India’s Mars Mission has proved that the country has acquired the capability to make trans-Mars injection manoeuvres well beyond Earth’s orbit, said A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former President, here on Thursday.
“After five orbit raising manoeuvres and trans-Mars injection on December 1, the spacecraft has gone beyond the influence of Earth. We have to wait for many more complex manoeuvres and about 300 days, probably till September end of this year 2014, for the spacecraft to be stationed around Mars. All of us are looking forward to the success of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in this complex mission,” he said inaugurating the World Congress on Computing and Communication Technologies organised by the Department of Computer Science and IT of the St. Joseph’s College here.
One of the main objectives of the first Indian mission to Mars was to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission, he observed.
Referring to the challenges in the 21 century, Dr. Kalam said over the past decade, a new paradigm for scientific discovery is emerging due to the availability of exponentially increasing volumes of data. However, generation of data by itself is not of much value unless the data can also lead to knowledge and actionable insights.
The world of science started with experimental, theoretical and computational techniques in its quest to answer questions and these are called the three paradigms in science and technology. In the data-driven world, the fourth paradigm is knowledge discovery from the huge data generated out of scientific experiments while resolving the global scientific challenges, he said.
Dr. Kalam released new software christened, ‘Smart Teacher’ developed by S.T. Rajan, head, Department of Computer Science of the college. The software developed in the Android operating system acts as a virtual teacher for learners.
A memorandum of understanding between the St. Joseph’s College and Concordia College, New York, was signed on the occasion.
Rev. F. Andrew, Principal, St. Joseph’s College, said the MoU provides for award of twin-degrees to students who pursue four semesters in the college and another three at the Concordia College. Exchange of students and faculty also planned.
