Like the entire nation, K. Suresh Kumar has been eagerly awaiting the soft-landing of the ‘Vikram’ lander of the Chandrayaan-2 mission on the south pole of the lunar surface.
A geography high schoolteacher at SMV Government Model Higher Secondary School, Overbridge, here, Mr. Suresh Kumar keenly follows all space-related developments round the globe. He has hundreds of clippings of articles on the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s Chandrayaan-1, Mangalyaan, and Chandrayaan-2 missions.
He has nearly 30,000 clippings of articles on various subjects and an equal number of e-clippings.
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A fact file
“Newspaper clippings will be a ready reckoner of facts related to the missions and will inform students in detail about the roles of lander and rover in the mission which they may not otherwise understand. My collection of clippings on Chandrayaan-2 numbers 250,” he says.
He reminisces meeting former ISRO chairperson Madhavan Nair at the planetarium in the city and earning praise for his efforts.
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He scans at least four newspapers or magazines that have articles on the ISRO missions, besides online articles, and diligently files them.
He has devised ‘a formula’ for students to remember what the Chandrayaan-2 is all about. “The formula will help them remember details of the mission - the name of its rocket, orbiter, lander, rover, the name of the craters between which it will land, and the payloads carried by it.”
Mr. Suresh Kumar conducts a session for students once a week on the Chandrayaan-2 as part of the school’s social science club activities.
He also has enough material with him to help students design models of rockets, satellites, and rovers.