Category: Tech

On Wednesday, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) said that five-member nations produced 75% vaccines of COVID-19. Only three-quarters of nations, China, India, Germany, The United States, and France gave the vaccines this year. Director-general aimed to expand the COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing to promote equitable access. According to AsiaOne, the discriminatory access to the vaccines came out as the root cause of the unequal recovery of the global economy. She states that vaccination of the developed economy is taking place at a rapid rate while the poorer countries are lagging.

1.1 billion vaccines were produced worldwide in the month of June but only 1.4% went to the African countries. The Africans account for 17% of the world population. Only 0.24% went to the low-income countries. This data even declined in the first half of July.

News Asia One reported that in developed countries, 94 out of 100 doses have been administered to every resident. Okonjo-lweala was concerned about only 20 million people, or 1.5 percent of the population is fully vaccinated compared to 42 percent of people in developed countries. Director-general even states that it is not acceptable by WTO for moral, practical, and economic reasons. She demands full transparency in the supply of vaccine deals.

Jeff Bezos, the second billionaire to ride his own spaceship in less than a week, soared into space Tuesday on his rocket company’s inaugural voyage with passengers on board. The Amazon CEO was accompanied by the select few people- an entourage that included his brother, an 18-year-old Dutch teen, and an 82-year-old Texas aeronautics pioneer – the youngest and oldest people to ever fly in space.

Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, named for America’s first astronaut, launched from West Texas on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. This is a date chosen by Bezos for its historical significance. Even though Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic pushed forward his own mission from New Mexico in the battle for space tourist revenues, he stuck to it and surpassed him to orbit by nine days.

Bezos’ capsule was totally automated, and the remarkable journey required no official employees on board.

Blue Origin climbed to a height of around 66 miles (106 kilometers). This was way more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) higher than Branson’s July 11 ride. To propel the capsule far enough, the 60-foot (18-meter) booster sped to Mach 3, before detaching and landed upright. Mach 3 is three times the speed of sound.

Wally Funk has been the world’s oldest woman to travel into space, 60 years after being denied the privilege.

For Funk, it was all about achieving one goal: being one of the first female astronauts. Notwithstanding being under the age of 24, the aviation genius got a break in 1961 when she became the youngest of the Mercury 13 women. This was a group of women who completed testing to prove that women could compete for NASA’s astronaut corps.

At a time when women were deliberately prohibited from many aspects of life, she got the top aeronautics ratings in college, became a professionally certified pilot, and was the first female civilian flight teacher at a U.S. military facility.

Funk’s dreams of flying into space were never realized since she was a woman. However, Funk, 82, traveled to the edge of space with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos aboard a rocket and capsule designed by his personal spaceflight business, Blue Origin.

Funk, who is accustomed to making history, became the oldest astronaut in history when she appeared from the ship after landing with a broad grin and arms outstretched, a look of sheer joy on her face.

The richest man on the planet, business tycoon Jeff Bezos, to take on the edge of space in two days. The founder of Blue Origin is due to be a part of the all-civilian crew for a planned 11-minute ride to the edge of space. It is scheduled to launch from a West Texas site.

AsiaOne stated that the mission is expected to kick off on Tuesday at 8 am ET if weather permits. This history will be live-streamed and will have a running live blog with updates. Bezos will be accompanied by his brother Mark Bezos, trailblazing octogenarian woman aviator Wallu Fink and a person who paid $28mn for a spot aboard the spacecraft.

New Shepard is an 18.3-meters-tall, fully autonomous rocket-and-capsule combo which cannot be piloted from inside the spacecraft, as mentioned by news Asia one. It is a suborbital rocket that launches in a vertical position like a traditional rocket launch. The flight will take the passengers to about 62miles up (100Km) which will later return by parachute. The position is designed to speed up the aerial launch to 2,200 miles per hour in space. It will be completely different from Virgin Galactic’s rocket plane of fellow rival Richard Branson. This extraterrestrial journey will take place exactly after 9 days of the Bransons trip.

The recent study shows that the level of antibody present in infected patients is much higher after the single dose of the Sputnik V Covid vaccine as compared to participants with no history of infection.

As per the News Asia One, Sputnik V vaccine is produced using the combination of two adenoviruses. Adenoviruses are common viruses that can cause a realm of illness with symptoms like fever, sore throat, and cold. Sputnik V’s two doses are 92% effective against covid-19 infection.

On 289 health workers a research was carried out on one and two shots in Argentina. All the volunteers after three weeks of the second dose generated virus-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies with no prior infection. It is the most common type of antibody found in the blood. However, 94% of volunteers after receiving their first dose developed IgG antibodies against the virus. Whereas 90% of the volunteers showed neutralizing antibodies which directly interferes with the capability of viruses to infect cells. After a single dose, the high antibody level in naive participants suggests the benefit of delaying the second dose.

For the previously infected volunteers, the second dose does not increase the production of neutralizing antibodies.

British Business Magnate Sir Richard Branson flew high above New Mexico in the United States in the passenger rocket plane, which his company tried to build for the last 17 years. This symbolic milestone venture was a fully crewed test flight to space. The 70-year-old Virgin group’s founder soared more than 50miles above sea level. 100Km above the sea level is the widely accepted boundary of space which is known as the Kármán line.

Branson’s own winged rocket ship was his boldest adventure yet and beat fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos on 11th July. He experienced the curvature of the Earth and three to four minutes of weightlessness after which he glided back home safely to a runway landing. After John Glenn (77) flew on the shuttle in 1998 Branson became the second septuagenarian to depart for space.

This history was witnessed by his wife, children and grandchildren along with other 500 people. SpaceX’s Elon Musk also arrived in Mexico to witness the flight and wished him “Godspeed!”. The billionaire Elon Musk is Branson’s Chief rival in the space-tourism race.

VVS Unity, a twin-fuselage carrier jet dubbed VMS Eve which was named after Branson’s late mother, was a gleaming white space plane that took off from Spaceport America, a state-owned facility near the town of Truth or Consequences.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) of US Space Agency NASA completed its primary mission of imaging 75% of the starry sky as a part of a two-year long survey. While capturing images, it has found 66 new exoplanets or worlds beyond our solar system. A team of nearly 2100 astronomers is working to confirm this. Patricia Boyd, the project scientist for TESS at NASA’s Goddard Flight Space Research Center said, “The satellite is producing a torrent of highquality observations providing valuable data across a wide range of science topics”. TESS monitored sectors with a dimension of 24 by 96 degrees of the sky for about a month using its four cameras.

It observed 13 sectors during its first year of operations comprising of the southern sky and spent next year imaging the northern sky. In its extended mission, it will resume surveying the south. Moreover, the TESS team also introduced some improvements in the process of collecting data. Its cameras can now capture a full image every 10 minutes that is three times faster than during the primary mission. The changes will be long lasting & will be completed by September 2022. Among the newest planetary discoveries is its first Earth-sized world. Named TOI 700 d, it is located in the habitable zone of its star, the range of distances where conditions could be just right to allow liquid water surface.

India, Israel and the United States have started collaboration in the area of development & the next generation of emerging technologies, like a transparent, open, reliable and secure 5G communications network. The decision taken was the result of a virtual US-India-Israel summit held on 3rd Sep ’20 to focus on trilateral partnerships in strategic, technology & development arenas. There, it was decided that these trio nations will collaborate in 5G technology. The keynote address at this summit was provided by Ms. Bonnie Glick, Deputy Administrator USAID & was also addressed by her counterparts Mr. Sanjeev Singla from India and Mr. Ron Malka, Israeli Ambassador to India. The outcome of this initiative is the result of collaboration between the people, especially Indians living in Israel & the US. The objective of this outcomeoriented meeting is to build strong ties that these three countries share with each other

Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new way of removing carbon dioxide from the air. The new technology will be able to work at virtually any concentration level. This will also introduce new strategies to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas levels.

According to MIT researchers, the new method can remove the gas even when it is present in very low
concentrations as compared to previously available methods that require high concentration levels such as those found in the fossil fuel emissions from power plants.

As per the research published in Energy and Environmental Science Journal, the efficacy of this new method can be ascertained with the fact that it can even remove the greenhouse gas at roughly 400 parts per million currently found in the atmosphere.

According to ISRO, the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter that is currently orbiting the Moon has detected Argon 40, a noble gas, in the Lunar Exosphere. The orbiter’s payload, Chandra’s Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 (CHACE-2) found Argon 40 from an altitude of 100 kilometers.

The payload is a Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (QMA) with an ability to scan the lunar neutral exosphere in the mass range of 1 to 300 amu and is meant to carry out an in-situ study of the composition and distribution of the lunar neutral exosphere and its variability.

It is an isotope of the noble gas Argon, which is the third most abundant gas in Earth’s atmosphere and is also a major constituent of the lunar exosphere. According to planetary scientists, in the lunar exosphere, the thin gaseous covering around the Moon, the gas
atoms rarely collide. It originates from the radioactive disintegration of Potassium 40. As per the statement released by the space agency, the presence of radioactive 40K nuclide deep below the Moon’s surface disintegrates and forms the Argon 40.

This diffuses through the intergranular space and rises to make lunar exosphere through seepages. The orbiter’s payload, CHACE-2, is a neutral mass spectrometer-based payload that can detect constituents of the exosphere in the range of 1-300 atomic mass unit (amu).

The payload was able to detect the gas in the exosphere based on the variations of day-night concentration. Since it’s a condensable gas and reacts differently at various temperatures and pressures, it condenses during the lunar night and after lunar dawn. It then again starts getting released to the exosphere.