Gaganyaan: ISRO tests parachutes that will bring Indian astronauts to Earth from space (GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has completed a major developmental test of the Gaganyaan mission.
- Gaganyaan is India’s first manned mission to space expected to be launched in 2023.
Details:
- The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) conducted the “Integrated Main Parachute Airdrop Test (IMAT)”of its crew module deceleration system at the Babina Field Fire Range (BFFR) in the Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh.
- A 5-ton dummy mass, equivalent to the Crew module mass, was taken to an altitude of 2.5 kilometres and dropped using the Indian Air force’s IL-76 aircraft.
- Two small pyro-based mortar-deployed pilot parachutes, then pulled the Main parachutes.
Parachute system for Gaganyaan Crew module:
- For Gaganyaan Crew module, the Parachute system consists of a total of 10 parachutes. In flight, the parachute sequence starts with deployment of 2 Nos. of Apex cover separation parachutes (protection cover for the Crew Module Parachute compartment) followed by 2 Nos. of Drogue parachute deployment to stabilize & bring down the velocity.
- The two of the three main chutes are sufficient to land the astronauts on earth, and the third is redundant.
- Meanwhile, each parachute's performance must be evaluated by complex testing methods using Rail Track Rocket Sled (RTRS) tests for smaller Parachutes and Aircraft/ Helicopters for the Main parachutes.
Outcome of the test:
- The test simulated a unique situation when one Main parachute failed to open, and it is the first in a series of tests planned to simulate different failure conditions of the parachute system before it is deemed qualified to be used in the first human spaceflight mission.
- The test showed that the fully inflated Main parachutes reduced the payload speed to a safe landing speed as the entire sequence lasted about 2-3 minutes and the payload mass landed softly on the ground.
Way Forward:
- ISRO is planning to conduct two uncrewed demonstration mission before Indian astronauts jump onboard Gaganyaan to ride into space. The uncrewed tests are likely to happen in 2023.
Battle of Walong& Battle of Rezang La
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Why in news?
- The 60th anniversary of two iconic battles in the India-China war was observedrecently.
- The Battle of Walong, in the eastern sector, on November 16 and the Battle of Rezang La in eastern Ladakh on November 18.
Infrastructure upgradation:
- Today, both India and China, against the backdrop of a 30-month stand-off, are engaged in massive infrastructure upgrade and consolidation of positions along the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC).
- Construction of a series of roads, tunnels, caverns and underground ammunition stores is in progress.
- Nine new tunnels are under construction, including the strategic 2.5-km-long Sela tunnel in Tawang at an altitude of 13,000 feet, which will be the highest bi-lane tunnel in the world once completed. Another 11 tunnels are being planned.
- The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is currently executing 18 projects spread across the country. This effort to build habitats and adding firepower is an effort to reduce the asymmetry with the infrastructure upgrade by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Highways in Eastern sector:
- In Arunachal, a 2,000-km-long frontier highway also known as the Mago-Thingbu-Vijaynagar border highway is planned to be constructed at cost of ₹40,000 crore which follows the McMahon Line.
- In order to provide interconnectivity between three horizontal national highways; Frontier Highway, Trans-Arunachal Highway and East-West Industrial Corridor Highway, six vertical and diagonal national highway corridors of a total length of 2,178 km are planned to be built, which will also provide faster access to border areas.
Battle of Walong:
- In the Battle of Walong, the Indian Army halted the advancing PLA soldiers for 27 days, which forced them to commit their reserve division from Tawang Sector to Walong.
- Vastly out-numbered and with little ammunition and no resources, Indian soldiers fought to the last man.
Rezang La:
- In the Battle of Rezang La, troops from the 13 Kumaon Regiment defeated several waves of the PLA.
- The battle was fought at an altitude of 18,000 feet where Major Shaitan Singh and 114 troops of the Charlie Company of 13 Kumaon fought till “last bullet and last breath”.
- Major Shaitan Singh was posthumously awarded the ParamVir Chakra (PVC), the country’s highest wartime gallantry award.
Hypertension: a ticking time bomb in Indian adolescents
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- The Indian National Health Portal reports that 30% of adult Indians have elevated blood pressure; a little higher in urban (34%) compared with rural (28%) areas.
Infrastructure upgradation:
Details:
- High blood pressure is relatively silent, with grave consequences, as it is a major cause of cardiovascular diseases, including stroke. The best way forward is prevention, especially starting in childhood.
- Indian adolescents aged between 10-12 years have hypertension prevalence of 35%, while in those above 13 years, the prevalence is 25%.
- This is roughly the same in urban and rural areas; for younger children, the prevalence is even higher than in adults.
Occurrence of High blood pressure:
- Effectively, high blood pressure is occurring in one in three or four children, and this is much higher than earlier estimates of about 7%.
- The figures are robust and believable, coming as they do from a national survey called the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS), which used a statistically appropriate method to sample adolescents without illnesses, aged 10-19 years, across all States and Union Territories.
- High blood pressure was defined based on the mean of second and third readings as height-adjusted blood pressure above the 95th percentile below 13 years and greater than 130/80 mm Hg in older adolescents.
Issues with Hypertension:
- Hypertension is often clustered with other cardio-metabolic risk factors including overweight and obesity.
- Adolescents with high fasting blood glucose, hemoglobin A1c, serum triglyceride and LDL cholesterol levels also have a greater risk of high blood pressure.
Pattern in Indian children:
- The notion that this is associated with affluence, which will not occur in undernourished children stands firmly dispelled.In fact, elevated blood pressure is more prevalent in poorer than the richest category and occurs with similar frequency in rural and urban areas.
- Its prevalence in younger stunted adolescents is as high as 40% compared with 34% in those not stunted.The prevalence in thin/underweight adolescents is also high (32% in younger and 22% in older adolescents).
Rapid urbanization:
- Higher prevalence of high blood pressure in rural areas may be attributable to rapid urbanisation, resulting in altered dietary habits, more screen time and a lower level of habitual physical activity.
- One causative factor that is relevant in India today is the explosion of ready-to-eat (ultra) processed foods and snacks, which depend on a high salt and sugar content.
- Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, and Nagaland have higher hypertension prevalence (over 35%) compared with the rest of India.
- Data from the NSSO survey of 2011-12 show that the highest salt-consuming regions are these States, with a per-capita intake of over 9 grams/day, while the median intake for India is about 8 grams/day.
Way Forward;
- There is a need now to think ahead: a need to screen and identify adolescents with hypertension; preventive interventions tocontrol the burden of hypertension and its consequences in India; and a need to assess high blood pressure at even younger ages.
- This is important as many people with hypertension, particularly in India, are not aware of their disease and the detection, treatment, and control of it should be an urgent health priority.
Why is Japan increasing its defence budget?
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Context:
- For decades, Japan has maintained a low profile on defence spending and remained dependent on its allies, mainly the U.S., for security guarantees.
- That has started changing with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) proposal of doubling the country’s defence budget to 2% of the GDP in five years, in line with NATO members.
- If Japan achieves more military capabilities, it could further alter the balance of power of East Asia.
What does Japan’s Constitution say?
- Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution states that the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat and use of force as a means of settling international disputes. It also states that the country would never sustain land, sea and air forces with war potential.
- The Constitution was introduced when Japan was occupied by U.S. forces, but for decades, Japan’s different political sections backed pacifism.
- Instead of a regular army, the country maintained Japan Self Defence Forces, with offensive weapons such as intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear arms strictly banned. But with China’s rise in its neighbourhood, the nationalist sections within the ruling party started pushing for more muscular, nationalist foreign and security policies.
- In 2014, Japan’s government reinterpreted Article 9 and gave more powers to the forces — they can now come to the defence of allies if they were attacked.
What is the LDP’s proposal?
- For the fiscal year 2023, the government has already raised the defence budget to its highest level, six trillion yen ($43 billion) or more than 1% of the world’s third largest GDP. The LDP wants this to be doubled in five years as the geopolitical and regional risks the country is facing are rising.
- The Ministry of Defence is now planning to achieve “counter-attack capability”. As part of the proposals, Japan will begin mass producing surface-to-ship missiles, a domestically-developed cruise missile with a range of over 1,000 km (which can hit both China and North Korea) and high speed glide missiles. Japan plans to deploy these weapons in 2026.
- The budget has allocated research and development funds for hypersonic guided missiles, which are five times faster than the speed of sound.
- Japan is also developing a new fighter jet; F-X. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is designing the jet on which Japan has already spent more than 200 billion yen.
What triggered the change in policy?
- The rapid rise of China and growing militarisation of North Korea were already strengthening the nationalist sections within Japan.
- Japan, which had occupied the whole of the Korean Peninsula and parts of China before the Second World War and had committed unspeakable crimes in its colonies, still has a testy relationship with China and the two Koreas.
- Recently, North Korea flew a missile over Japan and an ICBM fell near its territorial waters.
- In August, China carried out days-long live military drills around Taiwan, the self-ruled island internationally recognised as part of China that lies just 160 km west of Japan’s southern islands.
Russia factor:
- Besides China and North Korea, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine also seems to have influenced Japan’s thinking. Japan and Russia, which fought a disastrous war in 1904-05, have disputes over the ownership of the Kuril Islands that separate the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean.
- From Japan’s point of view, western military guarantees to Ukraine did not stop Russia from invading its neighbouring country.
Conclusion:
- The obvious question Japan’s policymakers face is whether the security guarantees from the U.S. is enough to deter threats from a highly securitisedneighbourhood where there are three nuclear powers—China, North Korea and Russia. This calculus seems to have quickened the push for remilitarism in Japan’s security thinking.
- In the past, any bid to move away from pacifism would attract public criticism, but the changing regional situation is altering Japan’s domestic political mood as well. A recent poll suggested that more than half of the Japanese public support raising the defence budget.
