UPSC CSE Prelims
Space Technology Previous Year Questions (PYQs)
Showing solved Previous Year Questions for Chapter: Space Technology
Topic Breakdown: Scroll →
What is ‘Greased Lightning-10 (GL-10)’, recently in the news?
Detailed Explanation:
Answer: Option 1 — Electric plane tested by NASA
Greased Lightning-10 (GL-10) is an experimental hybrid-electric aircraft developed by NASA to test distributed electric propulsion and vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capabilities.
The GL-10 is a subscale, remotely-piloted aircraft that can take off like a helicopter and transition to fixed-wing flight, demonstrating future applications in unmanned cargo transport and surveillance.
With reference to ‘Astrosat’, the astronomical observatory launched by India, which of the following statements is/are correct?
- Other than the USA and Russia, India is the only country to have launched a similar observatory into space.
- Astrosat is a 2000 kg satellite placed in an orbit at 1650 km above the surface of the Earth.
Detailed Explanation:
Answer: Option 4 — Neither 1 nor 2
❌ Statement 1 – Incorrect: India is the 5th country to launch a space observatory, not the 3rd. USA, Russia, Japan, and Europe (ESA) had already launched similar observatories before AstroSat.
❌ Statement 2 – Incorrect: AstroSat has a mass of approximately 1513 kg (not 2000 kg) and was placed in a 650 km orbit (not 1650 km) above Earth's surface by PSLV-C30 in September 2015.
Consider the following statements regarding: The Mangalyaan launched by ISRO
- is also called the Mars Orbiter Mission
- made India the second country to have a spacecraft orbit the Mars after USA
- made India the only country to be successful in making its spacecraft orbit the Mars in its very first attempt
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Detailed Explanation:
✅ Statement 1 – Correct: Mangalyaan is officially called the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), launched by ISRO in 2013.
❌ Statement 2 – Incorrect: India was the fourth space agency to reach Mars orbit, after the Soviet Union, NASA (USA), and the European Space Agency.
✅ Statement 3 – Correct: India became the first nation to successfully orbit Mars on its maiden attempt, a unique achievement as all previous Mars missions by other nations had failed in their first attempts.
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In which of the following activities are Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites used?
- Assessment of crop productivity
- Locating groundwater resources
- Mineral exploration
- Telecommunications
- Traffic studies
Select the correct answer using the code given below
Detailed Explanation:
✅ Statement 1 – Correct: IRS satellites use multispectral and hyperspectral imaging to monitor crop health, growth patterns, and productivity assessment through vegetation indices like NDVI.
✅ Statement 2 – Correct: Remote sensing data from IRS helps identify groundwater potential zones by analyzing geological structures, lineaments, and soil moisture patterns.
✅ Statement 3 – Correct: IRS satellites provide spectral signatures of surface minerals, aiding in mineral exploration and geological mapping through techniques like lithological discrimination.
❌ Statement 4 – Incorrect: Telecommunications require geostationary communication satellites (INSAT/GSAT series), not IRS (earth observation) satellites which are designed for remote sensing, not signal relay.
❌ Statement 5 – Incorrect: Traffic studies require high temporal resolution and real-time monitoring; IRS satellites have limited revisit times and are not optimized for dynamic traffic flow analysis.
In the context of modern scientific research, consider the following statements about ‘IceCube’, a particle detector located at the South Pole, which was recently in the news :
- It is the world’s largest neutrino detector, encompassing a cubic kilometre of ice.
- It is a powerful telescope to search for dark matter
- It is buried deep in the ice.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Detailed Explanation:
✅ Statement 1 – Correct: IceCube is the world's largest neutrino detector, encompassing a cubic kilometre of ice at the South Pole.
✅ Statement 2 – Correct: It functions as a powerful telescope to search for dark matter and investigates high-energy cosmic phenomena involving black holes and neutron stars.
✅ Statement 3 – Correct: The detector is buried deep in the ice, extending from 1,450 to 2,450 meters below the surface to shield it from atmospheric interference and enhance precision.
The term ‘Goldilocks Zone’ is often seen in the news in the context of
Detailed Explanation:
Goldilocks Zone (also called habitable zone) is the region around a star where conditions are just right for liquid water to exist on a planet's surface.
Astronomers use this concept to search for Earth-like exoplanets that could potentially harbor life, making option 3 correct.
Which of the following pair is/are correctly matched?
| Spacecraft | Purpose |
|---|---|
| 1. Cassini-Huygens | Orbiting Venus and transmitting data to the Earth |
| 2. Messenger | Mapping and investigating the Mercury |
| 3. Voyager 1 and 2 | Exploring the outer solar system |
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Detailed Explanation:
❌ Pair 1 – Incorrect: Cassini-Huygens was a mission to study Saturn and its moons (not Venus). The Huygens probe landed on Titan (Saturn's largest moon) in 2005.
✅ Pair 2 – Correct: MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) orbited Mercury from 2011 to 2015, mapping and studying its surface, composition, and magnetic field.
✅ Pair 3 – Correct: Voyager 1 and 2 were launched by NASA in 1977 to explore the outer solar system, providing data on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune before entering interstellar space.
Which of the following is /are cited by the scientists as evidence/evidences for the continued expansion of the universe?
- Detection of microwaves in space
- Observation of the redshift phenomenon in space
- Movement of asteroids in space
- The occurrence of supernova explosions in space
Detailed Explanation:
✅ Statement 1 – Correct: Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation is relic radiation from the Big Bang, discovered by Penzias and Wilson, providing strong evidence for the expanding universe model.
✅ Statement 2 – Correct: Redshift phenomenon shows that light from distant galaxies is stretched as they move away, demonstrating universal expansion as per Hubble's Law.
❌ Statement 3 – Incorrect: Asteroid movement is governed by local gravitational forces within solar systems and has no relevance to large-scale cosmic expansion.
✅ Statement 4 – Correct: Type Ia supernovae serve as standard candles for measuring cosmic distances, providing evidence for the universe's accelerated expansion and leading to the discovery of dark energy.
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