Artwork by Akshita Arora
From conversation on:
Nov 21, 2020
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“There is nothing like a dream to create the future.†Humankind chose to explore the wide space and its objects not because it is easy, but because it is challenging. Continuing to explore the technological marvels and the way that the Indian Space Program shaped itself amidst all the challenges with the man who has been a part of each of the space vehicle launches that ISRO has undertaken up to date— Dr. B.N. Suresh, currently gracing the Honorary Distinguished Professor position at the ISRO Headquarters in Bengaluru, is also the Founding Director and Chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology – Asia’s first space university. Dr. Suresh was formerly the Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), the lead center of ISRO in launch vehicle design; former President of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE); and former member of the Space Commission of India. His role in defining the activities for advanced technology development and their planning for space transportation in India has been very significant. In this final part of the two-part episode, he discusses at length the history of the Indian Space Program, and how the Indian Space Research Organisation has risen up over the years to brilliantly shape and take forward India's technological expertise by the development of highly complex space systems, to the international acclaim that it currently commands. Through the course, he also shares his exceptional insights, in conversation with Prakhar Agarwal and Naman Jain, and a few of the curious young minds from high schools across the country, which makes this conversation a treat to hear, as they ask their probing questions to an eminent space scientist directly. If you have not discovered the first part of this podcast, we'd recommend you start there.
Once you have mastered certain technologies, I strongly believe that we should not work in a shell but become useful to the country in one form or the other. One important example I’d like to draw is about India’s Light combat aircraft, which is called Tejas today...
ABOUT THE GUEST
Dr. B. N. Suresh Honorary Distinguished Professor, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Headquarters, Bengaluru
Dr. B.N. Suresh is an internationally renowned veteran from the field of space sciences and a distinguished Indian Scientist. Dr. Suresh is the founding director, and current Chancellor of the prestigious Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, established by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He is presently serving as an Honorary Distinguished Professor at ISRO Headquarters. Dr. Suresh was formerly the Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), the lead centre of ISRO in launch vehicles; former President of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE); and former member of the Space Commission of India. An internationally renowned aerospace engineer with pioneering accomplishments in the arena of space vehicle design, space navigation guidance, control and actuation systems, vehicle electronics, integrated simulation for launch systems and R&D management in the country. His role in defining the activities for advanced technology development and their planning for space transportation in India is very significant. Dr. Suresh took his degree in Science in 1963 and in Engineering in 1967 from Mysore University. Later he did his Post Graduation from IIT Chennai in 1969. He started his career in ISRO at VSSC in 1969. Following this, he earned his doctoral degree in Control Systems from Salford University, UK under Commonwealth Scholarship. As Distinguished Scientist and Director VSSC, he provided the dynamic leadership for the development of very complex launch vehicles and contributed significantly for the successful launches of ASLV, PSLV and GSLV. He has been instrumental in establishing full-fledged and state-of-the-art laboratories needed for the evaluation of complex systems. He has nurtured and built world class actuation systems and launched vehicle simulation laboratories. He played a crucial role in steering the very complex Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE), which involved several new and critical technologies. The module was flight tested successfully with perfect re-entry and precise recovery operations. Among his numerous laurels, in recognition of his meritorious contributions to Science and Technology, the Government of India conferred on him the 'Padma Shri' Award in the year 2002 and the 'Padma Bhushan' in 2013. He has published more than 45 technical papers in national and international symposiums, conferences and journals and guided more than 500 technical reports in the area of launch vehicle design, mission, avionics and other associated areas.
Transcript
Prakhar :
Welcome to the second and the last part of Zeroing In the science podcast first season. I am Prakhar Agarwal and hosting this episode with me today is Naman Jain, a recent graduate of the Indian Institute of Space Science and technology. We are in conversation with highly distinguished Indian scientist and technocrat Dr. B.N Suresh. Currently serving as an honorary professor at the ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru, Dr. Suresh is a Science and Engineering graduate from the Mysore University and he completed his postgraduate studies from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 1969. Following this, he joined ISRO in the same year and while working there, he earned his doctoral degree in control systems from Salford University in UK. Dr Dr Suresh is an internationally renowned aerospace engineer with pioneering accomplishments in the arenas of space vehicle design, space navigation, guidance control, actuation systems, vehicle electronics, integrated systems for launch vehicles, and on top of that, country wide R and D management. His role in defining the activity for advanced technology development and their applications for space transportation and engineering in India has been very significant and in our conversation with him, we discovered some beautiful insights and perspectives about India’s journey in space.
So we were talking about the importance of a technology major organization such as ISRO in the context of a developing nation. Indeed the Indian space program has contributed to India's development in a very significant manner and it has covered a long journey through the decades. You are one person who has worked with all the generations behind ISRO. It's actually because of your work along with the works of other luminaries and visionaries that has brought us to this platform where everybody who is associated with ISRO gets appreciated. So talking about those visionaries you have mentioned about like Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, Dr. Kalam and you have definitely associated with Dr. Satish Dhawan as well, how was it like working with them and what was their kind of vision which has allowed us to expand and be so effective in the domain of space.
Dr. Suresh :
Yeah, I think, this is a very interesting question. As I mentioned earlier, it was Dr. Vikram Sarabhai who was able to sort of visualize that a space program was required and that is why we call him as the Founding Father and you know I just want to give one or two anecdotes with Sarabhai. When he was there, he started what we call TERLS, the Thunga Equatorial Rocket Launching Station and then you know he also believed we must build a launch vehicle. He came up with the configuration of a 4 stage vehicle which was almost similar to the 4 stage rockets we have now in the US. That's the reason he thought we must start a space science and technology centre, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in those days. He used to come in white kurta and white pyjamas once every 45 days. There was no director, no chiefs, he had picked up some 6-8 people who went to the US, brought them, who were very bright, willing to come back, brought them and asked them to work in different areas which are needed like propulsion, manufacturing, control, aerodynamics things like that and some 9-10 divisions like that. You know for youngsters like us, it was always a pleasure to attract him to our labs.So I was developing one of the control systems,within three months we were able to put it together, some 3-4 of us. I went to my boss and said, "Sir this time when Sarabhai comes you should bring him to my lab because we want to show him our work", it was something like inviting a very big person to our lab and of course he will come. He came, and we were all introduced, he spent believe me half and an hour and asked us several questions and tried to understand. What amazed me is at the end of the whole visit before leaving, he shook hands, calling them by name. We were 6 or 8 and each one of them he called by name and shook hands and went. This was sometime in the 70s and it was upsetting that he died in 71 december. Whenever he comes he used to wish us all by name and asked us “How are you?” “Are you OK?” and things like that. He had a personal rapport with everyone. That was his calibre and standard. That was Sarabhai. He always seeded the ideas and another thing he did was he brought what you call a very very healthy competition between people. He allowed people to work, like in propellent development half a dozen fellows and control development half a dozen fellows, then there is a healthy competition and things will come faster. He was able to visualize that. After Sarabhai for a brief while it was M.G.K. Menon but it was known that this was an interim period, then Satish Dhawan took over. In my opinion Satish Dhawan is the one who really put the foundation for what people call as ISRO culture today you know, that is sort of established by him. Many times people ask a question “what is ISRO culture?”. ISRO culture is essentially you know a participatory management, there is nothing like commanding you to do this. That is number one. Number two is anything and everything we do, we have very very very aggressive debate, discussion and reviews. Fortunately, he was able to visualize what we term as unity of command in handling things. I think many of you may know that important positions all rolled into one and then whoever is handling may it be chairman ISRO or secretary dos or chairmen space commission it enables them to take decisions. These are the important things that Satish Dhawan did. Then of course A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, he was always restless, he wanted to do new things and that's how composites took birth, pyro elements took birth, the basic rocket mechanical engineering took birth. He created so many things. He was junior but because of his ability when Dhawan formed the SLV3 program he was put as project director. He is like mercury, he is a work person, very humble, mixes with people. Mind you he would have come into my room 10-15 times during the same period, he will not call or ask you to come, he will walk into your room. That usually happens 6-6
30, that's when we are all prepared to go home, but work will come anytime. Of course, we were all bachelors those days and it was easy to spend time, in the early 70s. That is the kind of person he was, and he remained like that throughout his career. Then of course the host of other visionaries came like Professor U.R. Rao who created the satellite activity in Bangalore and Kasturirangan. We were lucky to have this kind of visionaries that guided the activity in a streamlined and efficient manner, this was the reason we were able to perform so well in the organization for the last 5 decades. :
Naman
Definitely. There is one thing that is really curious at this point, for instance about the first launch that Dr Kalam was heading and the multiple failures ISRO has faced and there was quite a lot of national criticism that followed. So in that respect you would like to talk about how you personally dealt with failures and how did ISRO at large take care of sustainability of the space program in the long term. :
Dr. Suresh
You know, I think I must say that the failures that we faced in the initial phases were very very frustrating. In fact we used to get terribly disappointed and that is where we had people who were handling like Dr Sarabhai, Dhawan or Kalam, these were the people who went on encouraging, we have to learn our lessons only by failures, there was no shortcut available, because we were not getting any available literature, we have to build the system, do experimentation, try to see that it succeeds but now, and then we make mistakes get into problems. As time went on we got seasoned, as I told you dealing with failures with ASLV launch was a very tough job, we discussed failure with committee, corrected and second launch it is much more frustrating, everything went into pieces almost like Diwali crackers. So it was terribly disappointing, and as I was telling you, we were shy to say where we were working. It took 4 more years for us to churn and keep on doing a lot of analysis, a lot of experimentation, a lot of simulations and make sure everything was right, after 4 years when we launched the 3rd launch of ASLV, we used to call it developmental flight, it succeeded. And I want to narrate here one thing, at that time when we had the third launch, U R Rao was the chairman and believe me that when ALSV D3 put satellite in orbit, for quite sometime he was speechless actually and tears started rolling in his eyes. That is the kind of experience that one would have, all of us felt it. But for him, it was very important being head of an institution. I am sure he would have taken much more severe brunts compared to any of us. We can see the difference between success and failure and it is so razor thin, you know anything can happen. Many times I can tell you from our experience, there are instances where it was on the verge of failure but somehow we were able to survive and we went ahead and the satellite was put in orbit and next day all newspapers flashed for the success but only we internally know how close it was that we have succeeded. There are many such instances one can share as time goes. That is one reason I come back to the pet topic of calling it rocket science. You may or may not get it at any given point of time. :
Prakhar
It is definitely enriching to her about how ISRO dealt with its failures and how the technocrats and scientists involved have always paid attention to the details and a mindset of efficient problem solving that have always been alive at heart. In that context in those times I understand there were a lot of international embargoes and situations were pretty different for India back then. So how do you think we started vouching and focussing on indigenisation and how was it like to start working from the scratch. :
Dr. Suresh
You know what happened was, I was involved in building the rockets for launch vehicles and as you know that rockets were always considered dual usage, because that can be used for missiles, the technology that is used in missiles and launch vehicles are the same. There is a very strict regime called MTCR, Missile Technology Control Regime that sort of puts embargoes or bans on supplying anything that helps to build the rocket or a launch vehicle. That is a blessing in disguise as far as we are concerned. So we know that although there is a government to government understanding and handshaking regarding the supply but when it comes to prospects of supply they never used to give. That sort of encouraged us to take up this development, there is no other way. Number one. Number two is at this point we should also appreciate the Indian industry, I think that was again Dhawan's visualization. He visualized that unless we bring industry there is no point in ourselves building in ISRO, it is not going to be a sustainable programme and that's how we joined hands with industry. aSo today when we launch PSLV for example, almost everything that flies in that is all built indigenously. We have gone through very difficult phases and a number of failures, but then we all have mastered. So that one of the very very important issues, you know self-reliance is one of the thing we have been practising from day 1, from the 70s, what is today called as Atmanirbhar Bharat, we have been practising in ISRO from the day 1 and almost everything we do are developing the country, not only indigenization but also these efforts has helped countries to progress in many other domains not only in space, many other domains because these are available. That's why the discussion is going on not only should we become the supply chain for ourselves but becoming the supply chain for global systems altogether by enlarging the export and supply. That's what we should be doing in the coming years. :
Naman
Sure.That is very fascinating to hear sir, and quite insightful at that. At this point, we have a curious query from a student Aditya Kothari. Aditya, can you please ask your question? :
Student question
Good morning sir, I am Aditya Kothari from St. Xavier school Jaipur. My question is, in your view, how is ISRO so successful in its projects given that it doesn't get as many resources as other agencies like NASA? :
Dr. Suresh
One thing is from the beginning ISRO is known for carrying things at a very low cost. Even today our launches are very competitive. We carried out our programmes in a very very streamlined fashion. Another good thing that happened from day 1 is we have what we call short term, midterm and long term vision, so for example at any given point of time we know what we are going to do now, likely in 5 years down the line and 10 years. It may be modified but once you have that we come out with the action plan of what is the budget required, what kind of facilities that need to be developed. And also we are very good at developing many things at very low cost, Indians are always known for innovative ways of developing 'jugaad' technology they call it which is very very famous in the country. I think very good development is happening and many industries are joining hands. That is number one, Number two is we are not really venturing into several several unknown areas of work, which many space faring countries do, we are very focussed on what exactly we should do and how to accomplish it. That's why every paisa we spend is accounted for and is utilized.While building, it not only meets the requirement of that particular project, but we also keep what you call the long term requirements sometimes as it is or sometimes to be used in subsequent projects. That way we are able to sort of utilize facilities we have built for long term applications, we keep on doing this continuously and this brings down cost and I think that culture continues even today. :
Student question
Sure sir. Now we have a question from Shouvik Dutta. How do you ensure precision throughout the mission since a small error in calculation for a few centimeters can be fatal for the mission. :
Dr. Suresh Yeah yeah, That requires a long explanation, but it suffices to say that, we need to sort of apply corrections. What you said is right, when we do a moon or Mars mission and all that, errors keep on building and these errors sometimes take you out of the way. There are error methods using the various other measurements that are possible in the solar system, and you sort of make a very precise measurement for example based on stars we can precisely tell where we are and then we apply the corrections. You keep correcting for different intervals and then try to do that. Even when we launch spacecraft in orbit, there are errors that happen, then one thing is you have to have very excellent sensors with very high accuracy, very low errors.That where I told you know we use GPS sensors on board which make precise measurements and try to apply correction then and there so that you are able to reach the target without any difficulty. So it's called error corrections at different places and there are several ways to do it. How you do that can depend. For Mars missions for example we require high precision, and also how we model. For example, the gravity model we use for earth, moon, Mars you have to go with a very detailed calculation, a small decimal calculation error can cause an error of several kilometres at the target.
Naman :
That is quite instructive to know. Coming back to our discussion sir, I think you have been talking about working on and sustaining the program and projects happened. I think that is one of the reasons why ISRO is the leading institutions in the country. So how is that foresight coming along for you and how did you plan that this is something that we can do despite having so much work to do already?
Dr. Suresh :
Yeah. You know when you’ve mastered certain technologies, I strongly believe that we should not work in a shell but become useful to the country in some form or the other. One important example I would like to draw is the Light Combat Aircraft, which is called Tejas today. I was a member of the test and review board. The first LCA was being prepared for the maiden launch by the test pilots. You know in that particular Tejas, most of the things are developed indigenously except two important elements, one being the General Electric (GE) engine, as we haven’t succeeded in developing our own engine. The other is they use what we call the quadruple redundant electro-hydraulic actuators. These are the 2 major elements and when this discussion was going on, the nuclear test in Pokhran happened in 1998 and I was participating in the review, and the Programme director, testing in the review board was Air Commander Rajkumar who had to fly that. So during this the project director came in the meeting and said that he has an announcement to make which was that because of the Pokhran test, the US has imposed the embargo and asked all people who were at that point accepting the final product required for the first flight i.e. the actuators, were asked to leave without taking even the pen or pencil from the laboratory. They were all sort of their tickets were booked and they were all sent back. Since I was also there, I told them that we have developed several actuators for our own program and we can do it for you. We put in our effort and worked together. And I’m glad to tell you here that today it has been successfully developed and gone through all the tests. It has taken about 10-12 years, but what space engineering has taught us, we transferred the technology to the Aeronautical Development Agency and today we became the second country in the world to develop this quadruple redundant electro-hydraulic actuators. They have gone through It is being tipped to fly very soon. They are waiting because their programs are all captivating and realistic and they have to get an aircraft where they can put and test it. But, a tremendous amount of work has gone into it. It's not done by us alone, but we brought in several agencies from industry, CMTA, ADE etc. We joined hands with 16-18 departments and moved forward. Similarly, when Kalam took over as the director of DRDL, he came out with the program of Agni, Prithvi, the five integrated guided missiles development program (IGMDP). It was him who visualised the SLV first stage to be used as the Agni first stage and again we were roped in for the systems we had developed. I had developed the control system for that and like that we became part of the DRDO activity. Our counselling continued as long as Kalam was in DRDO. Like this, we were able to join hands in several places. One thing I am impressed upon is that Kalam used to tell always is that India is like Europe. In the sense that we have ISRO, we have DAE, DRDO, CSIR. Each one is one of the very powerful and competent organisations and technologically outdriven but we rarely joined hands together. If we do we can do wonders. He believed in that strongly and I keep telling everywhere what we can do and I got an opportunity with the Science Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP), which was recently announced and they are working on that principal scientific advisor and member NITI AAYOG are all involved. I was in one of the committees and there again I had propagated this idea that let us come out of these barriers and boundaries and let us work as one country and we can do wonders. Of Course there are some difficulties, but unless we jump into it we can never find solutions. I think we should do that. It's a joy to contribute in this way to many programmes that are available in this country.
Prakhar :
Indeed Sir, that’s really nice to know actually. From our conversation so far, we have realised that you have fulfilled a lot of roles from being a young engineer, designer and then contributing to various projects in collaboration and taking over to review systems and contribute to them in a different manner altogether. On a personal note, how do you see that your experience in this entire journey over this decade has evolved or changed. What would you like to share about that?
Dr. Suresh :
What I can only share is that I enjoyed every bit of my stay and everything that I have been doing. Never looked back, there was no moment of frustration, of course we had failures, we had desperations but that was part of life. Unless we have challenges, life is dull and we must take it squarely and do it. I always believed that for every problem there is a solution. The question is how you address it and how you get to the right solution. And a couple of things I liked out of these reviews and all is that for any given problem there could be several ways of doing it but then you have to look at all of them comprehensively and come out with the solution which is feasible, which is doable and which can be carried out with the resources that we have. So, I had to take that kind of decision so that it works well and whatever decisions I took during this period, I think it all has worked well. One thing I'd like to mention here is that it's been ten years I have been reviewing since I left IIST till today. What is satisfying to me is that among the several missions that have been launched including the Mk III, RLV, Chandrayaan I, Mangalyaan only in two cases we encountered problems. One being the C39 mission where the payload fairing failed to open for unknown reasons and the second is the Chandrayaan II. I wouldn’t count it as a failure but then due to a last minute glitch we missed having a proper landing. But in almost all the missions, I think all the decisions that we have made they all have helped to come out successfully in almost all missions and that is a satisfying experience for me and I would say I enjoyed much more after retirement than while being in service.
Prakhar :
Yeah. It definitely would have been different for you to sit in a chair of review and dissect the work on a different approach. That’s very interesting to know. Also sir, we know that you transitioned from being an scientist and engineer working on complex systems, moved on to being an academician, founded and established IIST to what it is now. Would you like to share this experience?
Dr. Suresh :
Yeah, you know when I was asked to take over IIST, it was a surprise. Infact, I worked for it, I was deeply involved in the setting up of IIST and all that till its approved and I have very strongly recommended to get a person in the 57-58 age group and put him/her as the director for 7-8 year. But, one fine day the chairman calls me and tells me that nobody else can run it Suresh but I've to take the responsibility and I'm appointing you as the director. I was quite surprised, but then after I took over, I realised that there is a vast difference in being a scientist and being an academician. So you have to totally change your way of working and totally change the way of handling things. What you have done in ISRO and VSSC will not hold good in IIST. That was the first lesson I had learnt. I sort of aligned myself to their way of thinking while also utilising the experience gained by doing things in ISRO. I had to make some kind of joint programme or a joint activity which you all have experienced. For example we didn't have the experimentation through the lab but at that point I thought, why not convert some of the things that are available in ISRO as our own experiments. It took quite some time but we sailed through that. I'm sure the kind of experimentation we did came out well. In hindsight, I feel that whatever activity we did, whatever decisions I made, it all jibed well to reach where we are.One has to change oneself and that is very important.
Naman :
Of course, of course sir. That is quite relevant to know and I think all of thriving at this stage is a clear example that all the previous generation have done has amounted to quite a humongous amount and changed so many lives undeniably and it will continue to do so. So we are coming towards the end of our discussion and there is one interesting question coming from a student, Anurag Sai. Anurag can you ask your question?
Student Question :
My name is Anurag Sai. I'm from Nagarjuna Talent School, Hyderabad. My question is that you have talked about many strengths about how we have developed technology in ISRO. But can you talk about the things and the segments that you think needs to be strengthened now?
Dr. Suresh :
The immediate task that all people working at ISRO know and the two important areas that needs to be mastered quickly is for the Human Space Flight Mission for putting humans into orbit. This mission requires very high reliability and human rated vehicles are required. You can’t fly humans in the current launch vehicles e.g the GSLV MK-III. We need to achieve very high reliability and it's not a simple task. At the same time, you can’t sacrifice too much on its capability; you have to drive a balance. That is number one. Number two is that we need to look very deeply into interplanetary missions. Now, the thrust is given with all the advanced space faring countries to go to other planets because it's strongly believed that resources available are plenty. Even asteroids for example have plenty of resources available. How do you mine, how do you get it? This is of course subject to formulating the proper rules and regulations and policies. In order to do that, we also should be a very active player. Today only three countries have the capability and we have just entered but we need to do much more in these areas. In my opinion, these are the two important areas that we need to concentrate on in the next 8-10 years in addition to the other tasks that ISRO has been doing for the country. The third area is navigation. We have already done it for ourselves but if we expand then how do we expand the scope of resources and so on. Fourth one I would say that you know is that we were working till now as only ISRO. We were confined to our own house, our own domain. But now, we are opening up with the reforms announced by the government of India, and rightly so. Of course we need to do that. How do we work together so that we keep the country’s interest above our own individual interests. At the same time, the boundaries and barriers need to be clearly defined so we dont get into any conflicts. In this process, the competition becomes fierce and competition becomes fierce, we need to improve your technologies,you need to improve your qualities,you need to improve the cost. This becomes very difficult for all the people involved. Any monopoly house cannot do that. Once you bring in this competition, we need to look at it. These are the two three areas in my opinion one should concentrate. There is a lot more that one has to do, but I’d leave all this to youngsters like you blueprint and then prescribe for that.
Naman :
Definitely sir, I think that is quite inspirational as well and there are quite a few challenges that we have to ace to be able to accomplish greater things. There’s one last bit that was very common with the student questions and that can act as our concluding note. What was your inspiration to work for the country and would you like to communicate any ideas that you have or any of your aspirations that you see the future generations fulfilling?
Dr. Suresh :
From childhood, I always believed I should do something for the country. It was a very very strong belief.When I got my doctorate studies opening in the UK, Salford University, Manchester, many of my friends told me that I have an excellent chance and I can continue and I can do that this and all that but I was very very clear that upon completion I had to come back and work for the country. There’s nothing like contributing to your own country and I very strongly sort of advocate it to everyone that the days have changed. Today, the country has progressed quite well. It is for us to really contribute to the country and make our country great. Don’t ever think that you can do wonders if you go elsewhere. You may go for studies and spend a couple of years but let me tell you that there’s nothing like working for your own country. You know the opportunities available in our own country once we excel are limitless which may or may not happen in other countries. Many people have occupied various positions but it wont be treated in the same way.Another thing I have noticed is that it is OK if you work in a university or an organisation my own experience is that yes you are very well respected but same thing you go in the public domain, you are always looked at with tinted glass. You feel somewhat, you know you don't feel happy. My own feeling is that this is the time for us to take the country forward and make it as a super nation. That's what Kalam used to tell and I also 100% agree with him. We must take this country forward and come out with more and more innovative ideas. Before I conclude I want to tell you one thing. I think you have to not just study what you have been told but learn many many innovative things whatever you do and come out with innovations. I feel that only a country that innovates can become a super nation in the coming years. I feel you all have a very bright future, very good weather and atmosphere. Keep that in mind and try to gain knowledge wherever you can but come back and serve the country. Do not fall for money. Many times I've encountered people asking whether they would get a big job and worry about the salary. I think all of us are in a country we are very comfortable as long as we excel and do well. What you should ask for is that everyday I should get a good sleep. As long as you get good sleep and are well-content, you can take care of yourself, take care of your parents,take care of your society, take care of the state that you live in and take care of your country. With these few words I'd like to convey my best wishes to all of you who have sort of taken the trouble to trend and spend your time and wish you all the very best. Thank You.
Prakhar :
Sir, your journey, your contributions, your life is an example for all of us and it's really enriching to listen to your anecdotes, your experience and to your approaches about how to face failures, how to tackle challenges and how to address new environments. It's really inspiring and I'm sure all of us are taking home some key ideas and new enrichments that we'll carry with us and be inspired through our lives. Thank you so much sir for taking out your time and being here with us to inspire us and share your experiences.
Dr. Suresh :
It’s my pleasure and thank you for this session and thank you all for organising it so well without any glitch.
This was the finale of the first season of Zeroing in - the science podcast, in conversation with Dr. B.N. Suresh. It has been brought to you by the alumni association of the Indian Institute of Space science and Technology . Zeroing In aims at bridging the pronounced gap between the school students and academic mentors, science, technology and research enthusiasts, and the graduate school academia and the scientists across the country.
We extend our sincere gratitude to Dr. B.N. Suresh for sharing the singular gems of wisdom and a much coveted insider’s view of the Indian Space Research Organisation, and we are also grateful for the active participation from the students and the schools from across the country, on behalf of the Zeroing In team for this episode which included Fenil Shah, Shreya Mishra, Manish Chauhan, Prajwal Patnaik, KVNG Vikram, Arun S, Ethan Phangcho, Aman Naveen and I am Naman Jain.
Thanks a lot for listening to this episode. We’ll be back with the second season very soon, with further interesting questions and conversations with eminent scientists from across India! If you have any suggestions, you can write to us on zeroingin@outlook.in
or contact and follow us on our instagram or facebook handles @zeroing in podcast. We wish you a very happy and healthy interval, until the next time! :