The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Chandrayaan team fields questions from young minds

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Chandrayaan team fields questions from young minds

Staff Reporter

Manned moon mission a technological challenge: expert

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The country’s successful space mission may have awakened the interest of space enthusiasts to the imminent possibility of a manned mission to the moon, but S. Ramakrishnan, Director (Projects), Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), describes the dream as a technological challenge.

“The challenge is not in sending humans to the moon, but in bringing them back,” he told an audience of college students here at Mar Ivanios College in the city on Friday.

“The mission is not a one-way ticket,” said Mr. Ramakrishnan sending the audience into a chorus of laughter. The occasion was an interactive session with the celebrated team members of Chandrayaan-I space mission organised by the college.

The team lead by George Koshy, Mission Director and K. Radhakrishnan, Director, VSSC, also had a galaxy of scientists from the space centre including V. Adimurthy, Associate Director and B.N. Suresh, Director, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST).

Following the customary felicitation by the college staff, the session, the ‘first formal meeting of the Chandrayaan team with a group of young minds,’ was opened to the students for queries.

Bigger launch vehicle

Continuing his response to the query on the challenges involved in sending a manned mission to the moon, posed by Sneha Susan Mathew, a final year degree graduate student in Physics, Mr. Ramakrishnan explained that to reach the moon the country required a much more powerful and bigger launch vehicle. “We are currently in its design stage,” he said. “Moreover, it also demands precise navigation and capability to make the vehicle land in a very narrow space once it re-enters the earth,” he said.

Aparna Unni, a second year degree student of Chemistry wanted to know why the timing of the launch was fixed precisely at 6.22 a.m. on the designated day. “Any deviation in timing of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle means additional fuel for Chandrayaan to remain in the lunar orbit,” said Mr. Adimurthy.

He said the mission would probe the availability of Thorium and Pottasium on the moon apart from exploring for water and ice. Mr. Suresh, the IIST Director said the success of the mission had elevated the status of the country in the international forum.

“France today tells the world that it has links with the Indian Space Research Organisation. The American Presidential hopeful Barrack Obama has gone on record saying that the U.S. do not want to be left behind in the space race,” he said.

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