National Space Day celebrated at KSOU
The event was held to bring together students, scientists, and academicians on a common platform in a bid to create greater awareness about India's space programmes, and the various space missions and explorations to be undertaken in the future.
Jaswinder Singh Khoral, Chairperson of the National Space Day (NSpD) main committee, said that although the global success rate for lunar landings was low, India had achieved a remarkable milestone with Chandrayaan-3, which successfully touched down on the lunar surface, with the landing point being named as the Shiv Shakti Point.
'This day is not just about ISRO's success, but about how the student community and the nation, together, celebrate the possibilities that space offers,' he added.
Mr. Khoral said that the National Space Day is not about celebrating ISRO's past success, but to co-opt students, academicians, and all stakeholders, and think of the future, as space science and technology had already impacted every aspect of life.
He said that space is no longer a domain of pure application, but was the new frontier — whether it is telecommunications, education, infrastructure, or asteroid mining. The race to the moon and beyond has already begun, said Mr. Khoral.
He underlined the need to prepare the younger generation for the rapidly evolving space sector. 'Whether you are in engineering, policy, or management, you will be contributing to the space sector, directly or indirectly,' he said, urging students to see National Space Day not just as a celebration of past glory but a call to be a part of India's space future.
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mysore, N.K. Lokanath, said that the event provided students with an opportunity to understand India's journey in space science, and the groundwork that goes into such missions.
He pointed out that space science in India has always had deep roots, even in ancient times, where mathematics and calculations formed the basis of astronomical observations.
The theme of the event 'Aryabhata to Gaganyaan: Ancient Wisdom to Infinite Possibilities', encapsuled India's timeless pursuit of knowledge, said Mr. Lokanath. He said India's quest for understanding the cosmos did not begin in recent decades but could be traced to the days of Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, Bhaskara, etc.
Mr. Lokanath said that India's space programmes have been notable not just for its orientation towards developmental outcomes for the benefit of society, but also for addressing terrestrial challenges like disaster management, weather forecasting, communication, educational outreach, etc. Sharanappa V. Halse, Vice-Chancellor, KSOU, and others were present.
There was interaction between students and ISRO scientists, and talks on various aspects of space by resource persons to mark the event.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Print
38 minutes ago
- The Print
Born out of bitter Kargil lesson, NavIC was India's answer to GPS. Why it's still struggling to take off
Developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the navigation system appears to be slipping from its initial promise. It had become imperative for India to invest in the technology back in 1999, when its request to access GPS data for enemy locations in the Kargil region was denied. The incident prompted the government to press for a strategically designed home-grown navigation system. Only four of 11 NavIC satellites are currently in use with the capability to provide position, navigation and timing services, Union Minister for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh told the Lok Sabha last month. The remaining four are being used for one-way message broadcast, one has been decommissioned, and two could not reach their intended orbit. New Delhi: India's satellite navigation system, the answer to US' GPS network, was built at a cost of $525 million with the aim of weaning the country from dependence on foreign powers. It was a bitter lesson learned during the Kargil War in 1999. But, nearly 26 years after it was conceived, India is still struggling to bring a functional version of Navigation with Indian Constellation or NavIC to the market. But since then, something or the other has been going wrong for India's NavIC which is yet to be fully functional regionally. 'Too much is riding on it and we cannot abandon it,' Ajey Lele, deputy director general at Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), told ThePrint. Adding, 'We initially faced issues with the atomic clocks from Europe, after which India started making its own atomic clocks. Then we faced issues with ground equipment. And finally, we recently had a failed mission where the satellite could not be placed in orbit. Things have been going wrong, but we cannot give up.' Currently, at least five countries have their own fully operational navigation systems—US' GPS, Russia's GLONASS, European Union's Galileo, China's BeiDou and Japan's QZSS. 'NavIC will be crucial in advancing India's defence capabilities, identifying enemy locations up to 1,500 km radius around India's borders,' former ISRO chief A.S. Kiran Kumar told ThePrint. He was at the helm when the space agency was shaping the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), whose next generation series is known as NavIC. 'The service covers the entire Indian region and also the region extending up to 1,500 km around India on dual frequencies in L5 and S bands,' a senior ISRO scientist said. L5 and S bands are radiofrequency bands used in satellite navigation communication. Such precision will help ensure accuracy of more than 20 metres in any weather condition. Also Read: DRDO eyes persistent high-altitude surveillance edge as Stratospheric Airship soars in maiden trial Setbacks and revival plans With IRNSS, the plan was to first develop the system on a regional scale that would operate only within and till a certain radius around the country's boundary. The NavIC now is meant to be operational within and up to 1,500 km radius of India but is envisioned to be a global satellite navigation system in the future, on par with GPS, Galileo and BeiDou. The first satellite (IRNSS 1A) was sent up on 1 July, 2013. In the following missions, IRNSS 1B, 1C, ID, IE, 1F, 1G, 1H, 1I, 1J, and 1K were launched. Speaking to ThePrint, a senior ISRO scientist said that currently, 1B, 1F, 1I and 1J satellites are fully operational. 1C is partially functional. 'From the next generation navigation satellites, which come under the NVS series, 1J is operational. 1K, now known as NVS-02 (launched this year), was not successful,' he said. NavIC faced one of its biggest setbacks earlier this year with the 'partial failure' of the NVS-02 mission. Early this year, ISRO launched the mission (also incidentally the 100th mission by the space agency) from Sriharikota to place the second navigation satellite under the NavIC series into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. But it could not be placed successfully. This was not the first hurdle for India's navigation satellite ambitions. In 2016, Kiran Kumar had announced that atomic clocks on IRNSS 1A had become dysfunctional. He, however, said that this did not have an impact on the overall functioning of the navigation system. At the time, the space agency stressed that the remaining six satellites in orbit were functional, but admitted that some hardware issues had been detected in the rubidium atomic clocks in some of them. Unfortunately, IRNSS 1H satellite, launched on 31 August, 2017, to replace 1A, could also not be inserted into the desired orbit. According to ISRO, a heat shield, which protects the satellite, could not be detached on time during the launch. ISRO is now banking on a series of planned missions to resuscitate NavIC. These include placement of the next set of satellites, NVS-03, NVS-04 and NVS-05, in space to boost the navigation network and bridge the gap set by the current non-functional ones. 'NVS-03 is planned to be launched by the end of 2025. Subsequently, with a gap of six months, NVS-04 and NVS-05 will be launched,' Jitendra Singh said in his Lok Sabha response. ISRO chairperson, V. Narayanan, told ThePrint last week that NVS-03 and NVS-04 are likely to take flight by the end of this year, and NVS-05 would likely launch in 2026. 'No mission is foolproof. There is always some chance of failure. NavIC is functional, but we will improve its functioning with more satellites in the coming years,' he said. NavIC-compatible phones In 2022, the government had directed major phone manufacturers to design NavIC-compatible phones for India, but there was major pushback from the industry. The government said that by 1 January, 2023, all phone models for release in India should support NavIC, stressing that the deadline was not 'hard and fast'. Phone companies said that their production costs would surge significantly with this directive. However, between 2023 and 2025, new models of the most popular phones, such as those released by Apple, Oppo, Xiaomi, OnePlus, etc, are NavIC compatible. The government has since issued repeated directives to mobile phone manufacturers to make devices compatible with NavIC. NavIC's potential does not stop with a civilian navigation system or for defence and security purposes. For civilian use, NavIC will be able to do anything that a GPS or GLONASS can, according to its mission document. Once NavIC is fully functional, anyone with a phone designed for India, within 1,500 km radius of the Indian border, would be able to access the navigation system. 'A lot of the newer phone models are already compatible with NavIC. It is currently developed as a regional navigation system, but we will be able to expand it as a global system as we get more satellites up,' Kumar told ThePrint. (Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui) Also Read: India will soon have its own satellites to monitor spy satellites. How the technology works
Indian Express
3 hours ago
- Indian Express
Shubhanshu Shukla's homecoming: PM Modi to felicitate India's first four astronauts on Chandrayaan-3 anniversary
India's second National Space Day on August 23 will be marked by a special homecoming — the country's first four astronauts will be felicitated in the Capital by the Prime Minister, including Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who recently returned from the International Space Station (ISS). The celebration, to be held at Bharat Mandapam, will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is expected to meet astronauts Prashanth Nair (48), Ajith Krishnan (43), Angad Pratap (43), and Shubhanshu Shukla (39). National Space Day commemorates India's historic Chandrayaan-3 mission, which in 2023 achieved the first-ever landing on the Moon's south pole. This year, the event will also double up as a welcome ceremony for Shukla, who splashed down off the coast of California on July 15 after an 18-day mission aboard the ISS as part of the Axiom-4 crew. Since then, he has been in Houston, Texas, re-acclimatising to Earth's gravity — with videos showing him struggling to regain balance, a common post-mission phenomenon. Post-mission debriefing sessions with NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX are underway through early August, with some already held in the presence of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials, sources said. While on board the ISS, Shukla had a live interaction with PM Modi, telling him, 'My friends here have asked when we can go on Gaganyaan.' During the Axiom-4 farewell ceremony, he reflected on India's transformation, saying: 'Forty-one years ago, an Indian came to space and told us how India looks from up above. I think we all want to know how today's India looks from space. I will tell you. Today's India looks ambitious from space, today's India looks fearless, today's India looks confident, today's India looks full of pride — and because of these reasons, I want to say again that today's India still looks saare jahan se achha.' According to sources, the decision to include all four astronauts in the August 23 ceremony — and not just Shukla — was deliberate. 'It was felt that the ceremony should include not just Shubhanshu but all four astronauts instead, as all of them are equally trained and qualified,' said one official. The astronauts are part of India's human spaceflight programme, Gaganyaan, under which ISRO will undertake three uncrewed missions (G1, G2, and G3), two crewed missions (H1 and H2), and three precursor missions leading to the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (G4, BAS-1, and G5). The first uncrewed flight is expected in the last quarter of this year, with the first crewed flight by early 2027. BAS-1, the mission that will launch the first module of India's own space station, is planned for 2028. The goal is to complete a five-module space station by 2035. The inaugural National Space Day last year was attended by President Droupadi Murmu, and showcased India's space achievements and the societal impact of space exploration. Anonna Dutt is a Principal Correspondent who writes primarily on health at the Indian Express. She reports on myriad topics ranging from the growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension to the problems with pervasive infectious conditions. She reported on the government's management of the Covid-19 pandemic and closely followed the vaccination programme. Her stories have resulted in the city government investing in high-end tests for the poor and acknowledging errors in their official reports. Dutt also takes a keen interest in the country's space programme and has written on key missions like Chandrayaan 2 and 3, Aditya L1, and Gaganyaan. She was among the first batch of eleven media fellows with RBM Partnership to End Malaria. She was also selected to participate in the short-term programme on early childhood reporting at Columbia University's Dart Centre. Dutt has a Bachelor's Degree from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune and a PG Diploma from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. She started her reporting career with the Hindustan Times. When not at work, she tries to appease the Duolingo owl with her French skills and sometimes takes to the dance floor. ... Read More
New Indian Express
4 hours ago
- New Indian Express
NISAR could've saved lives in Uttarakhand cloudburst
BENGALURU: Had the July 30-launched NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite been operational now, several lives would have been saved through evacuation ahead of the killer cloudburst and flash floods that almost wiped out Dharali village in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand on Tuesday afternoon. The 2,393 kg NISAR's unique dual-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) will employ advanced, novel SweepSAR technique, to provide high resolution and large swath imagery, and will scan the entire globe to provide all-weather, day & night data at 12-day intervals. NISAR can detect even small changes in the Earth's surface such as ground deformation, storm characterization, ice sheet movements and sea ice classification, changes in soil moisture, mapping & monitoring of surface water resources, vegetation dynamics, shoreline monitoring and disaster response. NISAR, carrying the dual-band SAR involving L- & S-Band SAR, is a global, microwave imaging satellite capable of acquiring fully polarimetric and interferometric data. While the S-band radar system, data handling and high-speed downlink system, the spacecraft and the launch system are developed by ISRO, the L-band radar system, high speed downlink system, the solid-state recorder, GPS receiver, the 9-metre boom hoisting the 12-metre unfurlable reflector, are delivered by NASA. A senior official from the regional centre of ISRO's National Remote Sensing Centre – which will collect the S-Band data that NISAR's radar will capture and relay – said, 'Although our work of analyzing the satellite images will increase, getting accurate advance information will be crucial. While the existing satellites and various government departments do share advanced information and alerts, the NISAR data will be several steps ahead. It will share better quality and high resolution images of the same location – irrespective of weather and sunshine – of the same location, twice every 12 days. This will help in knowing dangers and issuing alerts to the district and village administrations in advance.'
