Amity Institute of Aerospace Engineering organized an International Seminar on “Space Exploration Challenges” today at Amity University, Noida. The seminar aimed at motivating students to undertake research in the field of space exploration. Researchers and Scientists from India and abroad including USA and Australia were present on the occasion.
Dr. Sanjay Singh, Director, Amity Institute of Aerospace Engineering (AIAE) welcomed the delegates of NASA Spaceward Bound India and explained how the Astrobiology, Astrophysics is helping in space exploration
Dr. Siddharth Pandey, Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, USA explained the need of Amity Space Centre and the expectations from the students. He talked about SpaceX3 and SpaceX4 Launches in 2014. He motivated the students to connect to the masses to spread the knowledge of science and space. He discussed the plans for Amity Space Centre and the plan to engage with Industry and Government in Space Projects. He further said that the Space Center will be completed in 3 phases and in the due process we have to engage the students and researchers from multi-disciplinary areas.
Dr. Jonathan Clarke, President, Mars Society, Australia explained the challenges in sending and bringing back the people from Mars. He discussed the idea of analogue habitat and technologies on the Earth to mimic the condition on Mars. The purpose of analogue system was to decrease the surprises. He talked about the crew member sample size, exploration zone layout to provide safe platform for integrated research. He shared his experiences on hot spring study in Ladakh, operational and analogue research in Ladakh and at different parts of the world. He further explained the need of solar powered system and waste management techniques. For the researchers across the world he stressed upon the importance of site selection, station design and station management.
Dr. Annalea Beattie, Director, Mars Society, Australia talked about Art and Governance in an Extraterrestrial society. She talked upon responsible and ethical decision making, importance to preserve at and culture, law enforcement for extraterrestrial activities. She stressed that artist should have the right to sustain art practice and choose their own subject matter. We should strengthen cultural capacities. Organizations should responsibly enable artists and non-artists alike with the means and processes to identify their own needs in order to sustain Art making. She asked to promote freedom of expression and the condition of creativity. Lastly, she discussed the importance to respect legitimate interest of all stake holders in Art making. Deliberate art practices should be mandated.
Dr. Jennifer Blank, Scientist NASA Ames Research Centre talked about robotic astrobiology mission. She discussed the importance of caves in studying the material and microbial species of particular planet. She discussed BRAILLE (Biological and Resource Analogue Investigation in Low Light Environment) project and its application on Lava caves exploration. Huge mineral deposition and microbial life are present inside the caves. Challenges in cave entry and research is paramount due to small fissures and claustrophobic environment. She stressed on the studies to be conducted in the field of microbiology, minerology, organic geochemistry, machine learning etc. She discussed the concept of SLAM for ground sampling location records, ground truth location. She talked about NRIVSS, simulation overviews in the field of cave exploration.
Ms. Ekta Chandel and Ms. Vibhati, students of AIAE 3rd year gave a presentation on Artificial gravity and Hostile Space Environment respectively. They talked about the effect of weightlessness on the Astronauts, balance disorder, eyesight disorder suffered by the Astronauts on returning to the earth. Problems due to exposure to radiation, space debris provides important insight into the training and selection criteria for the Astronaut.