My Science School

The first parachute jump of note was performed on October 22, 1797 by Frenchman Andre-Jacques Garnerin. A pioneer in the world of parachuting, Garnerin not only achieved success in his chosen field, but was also able to garner a lot of public interest for it. Join A.S.Ganesh as he jumps into this tale...

The pull of the Earth’s gravity is something that we take for granted these days, but it has been better understood only in the past few centuries. With its effect evident during free fall, humanity has long dreamt about the ability to control that drop. Parachute jumps were one of the first ideas that came about as a solution to this, and it continues to be in vogue even today.

The idea of parachutes were around for some time before it actually became a reality. Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci, widely considered one of the greatest painters ever, conceived the idea in his works and even made sketches of the same during his lifetime.

Slowing down free fall

There were a number of attempts in the centuries that followed, but it was nearly 300 years later that the first parachute jump of note was carried out successfully. The credit for that goes to Frenchman Andre-Jacques Garnerin, who designed and tested parachutes capable of slowing down free fall from high altitudes.

Born in 1769, Garnerin was drawn towards physics from a young age and took to studying the nascent field of ballooning when he got the chance. He worked with a variety of ballooning activities – mainly with his brother Jean-Baptiste-Olivier Garnerin – and was also involved in the flight of hot air balloons.

When he became an inspector with the French army in 1793, he vouched for the use of balloons during military activities. He was, however, captured by the British troops during hostilities that occurred in the French Revolution. The Brits turned him over to the Hungarians, who held him as a prisoner of war.

An idea in prison

While this might seem like an unlikely setting to strike upon an idea, it was during this time that Garnerin thought about employing air resistance to slow down an individual’s fall from an altitude. Even though he never did use a parachute to try escape from the high ramparts of the Hungarian prison he spent a few years in, the idea stuck with him.

On returning to France, Garnerin began making balloon ascents and also acted on his idea of building a parachute. With a canopy 23 feet in diameter attached to a basket with suspension lines, Garnerin readied his first parachute that was umbrella- shaped.

First demonstration

On October 22, 1797, Garnerin gave a first demonstration with his parachute in Paris. Attaching the parachute to a hydrogen balloon, he reached a height of 3,200 feet or 1,000 m. He then jumped onto the basket of his parachute and severed it from the balloon.

As Garnerin had not included an air vent at the top of his parachute, his journey back to the surface of the Earth was far from smooth. His contraption oscillated wildly during the descent, bumped a little and scraped while landing, but Garnerin emerged unscathed.

Apart from perfecting his parachute, which included introducing an air vent at the top, Garnerin did his best to draw more eyeballs to each of his exhibitions, which took place in various cities of northern Europe. He had a woman accompany him as a passenger in one of his balloon flights, which was both highly publicised and controversial.

His wife, Jeanne-Genevieve, was one of the first women to fly on a balloon when she achieved the feat in 1798. In the following year, she became the first woman to do a parachute jump, as she made a successful descent from 900 m.

Garnerin’s most popular jump took place in London, as he came down on his parachute from an altitude of 8,000 feet (2,440 m) in 1802. His design improvements enabled jumping from greater heights than ever before a reality.

For a man who spent most of his life with balloons and parachutes, he also met his end with it. At the construction site of one of his latest innovations, Garnerin died in an accident in 1823. The fundamentals of his parachute design have largely stayed on, with advancements of various kinds allowing for better control during the descents.

 

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Varunastra is a heavy weight, electrically-propelled anti-submarine torpedo capable of targeting quiet and stealth submarines, both in deep and shallow waters in an intense countermeasure environment. Developed by the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory of the DRDO, the Varunastra torpedo was formally inducted into the Indian Navy in 2016. Varunastra can be fired from all anti-submarine warfare ships.

According to news reports, the Indian Navy will receive a second tranch of the Varunastra in April 2019 — exclusively for use on the Scorpene-class, the INS Sindhughosh (Kilo-class) and the Arihant-class submarines.

Developing the Varunastra took massive leaps forward in key areas of technology. The battery that powers the electric motor, for example, is almost two and a half times more powerful than ones used in current Indian Navy torpedos.

Another huge first is the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) for target homing in case the torpedo is aimed against a submarine using torpedo decoys. The DRDO believes that Varunastra is the first torpedo in the world to use GPS-based targeting.

 

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Netra is an Airbome Early Waming and Control (AEWC) aircraft fitted with indigenously developed electronics and hardware. It is useful for surveillance, tracking, identification and classification of airbome and sea surface targets. It is also useful in detecting incoming ballistic missile threats. It played a key role during the Balakot airstrike, carried out by the IAF in February 2019. It provided surveillance and radar coverage to the five Mirage jets that bombed terror launch pads in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It was designed and developed by scientists of the DRDO, with assistance from the Bengaluru based Centre for Airborne Systems.

China is equipped with better capabilities. As TOI reported earlier, China has over 20 AWACS, including the new KJ-500 ones that can track over 60 aircraft at ranges up to 470km, while Pakistan, on the other hand has four Swedish Saab-2000 AeW&C aircraft and four Chinese-origin ZDK-03 (KJ-200) AWACS.

Keeping this in mind, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), in March 2016 cleared building of two Awacs, which will involve mounting indigenous 360-degree coverage AESA (active electronically scanned array) radars on Airbus A-330 wide-body jets.

 

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India launched its first anti-satellite weapon (ASAT), as part of its Indian Ballistic Missile Defence Programme, in 2019. The interceptor successfully shot down an out-of service Indian satellite in a low Earth orbit. The test dubbed Mission Shakti, was a joint programme of the DRDO and the Indian Space Research Organisation. With the successful completion of the test, India became only the fourth country after the U.S., Russia and China to have this space weapon technology. Anti-satellite weapons, called ASAT systems, are capable of attacking enemy satellites in space by jamming communications or destroying them. ASAT missiles also act as a space deterrent in dissuading rivals from targeting the country's satellite network. Satellites are important for a country's infrastructure as a large number of crucial applications such as navigation and communication networks, banking, stock markets and weather forecasting, are now satellite-based. Destroying satellites could cripple these services. An ASAT system can even target a ground station and stop transmission of information from the satellite attached to it. The system can also direct a manoeuvrable satellite to smash into another satellite!

India has a long standing and rapidly growing space programme. It has expanded rapidly in the last five years. The Mangalyaan Mission to Mars was successfully launched. Thereafter, the government sanctioned the Gaganyaan Mission which will take Indians to outer space.



India has also undertaken 102 spacecraft missions consisting of communication satellites, earth observation satellites, experimental satellites, navigation satellites, apart from satellites meant for scientific research and exploration, academic studies and other small satellites. India’s space programme is a critical backbone of India’s security, economic and social infrastructure.



The test was done to verify that India has the capability to safeguard our space assets.

 

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Astra is a Beyond Visual Range (BVR) class of Air-to-Air Missile (AAM) system designed to be mounted on fighter jets. With a 15-kg high-explosive pre-fragmented warhead, Astra has a range of over 70 km and can fly towards its target at a speed of over 5,555 km/hr. It has an all weather day-and-night capability. The missile is being developed in multiple variants to meet specific requirements.

The missile has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), along with almost 50 other public and private organisations, which were involved in multiple variants to meet specific requirements.

For the IAF trials, the Astra Mk-I Weapon system integrated with SU-30 Mk-I aircraft was carried out by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

 

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Arjun Mk-1A dubbed Hunter Killer, is an all-weather 68-tonne battle tank featuring a 120mm main gun. An improved version of the indigenously developed Arjun main battle tank (MBT). Arjun Mk-1A has successfully completed necessary trials. The Mk 1-A sports a sophisticated gunners main sight integrated with automatic target tracking. This would enable the tank crew to track moving targets automatically. The gun is controlled by a computerised fire control system, giving the tank higher kill capability.

The battle tank will have a crew of four -- commander, gunner, loader and driver. Keeping them out of harm's way is paramount. For this, Arjun Mk-1A comes with a slew of new features.

Balamurugan said Track Width Mine Plough (TWMP) is a significant addition which provides capability for the battle tank to cross minefields with ease as the plough mounted to the front of the vehicle creates a mine-free path by ploughing through mines and throwing them to the sides of the tank.

Another key feature added is a Containerised Ammunition Bin with Individual Shutter (CABIS) that gives crew enhanced protection from inadvertent burning of ammunition stored in the ready round bin.

The hot gases generated due to ammunition burning is vented out by blow-off panels from the roof of the turret, thus saving the crew.

 

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The New Generation Anti Radiation Missile (NGRAM), also called RudraM-1, was test-fired from a Su-30 MKI fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force earlier this month. With a speed of Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound). The missile is capable of bringing down a wide range of enemy radar systems, communication networks and air defence systems within a range of up to 250 km. The missile has been designed to be launched from various fighter aircraft Currently in the inventory of the IAF. It is also equipped with state of the art radiation tracking and guidance system.

Conducting yet another test of a indigenously developed weapons system, the Defence Research and Development Organisation on Friday conducted a successful test of the New Generation Anti Radiation Missile (NGRAM) also called the Rudram-1 at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Balasore.

The missile has been designed to be launched from various fighter aircraft currently in the inventory of the Indian Air Force. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted, “The New Generation Anti-Radiation Missile (Rudram-1) which is India’s first indigenous anti-radiation missile developed by DRDO for Indian Air Force was tested successfully today at ITR, Balasore. Congratulations to DRDO & other stakeholders for this remarkable achievement.”

DRDO scientists said that the missile has been designed to further enhance the Suppression of Enemy Air Defence (SEAD) capability of the IAF. Anti Radiation Missiles are primarily designed to track and neutralise the radar and communication assets of the adversary. Officials said that the development of the anti radiation missiles of this type was started by the DRDO around eight years ago and has been a collaborative effort of various DRDO facilities in India.

 

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One of the most important materials in today’s world is steel. It has become an integral building block in humanity’s ever-expanding domain on Earth and lets us build everything from towering skyscrapers to huge bridges. The man who gave us this steel that lies at the foundation of modern-day infrastructure is English inventor and engineer Henry Bessemer.

Born in Charlton, England in 1813, Bessemer was the son of an engineer, printer and typesetter. Even though he was largely self-educated, Bessemer showed an aptitude for inventing from an early age and had a natural flair for mechanical skills.

While still a teenager, Bessemer came up with the idea of movable stamps for dating title deeds and other government documents. He improvised the idea and it saved a lot of money for those in the business, but Bessemer hardly gained monetarily for his methods.

Becomes secretive

After having learnt it the hard way, Bessemer decided that he probably had to be more secretive with his ideas. So when he came up with a method that allowed him to manufacture a powder using brass as a paint additive, he kept it to himself. He invented machines to mimic his mixing, set up a factory where the process remained top-secret and produced this powder, which could be used as a gold substitute for décor. As the floral decorations of the time required large quantities of such material, Bessemer was able to gain great wealth in the process.

During the Crimean War (1853-56), Bessemer came up with an artillery shell that was heavier than the typically used canon balls. While the French authorities were interested, they pointed out to him that their cast-iron cannon wouldn’t be strong enough for these shells. That put him on the path to produce stronger cast iron, leading him to a cheap way of mass-producing steel.

Air and heat

While experimenting, Bessemer observed that oxygen in the furnace removed excess carbon and impurities from pig iron being preheated, leaving pure iron. He then realised that blowing air through melted iron purified the iron and heated it more, allowing it to be poured more easily.

These techniques, which came to be known as the Bessemer process, were patented by him in October 1855. He also came up with the Bessemer converter, a huge egg-shaped contraption into which molten pig iron could be poured and then air could be blown from below after it is tilted. Using this, Bessemer was able to cheaply produce large quantities of steel.

Urban infrastructure

Even though Bessemer hadn’t perfected the technology, he was able to benefit from it largely. Everything from railroads to the early skyscrapers lapped up steel as defence and construction industries put the material to good use.

The Bessemer process did not remove phosphorus and sulphur, two elements that could harm iron. Other processes that came in later were able to address these issues, but modern steel is still made using technology that is based on the Bessemer process.

As for Bessemer himself, he spent a lifetime inventing and innovating. He built a solar furnace, designed and built an astronomical telescope for his own use, produced a machine of advanced design that could crush sugarcane and extract its juice, and even built a vessel – the Bessemer Saloon Ship – to combat seasickness. Not all his attempts were successes (the SS Bessemer crashed into a pier on its first and only public voyage), but by the time Bessemer died in 1898, he had been knighted for his contributions to science, awarded the Fellowship of the Royal Society and notched up over a 100 patents.

 

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Surat schoolgirls Radhika Lakhani (14) and Vaidehi Vekariya (15) discovered the asteroid, which they named HLV2514. The asteroid is currently close to the orbit of Mars – but in 1 million years, it will change its orbit and move closer to Earth.

The girls were participating in a project by Space India and International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC), a NASA-affiliated citizen scientist group. Students across India were taught how to spot celestial bodies using software which analyzes images collected by NASA’s PAN Star telescope positioned at the University of Hawaii.

Paul Chodas of the Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, said that it’s unusual for human eyes to discover asteroids. Algorithms typically do the hard work of spotting an unexpected object moving across the frame.

Asteroids and comets pose a potential threat to Earth. In 2013, an asteroid heavier than the Eiffel Tower exploded over central Russia, leaving more than 1,000 people injured from its shockwave.

Vekariya said, “This was a dream. I want to become an astronaut”, while Lakhani added: “I don’t even have a TV at home so that I can concentrate on my studies.”

 

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Megalogomphus superbus Fraser, endemic to the Western Ghats, has been photographed for the first time in nine decades by naturalists Ravindran Kamatchi and S. Gopala Krishnan during a birding outing near Coimbatore.

When they posted the photo grass-green, yellow and reddish-brown colour dragonfly with bottle-green eyes on the WhatsApp group ‘Odonates of the Western Ghats’, they learnt that it was a rare discovery. Scottish botanist Fraser F.C. had described it as the most beautiful species in the book, Fauna of British India.

“Fraser spotted it in 1931 an 1934 at the Boluvampatti forest range near Siruvani, Walayar (Kerala-Tamil Nadu border) and Kallar near Mettupalayam. The dragonfly belongs to gomphidae family which has six dragonflies – two in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, one in Sri Lanka and three others in the North East,” says Kalesh Sivadasan of Travancore Natural History Society. “As aerial predators, they play a crucial role in pest control. It is an aquatic water species that thrives in fresh water, and feeds on mosquitoes and insects that are harmful to humans.”

 

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With schools remaining shut due to the pandemic, they were left with no choice but to take classes online. Schools across India ensured students did not have to miss a year or lag behind in terms of syllabus by asking them to attend classes online.

While this was a bold move. It brought to the fore India’s unpreparedness for online learning. Most school teachers are not trained to take classes online. Teaching online is a different ball game compared to a physical class. It requires a different, more interactive and practical approach than the theoretical approaches followed in a physical class.

Meanwhile, children too are not prepared for an online class as their attention span is short. Long hours in front of the screen can drain them out apart from affecting their eyesight. The connection with the teacher is also lost as all the other students are logged in simultaneously.

But the biggest problem faced by schools and students alike is the lack of infrastructure and the digital divide. Many parents don’t even own a smartphone that their children can use for classes. Moreover, many households, especially those in rural India, do not even have internet connectivity. This has led to several students missing out on classes, on their parents having to sell whatever they can to afford a smartphone with an internet connection.

What’s the update?

On September 19, 2020, the Delhi High Court directed private as well as government schools to provide gadgets and an internet package to poor students for online classes. The court noted that not doing so amounts to “discrimination” and creates a “digital apartheid.”

It further stated that separated such students from the class can create a sense of inferiority which may affect their hearts and minds.

 

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With the government and the World Health Organization advising people to maintain six feet distance and wear mask to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, hospitals and businesses took to robots to tend to people’s needs.

From robots patrolling the road and making announcements, to serving as a nurse, and connecting people with their loved one. These machines have stood with our country in the fight against the virus.

Zafi, an interactive robot was developed at COVID-19 isolation wards at Stanley Medical College and Hospital in Chennai. The robot was designed and developed by the SASTRA University and Propeller Technologies, Trichy to help doctors and nurses maintain social distance while caring for their patients.

Zafi Clean and Zafi Sterlise designed to help maintenance workers of COVID-19 wards in government hospitals.

This coronavirus-themed ground robot is used to spray disinfectant at residential areas in Chennai.

Robots check body temperature and collect basic information about people at a private hospital in Bengaluru.

A robot nurse developed to combat COVID-19 and care for patients by Coimbatore-based startup Dotworld Technologies.

ROBO-COP, a robot used by the Chennai police to make announcements about COVID-19 and importance of staying indoors.

Mitra, a robot used by COVID patients to communicate with their relatives, is seen inside an elevator of the Yatharth Super Specialty Hospital in Noida.

Cobots are here

While many are worried about robots replacing humans in the workplace, there has been an increase in the use of cobots in workplaces. Cobots or collaborative robots are robots that work alongside humans than replace them. They are said to improve productivity, helping humans focus on essential tasks. Take Amazon for example – the company has been using robots to do the heavy lifting while humans can direct them.

Cobots are being used by some companies in a pandemic scenario to mitigate the spread of the virus.

 

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Launched on September 27, 2003, the lunar probe named SMART-1 was the European Space Agency’s (ESA) first mission to the moon. Apart from investigating the moon and studying its surface composition, the spacecraft was used to demonstrate techniques pertaining to navigation and mission control. A.S. Ganesh takes a look at the mission and its success

We might have over 200 natural satellites in the solar system, but our own moon is rather special to us. And it has to be, for it is the only one our Earth has. Naturally then, it has been studied extensively – probably only next to the Earth itself among celestial bodies.

While the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the second half of the 20th Century probably saw the most funds being spent in a single window towards moon missions, it wasn’t the be all and end all. There have been several missions since then, and there will be many more as well, that will have our moon as its target. Its position – both in terms of importance and in terms of space – make it an ideal destination for testing out new technologies as well.

Missions of all scales

The ESA prides itself in having a science programme that encompasses missions of all scales and sizes. The SMART – short for Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology – programme was envisioned to cater to small relatively low-cast missions. One such mission that looked to test solar-electric propulsion and other deep space technologies was launched on September 27, 2003. Its destination, as you might have rightly guessed, was the moon.

With a French-built Hall effect thruster derived from a Russian ion propulsion system, SMART-1 was European in almost every sense, even before it became the first European spacecraft to enter orbit around the moon. The thruster, which used a xenon propellant, generated just enough thrust – comparable to the weight of a postcard. Solar arrays powered the engine which generated the power needed for the ion engines.

Slowly expanding orbit

Following its launch, it was put in a geostationary transfer orbit. From here, SMART-1 used its electric propulsion system for a hugely efficient mission profile. Spinning slowly, the spacecraft moved onto higher and higher elliptical orbits. With mission controllers in Darmstadt, Germany forcing calculated, repeated burns of the ion engine, the spacecraft’s spiral orbit expanded step by step.

When SMART-1 was around 2,00,000 km out from Earth, the influence of the moon's gravity started increasing. By November 2004, the spacecraft had reached a point where the moon’s gravitational force was dominant.

Closer views, better data

The ion engines were still fired gradually, even after SMART-1 attained a polar orbit around the moon. This allowed the spacecraft to now decrease the orbit and hence achieve significantly better and closer views of the lunar surface.

During its time orbiting the moon, SMART-1 improved on data returned from various previous missions to the moon. It studied lunar topography, learnt more about the moon’s surface texture and also mapped the minerals’ surface distribution.

Mission extended

Even though the mission was designed to end in August 2005, it was extended further with new plans for a lunar impact in 2006. Having exhausted the propellant, the spacecraft’s ion engine was fired one last time in September 2005, after which it was in a natural orbit based on the gravitational effects of the moon, Earth and sun, with occasional altitude control. SMART-1’s ion engine had fired for over 4,900 hours, a record at that time for an engine of this type.

As per the revised plan, the spacecraft crashed onto the moon’s surface on September 3, 2006. Earth-based telescopes observed the impact, which produced a dust cloud. The near three-year existence of SMART-1 not only confirmed technical competence, but also provided valuable scientific insights about our moon.

 

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