G Madhavan Nair, former ISRO chairman, inaugurated the concluding seminar held in connection with World Space Week 2013.
Inaugurating the seminar, Nair said space technology was the highest achievement in science and technology. In terms of space exploration the global community is perceiving their own programmes internationally.
It is the proud movement for India to say that we are one among the six space-faring nations. However, in the current scenario the programmes of USA and India are virtually at a standstill whereas the Chinese are progressing steadily.
“I won’t be surprised at this pace if China emerges a space super power. All nations are keen to take up the future challenges of manned missions, planetary exploration and colonization of planets,” he said.
The young generation should take up the challenge and work on cutting edge technologies to take India’s space exploration to a different trajectory, he added.
Further to the session students actively took part in the interaction session with Madhavan Nair and cleared doubts on questions ranging from the age of Mars, possibility of establishing a colony in Mars, challenges in moon missions, on how India can become a space super power and the role of students towards achieving that mission.
Indira Rajan, chief executive director, Vikram Sarabhai Science Park, addressed the students and administered the oath for grooming themselves towards a scientifically-responsible generation. Suchitra Shyjinth, project head,introduced the theme and coordinated the interaction session. Sobhen P S, astrophycis, K Vijayakumar, GM, HR, BPCL, Mala B Menon, principal, Cochin Refineries School and Aravind R Menon, student of CR School spoke. Over 1,000 students from various schools in the district took part in the World Space Week finale conducted at Cochin Refineries School, Ambalamukal.
The week-long celebrations is held from October 4 to 10 to foster interest in space technology and space exploration for the benefit of mankind. This year, the celebration is on the theme ‘Exploring Mars Discovering Earth’ as declared by the United Nations.
Vikram Sarabhai Science Park was the nodal point for arranging regional celebrations of World Space Week under the auspices of Vikram Sarabhai Science Centre, Thiruvananthapuram.
The week-long WSW celebrations was organised by Vikram Sarabhai Science Initiative as part of the outreach programme. Over 258 schools actively took part in the celebrations. The schools conducted various activities like elocutions, essay writing, quiz and poster making based on the international theme.