{"id":28103,"date":"2024-11-20T06:56:48","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T01:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=28103"},"modified":"2025-04-08T16:45:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T11:15:18","slug":"binar-space-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/binar-space-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Binar Space Program"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About Binar Space Program:\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a <strong>satellite research program <\/strong>operating out of Curtin University.<\/li>\n<li>It aims to advance our understanding of the <strong>Solar System and lower the barrier for operating in space.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The program began operations with its first satellite, <strong>Binar-1, in September 2021<\/strong>. This was less than a year into solar cycle 25 when solar activity was relatively low.<\/li>\n<li>In these conditions, the ten-centimetre cube satellite started at an altitude of 420 km and survived a full 364 days in orbit.<\/li>\n<li>The program\u2019s follow-up mission \u2013 Binar-2, 3, and 4 \u2013 were three equally sized CubeSats. However, they were <strong>expected to last approximately six months<\/strong> owing to the extra surface area from new deployable solar arrays and a forecast increase in solar activity.<\/li>\n<li>As the Sun kicked into high gear, these three satellites burned up in the atmosphere much sooner than expected.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What is solar activity?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It includes phenomena such as <strong>sunspots, solar flares and solar wind<\/strong> \u2013 the stream of charged particles that flows toward Earth.<\/li>\n<li>This activity is a product of the <strong>Sun\u2019s ever-changing magnetic field<\/strong>, and approximately every 11 years, it completely flips. At the midpoint of this cycle, <strong>solar activity is at its highest.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>In the last few months, indicators of solar activity were more than one and a half times higher than predictions for this point in the current cycle, labelled solar cycle 25.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Impacts:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Higher solar activity means more <strong>solar flares and stronger solar wind<\/strong> \u2013 resulting in a higher flux of charged particles that can <strong>damage or disrupt electrical components on satellites.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It also means an <strong>increase in ionising radiation<\/strong>, resulting in a higher dose for astronauts and pilots, and potential disruptions to long-distance radio communications.<\/li>\n<li>But for satellites in low Earth orbit, the most consistent effect of solar activity is that the extra energy gets absorbed into the outer atmosphere, causing it to balloon outward.<\/li>\n<li>As a result, all satellites <strong>less than 1,000 km from Earth experience<\/strong> a significant increase in <strong>atmospheric drag<\/strong> (This is a force that disrupts their orbit and causes them to fall towards the planet\u2019s surface).<\/li>\n<li>Notable satellites in this region include the <strong>International Space Station<\/strong> and the <strong>Starlink constellation<\/strong>. These satellites have thrusters to counteract this effect, but these corrections can be expensive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What is Space weather?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Space weather refers to the environmental effects that <strong>originate from outside our atmosphere<\/strong> (mostly the Sun). It affects us on Earth in a variety of noticeable and unnoticeable ways.<\/li>\n<li>Space weather, and solar activity in particular, also creates <strong>additional challenges for satellites and satellite operators.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1: What are Solar flares?<\/h3>\n<p>These are large explosions that occur at the sun&#8217;s surface when twisted magnetic-field lines suddenly snap, emitting large bursts of electromagnetic radiation. Flares are our solar system&#8217;s largest explosive events. They are seen as bright areas on the sun, and they can last from minutes to hours.<\/p>\n<p><strong>News: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/as-sun-nears-peak-of-solar-cycle-small-satellites-are-paying-the-price\/article68885742.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">As sun nears peak of solar cycle, small satellites are paying the price<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Binar Space Program is a satellite research program operating out of Curtin University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":28104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-28103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}