G. Madhavan Nair accepts the MP Birla Memorial Award

The moon may appear soft and smooth from afar, but it contains mountainous regions and ravines. Studying it can help us understand what the earth was like millions of years ago,” said G. Madhavan Nair, the chairman of the Space Commission and Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).

Nair was in the city on July 4 to receive the MP Birla Memorial Award, given every alternate year for exceptional achievement in the fields of astronomy, astrophysics, space science and allied disciplines, by the MP Birla Institute of Fundamental Research. The award includes a cash sum of Rs 2,51,000. He also delivered an address on the topic, “Indian scientific explorations in space”, to a packed auditorium at MP Birla Planetarium.

Nair began with the first rocket launch in 1963 and showed how technology has been revolutionised over the years with distance education and health facilities available today. “Satellites for earth observation can now help manage natural resources, identify fishery sources and be used for wasteland mapping,” he said.

“This city has contributed a lot to science and some great institutions have come up here, but today attention to the basic sciences is lacking here, as in all the other states,” rued Nair. He also highlighted the achievements of Chandrayaan-1 through a slide show.

Chandrayaan-1, a dream project of Isro, was launched on October 22 last year. It carried 11 instruments to map the entire surface of the moon.

“There are higher expectations from Chandrayaan-2 after the safe landing of Chandrayaan-1. With it, we want to have a closer look at the moon. We hope that in 2013, the Chandrayaan-2 rover will be able to move over the moon. We are working on a way to land it without too much impact,” said Nair.

Aditya, scheduled for a 2012-13 take-off, is another mission that will carry instruments to monitor emissions from the sun. “Though it will be some time yet till an Indian sets foot on the moon, low-cost access to space is being explored and climate change studies are also being incorporated in Isro missions,” he added.