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UPPCS Science & Technology Gap Sheet: Space basics, telescopes and agencies.

UPPCS has asked 14 of these. 7 have not been asked yet. Lock the first list, then read the second: it holds what UPPCS has not used yet.

First, the concept

An orbit is chosen for the task: imaging needs repeated views, navigation needs predictable coverage, and an observatory needs a suitable viewing environment.

A telescope’s wavelength and location decide what it can observe. A space agency, a launch site and a telescope are different kinds of entities.

✅ Already asked (14)

Orbits and operations

  • Sun-synchronous orbit · Passes a location at roughly the same local solar time; useful for comparing Earth images.
  • Polar orbit · Passes near both poles; Earth's rotation allows broad surface coverage.
  • Low Earth orbit · Commonly used for Earth observation and crewed space stations.
  • Sun–Earth L1 · Between Earth and Sun; missions near it can observe the Sun continuously.
  • Telemetry · Transmission of measurements from a spacecraft to a receiving station.
  • Cislunar space · Region between Earth and Moon and the Moon's vicinity.

Observatories

  • Hubble Space Telescope · Launched in 1990; observes mainly ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared light from Earth orbit.
  • Kepler telescope · NASA mission that searched for exoplanets using the transit method.
  • SOFIA observatory · Airborne infrared telescope, not an orbiting spacecraft; reported water on the sunlit Moon in 2020.
  • GMRT · Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope; an array near Pune in Maharashtra.

Space agencies

  • NASA · National Aeronautics and Space Administration; United States.
  • ESA · European Space Agency; an intergovernmental space organisation.
  • Roscosmos · Russia's state space corporation.
  • CNSA · China National Space Administration; China.

❌ Not asked yet (7)

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

🔒 7 items not asked yet

Orbits and operations: 4 · Observatories: 2 · Space agencies: 1

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⚠️ SOFIA flew on an aircraft. Hubble orbits Earth; Webb operates near Sun–Earth L2.

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