Launch of Mars Orbiter Mission in October this year by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), to explore Mars, will be an important milestone in the history of space research in India, said former President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam here on Monday.
Inaugurating the Aerospace Festival at Periyar Maniammai University (PMU) here, he said BrahMos is yet another great innovation of India. He called for research on building a nano solar power package system for space projects.
He also stressed the need for using biodiesel for vehicles as petrol and diesel emit large quantity of Carbon Dioxide. He said bringing down the cost of space projects can be another research project as putting one kg of payload in space costs $ 25,000. This should be brought down to $ 2,500 through research for putting one kg of payload in space.
Mr. Kalam described Chandrayan I as a most successful mission as it found water molecule in the surface of the moon. “It was a successful missions jointly carried out by India and USA,” he said. After Chandrayan I found water molecules on the moon’s surface, scientists from NASA told him that many countries including USA tried their level best to find water on the moon and launched many missions, but failed. The joint initiative by USA and India yielded results. Dr. Kalam felicitated two students of PMU who joined BarahMos Aerospace. Nikolay A.Listo Padav, Consul General of the Russian Federation, South India, said putting Aryabhatta in space through a Russian rocket and Rakesh Sharma’s space mission are some of the successful Indo-Russian joint ventures. “We will continue our collaboration with India in the field of Aerospace,” he said. A.Sivathanu Pillai, CEO, BrahMos Aerospace, said the Sun may not be there after five billion years. There is a need to explore other planets and other solar systems for living.
K. Tamil Mani, Distinguished Scientist, DRDO, said aeronautics has grown from the period of learning to product development and supply now in India. “We are in the process of designing, developing fifth generation technologies in this field,” he said. Earlier, Dr. Kalam declared open the Centre of Excellence for Research and Training in Automation Technologies-jointly established by PMU and Bosch Rexteroth India Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru. He also inaugurated an exhibition of space projects. K.Veeramani, Chancellor of the University, N.Ramachadnran, Vice Chancellor, R. S. Rajkumar, Vice-President, Bosch Rexroth India Pvt Ltd, participated in the function.
