Ex-ISRO chief Somnath at KU asks students to visit ISRO
Dr S Somanath, Former Chairman of ISRO, on Tuesday encouraged students to visit the Department of Space and ISRO in Bangalore and explore ways in which satellites were being built.
He presented a lecture as the keynote speaker explaining the past, present and future of Space programmes at the Faculty Lounge of Kurukshetra University.
Dr S Somanath spoke about studying microgravity, artificial genetic mutation, and space-related research and the vision of Chandrayaan 4 to go to the moon and take some samples from there and come back to the earth. Dr Somanath said the Venus Orbiter Mission was scheduled for a launch in March 2028.
Dr Somanath mentioned the programmes undertaken by North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC), established as a joint initiative of the Department of Space (DOS) and the North Eastern Council (NEC). The centre helped in augmenting the development process by providing the advanced space technology support. Somanath also mentioned PSLV-C60 vehicle to carry a pair of SPADEX satellites into an eastward orbit. He also highlighted the initiative by ISRO having satellite and spatial data of India.
Somanath said the space-based inputs offered unique and crucial data during natural disasters such as floods, cyclones, agricultural drought, landslides, earthquakes, and forest fires in near real-time using space and aerial remote sensing-based inputs. The lecture also veered around the budding startup initiatives related to space and companies.
On the occasion, Kurukshetra University Vice-Chancellor, Prof Som Nath Sachdeva, said the purpose of National Space Agency of India, ISRO was the pursuit of all space-based applications such as research, reconnaissance, and communications. It was a matter of honour for Kurukshetra University to have the former Chairman of ISRO educating the students about the space programmes.
