Science and Technology News Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Homo luzonensis is a species.

It is a species of archaic human announced in April 2019, identified from teeth and bones found in Callao Cave on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. The remains are at least 50,000 years old, and the species was small-bodied, with a mix of primitive and modern features.

The Latin two-part name (genus Homo, species luzonensis, 'of Luzon') is itself the clue: that is how species are named, not dances, foods or heritage sites.

Answer: C

ICESat-2 was launched by NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2 was launched on 15 September 2018 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It carries a laser altimeter that measures the height of ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice, forests and land surfaces very precisely, to track how polar ice is changing.

The Canadian, Indian and European space agencies have their own earth-observation programmes, but ICESat-2 is a NASA mission, successor to the original ICESat of 2003.

Answer: A

The spacecraft started its journey from Srihorikota, that is, Sriharikota.

India's Mars Orbiter Mission, Mangalyaan, was launched on 5 November 2013 by the PSLV-C25 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, India's main launch site. It entered orbit around Mars in September 2014.

Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram is the sounding rocket station where India's space programme began, Chandipur in Odisha is a missile test range, and Tarapur in Maharashtra is the site of an atomic power station.

Answer: B

The rover is Perseverance.

NASA launched the Perseverance rover on 30 July 2020 as part of its Mars 2020 mission. It landed in Jezero Crater in February 2021 to search for signs of ancient life and collect rock samples, carrying the small Ingenuity helicopter with it.

Endeavour is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter, and Achiever and Patriot are not NASA Mars rovers.

Ingenuity went on to make the first powered, controlled flight on another planet in April 2021.

Answer: B

The keyed expansion is Prime Minister's Science, Technology and Innovation Council.

PM-STIAC, set up in 2018, is the Prime Minister's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council. It advises the Prime Minister on science and technology policy and is chaired by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.

None of the options spells out 'Advisory', but the C at the end of the acronym stands for Council, which is what the key goes by. Both 'Centre' options are wrong on that letter, and option (c) also changes 'Technology' to 'Technical'.