased nitrogen levels on the marsh grass species there.
- A recent study, however, indicates that by the turn of the century, more than 90 percent of these biologically productive ecosystems may be lost due to sea level rise.
What are Salt Marshes?
- About:
- Salt marshes are tidally flooded and drained coastal wetland ecosystems. They are unique ecosystems that are situated between land and sea, and they consist of a variety of salt-tolerant grasses, sedges, rushes, and other plants.
- Characteristics:
- The soil in salt marshes may consist of thick muck and peat, making them marshy. Peat is composed of plant matter that has decomposed and is typically several feet thick.
- Salt marshes smell like sulphurous rotten-egg smell. Because salt marshes are frequently submerged by tides and contain a great deal of decomposing plant matter, oxygen levels in the peat can be extremely low, a condition known as hypoxia. Hypoxia is caused by the growth of bacteria that produce the sulphurous rotten-egg odour commonly associated with marshes and mud flats.
What are the Advantages of Salt Marshes?
- Salt marshes have long been regarded as one of the world’s most productive and biologically diverse ecosystems. They provide essential habitat for numerous fish, bird, and other animal species.
- Salt marshes maintain healthy fisheries, coastlines, and communities as “ecological guardians of the coast.”
- They provide shelter, food, and nursery grounds for over 75% of coastal fisheries species, such as prawns, crab, and numerous finfish.
- Additionally, salt marshes protect shorelines from erosion by acting as a barrier against wave action and by capturing soils.
- Salt marshes reduce flood water flow and absorb precipitation. Salt marshes contribute to maintaining water quality in coastal bays, sounds, and estuaries by filtering runoff and excess nutrients.
- In addition to being significant carbon sinks, salt marshes absorb and store large quantities of atmospheric carbon dioxide. By reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, this helps to mitigate the effects of climate change.
What are the Threats to Salt Marshes?
- Despite their many benefits, salt marshes face a number of threats that could threaten their survival. Sea level rise is one of the most significant of these threats.
- As sea levels continue to rise as a result of climate change, salt marshes are in danger of being completely submerged and vanishing.
- An additional threat to salt marshes is the introduction of excessive nitrogen, which can alter the balance of plant species and result in a decline in biodiversity. This excess nitrogen can originate from a variety of sources, including agricultural and urban fertiliser runoff.
- Human activities, such as the construction of seawalls and other structures along the coast, can impede the migration of salt marshes inland in response to rising sea levels.
- This can result in a phenomenon known as “coastal squeeze,” in which marshes are compressed by rising seas and man-made barriers.
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