Human beings getting out of their cradle to inhabit other planets similar to that of the earth is not far away, and is a distinct possibility, said T.Sivathanu Pillai, Chief Controller, Research and Development, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), and Chief Executive Officer, BrahMos Aerospace, here on Monday.
Delivering the keynote address at the national symposium on shockwaves at Periyar Maniammai University (PMU), Mr.Pillai said it is like a child moving out of the cradle. "Children are in the cradle initially. Later, they move out. Similarly, man will explore space to live," he said.
There are planets like Kepler22h and Gliesen667c which have as same temperature as of the earth. "Man can move into these planets for living, and come back to the earth on a holiday," he said. These planets are outside the solar system and at a distance of 122 light years. "But, human race can go and live there. These are potential habitation planets," he pointed out.
Mr. Pillai said the next Chandrayaan mission would be to send a rover and explore the materials in the moon. The rover, which would land on the moon through a space vehicle, would move on the surface of the moon, collect materials, and bring it back for research and analysis. The manned mission for the moon from India has been scheduled for 2014 . "The moon has materials like helium which can be mined. The moon will become the hub in the future for launching vehicles and mining," said Mr. Pillai. Chandrayaan I mission has established that there is water in the moon.
Mr.Pillai said India is self-reliant in launching vehicles and satellites now. It is self-reliant in re-entry mission too. "Re-entry from space into the earth is important. Kalpana Chawla died at the time of re-entry into the earth. India has carried out a lot of research," he explained. India is a leader in cruise missiles. Agni and Prithvi are ballistic missiles while BrahMos is a cruise missile.
Mr.Pillai said hypersonic technology plays an important role in space and defence. "India has a very good man power in hypersonic technology," he said. A centre of excellence in hypersonic technology has been established at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in June 2011. It has taken up various research projects in hypersonic technology. India is working on producing hypersonic reusable cruise missiles. Hypersonic reusable space vehicle would drastically reduce the cost of transportation.
K.P.J.Reddy, president, International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI) and Society for Shockwave Research (SSWR), Department of Aerospace Engineering, IISc, Bengaluru, and G.Jagadeesh, secretary, SSWR, IISc Bengaluru, spoke.
N.Ramachandran, Vice Chancellor, PMU, welcomed the gathering. T.R.Prabakaran, Organising secretary of the symposium, proposed the vote of thanks.
Keywords: Sivathanu Pillai, space exploration, symposium on shockwaves, habitation planets, hypersonic technology
You know all dreamers are first considered crazy. What he is saying here is mostly to inspire the next generation to try harder. The laws of physics are written every century as we humans come to understand it. It might be possible to travel faster than the speed of light one day or maybe not. But that should not stop us from rying.
He's just delivering a keynote speech. It's important for our students to dream, have a vision, all the good things, etc.
What a strange proposition, from a person holding such a post/position
!!! Its like a casual talk gone awry.
Possible ways to transport life I imagine
By hibernation and make the life available on landing at destination.
By developed device to make move much faster than light.
By combination of both together.
But by no means the future is not bleak.
According to Drake equation the probability of life elseware in the universe is 1. Because there are millions of galaxies and these galaxies have millions of stars. There can be a planets supporting a life and they may be millions of years ahead of us,for them time travel is common and they are Type 3 civilization people who are drawing the energy from all possible planets and for them intergalactic travel is common.They have visited our Earth long back and they know who we are.For us to reach Type 1 civilization we need still 100 years and for Type 2 civilization 200 years.The chances of human beings to survive for next 200 years is very less.So thinking to inhibit the planet which is 222 ligt years from earth is very funny -- right now its a fiction
Prof. Pillai is a great visionary of greater imagination!!! First,
make the systems for traveling at the speed of light. To travel 122
years, make arrangements for the provisions for the journey. Need to
find some one who will live more than 244 years plus the time he will
spend on that planet to bring him back. How will the spacecraft
survive the effect of traveling at this speed?? how many experiments
are required for a single return travel? Things are not possible in
10-15 generations taking one generation about 25 years. May be Adam or
Methuselah who lived 969 years (Bible, Genesis 5:26)should be brought
back for this expedition. Wild imagination is the beginning of
research, but it should be in relation to the achievable realm of
physics as well. Not many could be transported to moon, the earth's
satelite. Then what about something that lies faaaaa.....r outside our
solar system, in another solar system. Let Pillai take a cool bath
before addressing the scientific community.
Every third grader knows that planets are very very very far away.
Let it take 122 yars or 244 years to reach the other planet, doesn't matter. We can build a spaceship wherein entire village population including there cattle can be transported through the space.(Like Nova's ARK) At least there 4th/5th or 6th generation will land on the new planet and they will start a new civilisation on it.
Sorry.. I know no science. But.. I am convinced that it is enough if we stay where we are. We have annihilated one planet. i don't want another one to toe the same history.
Kepler 22b is actually 600 light years away from earth according to Wikepedia. I happened to be there when Dr. Pillai spoke and in fact asked him this question about the distance to Kepler. In any case, Dr. Pillai was talking about space tourism, which could become a reality. He was also mentioning about the possibility of moon becoming a hub for exploring other planets. Human travel to Kepler 22b is impossible to imagine with our existing knowledge. However, space tourism is not. I find some of the negative comments posted on his views completely misplaced.
I feel its the right time to talk and think of exploring outer space.Mr.
Pillai is very much in the right dimension of his dynamic thought.The
Vedas refers the science of travelling in distant outer planets in
earlier days.Today we need to discover the missing technology trough
scientific research.Lets hope 'science' will define define 'time' in the
coming days.
some people here need to take physics class again..if you manage to travel near speed of light and you reach planet located at 122 light years..you would have aged only couple of years.As TIME slows down for guys going at such speeds than for person on earth i.e Einstein relativity theory. of course for that to happen you need anti-matter propulsion technology and protection against space radiation.
So what if u cannot reach the kepler within ur life span.. Ur Kids may get the chance to atleast see the planet and step on it at their last stage of life...
Ever wondered how much time we have spent on traffic signals ...
At last its all about sustainence of human civilization....
Give it a thought !!!!!
An irresponsible talk. We are unable to solve the problems on earth but
are talking about inhabiting another planet.
Education should bring wisdom.
Today's impossibilities are tomorrow's possibilities. History is the evidence for this. May be humans would be able to do this. Appreciable visionary spirit...Go India Go...
Dear P.A. Wahid, although Mr. Pillai's statement may seem to be a little far fetched, taking NASA as normative and 100% truth is being naive and childish. The western countries have never given any credit to India or Indian contributions in any field. We who live here in the west can attest to this fact. The western Press only highlights bizarre events like, shortest woman in the world, leopard attacking a man, or some political clout like Anna Hazare's indulgences. Indian newspapers and websites had already reported the Indian finding of water in the moon. But after about 2 weeks western media reported the same thing, with not even one mention of India or its scientists. Don't forget, its a white man's world. Dont take their information to be the gospel truth. Even though, we are making progress at a snail's pace, the contributions of Indian scientists cannot be ignored
Initially the politicians are to be sent to those planets. They can start political party before mass exodus start from India.
He is the head of our defence research, wow! In stead of wasting all these resources building castles in
air and pipe dreaming, if these organizations can figure out how to get drinking water to 1.2 billion
people, find shelters and 1 square meal a day for about 60 percent of them that will be nice. Meanwhile
Mr. Pillai after his retirement write like Jules Verne for next century Indians to read them in Kepler22h:)
Mr Pillai has given a fantastic idea! We will have to discover a 'time machine' before undertaking such a journey!! Of course,if all the nations in the world agree to give-up preparations for a war and resolve all their disputes by peaceful dialogue to divert collective resources for peaceful research and development of mankind we may be able to exploit planets in neighborhood for common good, in about half a century.
It wasn't the ISRO who discovered that there is water on the moon. NASA
already knew it.
I wonder what all this negativity is about. Almost a millenia ago,
people believed the earth was flat. Then when they discovered the
earth was round, the Church set into place the Geocentric theory
(which was later disproved). We have reached a stage where the human
race has put a man on the moon and are planning one for Mars and yet
we have naysayers? The question is not Mr. Pillai's speech but that of
belief of our own capabilities. FTL (Faster Than Light) travel may
look beyond our reach for the moment but probably in a generation or
two, you and I may be having a cup of Mocha on Titan!
First The Hindu talks about a
German national aiding the anti-Koodankualm movement when it is clear
Dr.Udaya Kumar has been manning this mission from the start in a
peaceful manner. Now it has all this hocus pocus info about humans on
another planet coming to Earth for a holiday!
If we reach such speeds, we can say sayonara to Air India and other
airlines which will appear as tortoises when compared with this
incredible speed machine that will zip us to Planet Gilese (also known
as Goldilocks) Probably named Goldilocks so govts. can make money on
this new fairy tale about inhabitable planets in our accessible range.
I wish the Hindu would cover true interesting stories such as the
recent youtube upload by GlobalClimateNews on how Germany is moving
far ahead of everyone else using the FREE FUEL OF THE SUN (when it has
so little sunshine) It is entitled "The Solar Power Revolution -Here
Comes The Sun -Documentary. We can learn from the Germans
It is shocking to know that Dr. Pillai speaks of inhabiting other
planets during a key note address in a symposium on shockwaves,
rather than speaking about physics of shockwaves during reentry of a
missile.
Dr. Pillai is promising the moon here, that too by 2014! Even U.S.
is rethinking on its 2020 plan.
At 0.02% of speed of light, one can estimate how long it would take
to cover the one-way distance of 122 light years to the referred
planets!
India is yet to send a man to the earth orbit. And Dr. Pillai claims
that India is self-reliant in re-entry mission and has carried out a
lot of research in re-entry. To the best of my knowledge, SRE-1 is
THE ONLY experiment India has carried out!
What does he mean when he says "India has a very good man power in
hypersonic technology"? India is yet to demonstrate hypersonic
combustion, before the building the airframe!
Even if we were to bring back Helium 3 from moon, what is the use?
Man is yet to build a fission reactor, even for Hydrogen!
To all the science sceptics...
It’s just a few months (or years?) now that is it clear (with some evidence) that all stars have planets and there is a good chance one, very much like earth will soon be found.
But, what if the planet is devoid of plants… surely it’s not habitable then (with resort et al)…
We the human being will have to device a means to take the essence of Earth to the alien planet… It could start by sending bacteria and some simple plant forms to build the foundation for more complex life forms to exist… Meantime, we could also work on our science to find a way to travel faster (than we do now)…
Remember even while we first colonised the different continents, we have carried plants and animals dear to us… and in many cases children made it to the other continent, while older folk perished in the voyage…
Nothing new and all is well, if we can send our seed to the alien planets…
You have to give even the devil its due. I do not think Mr. Pillai is a layman - he is most probably well learned and when you design something like Brahmos, there will be NUMEROUS practical difficulties which require an above avg. mental mettle to overcome. As some readers suggested, there are always thing that one thinks is impossible till there comes someone like Stephen Hawkins who tend to rewrite the books, so to speak. I definitely know that teleportation concept was proved at atomic level recently. So, we keep moving in a good direction and as it happens with any branch, a sudden quantum jump in progress blasts the barriers of impossibility. And the way the current adult population is abusing this planet, Mr. Pillai's suggestion may be the only way left in future for humans... who knows??!!
Errors in the Article:
Its Kepler 22b not Kepler 22h (600 ly away)
Also, Gliese 667 C is a star which has the planets 667 Cb and 667
Cc(22.1 ly away)
The planets like Kepler22h and Gliesen667c are outside the solar system and at a distance of 122 light years. A person like Mr Pillai should not talk about humans going to these planets and live there. This is impossible as already commented by many. Instead, as Mr Pillai mentioned, let us go to Moon and bring back materials like Helium which can be mined and use it for our development programmes. We should also keep in mind the projects recommended by Dr Kalam in his vision for India and try to achieve them which will solve most of the problems of India.
Humans will travel at the speed of light, find alien life forms and settle on other planets .....if we dont destroy ourselves first. It doesnt require a T. Sivathanu Pillai to tell us that. Is anyone else wondering why this is news?
Very wonderful concept though, without any scientific judgment, great DRDO CEO and strategist, how big and tall claims like only on paper and fiction stories, this kind a stories can be told by any Kid with a fair acquaintance with the current developments
Scientific community always reminds us that religion is nothing but superstitions and blind beliefs. The beliefs of scientists given in the report above are even worse.
NASA had not mentioned in their report any scientific role played by the ISRO nor was a scientist from ISRO invited for its press conference to announce the discovery of water on moon. What NASA reported was that its scientists (without mentioning ISRO) have discovered water molecules on the moon. This was based on the discovery of water and hydroxyl on the moon nearly ten years ago by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Although this was confirmed later in June 2009 by Epoxi mission, NASA scientists did not announce this discovery but waited for further confirmation by the data collected by NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper carried on ISRO’s Chandrayaan-1. ISRO has no role in the discovery of water, which was made by NASA ten years before the Chandrayaan-1 mission. If this is not correct, let ISRO tell us the truth.
Besides this misleading information, another aspect is people were so much carried away by the hype ISRO scientists and the Indian media created over ‘discovery of water on moon’. Presence or absence of water on the moon means nothing to man on the earth. The story however helped ISRO to save face from the failure of Chandrayaan-1 mission and consequent drain of Rs. 360 crore from the exchequer. There is also news of Chandrayaan-2 mission to be launched soon with over Rs. 10000 crore investment. It is high time we reset our national priorities and utilized taxpayers’ money for useful purposes especially when nearly 50% of Indians are below the poverty line as per the report of an expert committee set up by the Rural Development Ministry (The Hindu, September 20, 2009).
I dont know much about the audience of this keynote. But if they were mostly
children then this was a nice speech to create a sense of wonder and interest
among them. Because I think whatever Mr. Pillai said cannot be labelled wrong. It
may be in the distant future but it's possible. Or as Michael thinks Mr. Pillai may have
seen a lot of Star Trek in a GOOD mood.
I agree that a great newspaper like the Hindu should broaden its Science and Tech
section.
Let us leave these fascinating projections into the future for geniuses like Stephen Hawking, who is a visionary and a marvelous theorist. It is outright ridiculous and stupid for an Indian government official to talk about these things, particularly when we know which nations are in the forefront of space research. We have taken but baby steps in ANY field of research. Seriously, this kind of speech should be reserved for children in a rural government school, so that some lamp of imagination may be lit, not at a university, for God's sake.
Wonderful concept. It is concepts like these that become the future. Aeroplane was once a crazy concept, so was mobile communications and so was space travel. Skeptics will always question the feasibility of such a possibility, but it is for the believers to stay put and make things happen.
@Arvind N, This is not a great article per se. It is just a report of a man suggesting that some how we can live on a planet a hundred and twenty two light years away and come to earth for a holiday! I am not against Hindu expanding it's Science and Technology section though.
@Nidhi raj: I am really sorry to say that you just quoting Einstein's theory of
relativity has just made you look utterly stupid. I guess half the
knowledge IS after all worse than no knowledge.
Do read up on the wiki page of theory of relativity by which you shall
realise that you indeed age even when you travel at the speed of
light. Its HOW much you age with respect to which point of reference
you are using is different.
And I suggest that you keep "abreast with the news" before advising
others to do so. The neutrino's FTL speed was explained with a faulty
cable causing a lead of 60 nanoseconds in the timing due to a faulty
cable. This news has been out since February the 22nd.
Michael - But when you travel at the speed of light, you don't grow old.
Have you heard of Einstein's theory of relativity in which time is not a
constant? Read about it. Also, if you kept yourself abreast with the
news you would know that in 2011 a particle that could travel at the
speed of light was discovered, it made the cover story for TIME<
Economist, NY Times....what do you think about that? Hope this puts you
back in your place!
"Soon inhabit" - The moot question is how soon? But How? Humans have no such vehicle designed to travel at the speed of light. With the way we understand physics at present; no man would be even alive to undertake such a long journey. To speak such things at a keynote address of a national symposium at an University without any scientific basis amounts to speaking without any basis whatsoever.
As Michael says, it is sad that so called senior scientists and science administrators are making these outrageous simplification of real scientific accomplishments. A good scientist will not make these kinds of statements even casually.
It is not possible to travel to other inhabitable planets which are literally light years away with existing technology. We are still using the Wright Brothers Principles to fly around the planet and we are using Fire/explosions/incendiary combination of chemicals to give us the thrust to generate the escape velocity. Even if our fuel bearing capacity goes by a factor of X we can still reach only the outer reaches of the solar system that too after 100 years. We need to manipulate gravity and thereby bend Space-Time dimensions to reach such distances. Space can be bent as per Einstein's GTR. It is thro' bending of space and creating a wormhole we can reach those distances. But wormhole itself is a contradiction. I respect Mr.Sivathanu Pillai but he should have told us how will reach those distant planets.
What nonsense! And, this comes from the person who is qualified and occupying a position only very few can dream of. Prerequisite for survival in other planets are the ready availability of oxygen and water. The last time I checked, there is no planet out there that contains these two ingredients. The one that contains are so far away removed (in light years!) that we have to travel in the speed of light (!). Hopefully there will be no breakdown of the vehicle and may be we will be delayed by an hour or two.
Michael, I may have to correct your stand on moving a solid object at
the speed of light.I agree, with current technology and chemical fuel it
is not possible to achieve the speed of light and even if you achieve,
it will take 100+ years to get there. However, theoretical physics
suggest worm hole or time warp/bending space using black hole mechanism
are options. we still have a long way to go, i don't think humanity will
get it to the stage of even attempting these options for at least next
two or three hundred years, as we still have lot to understand.
"soon inhabit other planets" really? thats is if we dont kill ourselves before that! Take a chill-pill Mr.Pillai, I see that you are trying to inspire the young minds with your futuristic vision blah-blah, but lets be remotely sane shall we! GJ 1214b (the planet recently found to have water), is 40 light-years away, but temperatures on GJ 1214b probably reach above 200C becaue of its closeness to the star. How many times have India made it to the moon? What are we doing to sustain life on earth? Lets come out of the star wars set and look to make the best of what we can in the next 50 yrs.
Mr. Pillai is making tall claims, while no evidence exists that life can be sutained at the exo-planets. There is no way the humans can get there in their lifetime. Any such thought at the present juncture of our scientific advancement is ludicrous. In fact, the great astrophysicist Stephen Hawkins has also refrained from making any such prediction about man moving out of his cradle. Mr. Pillai should talk in a sensible manner and let science grow at its natural speed.
I just wonder, how Mr. Pillai, without any hesitation talks about
humans inhabiting on planets, 122 light years away. One light year is
the distance travelled by light in 122 years. At what speed then any
human built vehicle has to travel and live there. The distance of 122
light years may be more than millions of actual year in real time.
Then how this vision is possible, when a human life is may be 100 to
200 years maximum. When we are not able to manage to live on different parts of India, on ddifferent parts of the planet earth, still a major part of our own planet earth is not yet inhabited by human, how realistic it is? When we are not able to provide our millions of people, a descent living condition here on earth, in our country, how realistic and worth to even mention these so called vision of these people. These lavishly spent money can be spent on welfare of our children. I am just wondering, what are the original contributions or inventions of our space scientists?
Bravo!
This is a great article. Please include many more such articles.
The Hindu newspaper needs to expand its Science and Technology section in its newspaper to include more news about cutting edge technologies.
For starters they could create awareness about our universe and the different galaxies. While this may not pay immediate dividends to our budding scientists, it will be beneficial to our nation long term.
Mr. Pillai is either on drugs or he has found a way to propel solid
objects at speeds faster than the speed of light--some sort of a
teleportation device. Obviously, the former is true because only light
can travel at the speed of light. Even if it was possible to travel at
the speed of light, it would take 122 years to to get to the planet he
is referring to. Anybody sent there would be dead long before they get
there.
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