National Space Day: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar has joined the Nation in celebrating the first National Space Day on 23rd August 2024 as a commemoration to India’s success of Chandrayaan-3 Mission last year. As part of the celebration, the Institute organized an insightful seminar on ‘Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya-L1 Mission: ISRO’s Unprecedented Journey to study the Moon and Sun’. Dr. Kuldeep Negi from ISRO addressed on this occasion and shared his experience.
Currently serving as a Section Head in the Flight Dynamics Group and Associate Project Director of Chandrayaan-4 at the U. R. Rao Satellite Center (URSC) of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Bengaluru, Dr. Negi is responsible for designing trajectories for Geo-Spacecraft, interplanetary and lunar missions. In his address, Dr. Negi explained: “Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar exploration mission took off in fourth operational mission of LVM3 launcher.
Chandrayaan-3 is a testament to India’s commitment to space exploration. ISRO has set a benchmark by demonstrating soft landing on lunar surface by its lunar module and roving on the lunar terrain. Aditya-L1 Mission is an Indian first solar observatory at Lagrangian point L1. This pioneering venture involves deploying a spacecraft into a non-planar periodic orbit known as a halo orbit around the L1 Lagrangian point of the Sun-Earth system.” He further added: “For any spacecraft mission from its cradle to grave, spaceflight trajectory design plays a significant role.” He also focused on challenges in Chandrayaan-3 mission and spaceflight trajectory design with respect to the mission.
This seminar explained the target lunar orbit trajectory design for the Composite Module and then the multi-phase powered descent trajectory design for the Lander Module. Dr. Negi also highlighted that Aditya-L1’s manifold-based trajectory design is instrumental in planning halo orbits around L1. The seminar concluded with a discussion on ISRO’s strategic frontier for space exploration.
Prof. Shreepad Karmalkar, Director, IIT Bhubaneswar felicitated Dr. Negi on the occasion. Dr. Vijayakrishna Kari, Professor-in-Charge (Seminar) coordinated the programme. Faculty members, staff and students of the Institute participated in the programme in a large number.
