Chennai: The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) honoured twelve of its alumni in Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) who played a pivotal role in the historic Chandrayaan-3 mission. The top scientists and engineers from ISRO also interacted with students from IIT Madras and various government schools and city colleges during an event titled ‘Over the Moon with Team Chandrayaan-3’ held in the campus on Sunday (8th Oct 2023).
Those honoured during the occasion include Dr. S. Unnikrishnan Nair who completed his PhD from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, in 2011 (2011 / PhD / ME) and is the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), ISRO, and Dr. P. Veeramuthuvel (PhD / ME), Project Director, Chandrayaan-3, ISRO, who completed his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2016.
Meanwhile S Somanath, Chairman, ISRO, is currently pursuing a PhD from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Madras.
Addressing the gathering, Chief Guest Dr. S. Unnikrishnan Nair, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), said, "This month, we will be having the first big mission of Gaganyaan from Sriharikota. We are going to demonstrate the in-flight system. In manned missions, it is not the mission success but it is the safety of the crew that counts. We are testing and ensuring that the escape system has got a very high reliability..."
"The escape system will be activated in transonic conditions, which is Mach 1.2 and we will demonstrate how the crew will be rescued. We are all looking forward to that mission. There are many exciting missions in the future", added Nair.
Recalling his days as a PhD Student at IIT Madras, Dr. S. Unnikrishnan Nair said, "I stayed in this campus for hardly one semester but that one semester made a lot of changes in me. My guru for PhD, Prof. P. Chandramouli is now heading the Department...We feel proud that we belong to this institute and that we could do something that is because of the energy and enthusiasm that we got by being part of great institution."
