Man who took us to moon
G Madhavan Nair, chairman, ISRO speaks on mission to moon and future plans of ISRO
Interview
Management Compass had a brief interview with the eminent scientist G Madhavan Nair, whose innumerable contributions to Indian space research include the development of multi-stage satellite launch vehicles and geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle. Excerpts from the interview:
How was the mission to moon conceptualised?
It all began in 2000. There was a national science congress in which all the Indian scientists met. There was a debate and the scientists asked ‘why should we not go to the moon?’ The answer was not all that easy. Many people were skeptical about it. Even if we attempt it can we achieve it or not. At the end of this national debate, it was decided that we will send a mission to moon. In 2004 we received the approval of the government, and since then we were working on it.
What is keeping Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) busy right now?
Right now our priority is to operationalise GSLV-MAC-3. It is a powerful launcher which will aim at bringing down the cost of the launch. That’s a very important thing.
On the one hand technological development has taken us to moon, and on the other we have not been able to contain rampant illiteracy. How can the gap be bridged?
From space we have been trying to help education programme. Tele-education is one scheme that we have launched. Through the satellite we can promote education in the remote parts of the country, poor villages and so on. It is tough to have good teachers in rural parts, especially for science, mathematics and English. Good teaching can be provided through satellites. Each classroom can be connected to all the other classes in the particular district. We have implemented this in Chamarajanagar near Mysore. This has been a successful implementation. In this fashion one expert teacher’s classroom is reaching out to 100 classrooms at the same time. So, approximately 3,000 students are benefited in one schedule. Likewise we have 30,000 classrooms in the country today for higher education, management education, medical and engineering, and open university like IGNOU.
Is India thinking of human settlement on Mars the way western nations are planning for 2030?
It's gonna be a dream for today.
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By Jyotsna Singh
CII organised Felicitation of Chandrayaan-1 Team on December 24, 2008. Dr G Madhavan Nair, chairman, ISRO and the biggest force behind the moon mission, addressed the audience. He thanked the government and industry for all the support they extended which finally resulted in the success of Chandrayaan-1. He said that the launch raised India’s position in international community from developing to developed as far as space science and technology is concerned. Referring to communication satellite W2M, which is meant for telecommunications and broadcasting services over Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Nair said that Indian expertise on space is “realised not only by scientific community, but also by the users.” He asked Dr K Radhakrishnan, director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre to talk more about Chandrayaan-1. Presentation by Radhakrishnan left no doubt in minds of the audience about the phenomenal achievement that the launch of Chandrayaan is. He said it is one of the cheapest launches of its kind and even European countries placed their instruments in it to gather data. The cameras fitted in the craft are the best in the world.
Before the speeches SK Munjal, past president, CII and chairman, Hero Corporate Service Ltd, welcomed the team. A short film was also shown in which Indian industry giants like Adi Godrej, KV Kamath and Deepak Puri congratulated ISRO and team for their successful venture.
Talking to reporters, Nair pointed out the aim of travelling 400 thousand kms in space. He said it was done“to have scientific instruments which will map the moon. This data will be used by our scientists to analyse the resources like helium, special materials, presence of water etc. It also provides an opportunity to Indian scientists to look into some aspects of the evolution of moon. So, this is a very comprehensive mission which takes care of all of this.
Answering queries about mission to Mars, he said “That’s right now in the conceptual stage. May be by next year we will be able to finalise. 2013 is the deadline that we are looking forward to…. The cost will be comparable (to Chandrayaan), something like 500-600 crores. It will be launched by GSLV.”
Nair also showed his concern towards the dismal condition of Indian technical education. “I think a lot needs to be done. Starting with the fact that availability of expert teachers is vanishing as no body is willing to go to the teaching profession, there is a problem of mushrooming of the institutions which is also hampering the quality of education. But we are conducting our special training programmes so that we can update the existing knowledge,” said the scientist. |
