India launches high-power communication satellite GSAT-30

India today successfully launched its latest and most powerful communication satellite GSAT-30 from the European Space Agency’s spaceport in French Guiana during the early hours of the day.
The launch was carried out using European Space Agency’s launch vehicle Ariane. The Ariane 5 VA-251 lifted off from the Kourou launch base in French Guiana at 2:35 am IST carrying India’s GSAT-30 and EUTELSAT KONNECT for Eutelsat, as scheduled.
After a flight lasting 38 minutes 25 seconds, GSAT-30 separated from the Ariane 5 upper stage in an elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit, Isro stated in a release. 
With a lift-off mass of 3,357 kg, GSAT-30 will provide continuity to operational services on some of the in-orbit satellites. GSAT-30 derives its heritage from Isro’s earlier INSAT/GSAT satellite series and will replace INSAT-4A in orbit.
"A strong start to 2020 as Ariane 5 successfully deploys its two satellite passengers - EUTELSAT KONNECT and GSAT-30 - into geostationary transfer orbit! I appreciate the trust from the two customers on this mission: Arianespace CEO Stephane Israel tweeted confirming the successful launch.
Isro's UR Rao Satellite Centre Director P Kunhikrishnan, who was present in Kourou, congratulated the Isro community and Arianespace team on the successful launch.
Calling it an "excellent start" to 2020 for Isro with the launch, he said, "The mission team at the master control facility have already acquired the satellite and they will immediately complete the post launch operations...."
The 3,357-kg satellite is configured on Isro's enhanced I-3K Bus structure to provide communication services from Geostationary orbit in C and Ku bands. The communication payload of GSAT-30 is specifically designed and optimised to maximise the number of transponders on the spacecraft bus, Isro stated.
“GSAT-30 has a unique configuration of providing flexible frequency segments and flexible coverage. The satellite will provide communication services to Indian mainland and islands through Ku-band and wide coverage covering Gulf countries, a large number of Asian countries and Australia through C-band” Isro chairman K Sivan said.
“GSAT-30 will provide DTH television services, connectivity to VSATs for ATM, stock exchange, television uplinking and teleport services, Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) and e-governance applications. The satellite will also be used for bulk data transfer for a host of emerging telecommunication applications,” Sivan added.
Isro’s Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka took over the command and control of GSAT-30 immediately after its separation from the launch vehicle. Preliminary health checks of the satellite revealed its normal health.
In the days ahead, Isro will carry our orbit-raising manoeuvres to place the satellite in Geostationary Orbit (36,000 km above the equator) by using its on-board propulsion system.
During the final stages of its orbit raising operations, the two solar arrays and the antenna reflectors of GSAT-30 will be deployed. Following this, the satellite will be put in its final orbital configuration. The satellite will be operational after the successful completion of all in-orbit tests.
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Nasa’s Perseverance to scour Mars for signs of life


A handout photo, released by Nasa, of engineers in a clean room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, observe the first driving test for the Perseverance rover late last year.
  • By Ivan Couronne, AFP Washington: Nasa’s most advanced Mars rover, Perseverance, launches from Earth on July 30, on a mission to seek out signs of ancient microbial life on what was once a river delta.
  • The interplanetary voyage will last six months.
  • Should the SUV-sized vehicle touch down unscathed, it will start collecting and storing rock and soil samples, to be retrieved by a future mission and brought back to Earth in 2031.
  • Perseverance follows in the tyre tracks of four rovers before it, all American, which first launched in the late 1990s.
  • Together with satellite and surface probes, they have transformed our understanding of Mars, showing that the Red Planet wasn’t always a cold and barren place.
  • Instead, it had the ingredients for life as we know it: water, organic compounds and a favourable climate.
  • Scientists will examine the samples obtained by Perseverance to look for fossilised bacteria and other microbes to try to confirm if aliens did once live on our neighbouring planet.
  • Nasa has been teleworking for months because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the launch calendar for this $2.7bn mission hasn’t been affected.
  • “This mission was one of two missions that we protected to make sure that we were going to be able to launch in July,” said Nasa chief Jim Bridestine.
  • Earth and Mars are on the same side of the Sun every 26 months, a window that can’t be missed.
  • The United States is the only country on the planet to have successfully landed robots on Mars: four landers, which aren’t mobile, and the rovers Pathfinder, Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity.
  • Of the rovers, only Curiosity is still active, with the others left on the surface after their machinery failed or contact was lost.
  • It’s only in the past two decades that it’s been confirmed Mars once had oceans, rivers and lakes.
  • Curiosity confirmed the presence of complex organic molecules — but its instruments aren’t capable of concluding that they were created by biological processes.
  • The first two landers, Viking 1 and 2, both looked for signs of life as far back as 1976, but haphazardly.
  • “At the time the experiment for life detection was considered to be a complete failure,” said G Scott Hubbard, who launched the current Mars exploration programme in the 2000s.
  • Nasa then decided to proceed in stages.
  • By studying the soil, analysing the molecular composition of rocks, and carrying out satellite observations, geologists and astrobiologists gradually understood where water had flowed, and what areas could have been conducive to life.
  • “Understanding where Mars would have been habitable in the past, and what kind of fingerprints of life you’re looking for, was a necessary precursor to then going, at significant expense, to this very well selected spot that would produce these samples,” said Hubbard.
  • On February 18, 2021, Perseverance should land in the Jezero Crater, home to an ancient river that fanned out into a lake between 3bn and 4bn years ago, depositing mud, sand and sediment.
  • “Jezero is host to one of the best preserved deltas on the surface of Mars,” said Katie Stack Morgan, a member of the science team.
  • On Earth, scientists have found the fossilised remains of bacteria billions of years old in similar ancient deltas.
  • The six-wheeled rover is 3m long, weighs a ton, has 19 cameras, two microphones and a two-meter-long robotic arm.
  • Its most important instruments are two lasers and an X-ray which, when projected on rocks, can analyse their chemical composition and identify possible organic compounds.
  • Also on board is the experimental mini-helicopter Ingenuity, which weighs 1.8kg. Nasa hopes it will be the first chopper to take flight on another planet.
  • Perseverance probably won’t be able to determine whether a rock has ancient microbes.
  • To know for sure, the samples will have to be brought back to Earth where they can be cut into ultra-thin slices.
  • “Getting true scientific consensus...that life once existed on Mars, I think that would still require a sample return,” Ken Williford, deputy head of the science project told AFP.
  • One thing we shouldn’t expect are the fossilised shells that people find on Earth, he added.
  • If life once did exist on Mars, it probably didn’t have time to evolve into more complex organisms before the planet dried up completely. Source: https://www.gulf-times.com
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