Schoolchildren to miss Mars mission manouvre

Kanpur/Lucknow: Students in most of the city schools may miss the Mars capture manoeuvre of the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission on Wednesday that will take place from 6.45 am to 8.45 am as school managements did not get the circular issued by the Ministry of HRD till Tuesday evening.
The importance of the event is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will witness the crucial Mars orbiter insertion at the Spacecraft Control Centre at Isro Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) here.The main engine on the spacecraft, in slumber since the 300-day journey began, was woken up on Monday. Though the successful crucial manoeuvre lasted for only four seconds, it has raised the confidence level of Isro scientists.
According to a directive from the MHRD that arrangements for students to watch the Mars manoeuvre of Indian Mars Orbiter Mission on September 24 collectively in their classes. The school principals complained that they did not receive any such circular and in the wake of such a short notice it was not possible for them to make arrangements to show the Indian Mars mission.
Principal Secretary, Secondary Education, Manoj Kumar Singh told TOI that like the PM’s speech which was mandatory, this directive from Union ministry of human resource development is not compulsory.
“A circular from MHRD has come which is sent to the director and would have been communicated to the concerned officials. However, no arrangements have been made in school to show the India’s maiden mission to Mars,’’ said Singh in Lucknow.
Talking to TOI, Sharmila Nandi, principal, Dr Virendra Swarup Education Centre, Kidwai Nagar, said, “I am not aware of any such circular and therefore, no arrangement for showcasing the live Mars manoveure could be done for the students.”
Speaking on similar lines, Urvashi Bajpai, principal, Dr VSEC, Awadhpuri, said, “We have not received any such circular and thus not made any arrangement to show our students the live Mars orbiter mission programme in the school.”
Balbir Singh, principal of Bright Angles School in Kakadeo, said: “It was a huge disappointment for me that my students will not be able to see the insertion of spacecraft in Mars orbit as the circular did not come a day in advance.”
The MHRD on the other hand wanted the students across the country to see this live event to gain scientific knowledge and kindle their scientific minds.