The Cosmology Education and Research Training Centre (COSMOS) of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics celebrated the first National Space Day 2024 in association with the University of Mysore (UoM) at Vijnana Bhavan here in Manasagangotri campus on Friday.
Jayasimha, project director, URSC, ISRO delivered a talk titled, “The Journey of Indian Space Programme”. He began his talk by giving a brief history of ISRO, highlighting Dr. Vikram Sarabhai’s contributions and the reason behind establishing the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL).
The speaker spoke on why Thumba was selected as the launch centre in the beginning phase of ISRO, explaining that the Magnetic Equatorial line of Earth in which Tumba lies where the Magnetic flux will be uniform, helped establishing Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS).
Mr. Jayasimha said that ISRO is one of the top space agencies in the world having all three important aspects of Space Technology - space segment, transport segment, and ground segment - in full operation mode. He later spoke about the types of various spacecraft - Communication, Remote Sensing, Special Missions - and their uses. The speaker shed light on how the first Indian satellite Aryabhata was developed and the contributions of various engineers and scientists such as U.R. Rao, Aravamudham, former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and C.R. Satya among others.
Mr. Jayasimha also gave details on how Space-based technology applications have helped the common man of India in various fields such as agriculture, communication, weather prediction, fishing, and entertainment without which one would be obsolete in the modern era.
The information on Indian scientific spacecraft like Astrosat, SRR, Chandrayaan series, Aditya L1 and Mars Orbiter Mission was shared among the participants and how they contributed to spreading scientific knowledge.
On the occasion, science writer Kollegala Sharma felicitated Mr Jayasimha on behalf of COSMOS-Mysore, IIA. The talk was followed by a prize distribution program for the Science Fiction Writing contest and Shoot for the Moon competition conducted by COSMOS-IIA earlier as part of National Space Day Celebrations.
Amoghavarsha N., Project Associate of COSMOS-IIA thanked all the participants, students of various schools, and the staff for making the National Space Day celebrations in Mysuru a success.
