Space coincidence

          It was a coincidence in space.

         On Wednesday, there was a strengthening of Indo-Russian space sector when the mighty Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) flew a Russian instrument on board the YouthSat satellite---one of the three satellites carried by the rocket.

         The instrument designed and developed by the Moscow State University, is called Solrad and will be used for mainly studying solar radiation.

         On Thursday, just 24 hours after the highly successful PSLV mission, an exhibition about the world's first spaceman, a Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, opened in the first floor lobby of the Nehru Planetarium in Worli. The show will remain open till April 30 between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.

         It comprises the same 75 pics which were on display earlier at the Russian Centre For Science and Culture on Pedder Road and the Russian Consulate on Napean Sea Road. The main advantage of having it at the planetarium is that it will definately provide a greater exposure to the public about Gagarin, who became the first man to fly into space on April 12, 1961.

         As planetarium director, Piyush Pandey, said at the inauguration on Thursday about 2000 visitors come to the planetarium daily. So he predicted that the same number will see the Gagarin show.

         Though the exhibition is interesting and educative, two or three things came to the mind of `Beyond Moon and Mars (BMM). First:  why is a film about Gagarin's historic flight is not being screened anywhere? A lot of them are available on the net and BMM had downloaded two of them and transferred them into a dvd. A film show would have made the Gagarin exhibition more exciting and memorable.

          Second:  was I.M.Kadri the right person to inaugurate an exhibition about Gagarin? Maybe, the Russian consul general, A.A.Novikov, or the director of the Russian centre, V.V. Dementiev, would have certainly been a better choice.

          Another thing---cannot these super pics be converted into a catalogue and sold to the public?

          This would be a real precious souvenir of the 50th year of first manned space flight.             

          A food for thought folks

          Let us make the Gagarin anniv more exciting and memorable..