Jamshedpur, April 8: India created history by becoming the first country to enter Mars orbit in maiden attempt on September 24, 2014 but what is it that we are still lacking behind in technology? By 2030 United States is planning to send human beings to Mars, When can ISRO do the same? How do you protect the satellites from space garbage? How a satellite navigates itself? Can scientist be an artist?
These were some of the questions the students from different schools of Jamshedpur asked K Radhakrishnan, former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman and the man behind India’s successful Mars O r b i t e r Mission.
R i g h t l y referred to as ‘Man of Steel’ K Radhakrishnan answered every question with such nice gestures that the crowd consisting mostly of students and teachers were made to applaud the scientist after every answer.
“Our successful Mars Mission has placed us in the list of prestigious countries of the world and not to forget we are a step ahead of China and Japan who failed in their first attempts. India has progressed and we have some of the bright talents in
our country but still we are lacking behind in technology and the main reason behind this is student who mostly go abroad seeking high pay, they should stay back in the country and serve the nation which has given them so much to cheer about, ultimate goal of an individual should be to do something for the country”, added Ex-Chairman ISRO.
Talking about sending human beings to Mars, K Radhakrishnan said, “Space is a complex system and it is tough to send man to
mars as there is no affirmation of bringing him back safely but it’s easy to send robots. Sending human beings to Mars can be of advantage as he will explore many things out there but robots will perform the work we will feed in them. Sending human
beings to space requires ability to provide the environment and life support system for the crew, minimising the failure rate and developing an escape system, etc. We have been able to send robots to space.
Technology available in India needs to have a few more steps to be able to send human beings to space”. Failures are stepping
stones for success and this made us launch Rs 450- crore Mars mission on November 5, 2013 on board a polar rocket from spaceport Sriharikota. “One is not a born leader but leadership qualities can be acquired and in order to succeed one must have honesty, integrity and most important is connect with the people and anyone interested and want to make a career is space can join Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) after plus 2 and should fulfill the required eligibility”, added the scientist.
As the fourth planet away from sun, Mars is the second smallest celestial body in the solar system. Named after Roman god of war, it is also known as red planet due to the presence of iron oxide in abundance, giving it a reddish appearance.