ISRO chairman asks PRL scientists to modify working style

PRL is known as the “cradle of space science in India”, after it began at the residence of Vikram Sarabhai in 1947 with research on Cosmic Rays. “While one generation of (PRL) scientists were able to do that, somehow, it has not continued over a period. Now it is necessary that we introspect and re-look, and give due emphasis on not just theoretical work, but more importantly on instrumental and experimental work,” he said during the event where Dr Prateek Sharma from IISc Bangalore was given the Buti Foundation Award for outstanding research work done in India in the field of Plasma Science and Technology.

“While the Lunar mission had a significant contribution coming from PRL, in the Mars mission, we do not have the same kind of interaction with PRL. But probably, there is still an opportunity. There is significant amount of data coming from instruments on the Mars Orbiter which is expected to last for quite sometime. We are going to get many seasons of data. So definitely there will be opportunity to study the information that comes from there,” said the ISRO chief who also reminisced his early days at the PRL campus that carries out fundamental research in select areas of Physics, Space & Atmospheric Sciences, Astronomy, Astrophysics & Solar Physics and Planetary & Geosciences.

He asked scientists at PRL to examine the Mars data and “come out with some specific observations and new information on Mars”.

Stating that ISRO’s future space missions – like Chandarayaan-II, Aditya and a second mission to Mars and then to Venus – will provide “opportunity to people who can build and conceive new instruments and observational capabilities,” Kiran Kumar said, “I will like to invite the attention of PRL today to really look at this aspect and see how we can, in a significant way, modify the way we are working and give more emphasis on development work with new R&D activities, and make use of this in the space programme.”

Later when asked about how ISRO was going about analysing the data received from the Mars Orbiter, Kiran Kumar told mediapersons, “The process of analysing the data from remote observation points require a lot of validation. It takes time to understand, because it is a new area… NASA came out with it’s observations on Mars after so many years of data collection…. Americans have been putting instruments around Mars for such a long period of time. We are like toddlers.”

The ISRO chief is not the first to have criticised scientists at PRL. Professor UR Rao, the chairman of council of management of Physical Research Laboratory has been repeatedly questioning the diminishing contribution to space science from this institute at various public events held at PRL.