Address And Interaction With The Students Of Sir Tashi Namgyal Sr. Secondary School (Tnsss), Gangtok

I am indeed delighted to be here in the beautiful surrounding of Tashi Namgyal Senior Secondary School and interact with the students of various schools located around Gangtok.

CARTOSAT and HAMSAT ? Twin Satellite Mission

It was a beautiful experience for me and the nation, when the 6th in the successful series of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) taking off with two spacecrafts from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota on 5th May 2005. One day, some of you may opt for space technology and high-technology work. Hence, I would like to share this experience.

CARTOSAT-1 and its features: When satellite CARTOSAT-I was injected in the polar orbit of 618 km., it has become world class earth mapper. The mission of PSLV from take off to injection of the satellites to the required orbit was achieved within 18 minutes with precision. I congratulated the ISRO team. Let me talk to you, what the CARTOSAT will provide to the nation. CARTOSAT is the eleventh satellite in the Indian remote sensing satellite series, it has twin camera systems that give together stereoscopic imaging capability along the track providing 2.5 mtr spatial resolution and swath (width) of 30 km. The satellite has a control capability to revisit any part of our country within 5 days and transmit data in X-Band mode. A unique feature of this satellite is that it has got onboard compression and encryption with RF system of phased array antennas with 64 elements. The CARTOSAT-I with its stereoscopic imaging capability along the track will provide the country 3-D digital mapping capability.

CARTOSAT-1 will find applications related to land, water and environment management and to provide disaster management support. It will enable generation of large scale base maps, thematic maps, national level digital elevation model, digital terrain model, contour interval mapping to the extent of around 10 meters. The data from CARTOSAT-1 in conjunction with other IRS Satellite data will be useful in applications such as mapping of settlements, urban utility mapping, delineation of water shed. Digital terrain model with improved accuracies will find applications in inter-river basin studies pertaining to interlinking of rivers and urban and rural infrastructure development such as rural road connectivity and alignment of national railway lines.

Another important application, would be in the area of disaster management, to determine the extent of damage and the type of emergency assistance needed. This has been made possible by our Space Scientists by using the high resolution stereoscopic imagery from CARTOSAT-1. During my visit to Kerala last week, I showed a CARTOSAT-1 image of Kerala coast in relation to the development of inland water way from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasargod. This successful mission of CARTOSAT-1 has definitely provided leadership to our country in space based earth mapping technology in the world.

HAMSAT : HAMSAT is a micro satellite for providing satellite based Amateur Radio Services to the national as well as the international community of Amateur Radio Operators (HAMS). Launched as an auxiliary payload along with CARTOSAT-1, the 42.5 kg HAMSAT will meet the long felt need of the Amateur Radio Operators in the South Asian region who possess the required equipment and to operate in the UHF/VHF band based satellite radio communication. One of the transponders of HAMSAT has been developed indigenously involving Indian HAMs, with the expertise of ISRO and the experience of HAMSAT-INDIA. The second transponder has been developed by a Dutch Amateur Radio Operator and Graduate Engineering student at Higher Technical Institute, Venlo, The Netherlands. Similarly India?s student community in schools and colleges can build micro satellites in cooperation with ISRO scientists. I hope many of you are HAM operators or users.

These twin satellites have been launched a rocket system called Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. Its take off weight around 300 hundred tonnes with overall height of nearly 44 meters. It is four stage rocket system when the CARTOSTAT and MICROSAT are injected the velocity imparted by the four rocket system about 7.6 km per second. Thousands of engineers work at VSSC and Satish Dhawan Space Centre for realizing launch vehicle. Similarly the satellite systems are developed such as communication satellite, remote sensing satellite and CARTOSAT satellite at ISRO satellite centre and space application centre.

Launch of EDUSAT

Dear Children I would like to recall the launching of geo-synchronous vehicle on 20th September 2004. It is a huge three stage controlled and guided rocket system weighing 400 tones. This world class rocket system has put a communication satellite called EDUSAT (Education satellite) in the geosynchronous orbit. This rocket has capability to inject a satellite of one thousand Kg in the orbit with the velocity of 10.2 kilometers per second. This means speed of the satellite is 36 times the speed of modern passenger jet aircraft. That means you will be surprised to know it will take less than five minutes to travel from Delhi to Chennai instead of two and half hours by a jet. Do you know what geosynchronous orbit is? Geosynchronous orbit refers to the path of the satellite around the earth at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers in equatorial plane with the same rotational velocity of earth. The satellite now beams the education programmes throughout the day and night.

Objective of EDUSAT

The prime objective of the EDUSAT programme is to provide support to education through low-cost ground segments and to reach the un-reached people of India to every nook and corner. The satellite is specially configured to have multiple beams covering different regions of India. This is a satellite operating in Ku band in 17 Giga hertz frequency band facilitating the use of small transmit/receive ground terminals. It provides communication coverage through five regional beams and a national beam.

This system will be primarily for school, college and higher level of education; however it will also support non-formal education. In the initial phase EDUSAT will cover about 100 to 200 classrooms per beam. The EDUSAT, when fully operational will have a capacity of 30 uplinks and about 5000 remote terminals per uplink. EDUSAT is expected to provide one-lakh fifty thousand ground terminals in its full capacity.

For example, suppose a mathematics teacher takes a class at Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh, it is beamed to EDUSAT satellite in real time and the students in the class rooms at Gurudaspur, Punjab will see the teacher and hear the lessons. Students from the various parts of the country -a village school in Bihar, a village in Orissa, North East, West Bengal, will also hear his/her teaching and can ask the questions in sequence. Hence a good teacher teaching anywhere in the country in any language can be heard, seen and interacted. Nowhere in the world an exclusive education satellite is in the orbit today, except India?s. Today, India has the capability of building any type of launch vehicle and type of spacecraft. This great scientific achievement has been made possible due to our great Indian space Scientists and partner institutions. Friends, we are witnessing how a space vision by Prof. Vikram Sarabhai has been transformed into reality leading to benefit to society. Prof. Vikram Sarabhai was indeed my role model when I started my professional career as rocket engineer. The country has now acquired capability to launch a lunar mission Chandrayan during 2007. When you grow up and you are in your 30s you might hear about manned mission to Mars. Now I would like to discuss how India achieve self-reliance in agriculture.

Evolution of First Green Revolution

I was a young boy in Rameswaram during the post independent period. At that time I vividly recall the village community eagerly awaiting for the wheat ship to reach the Madras port so that wheat can reach the village by road. This was the main feeding force for the country in those days. The country used to have hardly a week's reserve and any delay in the arrival of the ship would cause severe supply problems. This situation was prevalent till the early 60's. The Green Revolution Programme was launched by political visionary Shri C. Subramaniam and scientific visionary Dr. M.S. Swaminathan with the help of the scientists, entrepreneurs and the farmer community. In addition, what was needed was a good water management system, availability of high quality seeds, good storage facility and proper distribution mechanism. These facilities were provided by the Government through its various development schemes. This has led to intensive agriculture in the country which produced a substantial amount of food grains and liberated us from the situation of what is called "ship to mouth existence". As part of this first green revolution, the country has been able to produce 200 million tonnes of grains per year.

Second Green Revolution

Now the country has embarked upon the Second Green Revolution which will enable it to increase its productivity in the agricultural sector. The production of cereals needs to increase from the present 200 million tonnes to over 400 million tonnes by 2020 in view of population growth. But the requirement of land for the increasing population as well as for greater afforestation and environmental preservation activities would demand that the present 170 million hectares of arable land will have to be brought down to 100 million hectares by 2020. All our agricultural scientists and technologists have to work for doubling the productivity of the available land with lesser area and less water being available for cultivation. The type of technologies needed would be in the areas of biotechnology, proper training to the farmers, additional modern equipments for preservation and storage etc. The second green revolution is indeed graduating from grain production to food processing and marketing.

Friends, so far I have discussed two visions how they have been visualized in the field of space technology and food production. Since you will be completing your school studies and entering into various professional and other colleges, and university education, you have to remember all great achievement will possible only by a few visionaries and they will always be remembered in the scientific field and in the Indian history. Now let me ask you friends, each one of you pose a question to yourself "In my country what I will be remembered for?". This question may be a difficult question. If you answer after lot of thinking, definitely you will come up for your mission in you life or your goal in you life. I will definitely be very happy to receive your missions and goals and you can correspond with me through my website. Similarly, you should ask yourself the question "What I should be remembered for"? Can you think and tell me about this?

Now I would like to answer some of the questions asked by the students.

Questionnaire for His Excellency The President of India from students of Sikkim

1. Some Scientists believe that the Universe was created by the Big Bang THEORY WHILE OTHER GROUPS OF scientists oppose this by believing in the STEADY STATE THEORY. The argument between the two groups exists from a long time and till today no conclusion in drawn. So Your Excellency , which theory do you support and why ?

- Sonam Sherpa, Class VII, Arithang Govt. Junior High School, Gangtok.

Ans: In science there is nothing like a perfect answer. What is considered to be the final answer today can be changed by another set of researchers. Same is the case with creation of universe. There should be a scientific and technical justification for proving one or the other. Experiments are being conducted in CERN, Switzerland. Initial conditions which was present at the occurrence of BIG BANG will be found through CERN Experiments. Once that is found we will be able to establish the relevance of a particular theory.

2. Under the influence of modern Education, the mind is crammed with facts before it knows how to think. The main focus of modern education has been confined to acquiring jobs? What about quality education then?

- Raju Sakya, Class XII Sc., Tashi Namgyal Senior Secondary School, Gangtok.

Ans: Now the government is seriously thinking of lightening the cramming load and bringing about creativity and innovation through the thinking process. Once this is introduced the we will see quality education getting into our system.

3. Anti matter, the heavy particles (proton and neutron) are revolving around the lighter particles (electrons). Is it possible one day that the sun will revolve around the earth and Pre-Galilean concept of Geocentric will come true?

- Phurba Sherpa, Class X, West Point Senior Secondary School, Gangtok.

Ans: Though evidence of matter and anti-matter in the form of particles has been conceptualized, we have not found the structure of anti-matter so far. Only when such structure is established we will be able to answer this question.

4. Between a scientist and a President whom do you consider more appropriate for a developing nation like India?

- Srawona Sharma, Class XI, Ranipool Senior Secondary School, Gangtok.

Ans: Both are required for the development of a nation like India. As a scientist I tried to work out a road map for transforming India into a developed nation with the help of over 500 specialists. Now as a President I am trying to market the developed India Missions among various decision making and implementing agencies.

5. What are the implications of building a fusion research type reactor in India?

- Vanya Jha, Class IX, Holy Cross Senior Secondary School, Gangtok.

Ans: Fusion is another method of getting energy. If we succeed in this we have a much larger energy source. Controlled fusion energy release is still in the domain of research and development. If we succeed definitely we will have access to unlimited energy.

6. What will be the most reliable and sustainable energy source for India's future?

- Ellen Lepcha, Class XI, Palzor Namgyal Girls Senior Secondary School, Gangtok.

Ans: Solar Energy, nuclear energy and energy through bio- fuel.