TECHNOLOGY NEEDS FOR FUTURE HUMAN SPACE MISSIONS

IEEE Delhi Section Chapter, in association with CSI, IETE and ISTE Delhi Section on 13th May 2015 organized a talk on “Technology Needs for Future Human Space Missions” by Dr. Kumar Krishen at BVICAM, New Delhi. Mr. Amar Saraswat, Assistant Professor from Computer Science and Engineering Department of Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon attended the talk.

Dr. Kumar Krishen is the Lead Technologist and ST Senior Scientist for the Innovation Partnerships Office, NASA Johnson Space Centre (JSC), Houston, Texas, which is responsible for developing strategies for joint research and technology projects and plans with industries, universities, other NASA centres, and government agencies.

Prof. M. N. Hooda, Director, BVICAM gave the welcome address in which he discussed about the various benefits and advantages of the professional society membership. Prof. Mini S. Thomas, Chairman, IEEE Delhi section gave the genesis of Delhi Section Chapter. She discussed about various ways in which the members of the professional society can get benefitted and the various contributions done by the IEEE Delhi Section Chapter to the society.

Dr. Kumar Krishen took a session on Technology Needs for Future Human Space Missions and discussed about various issues such as the reasons for frequent earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis in different parts of the world. He also talked about the NASA’s on-going researches on exploring the Universe. During his talk, he emphasised on overarching constraints of space systems, which includes performance in extreme environments such as radiations, lightning, dust temperature, zero or partial gravity and vacuum. The other constraints included frugal power availability, high degree of autonomy, and human agents and amplifiers.

He discussed about Hubble Space Telescope, which reveals the galaxy as they appeared 480 million years after birth of universe. The most precise estimate of the universe’s age is 13.73 billion years with the variation of 0.12 billion years, based on observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation. He also said, astronomers suggests that it will take 7.6 billion years for the expanding sun to absorb the earth due to which life on earth will come to an end. He said that according to ancient literature of India, the destruction of life is predicted in about 3 billion years. In the end, speaker motivated the gathering to actively engage in the research work and make some contributions for the society.

Mr. Daman Dev Sood from IEEE Delhi Section inaugurated IEEE Collabratec, an integrated online community where technology professionals can network, collaborate, and create. The talk was followed by the Questionnaire round.

Vote of thanks was delivered by Mr. Shiv Kumar, President, CSI.

The session was full of knowledge and source of motivation to make contributions in the form of research to the society.

Some Glimpses: