05 September 2022

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

1 – Artemis Mission: GS III Topic Science and Technology

 Artemis Mission: What is it?

• The Artemis mission from NASA, which is named after Apollo’s mythological twin sister, is hailed as the next step in lunar exploration.
• The goddess of the moon is also named Artemis.
• It is the first of a string of progressively more difficult missions that will allow people to go to the Moon and Mars.
• NASA hopes to send people to the moon with the Artemis programme by 2024, and the first woman and person of colour will also be sent there.
• To facilitate exploration by robotics and men, NASA will build an Artemis Base Camp on the surface and a gateway (the lunar outpost encircling the Moon) in lunar orbit.
• The gateway will act as a multipurpose outpost orbiting the moon and is a crucial part of NASA’s sustaining lunar operations.
• The Artemis programme also involves participation from other space agencies.
• The European Space Agency will supply the International Habitat and the ESPRIT module, which will deliver enhanced communications capabilities among other things, while the Canadian Space Agency has committed to delivering advanced robotics for the gateway.
• The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency intends to provide logistical resupply and housing components.

What are the Mission’s Key Points:

• The first integrated flight test of NASA’s Deep Space Exploration Systems will be Artemis I, formerly known as Exploration Mission-1:
• Spacecraft Orion: The Orion spacecraft will stay in orbit longer than any other astronaut ship has ever done without docking to a space station.
• The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the most potent rocket in the world, reaches 2,80,000 miles from the planet and stays there for four to six weeks.
• Exploration Ground Systems at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, have recently been upgraded.
• It is an unmanned space mission that will use an SLS rocket to propel the spacecraft into orbit.
• Assuring a safe crew module entry, descent, splashdown, and recovery is the mission’s main operating goal.
• In the summer of 2022, SLS and Orion will be launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center as part of the Artemis I mission.
• The success of the Orion spacecraft’s safe return to Earth will mark the mission’s conclusion.

What will the Artemis program’s upcoming missions be?

• Orion’s vital systems will be tested with crew aboard during the second flight of the programme.
• The Artemis program’s lessons will eventually be applied to the launch of the first astronauts to Mars.
• NASA intends to use the lunar orbit to obtain the experience required to further human space travel further into the solar system.
• What is the Moon Exploration History?
• The first rovers to reach the Moon were the unmanned Luna 1 and 2 from the Soviet Union in 1959.
• As early as 1961, the US started attempting to send people into space.
• Eight years later, on July 20, 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin made history by being the first humans to set foot on the Moon.
• Between 1961 and 1968, the USA launched three different classes of robotic missions before launching the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon.
• 12 American astronauts visited the Moon after July 1969 and did so every year until 1972.
• With the robotic missions Clementine and Lunar Prospector, the United States restarted lunar exploration in the 1990s.
• With the launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite in 2009, it started a new series of robotic lunar missions (LCROSS).
• NASA launched the ARTEMIS in 2011.
• In 2012, the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft studied the Moon’s gravity.
• Aside from the United States, missions to explore the Moon have been sent by the European Space Agency, Japan, China, and India.
• In 2019, China successfully launched two rovers onto the lunar surface, including the first-ever landing on the Moon’s far side.

What are ISRO’s efforts to explore the moon?

Chandrayaan 1:

• An agreement for mutual cooperation between the Russian space agency ROSCOSMOS and the Indian space agency ISRO marked the start of the Chandrayaan project in 2007.
• The mission, however, was delayed in January 2013 and rescheduled for 2016, due to Russia’s inability to complete the lander in time.
• Findings: Moon water has been confirmed to exist.
• proof of lunar caves created by a prehistoric lava flow.
• On the lunar surface, evidence of past tectonic activity was discovered.
• The cracks and fractures seen may have been caused by meteorite impacts and previous internal tectonic activity.

Chandrayaan 2:

• India’s second moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, includes a fully homegrown orbiter, lander (Vikram), and rover (Pragyan).
• The Vikram lander contains the Pragyan Rover.
• Chandrayaan-3, which will include a lander and a rover, is India’s third lunar mission, according to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

Source The Hindu

 2 – Nano Urea: GS III Topic Indian Agriculture

 What is nano liquid urea?

• An artificial source of nitrogen, a key nutrient needed by plants, urea is a chemical nitrogen fertiliser that is white in colour.
• In essence, liquid nano urea is urea in the form of a nanoparticle.
• Which is preferable between imported urea and liquid nano urea?
• Cost: Liquid nano urea is less expensive ($240 for a half-liter without a subsidy; between $3,500 and $4,00 on the international market for a bag of urea). At least one bag of urea can be successfully replaced with a bottle of the nano urea.
• Governmental advantages: reduces the government’s expense for fertiliser subsidies. The country of India is reliant on imported fertiliser.
• The effectiveness of liquid nano urea can reach 85–90%. (Conventional urea has an efficiency of about 25 per cent).
• Farmers do not need to be concerned about liquid nano urea “caking” when it comes into contact with moisture because it has a one-year shelf life.

A few more advantages of liquid nano urea:

• As they are absorbed by the stomata, pores located on the epidermis of leaves, fertilisers in nano form deliver a focused supply of nutrients to crops.
• Reduces the disproportionate and careless usage of conventional urea.
• Makes crops more productive.
• Reduces contamination of the air, water, and soil.

Source The Indian Express

3 – NALSA: GS II Topic Constitutional Non-Constitutional Bodies

About:

• The Legal Services Authorities Act of 1987 established the NALSA, which was charged with developing regulations and guiding principles for the provision of legal services in accordance with the Act.
• Additionally, it provides financing and grants to non-profit organisations and state legal services authorities to support the implementation of their projects and systems for providing legal aid.

Provisions of the Constitution:

• According to Article 39A of the Indian Constitution, the State must ensure that the functioning of the legal system promotes justice on the basis of equal opportunity and, in particular, must provide free legal aid through appropriate legislation or programmes or in any other way to ensure that no citizen is denied the opportunity to secure justice due to their financial situation or another type of disability.
• The State is required by Articles 14 and 22(1) to guarantee equality before the law and a legal system that advances justice on the basis of equal opportunity for everyone.

NALSA’s goals:

• Offer free legal counsel and assistance.
• raise awareness of the law.
• Set up lok adalats.
• Encourage the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms to resolve disagreements. Arbitration, Conciliation, Judicial settlement, including settlement through Lok Adalat, or Mediation are some examples of ADR processes.
• Pay restitution to crime victims.

What do Institutions for Legal Services at Different Levels do?

• National Level: The Legal Services Authorities Act of 1987 allowed for the formation of NALSA. The Chief Patron is the Chief Justice of India.
• State Legal Services Authority, at the state level. The Chief Justice of the State High Court, who serves as its Patron-in-Chief, is in charge of it.
• District Legal Services Authority at the district level. Its ex-officio Chairman is the district’s district judge.
• The legal services committee at the taluka/sub-division level. A seasoned Civil Judge serves as its leader.
• High Court: Committee for Legal Services at the High Court.
• Supreme Court: Committee for Legal Services at the Supreme Court.

Which People Qualify for Free Legal Services?

• Children and women
• Workers from SC/ST industries
• Mass casualty, violent, flood, drought, quake, and industrial disaster victims.
• Disabled individuals
• People held in detention
• If the matter is before a court other than the Supreme Court, those individuals whose yearly income is less than the cap set by the relevant State Government, or less than Rs. 5 Lakhs if the case is before the Supreme Court.
• victims of human trafficking or the poor.

What initiatives are related to this?

 Mobile app for legal services:

• NALSA has released the Legal Services Mobile App on Android and iOS versions to make it simple for regular persons to access legal assistance in order to enable equal access to justice.

DISHA Program:

• Through a programme called “Designing Innovative Solutions for Holistic Access to Justice (DISHA),” which will be implemented from 2021 to 2026, the Department of Justice (DoJ) has launched a comprehensive, holistic, integrated, and systemic solution on access to justice at the national level of India.
• All Access to Justice Programs have been combined under the DISHA plan and scaled up to the level of the entire country.

 Source  The Hindu

 4 – Vostok 2022: Prelims Specific Topic

 What is Vostok 2022 Exercise?

• There will be forces there from a number of former Soviet states as well as China, India, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua, and Syria.
• The 7/8 Gorkha Rifles contingent served as the Indian Army’s representative.
• Interaction and coordination between other participating military contingents and observers are its main objectives.
• More than 50,000 soldiers and more than 5,000 weaponry units, including 140 planes and 60 warships, will participate in the Vostok 2022 exercise, which will take place at seven firing ranges in Russia’s Far East and the Sea of Japan.
• Through discussions and tactical exercises, the Indian Army contingent will look forward to exchanging practical information, putting verified drills, procedures, and practise integration of new technologies into effect.

Source The Indian Express