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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

DEFENCE SPACE

Interceptor missile successfully tested Saturn’s moon

India, on 28 December 2017, The test was carried out from Titan sports Earth
successfully test-fired an Advanced Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha
Air Defence (AAD) interceptor coast in response to an incoming -like features
missile, capable of destroying enemy ‘enemy’ missile which was fired from
ballistic missiles at low altitude, from launch complex 3 of the Integrated Using data from NASA’s Cassini
a test range in Odisha. The missile is Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur. spacecraft, astronomers on 8 January
being developed as part of the Ballistic The BMD consists of two 2018 created a global map of Saturn’s
Missile Defence (BMD) system and it interceptor missiles, the Prithvi moon Titan and found that its
was the third successful test this year. Defence Vehicle (PDV) for exo- geographical features are similar to
The endo-atmospheric interceptor atmospheric ranges and the
those seen on the Earth. The map
made a direct hit with the incoming Advanced Area Defence (AAD)
combines all of the Titan topography
missile at an altitude of 15 km, missile for endo-atmosphere or lower
data from multiple sources. It revealed
completely destroying it. altitudes.
several new features on Titan,
SPACE including new mountains, none higher
than 700 meters. The map also
China launches remote sensing provides a global view of the highs
and lows of Titan’s topography, which
satellites enabled the scientists to confirm that
two locations in the equatorial region
China launched a pair of 0.5-meter remote sensing data to customers
high-resolution remote sensing worldwide and provide services to of Titan are in fact depressions that
satellites from the Taiyuan Satellite land and resource surveys, mapping, could be either ancient, dried seas or
Launch Center in north China’s Shanxi environmental monitoring, finance and cryovolcanic flows.
Province on January 9, 2018. The insurance as well as the Internet industry. It revealed that Titan is a little bit
satellites, SuperView-1 03/04, blasted off The satellites were developed by flatter - more oblate - than was
on the back of a Long March 2D rocket. China Aerospace Science and previously known, which suggests
The mission aims to promote the Technology Corporation. there is more variability in the
country’s commercial use of high- It is the second launch of the thickness of Titan’s crust than
resolution remote sensing satellites. corporation’s commercial remote previously thought.
The satellites, which are able to sensing satellites, followed by the Researchers also found that
provide commercial images at 0.5- launching of SuperView-1 01/02 in Titan’s three seas share a common
meter resolution, are expected to offer December 2016. equipotential surface, meaning they
form a sea level, just as Earth’s oceans
BIOTECHNOLOGY do. Either because there’s flow
Israel’s NRGene maps genome for through the subsurface between the
seas or because the channels between
three types of potatoes them allow enough liquid to pass
through, the oceans on Titan are all at
Israel’s NRGene said on 19 December the world, and it is working on
the same elevation. Researchers found
2017 that it was working with a team others.
that the vast majority of Titan’s lakes
of researchers from Wageningen The potato genome is complex,
sit in sharp-edged depressions. The
University and Research in the with each potato cell containing four
lakes are surrounded by high ridges,
Netherlands as well as commercial nearly identical copies of each
hundreds of meters high in some
partners to create multi-genome chromosome and gene.
mapping of potatoes. Crop researchers use genomics places. The lakes seem to be formed
NRGene has completed the analyses to get a complete picture of the way karst is on Earth. The lakes
assembly of three commercial what needs to be done to increase on Titan, like Earth’s karst, are
varieties of potatoes, which are the yields, reduce resource requirements topographically closed, with no inflow
fourth most consumed food crop in and address food scarcity. or outflow channels.

78 Competition Wizard March 2018