Editorial 1: A slippery slope
Recent Context:
- Recently, cloudburst and landslide were observed in Himachal Pradesh that led to lost of life at least 50 people. And such incidents were also observed in the past also.
- According to the ISRO’s Landslide Atlas of India, all 12 districts of Himachal are susceptible to landslips.
Causes for landslide in Himalayan region
- Himalayan Region is Tectonically activating region:
- The Himalayan range is one of the world’s newest tertiary fold mountains.
- The Himalayas were formed by the convergence of the Indian and Eurasian plates.
- The Himalayas are still growing and gaining height. The Himalayas are thus a tectonically active mountain chain. Tectonic movement causing frequent earthquakes and landslides.
- Intense rainfall: The monsoon season brings heavy rainfall to the region in short span of time that create the situation of cloudburst. As a result, it leads to saturating the soil and increasing the likelihood of landslides.
- Deforestation: The removal of vegetation destabilizes slopes and increases the risk of landslides.
- Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs): The sudden release of water from glacial lakes can trigger landslides in the surrounding areas.
- For e.g. The 2013 Kedarnath landslide in Uttarakhand, India, was caused by intense rainfall and glacial lake outburst flood
- According to the state’s disaster management data, the number of landslides increased nearly six times between 2020 and 2022. It is caused by to climate change and the increase in extreme rainfall events. As it is observed that average temperature in the Himalayas is rising faster than the rest of the country.
- Unsustainable development and eco-tourism: Being a religious and tourism location, a large number of people visit Himalayan state. But the development is taken without taking care of suitability therefore cologically-insensitive development has compromised Himalayan’s capacity to withstand inclement weather.
- For e.g. In the past 10 years, the state has gone on a road-widening spree. Sixty-nine national highway projects have been approved, of which five are four-lane highways.
- Roads and highways are important to the region’s economic development. But such projects must be mindful of the area’s ecological vulnerabilities. For instance, road expansion drives rarely factor in slope stability.
- Lack of adoption of modern technology by Himalayan states:
- Early Warning Systems that alert people to impending landslides are at a nascent stage in the country. In Kangra, the EWS failed to alert people of a landslide in the first week of this month
Conclusion:
- Therefore, responding to weather vagaries will require paradigm shifts and interventions at various levels. The Himachal tragedy should warn policymakers against delaying such endeavour.
Editorial 2: Indian Russia moon mission
Recent Context:
- Recently Russia launched Luna-25, mission to moon. It is likely to enter the moon’s orbit by August 16 and attempt the soft landing by August 21 or 22
- India also launched Chandrayaan-3 mission to moon which is expected to land on south pole of moon after 23 August 2023.
Why is Russia reaching the moon earlier than India?
- Although Luna-25 was launched earlier this week aboard its Soyuz rocket — almost a month after the launch of Chandrayaan-3 on July 14. it will cover the 3.84-lakh-km journey within days.
- This is because the Russian mission was able to follow a more direct trajectory towards the moon, owing to its lighter payload and more fuel storage.
- The lift-off mass for Luna 25 is just 1,750 kg as compared with the 3,900 kg of Chandrayaan-3. Chandrayaan’s Lander-Rover alone weighs 1,752 kg, with the propulsion module weighing another 2,148 kg.
- To make up for the lower fuel reserve available on the LVM3 vehicle that launched India’s mission, a more circuitous route was taken. After being launched around the Earth, the orbit of the spacecraft was increased in a series of manoeuvres to help it gain velocity.
- Over the next few days, Chandrayaan-3 will reduce its orbit and velocity around to the moon in preparation for the soft landing likely to be attempted on August 23
- Another reason Luna-25 can land a couple of days before India is because lunar dawn at its landing site will happen earlier.
- One lunar day is equal to 14 Earth days. With the payloads being powered by solar panels, landing at the beginning of a lunar day ensures that the experiments get the full 14 earth days.
How do the missions differ?
- Apart from being lighter than the Indian mission, Luna-25 does not carry a rover.
- The Russian lander has eight payloads mainly to study the soil composition, dust particles in the polar exosphere, and most importantly, detect surface water.
- The Indian mission also has scientific instruments to study the lunar soil as well as water-ice. The location near the southern pole was chosen because of the presence of craters that remain in permanent shadow, increasing the likelihood of finding water-ice.
- Instrument to Chandrayaan-3: The lander will carry four experiments on-board.
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- The Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA) has a Langmuir probe used to study properties of electrons and ions such as temperature and density. It will study these properties near the surface of the moon and how they change over time.
- The Chandra’s Surface Thermo physical Experiment (ChaSTE) will study the thermal properties of the lunar surface near the polar region. T
- he Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) will measure the lunar quakes near the landing site and study the composition of the moon’s crust and mantle.
- The LASER Retroreflector Array (LRA) is a passive experiment sent by NASA on-board the mission. LRAs are optical instruments that act as a target for lasers and can be used for very precise tracking by spacecrafts in the lunar orbit
Is India also in the race to land humans on moon?
- It was the discovery of water molecules by India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008 that has propelled another race to the moon.
- The United States and China now have plans to take humans to moon again; a first after the cold war era. To date, only 12 men aboard US’ Apollo Missions have set foot on the lunar surface.
- Although India with its limited resources has been able to catch up with countries with more advanced and older space agencies, there is still a long way to go before humans can be sent to the moon.
How have India and Russia collaborated on moon missions and other space activities?
- Many have speculated whether Russia’s launch was targeted for the same time as India’s mission, but Russia dismissed this.
- As, India and Russia have been long-time collaborators, especially when it comes to space activities.
- In fact, Russia was initially supposed to design the lander-rover for India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission. However, it withdrew after the failure of its Fobos Grunt mission to one of Mars’ moons. This then prompted India to develop the lander-rover independently. This is the reason there is a gap of 11 years between the Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-2 missions.
- Also, the predecessors of the LVM3 that launched Chandrayaan-3 were based on cryogenic engines sold to India by Russia. India later developed the technology on its own as Russia did not transfer the technology.
Conclusion:
- Therefore, India and Russia missions to moon are sent their respective objectives to carry put moon related study. It will shape the future mission to moon and other celestial body of space.