It was a long-term goal of all space research organisations to extract not only gold but also other metals, minerals and energy from other planets said ISRO Chairman K.Radhakrishnan at an interactive session with students and science teachers at the Regional Science Centre and Planetarium here on Friday.
In fact, active research was going on about tapping energy from asteroids, he said. Dr. Radhakrishnan along with Scientific Secretary V.Kodeshwara Rao answered many queries raised by the students.
“Mr. Rao is in the process of developing Astrosat to help astronomers. It will be a great contribution from India to the world,” Dr.Radhakrishnan said. Dr. Radhakrishnan explained the procedure to send a person to space which included a four-year training to survive in various conditions.
He said there were many schemes to resolve the dearth of transponders for communication in the country. India had around 195 transponders in nine communication satellites while 90 had been leased from foreign satellites. There was a requirement of around 150 more transponders that would be met in due course by launching more communication satellites, Dr. Radhakrishnan said. He explained the problems created by satellite debris in space and how it was being managed by sending them to a graveyard orbit.
Dr.Radhakrishnan was in Kozhikode for the launch of Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) forecasts for fishermen in Kannur on Saturday. The system developed by ISRO has been successfully implemented in Gujarat. With the help of the forecast, fishermen will be able to identify and go to the area where the density of fish is high.
