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UPPCS Science & Technology Gap Sheet: Moon, Mars, Sun and human spaceflight.

UPPCS has asked 11 of these. 12 have not been asked yet. Lock the first list, then read the second: it holds what UPPCS has not used yet.

First, the concept

Separate a flyby, an orbiter, a lander and a rover. Reaching a planet does not mean landing on it; returning samples is a separate achievement.

Learn mission–agency–destination pairs. Separate the first human, first woman, first Moon landing and first Indian citizen in space.

Chandrayaan-2 · Launched in 2019 with an orbiter, Vikram lander and Pragyan rover; the lander did not achieve a soft landing.
Chandrayaan-3 · Vikram and Pragyan achieved a lunar soft landing on 23 August 2023 in the south polar region.
Mars Orbiter Mission · Mangalyaan launched in 2013 and entered Mars orbit in 2014.
Aditya-L1 · India's solar observatory; launched in September 2023 to study the Sun from near Sun–Earth L1.

Chang'e-5 · Chinese mission launched in November 2020; returned lunar samples to Earth.
Apollo 11 · NASA mission that first landed humans on the Moon in July 1969.
Curiosity rover · NASA rover that landed on Mars in 2012; studies past habitability.
Perseverance rover · NASA rover that landed on Mars in 2021; collects rock samples and seeks signs of ancient life.

Vostok 1 · Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space in 1961.
Vostok 6 · Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in 1963.
International Space Station · Multinational laboratory in low Earth orbit; not a lunar station.

Items marked 'asked in other exams' have come in UPSC or other state exams, not yet in UPPCS.

Indian missions: 4 · World exploration: 4 · Human spaceflight milestones: 2 · Recent (2024 onwards): 2

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⚠️ Chandrayaan-3 landed near the south pole, not at the pole itself. Mangalyaan was an orbiter, not a rover.

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