The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : “Exploring minerals main aim of Chandrayan mission”

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Saturday, Apr 18, 2009
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“Exploring minerals main aim of Chandrayan mission”

Staff Reporter

“Helium 3 is one of the important minerals”

Tiruvannamalai: Exploring minerals in the moon is one of the main objectives of Chandrayan-I mission, S.Arunan, Associate Project Director, Chandrayan-II mission, Indian Space Research Organisation, said here on Friday.

Delivering the inaugural address at Constellation ’09 a ‘national level technical symposium’ organised by Department of Humanities and Science, Arunai Engineering College, Tiruvannamalai, he said that Helium 3 is one of the important minerals looked for in the moon. “If we could segregate, process Helium 3 and bring it to earth it would be a cheap and environmental-friendly source of energy, free from hazards of radioactive materials when used for production of nuclear energy.

Energy content

The energy content in one tonne of Helium 3 is equal to $ 10 billion dollars and twenty-five tonnes of liquefied helium 3 is enough to fulfil the energy needs of the US for one year, Dr.Arunan explained in his power point presentation. Keeping these facts in mind lunar missions could be made business oriented. Dr.Arunan also said they had to convince academicians on the usefulness of lunar missions prior to Chandrayan-I in the face of futility arguments vis-a-vis lunar missions.

K.Sivakumar, Head, Department of Physics, Anna University, Chennai, said that though nano materials and technology got popularity, there was equally significant group of materials called smart materials, which would comparatively react quickly, which could introduce drastic changes in several equipment, is yet to get the focus. “Using the smart materials our audio speakers would soon be replaced by gadgets as thin as sheets,” he said.

College Vice Chairman E.V.Kumaran, principal M.Kaarmegam, Head, Department of Humanities and Sciences K.Srinivasan were among the participants.

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