Twelve alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras (IIT-M), who were part of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, interacted with government school and college students at an event here on Sunday.
S. Unnikrishnan Nair, director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and P. Veeramuthuvel, project director, Chandrayaan-3, spoke on the plan for Gaganyaan test at Sriharikota.
Mr. Nair did his Ph.D from the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2011 and Mr. Veeramuthuvel completed Ph. D in Mechanical Engineering in 2016.
S. Somanath, chairman of ISRO, is doing Ph. D under the Mechanical Engineering department.
“This month we will have the first big mission of Gaganyaan from Sriharikota. We are going to demonstrate the in-flight system. We are all looking forward to that mission,” Mr. Nair told students at the event hosted on Sunday. Though he stayed on campus for hardly a semester, it brought a lot of changes in him, he said.
Mr. Veeramuthuvel credited the soft landing on the moon to teamwork and sheer perseverance. The confidence stemmed from hundreds of lab tests and three important field tests. Creating the lunar environment on earth and proving that all systems would work before the launch was one of the important tasks, he said.
Other alumni who were honoured included P. Arun Kumar, deputy director, earth storable engines and stages; John Tharakan, liquid propulsion systems centre (LPSC); Abdul Hameed, U.R. Rao Satellite Centre (URSC); Rajeev Senan C., division head, monopropellant systems and component division, LPSC; Shamrao, scientist, URSC; H.M. Raghavendra Prasad, scientist/engineer, head, mechanism assembly section, spacecraft mechanisms group, URSC; S. Mathavaraj, scientist, URSC; R. Karthik, scientist, LPSC; B.S. Phani Dinakar, scientist, URSC; and Sakthivel M,, scientist/engineer, mechanism development division, spacecraft mechanisms group, URSC.
IIT-M director V. Kamakoti said the success of Chandrayaan-3 sent a clear message to B. Tech students and aspiring engineering students that every field of engineering had something great to contribute.
“Take pride and love the subject that you are in. You can see here mechanical engineers, aerospace, chemical engineers and civil engineers, all of them put together in one project that has created success,” he said.
