Chennai,

India’s cartograph satellite Cartosat-2 launched in 2007 successfully re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, said the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Friday.

“Cartosat-2, ISRO’s high-resolution imaging satellite, bid adieu with a descent into Earth’s atmosphere on February 14, 2024, as predicted. ISRO had lowered its orbit from 635 km to 380 km by early 2020,” the Indian space agency said.

“This strategic move minimizes space debris and underscores ISRO’s commitment to sustainable space exploration,” ISRO added.

Weighing 680 kg at launch, the Cartosat-2 was operated in a Sun-synchronous Polar orbit at an altitude of 635 km. Until 2019, it provided high-resolution imagery for urban planning.

Initially, the satellite was expected to take about 30 years to naturally de-orbit. However, ISRO opted to lower its perigee using leftover fuel to comply with international guidelines on space debris mitigation.

This involved reducing collision risks and ensuring safe end-of-life disposal, following recommendations from organizations such as the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN-COPOUS) and the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), ISRO said.

ISRO’s System for Safe and Sustainable Space Operations (IS4OM) team at ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) predicted Cartosat-2’s atmospheric re-entry for February 14, 2024.

Electrical passivation was completed on February 14th, and tracking continued until re-entry.

The final telemetry frames confirmed successful passivation, with the satellite reaching about 130 km altitude. ISRO then tracked the satellite by its multi-object tracking radar at its rocket port in Sriharikota.

The final prediction placed Cartosat-2’s re-entry over the Indian Ocean at 3:48 pm IST on February 14.

Analysis indicated that all major spacecraft components would demise during atmospheric re-entry. Cartosat-2’s successful de-orbiting at its end-of-life represents a significant step for ISRO in ensuring the long-term sustainability of outer space activities.

New Delhi

The four astronauts who will be part of India’s first human space flight program, Gaganyaan, were trained at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia, the same center where Rakesh Sharma underwent training. Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian to go into space in 1984.

Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC), at Star City, is about 30 kilometers north of Moscow. It was named for the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin.

The center offers high-tech training facilities, including integrated simulators. It also offers survival training for many possible landing situations, including mountains, woodlands, marshes, deserts, in the Arctic and on the sea.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Tuesday the names of the four astronauts who will be in Gaganyaan, slated to be launched in 2024-25.

The four chosen Indian Air Force pilots are Group Captain Prashanth Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Pratap, and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla. The four astronauts were trained at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a visit to Kerala, reviewed the progress of the Gaganyaan mission and bestowed ‘astronaut wings’ on the astronaut-designates at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.

The Gaganyaan mission is India’s first human space flight program, for which extensive preparations are underway at various ISRO centres.

“India’s success in the space sector is bearing the seeds of scientific temperament in the country’s young generation,” PM Modi said in his address at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.

“As India is set to become the top-3 economy in the world, at the same time, the country’s Gaganyaan is also going to take our space sector to a new height,” the PM said.

As per ISRO, the Gaganyaan project envisages a demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of three members into an orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission and bringing them back safely to earth, by landing in Indian sea waters.

The pre-requisites for the Gaganyaan mission include the development of many critical technologies, including a human-rated launch vehicle for carrying crew safely to space, a life support system to provide an Earth-like environment to crew in space, crew emergency escape provisions, and evolving crew management aspects for training, recovery, and rehabilitation of crew.

Various precursor missions are planned to demonstrate the technology readiness levels before carrying out the actual human space flight mission. These demonstrator missions include Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT), Pad Abort Test (PAT) and Test Vehicle (TV) flights. The safety and reliability of all systems will be proven in unmanned missions preceding manned missions.

LVM3 rocket the well-proven and reliable heavy lift launcher of ISRO, is identified as the launch vehicle for the Gaganyaan mission.

Human safety is of paramount importance in the Gaganyaan mission. In order to ensure the same, various new technologies, consisting of engineering systems and human-centric systems, are being developed and realized.

In 2023, in a stellar display of progress, India soared to new heights with the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the South Pole of the Moon and the successful launch of Aditya-L1, India’s first solar mission.

These milestones not only secured India’s standing in the global space economy but also fueled the engines for the private space sector in India.

Among other feats, India now aims to set up ‘Bharatiya Antariksha Station’ by 2035, and send the first Indian to the Moon by 2040.

Alphabet’s Google is considering charging for premium features on its generative AI-powered search engine, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the plan.

The tech giant is looking at a variety of options, including incorporating AI-powered search features to its premium subscription services, which already provides access to its new Gemini AI assistant in Gmail and Docs, the report said.

Twenty-twenty-three’s technology news has been … a little insane. We’ve seen some incredible tech developments, as well as many approaches to regulatory reform and at least a few tech sagas.

Surely, 2023 must be the year of AI. It’s the year we realized AI stopped being in the future and arrived in our here and now.

The year of AI started with ChatGPT building from 0 to 100 million users after just two months of operation and is now wrapping up with Australia’s ‘AI month’ (by the CSIRO), which ends in mid-December and showcases Australian industry, government and academic AI developments.

There has been a lot in between. We have seen discussions about what AI is and isn’t and witnessed immense hyperbole about what it will mean for society, including questioning the very future of humanity.

This year saw numerous efforts to regulate AI, from the Biden administration’s Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of AI to the EU AI Act. Multilateral forums have tried their hands at AI principles and regulations, from the UK-hosted Bletchley Park AI Safety Summit to the G7 Leaders’ Statement on the Hiroshima AI Process, while AI was a key topic on the international stage, including ASEAN, the Quad and AUKUS.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, national responses trumped multilateral announcements when it came to depth and detail on AI regulation, including the more substantive US Executive Order on AI. Many nations formally supported an agreement on the Guardrails on Military use of AI, as it was observed on the battlefield in the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict and in the way Israel is targeting Hamas.

Then there was the speed of diffusion. Consumer technologies spread through society at an unprecedented rate. Threads broke the ChatGPT record to become the fastest-growing app ever, gaining over 100 million users in less than a week. Before that, TikTok held the record, reaching the mark in nine months, beating the years and nearly decades it took technologies like the internet, telephone and LinkedIn.

In November, it was announced that ChatGPT now has 100 million weekly active users, and is used by two million developers, including over 90 per cent of Fortune 500 companies. Yet, this announcement was rapidly followed by a chaotic four-day stoush between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the board, which I’ve dubbed the Sam Altman Saga.

OpenAI’s board sacked CEO and co-founder Sam Altman, for not being ‘consistently candid.’ co-founder Greg Brockman was removed as chair of the board and resigned from OpenAI. One interim CEO lasted less than 48 hours and another was installed as Microsoft offered Altman and Brockman and their unnamed colleagues a place within the company. More than 90$ of OpenAI employees signed a letter to the board threatening to quit. Days later, Altman was back as CEO.

The entire Sam Altman Saga was reported in real-time on X (formerly Twitter) showcasing that, despite the state propaganda and endless bots, the platform retains some utility.

October 2023 marked a year of Musk ownership of Twitter/X, which resulted in wiping out $4billion-$20 billion in value and committing ‘one of the biggest rebrand failures of all time.’ X was removed from Australia’s voluntary Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation having removed the mechanism for reporting misinformation posted on its platform.

Musk also did a bunch of other crazy shit.

He endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory and on November 30 told Disney CEO Bob Iger — and other fleeing advertisers — not to advertise on X and to “Go Fuck Yourself”! The move could see a loss of $75 million in advertising revenue by the end of the year as dozens of major brands pause their marketing campaigns. While his Brain-Computer Interface company, Neuralink, was controversially approved for human trials, Musk ended the year with deliveries of the long-awaited Tesla Cybertruck — albeit with lower range and higher prices than promised.

Cyber ​​security has dominated the Australian landscape, with abundant cyber security incidents as well as the release of the 2023–2030 Australian Cyber ​​Security Strategy with lofty ambitions. A cyber-attack on DP World, Australia’s biggest port operator, halted operations of up to 40 per cent of the nation’s maritime freight, while an Optus outage that left millions of individuals and businesses without resulting connectivity in the CEO’s resignation.

What do we have ahead of us in tech in 2024? As Johanna Weaver and I conclude, 2024 will hopefully be the year of thinking about technology holistically. I anticipate a renewed focus on board governance, especially in the context of AI, cybersecurity and the ethical and privacy considerations arising from the implementation of technology.

In 2023, there has been widespread recognition that there is no AI without Big Tech. With few exceptions, every start-up, new entrant, and even AI research lab is dependent on the computing infrastructure of Microsoft, Amazon, and Google to train their systems, and for market reach to deploy and sell their AI products. I suspect then that 2024 will bring renewed vigor in understanding and challenging technological dependence, from a variety of perspectives, including national security.

With more than 50% of the world expected to hold an election in 2024, mis- and dis-information will continue to be a huge challenge. Unfortunately, the outlook for 2024 doesn’t appear great. We are witnessing what a UK author called a shift in our approach to trust in evidence and authority and US authors called the post-truth era. Undeniably, more work is needed to combat the susceptibility of our digital landscape to disinformation and interference, because global efforts to date have not worked.

There’s no doubt 2023 will be the year technology policy really entered the mainstream, and dinner table conversations, thanks to data breaches, cyber(in)security and the hype around AI. In 2024, I’m looking for a maturing of tech conversations to consider issues holistically that center on reducing harms, embracing opportunities, and improving governance mechanisms. The stakes couldn’t be higher. How we decide to embrace opportunities, innovate, fail and recover, learn and improve will shape the decades to come.

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