Science and technology achievements of India
Source: By the Times of India
The spirit of the nation’s scientific community and inventors stayed undeterred even as the Covid-19 pandemic continued to create havoc throughout the year.
From making country's first hydrogen fuel cell car to developing a camera that doesn’t need focusing, here is a short bunch of exceptional accomplishments our scientists clinched in the field of science and technology, in the exceptional year 2020:
India's first hydrogen fuel cell car
India's first hydrogen fuel-cell powered car completed the trials this year. The technology uses chemical reactions between hydrogen and oxygen (from air) to generate electrical energy, eliminating the use of fossil fuels.
Further, the fuel cell technology emits only water, thus cutting down the emission of harmful greenhouse gases along with other air pollutants.
Building bricks on moon
A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Science and Indian Space Research Organisation has developed a sustainable process for making brick-like structures on the moon.
The process involves extracting lunar soil and using bacteria and guar beans to harden the soil into brick-like structures for habitation on the moon in the future.
The cost of sending one pound of material to outer space is about Rs 7.5 lakh, whereas this new process, which can be sourced from human urine and lunar soil as raw materials, can considerably decrease the overall expenditure.
Humanoid Vyommitra
Isro’s Vyommitra will ride to space in the first test flight of the human space mission, Gaganyaan. She is being called a half-humanoid since she will only have a head, two hands and a torso, and will not have lower limbs.
She will simulate human functions before real astronauts take off. She can detect and warn if environmental changes within the cabin get uncomfortable to astronauts and change the air condition.
Camera that doesn't need to focus
A team led by an Indian-born scientist, Rajesh Menon, has developed a camera that requires no focus, using a single lens about a thousandth of an inch thick.
The new lens eliminates the need for focusing and allows any camera to keep all the objects in focus simultaneously.
The advance could enable thinner smartphone cameras, improved and smaller cameras for biomedical imaging such as endoscopy, and more compact cameras for automobiles.
X-ray signature of boundary around black holes
A team led by Indian scientists has found a distinctive signature of cosmic X-rays to identify the boundary around black holes, which "unmistakably separate them" from other objects in the cosmos such as neutron stars that are comparable in mass and size.
Earth observation satellite
Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) restarted its satellite launch operations on 7 November 2020 by putting into orbit the Earth Observation Satellite and nine other foreign satellites in a text book style, using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. With this launch, Isro put into orbit a total of 328 foreign satellites.
Raja Chari to go to space
Raja Jon Vurputoor Chari is the American of Indian descent after Kalpana Chawla who has been selected by Nasa for a space mission. 43-year-old Chari is a colonel in the US Air Force and he became a Nasa astronaut in 2017.
Chari is the only Indian-American among 18 chosen for Nasa’s mission to the moon and beyond. This will be his first spaceflight.
