Science & Technology Current Affairs MCQs

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India’s Mars Orbiter spacecraft has completed seven years in its orbit, beyond its designed mission life of six months.
MOM or called as Mangalyaan, it is the maiden interplanetary mission of ISRO. After being launched on November 5, 2013, the probe was successfully inserted into Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 in its first attempt.  ISRO has been continuously monitoring the spacecraft and its five scientific instruments. The spacecraft is expected to have a mission life of probably another one year.

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NASA’s Psyche Mission is set to be launched next year. It will be the first spacecraft to study an asteroid that is rich in metals, but not in not rich in dust and ice.
The mission will be targeted to the Psyche asteroid that orbits the Sun in the main asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. Observations from ground and telescopes shown that the asteroid, which is 280 kilometres wide, is largely made up of metals.

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Kaririavis mater lived in the present-day Brazil some 115 million years ago. It was living during the Cretaceous period when the supercontinent Gondwana (which included the South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica and India) was splitting.
The fossilized remains of Kaririavis mater (an isolated right foot with some feathers) were recovered from the Crato Formation at Pedra Branca Mine, in Brazil’s Ceará recently.

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NASA astronomers have recently developed a next-generation impact monitoring algorithm called Sentry-II.
It aims to evaluate near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) impact probabilities. The new system improves the capabilities of NASA JPL’s ‘Center for Near Earth Object Studies’ to assess the impact risk of asteroids that can come close to our planet.

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OSCAR 1 (Orbiting Satellites Carrying Amateur Radio) is the world’s first non-governmental satellite, first amateur Radio Satellite. It was launched successfully on December 12, 1961.
It was also the first satellite built by a collection of private individuals. OSCAR 1 operated for nearly 20 days, testing radio reception from space.

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As per a new study published, Bubbler is a breathalyzer, which performs viral RNA detection to diagnose SARS-CoV-2, just by making the patient exhale into the device.
Its name is derived from the bubbling sound that occurs when the patient exhales. The Bubbler reverse transcribes RNA from airborne virus particles into DNA to be tested via PCR. It can also barcode that DNA, allowing samples to be linked directly to the patient they have come from and be used for sequencing.

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The Trace Gas Orbiter, also called as ExoMars TGO is a collaborative project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Roscosmos agency.
Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) arrived at Mars in 2016 and began its full mission in 2018. Recently, a new image taken by the spacecraft shows a small crater in the Vastitas Borealis region. The crater is partially filled with water ice.

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Micro-blogging platform Twitter launched the ‘JagrukVoter’ campaign, which aims to empower citizens with right knowledge before they vote.
The series of initiatives aims to enhance engagement of the platform with voters. It includes the launch of a customized emoji, with notification and reminder, to support the conversation around #AssemblyElections2022.

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A meteorite called (ALH) 84001 landed on the Earth from Mars in 1984. For more than four decades scientists have debated if the organic compounds found on the surface of the meteorite were proof of ancient life on Mars.
A new study published offers an explanation for the existence of these organic compounds. It also established that the compounds were left by some form of life that existed on the Mars, billions of years ago.

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In new research, a team of scientists at Tufts University demonstrated long-term regrowth of limbs in an African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis).
They achieved this restoration of an amputated hindlimb after a 24-hour exposure to a five-drug cocktail delivered by a silicone wearable bioreactor. The researchers are exploring ways to extend this to human beings