Space – MCQ – GK Questions

Olympus Mons on Mars stands about 22 km high, nearly three times the height of Mount Everest, making it the largest known volcano in the solar system.

President John F. Kennedy declared this goal in a speech to Congress on May 25, 1961, initiating the Apollo program that culminated in the 1969 Moon landing.

The Crew Escape System (CES) is designed to rapidly separate the crew module from the launch vehicle in case of emergencies during ascent, ensuring astronaut safety.

Jupiter trojans are asteroids that share Jupiter's orbit around the Sun, clustered near the stable Lagrange points L4 and L5, 60° ahead and behind the planet.

Current cosmological models estimate dark matter makes up ~27% of the universe, dark energy ~68%, and ordinary (baryonic) matter ~5%.

The Huygens probe, part of the Cassini-Huygens mission, landed on Titan on January 14, 2005, providing the first direct data from the outer solar system's surface.

NavIC transmits navigation signals in the L5 band (1176.45 MHz) and S-band (2492.028 MHz). Future satellites may include L1 band compatibility for wider civilian use.

The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, characterized by a central bar-shaped structure composed of stars, from which spiral arms extend.

PSLV is a four-stage vehicle alternating between solid and liquid propulsion. The first (PS1) and third (PS3) stages use solid propellants, while the second (PS2) and fourth (PS4) use liquid propellants.

The Oort Cloud is a hypothetical spherical shell of icy objects surrounding the solar system at distances up to 100,000 AU. It is believed to be the reservoir of long-period comets.

With Mangalyaan's success in 2014, ISRO became the first space agency in the world to reach Mars orbit on its maiden attempt. Previous attempts by USA, USSR, and others had failures before success.

The ISS orbits at an average altitude of approximately 400 km in Low Earth Orbit, traveling at about 7.66 km/s.

Gaia is a space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 2013. Its goal is to create the most precise three-dimensional map of our galaxy.

APPLE (Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment) was India's first experimental geostationary communication satellite, launched in 1981 aboard an Ariane rocket. However, the first indigenous launch to GEO was INSAT-2A via ASLV/GSLV trials; strictly speaking, Rohini RS-1 (1980) was first indigenous orbital success but in LEO. For GEO specifically via Indian vehicle, later missions achieved this. Note: APPLE was foreign-launched; Rohini was LEO. This question tests nuanced understanding.

During the final descent phase on September 7, 2019, Vikram deviated from its intended trajectory and experienced a hard landing, resulting in loss of communication. The orbiter, however, continues to function successfully.

Venus takes about 243 Earth days to complete one rotation on its axis, making it the slowest rotating planet. Its day is longer than its year (225 Earth days).

Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian-born woman to go to space (1997). Sunita Williams is also of Indian origin but Kalpana Chawla was the first.

Both INSAT and GSAT series satellites have transponders dedicated to tele-education and tele-medicine services, connecting remote areas to urban centers.

China's Chang'e 4 mission successfully landed on the far side of the Moon in January 2019, a first in history.

Io is the most volcanically active body in the Solar System. Its volcanic activity is driven by tidal heating from Jupiter's gravity.