News of the Day

Chandrayaan 2 completes final de-orbital operations, all set for moon landing

After a 9-second manoeuvre in the wee hours of Wednesday, Chandrayaan 2’s Vikram lander is in place to attempt a landing on September 7 at 01:55 am.

“With this manoeuvre, the required orbit for the Vikram lander to commence its descent towards the surface of the moon is achieved. The lander is scheduled to a powered descent between 0100 – 0200 hours IST on September 07, 2019,” said a statement from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

This was the second de-orbiting manoeuvre to bring the Vikram lander into a planned lower orbit of 35×101 km orbit at 03:42 am. This intermediary orbit between the nearly 100×100 km orbit planned for the Orbiter was suggested by a group of eminent scientists in 2018, while reviewing the mission.

Earlier, the descent of the lander was to happen from the higher 100×100 km orbit, just like Chandrayaan 1, where the impactor was dropped to the lunar surface from a similar orbit.

The orbiter continues to move in a 96 km x 125 km, collecting data on the lunar terrain, the thin atmosphere around the moon, lunar ionosphere, and minerals on the moon.

A successful landing will make India the fourth country after the USA, erstwhile USSR and China to have landed on the moon. Chandrayaan 2 will be the first mission to land near the lunar South Pole at 70 degrees latitude.

So far, all landings have happened in the region between the equator and 30 to 40 degrees north or south of it.

“Till the landing is complete, it will be terrifying. Till now, we have not operated the systems on-board the lander, especially the propulsion system. This is the phase, including the powered descent, that we will be doing for the first time. That is why it is critical,” Isro chairperson K Sivan said after the spacecraft entered the lunar orbit.

The clear images of the moon and the landings will be available five and a half hours after the landing.

 News of the Day 4 Sep 2019

Brexit defeat sees UK heading for another mid-term poll

Another mid-term election spawned by deep Brexit divisions is on the cards after the Boris Johnson government suffered a defeat in the House of Commons on Tuesday night on the issue of leaving the EU on October 31 without an agreement.

Johnson confirmed soon after suffering his first parliamentary defeat as prime minister by 301 to 328 that the government would table a motion under the Fixed Term of Parliament Act 2011 to trigger the election, which requires a two-thirds majority in the House.

Opponents of a no-deal Brexit comprising opposition parties as well as rebel Conservative MPs moved the motion on the first day of parliament session on Tuesday, winning it in the evening. The win allows them to table a bill on Wednesday prohibiting a no-deal Brexit.

Johnson said after the defeat: “The leader of the opposition has been begging for an election for two years. I don’t want an election but if MPs vote tomorrow to compel another pointless delay to Brexit then that would be the only way to resolve this”.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn responded: “There is no majority for a no-deal Brexit in the country. He wants to table a motion for a general election. Fine. Get the bill passed first in order to take no-deal off the table”.

Leading cabinet members in the last Theresa May government were among 21 Conservative MPs who voted against the Johnson government, including former chancellor Philip Hammond, former justice secretary David Gauke and veteran party MPs such as Ken Clarke and Dominic Grieve.

The defeat came in the context of a defining week for Brexit preceded by the controversial prorogation of parliament, which has been challenged in courts in Scotland and England. The election is likely to be held on October 14.

The Johnson government earlier in the day lost its slender majority of one when Conservative MP Philip Lee defected to the Liberal Democrats. The forthcoming election will be the third in five years since the general election in 2015 and the mid-term version in 2017.

Recent local elections and by-elections indicate that parties with a clear position on Brexit have benefited the most.

The Liberal Democrats with an openly pro-EU, anti-Brexit stance and the newly-formed Brexit party with an overt anti-EU, pro-Brexit position have grown at the expense of Conservative and Labour.

Source – Hindustan Times

News of the Day 4 Sep 2019

shivam