The ISRO chief attended the convocation of Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani Institute in Jhunjhunu district on Sunday.
President of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Dr. S. Somnath said – Our goal is to send an Indian to the moon by 2040. For this we need to build a space station, because there must be an intermediate to send humans to the moon. For this, microgravity research and many special space mission goals have to be fulfilled.
He said that currently we are in the learning phase and our learning journey continues unabated. The ISRO chief said this at the convocation ceremony organized at Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani Institute in Jhunjhunu district on Sunday.
ISRO Chief S Somnath planted a tree at the BITS Pilani campus. After this he took a photo of the board attached to the plant with his mobile phone.
Space tourism in India has immense potential He said – American businessman Elon Musk is planning to send humans to the moon and establish a society on Mars. His plan is to build a colony there (Mars) for millions of people and people will be able to go there with one ticket.
Somnath said- I think the field of space tourism will emerge significantly. There is immense potential for India in this sector as well. We are known for very good engineering. Our Moon and Mars missions are among the lowest cost missions in the world. Both these missions have given us great honor.
The ISRO chief said- We have also outlined the programs for the future during the next 5 to 60 years. The government has also announced a budget of 30 thousand crore rupees for this. The present time is a major historical moment in the history of the space program.
Many eminent scientists of the country also attended the convocation of BITS Pilani.
Space missions today are not as expensive as they used to be S Somnath told the students – The entire space mechanism is changing. Changes in space science have to be understood. Accessing space and learning about its laws is not as difficult as it used to be. When the Americans started thinking about a lunar mission, they had to invest heavily in the space program.
They had to invest about 20-30 percent of their national wealth, so that they could develop science capacity as it is today. Now access to space has become very easy. Nowadays anyone can launch a satellite. This can also be done in universities and institutes and the cost of launching satellites has come down so much that today there are about 20 thousand satellites in space. More than 50 thousand satellites are providing minimum-latency telecommunication services and Internet services, which is a very staggering figure indeed.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
