ISRO Visit enchants 20 School Students of Odisha
Bhubaneswar, May 18: The week-long visit of the twenty school students of Odisha to the Space Applications Centre of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Gujarat Science City in Ahmedabad concluded here today. The visit aimed at inspiring these scientific geniuses of the state, selected through Young Astronomer Talent Search (YATS) programme, was organised by Tata Steel in collaboration with Pathani Samant Planetarium, Bhubaneswar.
The tour of the 40 member team, twenty students – 15 boys and 5 girls – each accompanied by his/her guide teacher, to ISRO Space Applications Centre (SAC) gave a rare opportunity to the students to learn about various aspects of operations of ISRO. The centre is responsible for the development, realization and qualification of communication, navigation, earth observation and planetary payloads and related data processing and ground systems in the areas of communications, broadcasting, remote sensing, disaster monitoring/mitigation, etc.
Mr Tapan Misra, a renowned space scientist and the Director of ISRO Space Applications Centre complimented Tata Steel and Pathani Samanta Planetarium for organising the tour and shared his experience with the students while interacting with them at the institute.
The students visited various laboratories and centres inside the campus and observed making of real satellites to be launched in near future. The scientists in charge of these laboratories explained the finer details of the research work they are engaged in which left the students spellbound.
The tour, which was flagged off by the Chief Secretary Odisha on 8th of May, 2015 from the state secretariat, was quite enriching as the team also had the privilege of visiting Gujarat Science City in Ahemdabad. Here they were given a guided tour by the experts of the organisation on the exhibits on interiors of earth, space science, film making and many more interesting aspects of science that was of profound remembrances, the students carried home. The team was led by Dr. Subhendu Pattnaik, Deputy Director of Pathani Samant Planetarium during this tour accompanied by a Tata Steel official.
These top 20 young talents, from class 8th to 10th, were selected through a tough contest from among around 800 participants competing in eight zones across the state– Belpahar, Keonjhar, Balasore, Joda, Bhubaneswar, Berhampur and Jeypore- in the Young Astronomer’s Talent Search Programme. With a mission to popularize the excellent contributions of the legendary Pathani Samanta in the field of astronomy while identifying and encouraging young talents in the field of astronomy and space science among the school students of the state, Tata Steel, in collaboration with Pathani Samanta Planetarium, has been organizing YATS programme since 2007.