The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : ``Human colonies on moon and mars may be possible ''

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 06, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

``Human colonies on moon and mars may be possible ''

Staff Reporter

`Kurukshetra 07' begins

WELL BEGUN: Anna University Vice Chancellor D. Viswanathan (left) greets R.V. Perumal, Director, Liquid Propulsions Systems Centre of ISRO, at the inaugural function of Kurukshetra 07, and Cognizant Vice Chairman, Lakshmi Narayanan (centre) on Thursd ay evening. — Photo: S.S. Kumar

CHENNAI : The first step towards cheaper space travel, that of creating a reusable launch vehicle, will be taken on Wednesday with the launch of a space recovery experiment, said R. V. Perumal, Director, Liquid Propulsions Systems Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), here on Thursday.

The attempt to recover the satellite would be made on January 22, he said at the inauguration of `Kurukshetra', a national-level inter-collegiate technical festival, organised by students of College of Engineering, Anna University. Around 67 per cent of the total cost of a launch is spent on the single-use launch vehicle.

Initiating human colonies on the moon and mars would become possible at the end of this century, going by the rate at which Indian space research was proceeding, he predicted. The year 2040 would probably see tourist flights into space, production of lunar energy and inter-planetary missions, he said.

Perumal gave the gathering a brief list of the achievements of ISRO, including the Indian National Satellite System and the remote sensing series of satellites. Remote sensing satellites had detected water in wells with about 90 per cent accuracy and would be able to provide stereoscopic images of the earth soon, he said. More than a third of the world market for remote sensing satellites is served by India.

Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice-Chairman, Cognizant Technology Solutions, refuted charges of lack of innovation in the Indian Information Technology industry.

D. Viswanathan, Vice-Chancellor, Anna University, said "Kurukshetra" had events designed to be competitive with an added agenda of social relevance.

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