Isro to make presentation at World Govt Summit

bengaluru — Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will make a presentation on the country’s Mars Orbiter Mission at the World Government Summit in Dubai this month. Dr Koppillil Radhakrishnan, former Chairman of Isro, and Dr D. Gowrisankar, Isro’s Deputy Director for International Cooperation, will make the present ation during the event.

Dr K. Sivan, current Chairman of Isro, told a group of visiting UAE journalists here on Monday that Isro’s scientific presentation at the summit is the outcome of ongoing cooperation between the space programmes of India and the UAE, which is set to reach new heights in the coming months.

A Joint Working Group (JWG) of the UAE Space Agency, UAESA, and the Isro, held its first meeting in December 2017 and “identified priority areas of cooperation,” Dr Sivan said.

The JWG was set up following a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes signed between the Isro and the UAESA on 11th February 2016 during a visit to New Delhi by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.

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 future cooperation in space matters between the UAE and India, Isro officials envisaged the possibility of educating and training UAE students at the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology in Trivandrum.