21 July 2022

21 July 2022 – Daily Mains Answer Writing & Model Answer

Q1. India’s space endeavours have been halted due to the Covid-19 epidemic; nonetheless, India must remain competitive in order to deliver effective services to its clientele. Comment. (250 words)

Paper & Topic: GS III à Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nano-technology, Bio technology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights.

• Model Answer:

Introduction:

• India’s space endeavours have been halted due of the Covid-19 epidemic.
• ISRO’s space launch activities have come to a halt, despite major reforms in the space sector implemented in 2019 and 2020.
• Chandrayaan-3 and Gaganyaan are two important projects that have been hampered by the coronavirus pandemic.
• The third expedition to the Moon, Chandrayaan-3, is set to launch later this year.
• To mitigate risks and interruptions, ISRO should prioritise pursuing pre-launch automation with more fervour.

Body:

The current state of the Indian space industry is as follows:

• India’s worldwide percentage of total space launches, at 1.8 percent, remains modest.
• Between the first and second waves of COVID-19 in India, the three launches from the Sriharikota Range took place between November 2020 and February 2021.
• The satellite customer base that India’s economically successful PSLV enjoyed for 20 years is diminishing dramatically as a result of the new competition.
• It will take time for new start-ups to establish themselves.
• The first demonstrations from India’s space-launch start-ups, Agnikul Cosmos and Skyroot Aerospace, which recently raised $11 million in Series A funding each, are still a few quarters away, as is the first space launch from ISRO’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), which is marketed by the state-owned New Space India Limited (NSIL). Situation in the space sector around the world.
• Other launch vehicle developers, such as SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, China’s Long March, ExPace, and OneSpace, and New Zealand’s Rocket Lab, have continued to test and provide launch services despite the pandemic.

Why Private enterprises founded during the epidemic must have unrestricted access to space testing facilities in order to produce vehicles quickly:

• ISRO must obtain SSLV space-proven credentials as soon as possible in order to fit the GSLV MK-III for Gaganyaan, its human spaceflight mission.
• Reusable space plane testing and on-field evaluation for orbital and sub-orbital flights must be hastened. ISRO’s hypersonic space plane, the reusable launch vehicle (RLV-TD), has been awaiting tests since 2016.
• More launch vehicles are in experimental and operational phases in India than ever before.
• It calls for a national policy on commercial space transportation in the sub-orbital, orbital, and interplanetary realms.
• This requires the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), like the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States, to broaden its scope to include commercial space transportation.
• A collaborative DoS-DGCA national policy, similar to NASA-FAA synergies, can enable India’s space launch centres and spaceports become more market-oriented and equipped for commercial, military, civilian, and experimental space launches.
• In this method, space launch service providers and space launch technology businesses can collaborate.

India’s Next Steps:

• Despite the pandemic, ISRO will have to choose less labor-intensive projects to undertake.
• In the following weeks and months, ISRO will have to identify missions and change its strategy to pursue less demanding missions in order to avoid delays and rescheduling, which is currently unknown.
• Even without COVID-19, ISRO was on a path to enhance mission complexity and numbers, which only emphasises the importance of developing and integrating automation technology to reduce, if not completely eliminate, human labour and intervention at its ground launch sites.
• Unlike India, the United States has a private sector that can meet the criteria of some launch missions even if there is a health emergency, reducing the pressure on a government-run space programme.

Conclusion:

• Given the foregoing, it should now become a priority for ISRO to pursue pre-launch automation with more vigour in order to mitigate risks and disruptions.
• Although limited pre-launch automation exists and is utilised by space organisations all around the world, including the ISRO, it is not widely developed and employed.
• There would be substantially less incentive to move quickly on technology investments if there were no pandemic as infectious as the current one.
• COVID-19, on the other hand, may and should encourage more zealous pursuit of opportunities and investment in the AI subfields of Machine Learning (ML) and robotics.
• Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nano-technology, Bio-technology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights.

Q2. What are the goals of the Deep Ocean Mission in terms of realising India’s vision of harnessing the Blue Economy for long-term growth? Explain. (250 words)

Paper & Topic: GS III à Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nano-technology, Bio-technology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights.

• Model Answer:

Introduction:

• The Deep Ocean Mission will be a mission-mode project that will support the Indian government’s blue economy objectives.
• The Deep Ocean Mission is proposed as a multi-ministerial, multi-disciplinary programme with a focus on deep sea technology development, deep sea mineral exploration, and deep sea biodiversity exploration, as well as the acquisition of a research vessel for exploration, deep sea observations, and capacity building.
• The Ministry of Earth Sciences’ Deep Ocean Mission was recently approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, with the goal of exploring the deep ocean for resources and developing deep sea technology for long-term utilisation of ocean resources.

Body:

The following are the key goals proposed by the Deep Ocean Mission:

• Deep sea mining, underwater vehicles, and underwater robotics technologies
• Ocean climate change advisory services
• Technological innovations for deep sea biodiversity exploration and conservation
• Deep ocean survey and exploration
• Proof of concept studies on energy and freshwater from the ocean; and
• Establishing a cutting-edge marine biology station The Deep Ocean Mission’s vision for harnessing the Blue Economy:
• A manned submersible with a set of scientific sensors and tools will be constructed to carry three persons to a depth of 6,000 metres in the ocean.
• For mining polymetallic nodules at those depths in the central Indian Ocean, an Integrated Mining System will be created.
• Mineral exploration investigations will prepare the way for commercial exploitation in the foreseeable future, as and when the International Seabed Authority, a United Nations agency, develops a commercial exploitation code (UN)
• It requires creating a set of observations and models to better understand and forecast key climate variables on seasonal to decadal time spans.
• The main focus will be on bio-prospecting of deep sea flora and fauna, including microorganisms, as well as studies on the sustainable use of deep sea bio-resources.
• It will look for possible multi-metal Hydrothermal Sulphides mineralization sites along the Indian Ocean’s mid-oceanic ridges and identify them.
• This proof of concept project envisions studies and full engineering design for offshore Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) powered desalination plants.
• Its goal is to increase human ability and enterprise in the fields of ocean biology and engineering. • It will use onsite business incubator facilities to transform research into industry applications and product development.

Conclusion:

• Approximately 95% of the deep ocean has yet to be explored. In the case of India, the country is bordered on three sides by the ocean, with roughly 30% of the people residing along the shore.
• According to the government, the ocean is an important economic factor that supports fisheries and aquaculture, as well as livelihoods, tourism, and blue commerce.
• Apart from that, seas are a repository of energy, food, medicines, minerals, weather and climate modulators, and the foundation of life on Earth.
• In addition, the government claims that India has a unique marine position and that the relevance of the oceans on sustainability must be considered.