Space science skyrocketes into future at Hyd meet

Hyderabad: Poignant is how one would describe the 58th International Space Congress. The four-day event in Hyderabad saw the heads of space programmes of numerous countries convening for more than 140 sessions in a bid to change the future of space travel.

“I think when we leave the world, we have to leave it as human beings and not as citizens of any particular country; not to mention the economic benefits of sharing these technologies and sharing these goals. I think this will help make the planet more peaceful,” Sunita Williams, India-born US astronaut, told the meet.

Looks like international space science is skyrocketing into the future. Economising space travel and space tourism, educational programmes for the next generation of space scientists and greater international collaboration were the focus of the meet.

“The French call them spaceunauts, the Chinese call them taikonauts. We will need to come up with a name for our space travelers. But I think we will see an Indian in space very shortly,” Rakesh Sharma, Indian astronaut, says.

And the ISRO seems right on the queue. The Congress also saw the Indian Space Research Organisation or Isro unveiling plans for as many as 60 space missions over the next five years. Four of these projects would be ready by 2008. These include Chandrayan-I an attempt to three-dimensionally map the Moon.

India has also been nominated as a favourite launch destination with only 10% rate of failure. Isro has planned as many as 30 launches over the next three years. Satellites for communication, navigation and remote sensing will be the focus of these missions.

The IAC discussed not only how to make all these projects a reality, but also how to footprint space science in the aam aadmi's life. And if one goes by what was said, Isro has planned as many as 60 space missions over the next 5 years.

(With Vikram Venkateswaran in Delhi)

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