Indian Space Research Organisation’s planned mission to study the Sun – Aditya – will provide tremendous opportunities for researchers to look at what is happening in the vicinity of sun, according to AS Kiran Kumar, former Chairman of ISRO.

Inaugurating the first Pilikula International Full-Dome Film Festival and Planetarium Conference at Pilikula in Mangaluru taluk on Wednesday, Kiran Kumar said that what is being attempted in ‘ Aditya ’ is to carry a satellite to where the satellite can look at the sun 24X7. By building specific instruments like a solar chronograph, a situation equivalent to total solar eclipse can be created, and further studies can be carried out, he said.

Now when a total solar eclipse occurs, scientists go to the place selected, set up their facilities, and make observations beyond the sun’s photosphere to understand various solar phenomena.

ISRO is trying to build instruments that can go outside the Earth’s atmosphere, and provide observations of the celestial objects. In future, there will be more efforts to go beyond the current planet groups or missions to Mars, Venus, he said.

Referring to MoM (Mars Orbiter Mission), Kiran Kumar said it is an excellent example of how India has shown that things can be done differently with the limited resources and the capability that exists within the country in a matter of about 18 months after announcing the programme.

“We converted many of our limitations into our advantage,” he said, adding that MoM has produced more number of full-disk Mars images than any other satellites so far.

He said that now India has a set of satellites that can look at Earth every 15 minutes. Based on those satellites, the weather community is getting inputs through the IMD.

Today the entire gamut of more than 54 satellites provide information about within and outside the country, including for weather, climate change, or in terms of providing information to the government about planning, etc, he added.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW