Ranchi, July 9: The accident of the Columbia spacecraft in 2003, of which Indian astronaut Kalpana Chawla was a crew member, could have been avoided if carbon nanotubes were used.

“Through techniques of nano-technology the accident could have well been avoided. This involves the use of carbonite in aircraft and space shuttles,” said Niraj Sinha, an expert on nano-technology, while addressing Class XII students of Delhi Public School (DPS) today.

The seminar on Evolution of nano-technology — its present and future — kicked off at DPS today. It was jointly organised by Chhotanagpur Mathematical Society and DPS.

Sinha, who spoke on the prospects of nanotechnology, completed his masters from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, and PhD from the department of System Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada.

The highlights of the programme were potential application of nano-technology and its utilisation in the bio medical field, space mission, agriculture, industry, auto motive industry and environment monitoring.

“Nano-technology has exceptional physical, mechanical and electronic properties,” Sinha added.

He pointed out that nano-technology is also being used in bio-medical fields like X-ray machines and also for cancer detection and radiotherapy. Moreover, this technology is also gaining popularity in agriculture as well.

“In agriculture, the technology is used for uniform spraying of chemicals, fertilisers and also detection of the quality of fruits and vegetables,” the speaker said.

Sinha, who belongs to the city had completed his studies from Navodaya Vidyalaya, Ranchi, and the National Institute of Forge and Foundry (NIFFT), Hatia.

“I am going to MIT, USA, for my post-doctoral fellowship in August,” Sinha added.