August 21, 2024

Current Affairs

Lunar Earth Flyby for JUICE Mission

Context: JUICE Mission is a European Science Agency's space mission which aims to make detailed observations of Jupiter and its three ocean bearing moons - Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. Space scientists at ESA are aiming to conduct the world's first Lunar-Earth Flyby. This manoeuvre aims to use the gravity of the Moon and Earth to send it Jupiter via a flyby Venus.

Route of JUICE Mission

Jupiter the destination of JUICE Mission is about 800 million km away from Earth. Sending JUICE straight to Jupiter would require 60,000 kg of onboard propellant. JUICE would also require additional fuel to slow down enough to go into orbit around Jupiter.
Hence, JUICE aims to use the gravity of other planets to carefully adjust its trajectory and arrive at Jupiter with right speed and direction.

Purpose of the Flyby

JUICE Mission was launched in April 2023
Reroute Juice's path through space, using the gravity of first the Moon and then Earth to change the spacecraft's speed and direction.
Flyby by first the Moon and then the Earth will result in guiding Juice to a new trajectory towards Venus.
The Flyby operation will result in saving of 100-150 kg of fuel, which will help in the Juice Mission to conduct extra or bonus science observations on Ganymede.
The Flyby operation also allowed for testing of scientific instruments onboard the Juice Mission. Juice carries 10 scientific instruments which will be tested on its flyby past the moon and earth.
- JANUS (High resolution camera): High-resolution images of the Moon and Earth.
- RIME (Radar for Icy Moon Exploration): RIME data is being disturbed by some electronic noise within the spacecraft. During the closest approach, RIME will have 8 minutes to observe alone (Other instruments switched off). This would allow the RIME team to correct the noise problem.

juice's journey to jupiter: the lunar earth flyby

Science Instruments on JUICE

Juice Mission

Juice is on an eight-year-long voyage to make detailed observations on Jupiter and three of its ocean-bearing moons — Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.
The objective is to explore the moons in search of signs of life and to explore if it is possible to live around giants or for habitability.
During its voyage, the spacecraft will complete fly-bys of Venus, Earth, and the Earth-Moon system to arrive at its destination in 2031.
The mission has instruments including a remote sensing package with spectral imaging capabilities, a laser altimeter (GALA), a radar sounder (RIME) for exploring the moon’s surface and subsurface, instruments to study the particle environment (PEP), a magnetometer (J-MAG), and a radio and plasma wave instrument (RPWI).
JUICE Mission will orbit Ganymede and end its life there.
Operations of JUICE Mission will overlap with NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission.

About Jupiter

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System.
It is a gas giant primarily composed of hydrogen, followed by helium.
It is the third brightest natural object in the Earth's night sky after the Moon and Venus.
Jupiter is surrounded by a faint planetary ring system and has a powerful magnetosphere. The Great Red Spot is a gigantic storm (anticyclone) that is about twice as wide as Earth, circling the planet in its southern hemisphere.
Jupiter has the highest number of moons in our Solar System (95 known moons till date) including Ganymede which is the largest (larger than the planet Mercury).

About Ganymede

Largest moon in our solar system. It is even bigger than planet Mercury.
There is strong evidence that Ganymede has underground saltwater ocean that may hold more water than all the water on Earth’s surface.
It is the only moon known have its own magnetic field – typically only found on planets like Earth.
Ganymede has a faint oxygen atmosphere; however, it is far too thin to breathe.

About Callisto

Jupiter’s second largest moon and third largest moon in our solar system.
Surface of Callisto is heavily cratered created of ice and rock.
Scientists believe that Callisto may have an underground salty ocean making it a potential habitat for life.

About Europa

Europa is slightly smaller than Earth’s moon and barely one-quarter the diameter of Earth itself.
Surface of Europa is composed of solid water ice, and it has extremely thin oxygen atmosphere.
Europa is believed to be most promising place in our solar system to have environment suitable for life.
Beneath the icy surface of Europa is a salty-water ocean thought to contain twice as much water as Earth’s oceans combined.

EU’s forest rules can hurt India’s agri exports

Context – EU’s forest rules.

What are these rules?

The new rules aim to
- avoid that the listed products Europeans buy, use and consume contribute to deforestation and forest degradation in the EU and globally
- reduce carbon emissions caused by EU consumption and production of the relevant commodities by at least 32 million metric tonnes a year
- address all deforestation driven by agricultural expansion to produce the commodities in the scope of the regulation, as well as forest degradation.
From 30 December 2024, companies doing business in the EU will need to comply with the requirements of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
When compliance becomes mandatory at the end of 2024, the new regulation will require large companies trading in seven key commodities (and products derived from those commodities) to prove that these goods/products do not originate from recently deforested areas or contribute to forest degradation.

How does it Impact India?

- Rules define ‘deforestation’ as per Article 2(3) - ‘conversion of forest to agriculture use, whether human-induced or not’.
- ‘Going further to 2(13), the clause defines ‘deforestation-free’ as meaning:
(a) the relevant products contain, have been fed with or have been made using the relevant commodities that were produced on land that has not been subject to deforestation after December 31, 2020; and
(b) in the case of wood, that the wood had been harvested without inducing forest degradation after December 31, 2020.

But Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 states that provisions of this clause shall not apply to such land, which has been changed from forest use to use for non-forest purpose on or before December 12, 1996. It should also be noted that the definitions of ‘forest’ are not aligned with EU definitions.

Further EU also provides for mandatory corrective actions like preventing the relevant product from being placed, withdrawing the product from the market and recalling it if sold.

There are also huge penalties on the operators which will eventually be passed on to the Indian exporters who in addition face the risk of being blacklisted.

December 30, 2024 deadline is very near and there isn’t much time left.