BENGALURU: The Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium (JNP) on Sunday organised a celebratory event of the National Space Day. On the occasion, Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) director Prof. Annapurni Subramaniam spoke to students about the decade-long journey of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO’s) AstroSat mission, which is the country’s first dedicated astronomy mission aimed at studying celestial sources in X-ray, optical and ultraviolet (UV) spectral bands simultaneously.
Speaking about the indigenous technologies that went into the AstroSat, Prof. Subramaniam said the Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT), which has been operational and instrumental in the mission since 2015, was conceived at IIA and provided to the ISRO subsequently.
JNP director Dr BR Guruprasad spoke about India’s space aspirations since the inception of its space programme back in 1963. Within this, he posited the Chandrayaan mission. “The Chandrayaan mission is a landmark mission for the ISRO. Chandrayaan-1 detected water on Moon conclusively, and despite Chandrayaan-2’s failure to land on Moon, its orbiter still revolves around it and sends back some of the most high resolution photos of our natural satellite,” he said.
Guruprasad asked the students to draw inspiration from India’s achievements in space exploration to carry them further. He also highlighted the Union government’s roadmap that seeks to send Indian astronauts to the lunar surface by 2040.
There was also a quiz competition organised for high school students, and a model making (of space vehicles) workshop for middle school students (standards VII to X). Around 300 students were registered for these competitions from various schools across Bengaluru and surrounding areas, and from regions such as Mandya and Mysuru.