Indian space scientists to attend Dubai Summit

bangalore — Two top Indian scientists will make a presentation on India’s Mars Orbiter Mission at the World Government Summit in Dubai later this month.

Dr K. Sivan, current chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), told a group of visiting UAE journalists here on Sunday that the presentation by Dr K. Radhakrishnan, former chairman of the Isro, and Dr D. Gowrisankar, Isro’s Deputy Director for International Cooperation is the outcome of ongoing cooperation between the space programmes of India and UAE, which is set to reach new heights in the coming months.

A joint working group of the UAE Space Agency and the Isro held its first meeting in December 2017 and “identified priority areas of cooperation,” Dr Sivan said.

He identified cooperation possibilities between the two agencies in “remote sensing applications, satellite platforms, the UAE’s Mars mission, satellite navigation and sounding rocket”. The joint working group was set up following a visit of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces to New Delhi in 2016.

Dr Sivan described the UAE’s planned Mars mission as an instance of “very good vision” and compared it to the vision unveiled for India’s own space programme 50 years ago by Dr Vikram Sarabhai, who is known as the father of Indian space exploration.

As part of the cooperation, Isro officials envisaged the possibility of educating and training UAE students at the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology in Thiruvananthapuram.

Dr Sivan added: “The Isro is with the UAE Space Agency ever since its inception and a senior official Dr M. Annadurai, who is leading the satellite programme of Isro, attended the inaugural function of the UAE Space Agency.”