Daily Quiz #24 UPSC Prelims Marathon – August 29, 2019

Explanation: Trishul is a Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile. It can also be used as an anti-sea skimmer from a ship against low flying attacking missiles. It employs dual thrust propulsion stage using high-energy solid propellant in a maraging steel flow chamber, and is operated on command guidance initially with ka-band gathering and then transferred to the tracking radar. It has necessary electronic counter-counter measures against all known aircraft jammers.
Trishul, with its quickest reaction time, high frequency operation, high maneuverability, high lethal capability and multi-roles for three services, is state-of-the-art system providing considerable advantage to the Armed forces. This system has gone through development flight trials for army and sea skimmer trials for navy. The final evaluation is in progress before user trials.

Explanation: The assembly of the “Rosalind Franklin” rover is now complete ahead of its proposed mission to Mars in July next year. The ExoMars rover, a project of the European Space Agency (ESA) whose production combined the work of British, European and Canadian scientists, has finally been assembled. It will now be transferred from the Airbus factory in Stevenage to Toulouse in France for testing ahead of its proposed nine-month trip to the Red Planet in search of life. Named after Rosalind Elsie Franklin, a British scientist whose work was central to the discovery of the structure of DNA, scientists hope it will increase human understanding of Mars. The six-wheeled robot is a part of the ESA’s ExoMars mission to assess the geological landscape of the planet, as well as its microscopic composition.

Explanation: Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, the Spaceport of India, is responsible for providing Launch Base Infrastructure for the Indian Space Programme. This Centre has the facilities for solid propellant processing, static testing of solid motors, launch vehicle integration and launch operations, range operations comprising telemetry, tracking and command network and mission control centre.
The Centre has two launch pads from where the rocket launching operations of PSLV and GSLV are carried out. The mandate for the centre is (i) to produce solid propellant boosters for the launch vehicle programmes of ISRO (ii) to provide the infrastructure for qualifying various subsystems and solid rocket motors and carrying out the necessary tests (iii) to provide launch base infrastructure for satellites and launch vehicles.
SDSC SHAR has a separate launch pad for launching sounding rockets. The centre also provides the necessary launch base infrastructure for sounding rockets of ISRO and for assembly, integration and launch of sounding rockets and payloads.

Explanation: Department of Biotechnology in the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, celebrated its 33rd Foundation Day today in New Delhi with the theme as “Celebrating Biotechnology: Building Indian as an Innovation Nation”.
On the occasion Union Minister for Science & Technology, Dr. Harsh Vardhan gave away the Biotechnology Research Innovation and Technology Excellence (BRITE) awards. The Union Minister emphasized the role of Department of Biotechnology during the last 33 years in creating a large scale impact across the multiple sectors by development and commercialization of affordable solutions for healthcare, improved crop varieties, animal diagnostics and technology for generation of clean energy. Further, he highlighted the progress made in the area of capacity building, generation of new knowledge, translational research and in nurturing of Biotechnology startup ecosystem.

Explanation: Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research [IGCAR], the second largest establishment of the Department of Atomic Energy next to Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, was set up at Kalpakkam, 80 KMs south of Chennai [MADRAS], in 1971 with the main objective of conducting broad based multidisciplinary programme of scientific research and advanced Engineering, directed towards the development of sodium cooled Fast Breeder Reactor [FBR] technology, in India. This is part of the second stage of Indian Atomic Energy Programme, which is aimed at preparing the country for utilization of the extensive Thorium reserves and providing means to meet the large demands of electrical energy in 21st century.
In meeting the objectives, a modest beginning was made by constructing a sodium cooled Fast Breeder Test Reactor [FBTR], with a nominal power of 40 Mwt, based on the French Reactor, RAPSODIE. The reactor attained its first criticality on 18th Oct, 1985 and has been in operation at its maximum attainable power level of 10.5 MWt with a small core. It is the first of its kind in the world to use Plutonium Uranium mixed carbide as a driver fuel.
Over the years, the centre has established comprehensive R & D facilities covering the entire spectrum of FBR technology related to Sodium Technology, Reactor Engineering, Reactor Physics, Metallurgy and Materials, Chemistry of Fuels and its materials, Fuel Reprocessing, Reactor Safety, Control and Instrumentation, Computer Applications etc., and has developed a strong base in a variety of disciplines related to this advanced technology.