Keonjhar: Chandrayaan-II space satellite which has been successfully put into the Moon’s orbit from Sriharikota space launching station has some strange connection with Keonjhar.
Relentless efforts of several scientists are behind this achievement. Chandrayaan II has been successfully manoeuvred into lunar orbit Tuesday, after nearly 30 days of space travel. This was one of the trickiest operations in the Moon mission launched by Indian scientists.
A higher-than-expected approach velocity would have bounced off the spacecraft into deep space, while a slow approach would have led to the Moon’s gravity to pull Chandrayaan II and crash it on the lunar surface.
The mission’s biggest event will be September 2 when the lander will be separated from the vehicle. And one of the scientists behind the ISRO’s Moon mission is from Odisha.
He is Atalksruhna Khatua, a native of Keonjhar. He has done the state proud with his efforts and determination.
For the last six years, Khatua has been working as a scientist in the Reliability Wing of the Indian Space Research Organisation, Sriharikota.
Khatua has been working for cryogenic stage and thermal protection system of Chandrayan-II. He was chiefly responsible for the critical work – preparation of liquid fuel and its supply at the cryogenic stage.
Khatua was looking after a research on how a space shuttle will function rightly at high temperature (more than 1650° centrigrade) and at the lowest temperature (less than 253° centigrade).
Khatua is the son of Amarbar Khuntia and Sarojini Prusty at Maguragadiasahi in Keonjhar town. His father is a surveyor while mother is a lecturer.
Khatua passed out Class-X from Saraswati Sishu Vidyamandir in Keonjhargad and studied Plus II Science at Kalinga Bharati Residential School. After that, he completed B.Tech from Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.
The year 2012 was momentous for Khatua as he joined the ISRO as a scientist. His achievement has made all, particularly people of Odisha proud.
PNN
