Abdul Kalam visualizes human habitat on Mars in 50 to 75 years

President A P J Abdul Kalam has visualized human habitat on Mars and an industrial complex on the Moon in the next 50 to 75 years.

Speaking after dedicating communication satellite INSAT-4B to the nation at the Master Control Facility at Hassan, about 200 kms from here, Kalam, who is also a rocket scientist, said the increasing world population and associated problems in resources call for an “out of the box and path breaking solutions”.

“Don’t, we have to look at an alternate habitat for human beings? Is it not the responsibility we, the living human beings of planet earth, to look at alternate habitat”, Kalam said before suggesting studies for creation of an alternate habitat in Mars as a “fail safe” mechanism for the problems on earth.

He also cited a number of examples for the potential danger to life on earth. “There are potential dangers of impact by asteroids on this planet. Even our living star, the Sun, has definite life. Added to this, there is now the ever-present danger of nuclear conflict between nations”, Kalam said.

Calling for sustaining the spirit for deep space exploration by building up space infrastructure leading to space industrialization, Kalam said future space missions would include bringing minerals and other special materials from Moon, Asteroids and Mars. “Such missions would also enable building of infrastructure for solar power generation, building industrial complexes on the Moon and initiating human habitat on Mars”, he said.

Kalam said there were more than 800 active satellites in various orbits around the earth. “The geo-synchronous orbit is almost full with 240 satellites from many nations”, he said. The growing satellite population includes a number of military satellites for communication and reconnaissance.

Kalam also emphasized the need for all space faring nations to work together to develop re-usable satellite launch vehicles, which can bring down the cost of launch from the present US $ 20,000 per kg to US $ 200 per kg.

Earlier, Kalam dedicated to the nation INSAT – 4B, which had been successfully launched from Kourou in French Guyana by Ariane-5 spacecraft of the European Space Agency on March 12 this year.

The satellite developed by ISRO has 24 transponders aimed at augmenting the communication services, particularly to provide Direct To Home (DTH) services for 150 digital television channels.

On the occasion, Kalam gave away the ISRO awards to meritorious scientists from different centres of ISRO. He also interacted with 472 chosen students at Kala Bhavan in Hassan.

Earlier, the President arrived in Bangalore by a special flight from New Delhi. Governor T N Chaturvedi received him. Later, he proceeded by helicopter to Master Control Facility in Hassan, where Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda received him.