Peek into space

Updated on: Monday, September 13, 2010

Nineteen students in Madurai, because of their creative writing skills which expressed their interest in science, got an opportunity to pay a visit to Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.

The schools

Students from Cathy Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Idhayam Rajendran Residential School, Lakshmi School, Landis Matric H.S. School, V.H.N. Girls H.S. School, TVS Matric H.S. School, V.M.J. Higher Secondary School, EVR Corporation Girls School, Ponmudiyar Corporation School and Thiru Vi Ka Corporation School participated in the Rotary Club of Madurai Mid Town sponsored ISRO-Interact Interface Project.

An essay competition titled “My Dream Satellite” conducted by the Interact clubs of the respective institutions was the starting point. The students who performed well got an opportunity.

Nicholas Francis, President, Rotary Club of Madurai Mid Town, said that the aim of the project was to provide an opportunity for the students from Madurai to dream about their satellite, instil a sense of pride about the advancement of our country in the space programme and motivate them towards better prospects of nation building through a career in space technology.

However, the basic idea was to provide them with a first-hand experience of visiting a Space Centre in India.

The highlight of the visit was that students could get to interact with experts on launch, vehicle tracking, telemetry, mission control, real time flight data processing and satellite tracking.

The students visited the Mission Control Centre, where they were shown a film on launch of satellite and its injection into orbit. They were also taken to Mobile Service Tower, 6C building, Second Launch Pad and RADAR Centre. The students were excited to see the second Launch Pad which is used to launch Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles.

Toppers

Five students were from Corporation Schools and all of them were toppers in Std. X exams. All the 19 students who participated in the visit shared their experiences. Most of them said the visit triggered a sense of patriotic fervour within them and gave confidence to come up in life and aspire to become a space scientist. Faculty members Rayburn Francis, Lakshmi School, Esther Geetha, Landis M.H.S. School and P. Panimalar of V.H.N. Girls H.S. School, who guided the students during the trip, also shared their experiences.

Peek into space

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