SPACE SCIENCE BASICS For UPSC

25/06/2016 Space Science | Evernote Web
Space Science
Dept.of Space is an Independent dept and It does not comes under any ministry and ISRO is under Dept of
Space.Dept of Atomic Energy is also an Independent dept.
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=f906bd7497ff485a93facf7ee2c6e10c&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5& 1/11
Effect of Gravity and Atmospheric drag on moving objects
Imagine a baseball pitcher on a hundredfoot high (30.48 m) pitcher's mound. If a pitcher throws a baseball
straight (parallel to the ground), the ball will curve down to the ground and stop when it hits the ground. In other
words, we can clearly see the results of gravity acting on the baseball. But let's take a step back and examine
exactly what is happening. Let's picture the same scene as above where a baseball pitcher is on a hundredfoot
high (30.48 m) pitcher's mound. This time, we will assume 1) that there is no atmosphere and 2) that there is no
gravity from any source.
What will happen when the pitcher throws the ball this time? Ans: The ball will remain at constant
speed and sail off straight into space.
Case 1 : No Gravity All atmosphere In the pretend case where there is no gravity but somehow we
were still in an atmosphere, the baseball would fly straight ahead but slower and slower. Finally, it
would stop as the atmospheric drag takes away the ball's energy of motion.
Case 2 : Gravity with no Atmosphere In the pretend case where there is gravity but no atmosphere, the
ball would still curve down under the force of gravity until the Earth gets in its way.
Circling the Earth
Now, let's assume that the person throwing the ball throws it so fast that as the ball falls towards the
Earth, it also travels so far, before falling even a little, that the Earth's surface curves away from the
ball's path.In other words, the baseball falls as it did before, but the ball is moving so fast that the
curvature of the Earth becomes a factor and the Earth "falls away" from the ball. So, theoretically, if a
pitcher on a 100 foot (30.48 m) high hill threw a ball straight and fast enough,the ball would circle the
Earth at exactly 100 feet and hit the pitcher in the back of the head once it circled the globe! The bad
news for the person throwing the ball is that the ball will be traveling at the same speed as when they
threw it, which is about 8 km/s or several times faster than a rifle bullet. How fast does the baseball
need to travel to never hit the ground? The answer is called the circular velocity(8 km/sec for 100m
ofcourse 100m+6400km(radius of the earth)).
v = the orbital velocity of an object (m/s),G = the universal gravitational constant, G = 6.673x10(11) N∙m2/kg2
mE = the mass of the Earth (5.98 x 1024 kg),r = the distance from the object to the center of the Earth.
If we threw the baseball even harder, it would go into a bigger and bigger orbit, with the closest
approach to Earth staying the same. If we could throw it hard enough, in fact, we could put it into an
infinitely big orbit. If we did that, it would never come back, and we can say it escaped. This escape
speed for Earth is about 11 km/s, or about 25,000 miles per hour. This is one of the steps that a
rocket to Mars or Venus or Jupiter must achieve.
Types of Orbits
1.Low Earth Orbit(400 to 1500km) for remote sensing(defence)
Most satellites, the International Space Station, the Space Shuttle, and the Hubble Space Telescope
are all in Low Earth Orbit (commonly called "LEO"). This orbit is almost identical to our previous
baseball orbiting example, except that it is high enough to miss all the mountains and also high
enough that atmospheric drag won't bring it right back home again.
Advantages and Disadvantages of LEO Low Earth Orbit is used for things that we want to visit often with
the Space Shuttle, like the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station. This is
convenient for installing new instruments, fixing things that are broken, and inspecting damage. It is
also about the only way we can have people go up, do experiments, and return in a relatively short
time.There are two disadvantages to having things so close, however. The first is that there is still
some atmospheric drag. Even though the amount of atmosphere is far too little to breath, there is
enough to place a small amount of drag on the satellite or other object. As a result, over time these
objects slow down and their orbits slowly decay. Simply put, the satellite or spacecraft slows down
and this allows the influence of gravity to pull the object towards the Earth.The second disadvantage
has to do with how quickly a satellite in LEO goes around the Earth. As you can imagine, a satellite
traveling 18,000 miles per hour or faster does not spend very long over any one part of the Earth at a
given time. So what happens if we want a satellite to spend all of its time over just one part of the
Earth? For instance, a weather satellite wouldn't be very effective for us in India if it didn't have a long
dwell time over us. (Dwell time = the time a satellite sits over one part of the globe.) Also, a
communications satellite wouldn't work very well for us in India if it spent most of its time over Africa
or North America.There are two ways to accomplish this. One solution is to put a satellite in a highly
elliptical orbit and the other is to place the satellite in a geosynchronous orbit.
2.High Elliptical Orbit(5000 to 10000km) for Navigation and Communication
Remember Kepler's second law: an object in orbit about Earth moves much faster when it is close to
Earth than when it is farther away. Perigee is the closest point and Apogee is the farthest (for Earth
for the Sun we say perihelion and aphelion). If the orbit is very elliptical, the satellite will spend most
of its time near apogee (the furthest point in its orbit) where it moves very slowly. Thus it can be
above home base most of the time, taking a break once each orbit to speed around the other side.
With the highly elliptical orbit described above, the satellite has long dwell time over one area, but at
certain times when the satellite is on the high speed portion of the orbit, there is no coverage over the
desired area. To solve this problem we could have two satellites on similar orbits, but timed to be on
opposite sides of the orbit at any given time. In this way, there will always be one satellite over the
desired coverage area at all times.
If we want continuous coverage over the entire planet at all times, such as the Department of
Defense's Global Positioning System (GPS), then we must have a constellation of satellites with
orbits that are both different in location and time. In this way, there is a satellite over every part of the
Earth at any given time. In the case of the GPS system, there are three or more satellites covering
any location on the planet.
Geosynchronous Orbits(35000 km)
Another solution to the dwell time problem is to have a satellite always sitting over the same location
on the planet. The way we do this is to have the orbital period of the satellite exactly the same as the
rotation period of the Earth, which is one day. This is called a geosynchronous orbit, or GEO for
short.In this case, the satellite can not be too close to the Earth because we already figured out that it
would not be going fast enough to counteract the pull of gravity. If you recall, the space shuttle, in
order to stay aloft, must circle the planet every 90 minutes. We can use Kepler's third law to figure out
how far out a satellite must be to spend all its time over one part of Earth. The answer is that a
satellite has to be placed approximately 22,000 miles (36,000 km) away from the surface of the Earth
in order to remain in a GEO orbit. That is a lot farther than a low Earth orbit, or a relatively close
highly eccentric GPSlike orbit, so it costs more to get it there. However, then you only need one
satellite to do the job and it is on the job 24 hours per day. By positioning a satellite so that it has
infinite dwell time over one spot on the Earth, we can constantly monitor the weather in one location,
provide reliable telecommunications service, and even beam television signals directly to your house.
If you have satellite TV at home, notice that the small dish antenna outside is pointing at the same
location in the sky at all times. There is a geosynchronous satellite sitting 22,000 miles away in that
direction sending the signal to your house! The down side of a geosynchronous orbit is that it is more
expensive to put something that high up and not possible to repair it from the shuttle. When a satellite
is in LEO, the shuttle can repair it if needed, as we have done with the Hubble Space Telescope
several times. So you only put something in GEO if you really need to have it in the same location in
the sky at all times.The velocity of this satellite is very less around 4 km/sec.
PSLV Vs GSLV
Both PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and GSLV (Geosynchronous
Satellite Launch Vehicle) are the satellitelaunch vehicles (rockets) developed by ISRO. PSLV is designed mainly
to deliver the “earthobservation” or “remotesensing” satellites with liftoff mass of up to about 1750 Kg to
SunSynchronous circular polar orbits of 600900 Km altitude.The remote sensing satellites orbit the earth from
poletopole (at about 98 deg orbitalplane inclination). An orbit is called sunsynchronous when the angle
between the line joining the centre of the Earth and the satellite and the Sun is constant throughout the orbit.Due
to their sunsynchronism nature, these orbits are also referred to as “Low Earth Orbit (LEO)” which enables the
onboard camera to take images of the earth under the same sunillumination conditions during each of the
repeated visits, the satellite makes over the same area on ground thus making the satellite useful for earth
resources monitoring.Apart from launching the remote sensing satellites to Sunsynchronous polar orbits, the
PSLV is also used to launch the satellites of lower liftoff mass of up to about 1400 Kg to the elliptical
Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).PSLV is a fourstaged launch vehicle with first and third stage using solid
rocket motors and second and fourth stages using liquid rocket engines. It also uses strapon motors to augment
the thrust provided by the first stage, and depending on the number of these strapon boosters, the PSLV is
classified into its various versions like corealone version (PSLVCA), PSLVG or PSLVXL variants.
The GSLV is designed mainly to deliver the communicationsatellites to the
highly elliptical (typically 250 x 36000 Km) Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). The satellite in GTO is further
raised to its final destination, viz., Geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) of about 36000 Km altitude (and zero deg
inclination on equatorial plane) by firing its inbuilt onboard engines.Due to their geosynchronous nature, the
satellites in these orbits appear to remain permanently fixed in the same position in the sky, as viewed from a
particular location on Earth, thus avoiding the need of a tracking ground antenna and hence are useful for the
communication applications.Two versions of the GSLV are being developed by ISRO. The first version, GSLV Mk
II, has the capability to launch satellites of liftoff mass of up to 2,500 kg to the GTO and satellites of up to 5,000
kg liftoff mass to the LEO. GSLV MKII is a threestaged vehicle with first stage using solid rocket motor, second
stage using Liquid fuel and the third stage, called Cryogenic Upper Stage, using cryogenic engine.
Star
A star is a luminous ball of gas, mostly hydrogen and helium, held together by its own gravity. Nuclear fusion reactions in
its core support the star against gravity and produce photons and heat, as well as small amounts of heavier elements. The
Sun is the closest star to Earth. A star’s color relies on its temperature: hotter stars emit bluer light and cooler stars emit
redder light.Temperature is also correlated to mass. Red dwarf stars have as little as 0.075 solar masses and a visible
surface temperature less than 4,000 K. The most massive star known is R136a1, a WolfRayet star 265 times the Sun’s
mass — its visible surface temperature hovers at a searing 50,000 K.
Life cycle of a star and formation of black hole
Stars like our sun fuse hydrogen in their cores into helium. White dwarfs are stars that have burned up all of the
hydrogen they once used as nuclear fuel.Fusion in a star's core produces heat and outward pressure, but this
pressure is kept in balance by the inward push of gravity generated by a star's mass. When the hydrogen used
as fuel vanishes, and fusion slows, gravity causes the star to collapse in on itself.As the star condenses and
compacts it heats up even further, burning the last of its hydrogen and causing the star's outer layers to expand
outward. At this stage, the star becomes a large red giant.Because a red giant is so large, its heat spreads out
and the surface temperatures are predominantly cool, but its core remains redhot. Red giants exist for only a
short time—perhaps just a billion years compared with the ten billion the same star may already have spent
burning hydrogen like our own sun.Red giants are hot enough to turn the helium at their core, which was made
by fusing hydrogen, into heavy elements like carbon. But most stars are not massive enough to create the
pressures and heat necessary to burn heavy elements, so fusion and heat production stop.
Further Incarnations
Such stars eventually blow off the material of their outer layers, which creates an expanding shell of gas called
a planetary nebula. Within this nebula, the hot core of the star remains—crushed to high density by gravity—as
a white dwarf with temperatures over 180,000 degrees Fahrenheit (100,000 degrees Celsius).Eventually—over
tens or even hundreds of billions of years—a white dwarf cools until it becomes a black dwarf, which emits no
energy. Because the universe's oldest stars are only 10 billion to 20 billion years old there are no known black
dwarfs—yet.Estimating how long white dwarfs have been cooling can help astronomers learn much about the age
of the universe.But not all white dwarfs will spend many millennia cooling their heels. Those in a binary star
system may have a strong enough gravitational pull to gather in material from a neighboring star. When a white
dwarf takes on enough mass in this manner it reaches a level called the chandrasekhar limit. At this point the
pressure at its center will become so great that runaway fusion occurs and the star will detonate in a
thermonuclear supernova. A star that ends its nuclearburning lifetime with a mass greater than the
Chandrasekhar limit must become either a neutron star or a black hole.
Gamma Ray Burst
GRBs are believed to consist of a narrow beam of intense radiation released during a supernova or hypernova as
a rapidly rotating, high‐mass star collapses to form a neutron star, quark star, or black hole.
· They are the brightest electromagnetic events known to occur in the universe. Bursts can last from
ten milliseconds to several hours.
· The initial burst is usually followed by a longer‐lived "afterglow" emitted at longer wavelengths (X‐ray,ultraviolet,
optical, infrared, microwave and radio).
In News NASA's swift spacecraft has detected its 1,000th gammaray burst (GRB).
Solar Winds
The solar wind is a stream of energized, charged particles, primarily electrons and protons, flowing outward from
the Sun, through the solar system at speeds as high as 900 km/s and at a temperature of 1 million degrees
(Celsius).
· It is made of plasma, 4th state of matter. Its particles can escape the Sun's gravity because of their high energy.
How does it affect earth?
· They collide with the magnetic field of the Earth and cause it to change its shape. The particles then
leak through the magnetic field of the Earth, particularly near the north and south poles.
· The effects of solar winds on the earth that are visible to naked eye are the Aurora Borealis (the
Northern lights) at the North Pole and the Aurora Australis (the Southern Lights) at the South Pole.
· Astronauts and cosmonauts suffer serious radiation related health conditions if they are caught in the path of
solar winds.
· Radiation from solar winds is known to cause chromosome damage and cancer, and these conditions may
be fatal for humans in outer space.
· Radio and television communication and satellite based internet services are disrupted by solar winds.Military
satellites are the affected the worst by solar winds.
· Geomagnetic storms caused by solar winds are very strong and can destabilize or destroy power grids.
· They also affect all navigation and communication systems especially for vessels at sea.
Aircraft communications and instruments in the aircraft will be susceptible to faulty functioning during
geomagnetic storms.
· The fiery tail seen attached to comets is the effect of solar winds visible to the naked eye.
SUN
Only Convection and Radiation takes place in sun but no Conduction.
Solar Cycle(Solar Max and Min)
The number of sunspots increases and decreases over time in a regular, approximately 11year cycle, called the
sunspot cycle. The exact length of the cycle can vary. It has been as short as eight years and as long as fourteen,
but the number of sunspots always increases over time, and then returns to low again.More sunspots mean
increased solar activity, when great blooms of radiation known as solar flares or bursts of solar material known as
coronal mass ejections (CMEs) shoot off the sun's surface. The highest number of sun spots in any given cycle is
designated "solar maximum," while the lowest number is designated "solar minimum." Each cycle, varies
dramatically in intensity, with some solar maxima being so low as to be almost indistinguishable from the
preceding minimum.Sunspots are a magnetic phenomenon and the entire sun is magnetized with a north and a
south magnetic pole just like a bar magnet. The comparison to a simple bar magnet ends there, however, as the
sun's interior is constantly on the move.By tracking sound waves that course through the center of the sun, an
area of research known as helioseismology, scientists can gain an understanding of what's deep inside the sun.
They have found that the magnetic material inside the sun is constantly stretching, twisting, and crossing as it
bubbles up to the surface. The exact pattern of movements is not conclusively mapped out, but over time they
eventually lead to the poles reversing completely.
The sunspot cycle happens because of this poles flip — north becomes south and south becomes north—
approximately every 11 years. Some 11 years later, the poles reverse again back to where they started, making
the full solar cycle actually a 22year phenomenon. The sun behaves similarly over the course of each 11year
cycle no matter which pole is on top, however, so this shorter cycle tends to receive more attention.
ISS(International Space Station)
Its first component launched into orbit in 1998 but the first Expedition arrived on 2 November 2000. Five different
space agencies representing 15 countries built the $100billion International Space Station and continue to
operate it today. NASA, Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), the European Space Agency, the
Canadian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are the primary space agency partners
on the project.Astronauts belong to 18 countries visited ISS so
far(USA,Russia,Canada,GBR,France,Germany,Brazil,RSA,Malaysia,South
Korea,Japan,Kazakhstan,Sweden,Italy,Spain,Netherlands,Belgium,Denmark).
Why Satellites are wrapped in golden color foils?
Satellites are wrapped in the golden color foils to protect it and its component from the extreme environmental
conditions of the space. Most of the components in a satellite which are mostly electronics has to be maintained
within a certain range of temperature to keep it working, beyond which the equipment might fail. Likewise the
propellants has to be stored at a particular temperature to avoid its freezing. So this Multilayer Layer Insulation
(MLI) provides an enclosure to avoid heat exchange with the outer space which may be at 2.7 K (270.45 degree
C). You may require active heaters, coolers, Optical solar reflectors and radiators also to get the complete
thermal control. MLI's are basically kapton layer outside and Mylar layer inside. Outside layer is golden in color to
provide high reflectivity against solar radiation. It blocks significant amount of the radiation loads on the parts
where radiation loads are undesirable. Inside layer has very low emissivity to minimize the heat leak in any
direction. Conduction is the dominant property inside the enclosure to spread heat over the structure.
Difference b/w Geostationary and Geosynchronous orbits
Geosynchronous An orbit around Earth whose orbital period is equal to a sidereal day (23 hours, 56 minutes),
irrespective of its inclination.A person on a point on Earth, will see a satellite in this orbit in the same place in the
sky at the same time of the day, everyday.
Geostationary A geosynchronous orbit around Earth at 35,786 km above the equator, so that it remains
stationary as seen from Earth.A person on any point on Earth, will see a satellite in this orbit stationary w.r.t his
position, just like a star in the sky.

SPACE SCIENCE BASICS For UPSC

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

SPACE SCIENCE BASICS For UPSC

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

25/06/2016 Space Science | Evernote Web

You might also like