Assam Current Affairs – October 8-14, 2018 - Page 4 of 4

Current Affairs Assam – October  2018

( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the month of October 2018 )

October 14

Chief Minister of Nagaland Neiphiu Rio said that the state government will come out with a sports policy to promote all sporting disciplines suitable to the state youth.
Nagaland CM also reiterated that the northeastern region has huge talents and potential but due to lack of adequate infrastructure and training facilities, the potential of the youth could not be explored fully.
The Nagaland Olympic Association got affiliated to the Indian Olympic Association in 2004.
It is to be noted that Dr T. Ao, a renowned Naga, captained Indian football team in the 1948.

An Assam Police officer, Inspector Lohit Sonowal, has been conferred with the Kirti Chakra posthumously for indomitable courage and exemplary leadership in fighting ULFA militants.
Lohit Sonowal was killed in an encounter with ULFA militants, on April 19, 2013, in which two extremists were also killed.

FACTFILE – Kirti Chakra

The Kirti Chakra is an Indian military decoration awarded for valour, courageous action or self-sacrifice away from the field of battle.
It is the peacetime equivalent of the Maha Vir Chakra.
It is second in order of precedence of peacetime gallantry awards and comes only after Ashoka Chakra
The award was formerly known as the Ashoka Chakra, Class II.

India successfully tested the cryogenic engine for the heavy rocket that would launch the country’s second moon mission on January 3, 2019.
The cryogenic engine of the Geo Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV MK-III) in the upper stage has been tested for the Chandrayaan-2 Mission.
The crucial test was conducted on 11^th October for 25 seconds at the space agency’s propulsion complex in Tamil Nadu’s Mahendragiri, 685km southwest of Chennai.
The upper stage of the heavy rocket is powered by cryogenic engine, which develops a nominal thrust of 186.36 kN(kilo Newton) with a specific impulse of 442 seconds in vacuum.
The super cooled engine operates on gas generator cycle using liquid oxygen and hydrogen (LOX & LH2) or oxidizer.
The flight acceptance hot test of the cryo was performed at the high-altitude test facility in the complex.
The second lunar mission will be launched from the rocketport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, about 90km northeast of Chennai, with a lander and rover a decade after the first moon mission in October 2008 around its orbit.

FACTFILE – Cryogenic Rocket Engine

A cryogenic rocket engine is a rocket engine that uses a cryogenic fuel or oxidizer, that is, its fuel or oxidizer (or both) are gases liquefied and stored at very low temperatures.
Notably, these engines were one of the main factors of NASA’s success in reaching the Moon by the Saturn V rocket.
During World War II, when powerful rocket engines were first considered by the German, American and Soviet engineers independently, all discovered that rocket engines need high mass flow rate of both oxidizer and fuel to generate a sufficient thrust. At that time oxygen and low molecular weight hydrocarbons were used as oxidizer and fuel pair. At room temperature and pressure, both are in gaseous state. Hypothetically, if propellants had been stored as pressurized gases, the size and mass of fuel tanks themselves would severely decrease rocket efficiency.
Therefore, to get the required mass flow rate, the only option was to cool the propellants down to cryogenic temperatures (below −183 °C, −253 °C), converting them to liquid form.
Cryogenic rocket engines are either liquid-propellant rocket engines or hybrid rocket engines.
Various cryogenic fuel-oxidizer combinations of liquid hydrogen (LH2) fuel and the liquid oxygen (LOX) oxidizer is one of the most widely used.

After nearly 20 years, the Assam State Zoo cum Botanical Garden is all set to house the ostrich.The Central Zoo Authority has approved an exchange programme between the State Zoo and Ranchi’s BhagwanBorsa Biological Park.
The technical committee of the Central Zoo Authority has approved a list of animals to be exchanged between the two zoos.
The State Zoo will give a male black panther and three leopard cats to the BhagwanBorsa Biological Park and in return, the State Zoo will get a pair of ostriches and also a pair of striped hyenas.
However, the technical committee did not approve the transfer of mouse deer from Assam to Ranchi as the animal is not part of the approved animal collection plan of that zoo.
The State Zoo had around six to seven ostriches earlier. The last time it had the bird was in 1998.
The Central Zoo Authority had earlier approved another exchange programme through which the State Zoo will get crocodiles from Kanpur by November end.
The State Zoo is also going to get a few exotic birds – pairs of Lady Amherst’s pheasants, golden pheasants and silver pheasants – from Darjeeling.
In return, the State Zoo will give the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park of Darjeeling a male slow loris.

FACTFILE – Assam State Zoo cum Botanical Garden

The Assam State Zoo cum Botanical Garden is the largest of its kind in the North East region and it is spread across 432 acre (175 hectare).
The zoo is home to about 895 animals, birds and reptiles representing almost 113 species of animals and birds from around the world.
The Assam State Zoo was established in the year 1957 and was open to public viewing in the year 1958.